Retina Display MacBook Pro eye problem and strain

Wow! Really constructive response there, sig. In checking your responses to other threads I can see they are equally as helpful.

Ben, I had a similar issue with my eyes and the display as you've been experiencing. What worked for me was to turn down the brightness of the display a few ticks from maximum. It's almost as if the display is so sharp and contrasty that my eyes had trouble focusing due to, for lack of a better phrase, a halo-ing effect with text.

Don't get me wrong. The display is gorgeous and the best I've ever seen or owned but at maximum brightness, especially in a reduced lighting environment, it's overload for my eyes. It's not the displays fault but rather my old crummy eyes.

I also invested $15 in a cheap pair of reading glasses which has also made an improvement.

Turn the brightness down a few ticks and let us know if that helped.

(removed because of wrong Reply button)

"I also invested $15 in a cheap pair of reading glasses which has also made an improvement."

Wow! Really constructive suggestion there Easton1813. Cheap for your eyes is good. Don't recommend it for others.

@Imd.Ben, anashed and Easton1813:

I've had this same problem for about two years now with my 59 year old eyes (how in the world could THEY be the problem?) and a 15" MBP mid 2009 which of course is not retina display. I can work all day on my iPad and my iPhone, and on my MBP when plugged into several brands of 23" monitors at home and work spaced at about 34" (864 mm) from screen to eyes.

However, an hour on my MBP by itself (someone else's office, a hotel room, an airplane, my lazy sofa) and my eyes lose the ability to focus --and I'm toast.

I too find helpful the tips you three kindly recount. Still, I sure wish there were a magic bullet which made everything like it used to be back in the day (2009).

(PS: @Sig:You're sounding pretty much like a 12 year old troll around here. Not saying you are one. Just saying that you pretty much sound exactly like one. Thought you might wanna know, 'specially if that's not how you intend to sound...)

an hour on my MBP by itself (someone else's office, a hotel room, an airplane, my lazy sofa) and my eyes lose the ability to focus --and I'm toast.

Ok, I'll explain why.

First off your iPad and iPhone screen is smaller, thus doesn't reflect as much as a larger display will.

Your other displays are in a static environment where you have reduced the glare or it's been reduced just by chance.

When you take the glossy screen laptop to another location without adequate environmental features to reduce glare imposed (no overhead lights, closed windows, low light etc.) on the screen, thus your getting eyestrain from the glare.

It's caused by the slightly out of focus reflections verses the screen image, your eyes are automatically refocusing between the two images.

Your solution in this matter is to apply a anti-glare film to the laptops glossy screen, unfortunately it's going to cost money and be replaced often as it gets dirty, dries out and peels at edges etc.

Ideally a anti-glare matte screen would be the choice in the first place. I use my Mac for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and don't have the eyestrain problem anymore.

Hi Ben.

Glad to read your post. I have the same concerns...

I have excellent eyesight. I am 43, but have had no problems with my eyes or sight. Recently (November) purchased the rMBP, and have noticed that my eyes will not find sharp focus for quite a while after I have used my rMBP or iPad (3 - also purchased in the fall). I would have thought it was a problem with using computers in general, but I was using a 2009 MBP for four years prior to this on a daily basis with no problems, and an iMac for three years before that - no problems. It is not just a slight blur that clears up after a few minutes. It is as if my eyes can't hone in on something and focus for quite a while. This is something I have never experienced. Annoying, because as I said - never had any eye problems. The age issue, of course, left me wondering. But if it were natural changes due to aging, I would probably notice it happening in other lighting situations. It is glaringly noticeable after I turn off my electronics and move onto something else. And I eat plenty of carrots, in case anyone was wondering.

Hello rinner, I have just read your post and have the exactly the same issue. I sort of feel like the retina display is so sharp that the eyes see anything else after that as blurry....any ideas how to deal with this issue? It's really a shame since the display, indeed, looks very crisp, fonts are smooth, and graphics are beautiful. The problem is long term useability. I'd appreciate any feedback you might have. Thanks

I have an iPad 3 with retina display andI have the same problem with burning eyes despite setting for brightness turned low. I visited the Apple Store and discussed the issue and was surprised to learn that Apple does not make a matte finish anti-glare screen for iPad 3. Do you have any suggestions about who manufactures anti-glare film and where to purchase? Any alternate solutions. Thanks so much for helpful hints. Betty Ann

"Like the others, it started with eye strain and rapidly progressed to much worse. My vision is almost constantly blurred."

Likewise, my vision too, not contantly blurred, but it has gone down quite a bit, (after the initial eye strain).

Reducing the display resolution has worked for me. I do not have any noticeable/immediate signs of eye strain after switching to lower res.

Currently my display is set at the resolution setting between "Larger Text" and "Best (Retina)", reachable from System Preferences > displays > (Scaled).

