Iphone 12 display causing headache and eye strain

Yes, within two minutes of using the iPhone Pro Max my eyes/head hurt. I’ve never had this issue before. I’ve bought and now returned 3 iPhone 12 Pros. I now have an iPhone 11 in my pocket. :|

FWIW, there’s some indication Apple is aware of screen issues with some 12 Pros (e.g. MacRumors wrote a piece recently about an Apple Support memo acknowledging “tints” + “flickering”.)

My best guess: Apple developed the 12 Pro models planning on a 120Hz refresh rate—and they trashed that plan because of poorer than expected battery life (and they market didn’t require the refresh rate.) They likely went further down this battery optimization path (using PWM) than they ever have in any prior model—all the way to using PWM at every brightness level.

Test the theory in that last sentence for yourself:

Slo-mo film an iPhone 12 model next to any other (recent) model iPhone. Ensure both phones are at 100% brightness, have the same (white) web/app page pulled up, and press record for 10-20 seconds. Now tell me which one is is flickering slower. My money is on that fancy new iPhone.

I also think Apple knew more folks would have eye/headache issues with these phones than previous models but they were okay with it. And I don’t blame them. I doubt even 5% of their market has issues with PWM, but that’s not the reason I don’t blame them.

The main reason I’ve decided I don’t care either? I understand they need to make trade offs. They had enough amazing tech in these new models that they didn’t end up needing the 120Hz anyways from a marketing/sales perspective. In some ways, even if the percentage of affected users is higher, that only creates more demand for the iPhone 13–which will sport display technology eliminating all these concerns: LPTO and 120Hz+ refresh rate.

PS. Before one of you level 9ers or 10ers chimes in with, “You have a medical issue, bro. Go talk to your doctor”, I’d like to ask that you spare us sensitive snowflakes from your wisdom this time. I’m an ophthalmologist. ;)

I have been using apple iphones since 2006....... I have the same issue, I got my iphone 12 on Friday , and within 3-5 minutes I got the headache and eye strain. I tried all the options dimming , colors, dark mode, the white level ...etc.. . Seems this is a big issue... reading online resources I am not the first one. Some people reported they get used to it after 2 weeks. I use my iphone mainly for reading Email, PDF and web articles ...... sometimes video and watching news...

I had to return my Iphone 12 on Saturday , I only used it for 24 hours ... Back to my old Iphone XR and will stick to it until apple comes up with something different . So i have to skip iphone12 this year..

What is a complete joke is that I can't find anywhere where Apple officially acknowledges that PWM is a problem. Ever since they partnered with Samsung and started to use Samsung's AMOLED screens, this has been a problem. I guess if you fall into the 5% group of people that get severe headaches and eyestrain from PWM, it's acceptable for Apple. Unfortunately for Apple and fortunately for us, the number of complaints is growing. LG and ASUS have figured out how to create a display that doesn't constantly flicker in your eyes. OnePlus was able to give its customers a firmware update that fixed the issue. Come-on Apple, show a little care for your customers.

Notebookcheck.com PWM testing shows that the iPhone 12 PWM is worse than the iPhone 11. Way to go Apple, way to keep improving! If I keep the iPhone 11 brightness at 50% or higher, it doesn't seem to bother me. I have to use the "Reduce White Point" setting to keep the brightness down in dark settings. I bought the iPhone 12 last week, and no matter what I did, it was giving me bad headaches. I will be returning it today.

It would be nice if Apple would make at least a small attempt at fixing this issue.

I've been an Apple user since the '90s. Unfortunately, I can no longer use the last i-devices. This is due to the OLED PWM and Temporal Dithering Flickering. To detect the PWM, set your iPhone X-12 to 20% brightness and film it with another iPhone.

It will become clear to you immediately.

Some people here are extremely sensitive to others are not.

Unfortunately....

I hear you. Apple's market cap is currently over 2 trillion dollars. As of right now, I believe they are the wealthiest company in the world. You would think they would make phones that don't give their users headaches? Unfortunately, based on what I have seen, the iPhone 12 is worse than the 11 in terms of PWM use. Until yesterday, I owned a 12 but had to return it because of the severe headaches it gave me.

Yes, good advice. I use a camera app called ProCam. Set it to manual mode, increase the ISO as high as it will go, then start to slowly increase the shutter speed. This will show you which phones are using some type of Pulse-width Modulation (flicker) to control brightness.

Anyone and everyone should post their experience here. Hopefully, at some point, they'll listen.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

OLED display causes headaches for some people. Search for PWM flicker in OLED in google. Some solution is to keep the brightness high to reduce the flicker.

i switched from Samsung S9 plus to my old iphone with LED display. LED doesnt cause any headaches for me.

I have and iPhone 7Plus and decided to treat myself and I went and got the iPhone 12ProMax I had it for a couple of days, I noticed my eyes hurting not just strain, but actual pain, also nauseas and to top it off it caused me a migraine that lasted 2 days, I kid you not, haven’t had a migraine since college which was years ago. Went back to the Apple Store and had to change it for the iPhone 11 which has a LCD screen. Problem solved. It’s a shame because I really liked the 12 ProMax. Was thinking of getting an Apple Watch but I saw it has an OLED display as well 🤷🏻‍♀️

Nargess1921, you are not alone in what you're experiencing. There's just not enough of us affected by this issue to warrant a ton of attention. I expect new screen technology may fix this in upcoming models, but for now we're stuck with the iPhone SE (2) or older LCD iPhone.

Update after 14 days ... the intervals got better and better ... I can say now I am comfortable with the phone.... from several posts and info collected from friends ... the medical grade screen protector somehow has significant reduction to eye strain with iPhone 12 and all series ... some user privacy screen protectors non medical grade and reported significant improvement .....

I decided to try my wife iPhone 12 pro max phone which just arrived yesterday with no screen protector and in 15 minutes headaches and eye strain ... I concluded it’s the screen protector that made the difference to my eye strain issues.... which I never had a problem in LCD phone fir the past 13 years ....

Lol, true. I know it’s a drop in the bucket. Be vocal anywhere and everywhere and maybe we can move the nettle.

Everyone experiencing headaches and eye strain because of Apple‘s PWM implementation, post your complaints here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

The iPhone 11 is the last one with LCD, 11Pro and 11ProMax have OLED. I know because I had the same problem. My last phone which I’ve had for years is the iPhone 7 Plus, was excited to get the 12 ProMax and I had it for a couple of days but my eyes were hurting and I had a migraine that lasted 3 days. Went back to the Apple Store and returned it, I was sad because I really liked the 12 ProMax, I have the 11 now with the LCD screen, and I have no problems at all. Maybe in the future they will make a screen that won’t hurt my eyes.

Go into a store and speak with a manager. They could still issue a full refund. I returned a 12pro today for the same reason.

I never had an issue with the 11pro.

ps: turning off true tone helped

Until the cause of PWM sensitivity is known, this is a bit of both.

If the PWM rate wasn't so low, or Apple bothered to include DC dimming, even as an option, it would be fine.

There are a lot of Android handsets that have Amoled displays, and use PWM, but don't cause most people any problems.

I’ve tried Sony before. Their flagship phones use OLED panels now.

For me this isn’t something mysterious about Apple - it is and always has been about OLED. The was PWM works doesn’t take a genius to work out that the constant flicker could be a problem for some people. Also when you turn the brightness down the flicker becomes faster.

Stop using the device and sell it.