I have a new (one month old) MacBookPro w/retina display. Bought with most speed, memory, etc. Top of the line. Previously had a MacBook Pro (2008).

In the last month I have started experiencing eye problems. Styes, dryness, flashes, floaters. Yesterday I had a torn retina repaired. A tear can become a detached retina which can lead to blindness. Blindness. I have never worn glasses - very good eye health before now. Thinking it through the only change in my life in the last month has been this computer. With Retina Display.

Is it too much for our retinas?

Yes, the display/images are gorgeous. But at the risk of blindness?

What to do? Cannot buy another Mac.

Dear Ben, and all the others that have noticed, like I did, eye problems after starting using retina display.

I was thrilled by the idea of using a screen that was so sharp to make me forget about pixels.

Unfortunately I was used to a high resolution Mac. My previous mac was a 15' with high res screen of 1680x1200.

This is why I coudn't fit all the things I needed in the "best for retina" resolution of 1440x900 (times 2).

Things looked nice and crisp, but too big for the way I am used to work.

This is why I started using a non native resolution of 1620x1200.

It actually means that the graphic card uses a space of 3840x2400 and squeezes it into the resolution of 2880x1800 of the physical display. This makes everything unsharp, like using non native resolution on normal screens, wich I always hated because it looks horrible.

In the retina display the pixels are so small that the unsharpness is almost unnoaticeable.

In the long run I realized that watching unsharp images made my eyes very tired.

I never had eye problems. I am 43, but never wore glasses. After 3/4 months of retina display with "wrong" settings, I was almost sure I was getting old, and that my sight was about to get bad, for good.

Few weeks ago I switched to native resolution "best for retina" and solved the problem!!!

I am not suffering from tyred eyes any more. My sight is perfect as before.

I decided that I will use an extra monitor at the office to get the space I need, and I love the sharpness of everything on retina display.

I am not sure whether other people in this forum have the same story. I hope this may help some.

I think Apple should find a different way of changing the size of things on screen in a different way than just squeesing more pixels in a smaller physical monitor. Giving possibility to control the size of all graphic things.

Best regards

Matteo

I find the Retina display to cause less eye strain personally. Working on a MBP, I turn off automatic brightness adjustment and set the level pretty low (in the lowest 25% of the brightness settings usually).

I strongly recommend f.lux also (it's free). It adjusts the colour of your monitor for night/evening use (matching it to the lighting in your house). If you try f.lux, and then turn it off at night, you'll see the difference. Using the computer at night without f.lux is very harsh on your eyes!

I am new to Mac, and find the screen a little too glossy as well and reflective, it would be helpful to have the choice when buying matt or gloss.

Obviously I am not the best user as only one day old on the mac, though to me it seems that some of the infomation is all very in the middle of the screen (despite zooming which looses sharpness) especially when viewing email normally via the browswer.

When using email via the browser, I do not like this hover over the email and another slides open, the screen is so big why not just display normally like windows? surely then eye would have to move across the page more often, as to staying focused in one position.

Perhaps there is way to alter the settings, new on mac so likely I don't know the in and outs.

To me it makes sense to keep you eye moving, and as to focusing close I understand one is meant to look away frequently to something further away.

I would imagine a similar issue is like when using a mouse and not moving the hand - arm much, can cause some problems.

My old DELL screen although not as crisp in definition as this mac screen, I think it may have been easier to just look at, after all do all the objects look this glossy when looking around a room, and some are sharp some are not depends of what surface of the item is like.

I wonder if do some people react differently to the gloss or matt screens, if they already where glasses are they more likely to have problems, a small side lamp on.

I am pleased to read other peoples comments on this, though I have to say it seems like an ongoing problems for some time.

Apple are probably successful due to many of these people being users of mac etc for years.

I hope they hear some sense, as really I am not finding this encouraging.

I will attend my first lesson this week at the apple shop and and see what the say about this, and see what I can learn.

I will say I bought my apple at John Lewis and currenlty they offer a Guarantee for 2 years on a lot of computers and on Apple 3 years, it would be nice is apple matched that.

Maybe a research project need to undertaken if not done so already in regards to matt or gloss screens and before and after eye examinations.

I've just bought a MacBook Pro Retina 15" and my eyes have hurt since I started using it. I didn't have this problem with my iMac. I am extremely glare sensitive, in general, since having my eyes lasered a couple of years ago. Thanks to someone else's suggestion I have installed f.lux and that made an immediate difference. However, my eyes still feel like they're straining to focus. What a bummer, since the reason I got this machine was to enjoy beautiful graphics, and now I feel like I'm going blind. Yes, I've been to an optometrist – my vision is fine. I don't think I'd recommend this product to a friend.