Retina Display MacBook Pro eye problem and strain

This debate on the forum seems like nonsense to me. If you stare out your window right now ... what you see is a world with much higher resolution than retina display; a world a bold, rich images. If anything retina display should be easier on your eyes than staring out a window. I do think that a lot of people look for problems and talk themselves into being part of the problem.

I have the same problem. I bought MBP Retina 15, worked on it about one week and started feeling very unpleasant strain in eyes, the next day my right eye was in such pain that I couldn't continue working on Macbook. I've tried everything, color calibration, flux app to alter color temperature, different display brightness but nothing helped. Before it, I was working on Macbook Air 13" 2012 more than year, and never experienced such a trouble, even when was working more than 10 hours a day. After several week of trying to get used to this retina display I've decided to sell it (I loose about $200 on it), and switched back to work on non-retina Macbook Air.

I have connected a Dell 27" low res (1920X1080) monitor and everything is fine now, for about a year. I had tried switching to lower resolution settings on Retina, it helped a little but not quite. I still can't bear to look at full retina resolution on my macbook pro, after upgrading to Yosemite even.

Has any of you tried turning font smoothing off?

I have sensitive eyes and cannot tolerate any font smoothing.

Font smoothing makes the edges of fonts fuzzy and makes them harder to focus on.

If you have eye problems related to the Retina display, the first thing I would do is turn font smoothing off.

Then you'll get really crisp text.

I think this problem may be due to IPS screens (such as Apple's Retina displays).

I have recently tried a laptop with an IPS screen, and also a desktop monitor with an IPS screen, and both caused me eye discomfort.

In both cases, I ended up having to recalibrate the display's colors to reduce the blue color; this helped a little, but not enough.

I ended up returning both of them because they were killing my eyes.

In the past, I have used regular LCD monitors and TN-based LED screens with no problems, but my eyes seem unable to tolerate IPS screens.

Right now I'm using a laptop with a high-quality TN-based LED screen, and also a regular LCD monitor. I can use these all day long without problems.

For now, I have decided to stay far far away from IPS screens..

I think this problem is affecting me. I have double vision all the time now. For instance, when I look at people, I see four eyes.

Is this something that can get worse or permanently ruin my vision? Or does it get better?

I bought my rMBP 13" there days ago. Immediately I noticed I get "double vision" all day whether I'm looking at the screen or not. For instance, when I look at someone's face, they have 4 eyes. Did anyone who have this problem find solutions? Did it go away? Should I return it and get the MBA?

I think it's better to return and get MBA. I've returned mine MBPr after three weeks of hoping that my eyes will get used, and after, I bought MBA (I've lost on the deal $200, couldn't return for full price because shop is not official).

Alright. Thanks for the info. Tomorrow, I should be getting a package that will have a screen protector. Some guy on the forum said that should help, because it will help with my double vision. I'll try that, and if it doesn't work, ill return it for the MBA. Thanks.

A cheap one off amazon. Some guy on the post said the cheaper the better because the impurities in the plastic will give some definition to the print so your eyes are able to hold their focus.

Why, do you have double vision as well?

Actually, I must correct myself.

I find that I cannot look at an LED monitor all day long (be it IPS or TN).

In terms of viewing comfort, regular LCD monitors are the most comfortable, followed by high quality TN-based LED monitors and lastly IPS monitors.

LCD >>> TN LED > IPS LED

I find that LED monitors are more tolerable with the blue color toned down, so this may have something to do with the blue LED light.

No, I don't think Apple or any other manufacturer sells laptops with a regular (CCFL-backlit) LCD screen. These days all laptops use LED-backlit screens.

I think your best bet would be to hunt down an old LCD monitor and hook it up to your laptop..

I have found something promising.

http://www.aocmonitorap.com/root/hk_en/product_display.php?id=5040

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/aocs-anti-blue-light-technology.html

AOC will soon come out with LED monitors equipped with Anti-Blue Light (ABL) technology.

This technology supposedly eliminates 90% of the harmful blue light emitted by LED.

It does this by shifting the wavelength peak of the LED backlight.

It will supposedly eliminate the harmful blue light without turning the whole display yellowish (like blue light reducing software do).

These monitors will also be flicker-free.

If this really works, I think it could be really good.

I think all laptops, tablets, smartphones, monitors, etc. should be equipped with this technology.

(Otherwise, I think we'll see an epidemic of people with vision problems (such as macular degeneration) due to the LED's..)

I'm a Macbook Pro Retina (mid-2012) owner and I started having the symptoms that your described as well as double vision since this May. I had my screen changed back in the summer of 2013 due to burn-in and both times I got LG screens. Although I got rid of the burn-in effects of the previous screen I did notice that my eyes get tired more easily with this new screen. Perhaps there is a direct causal relation between the use of those screens that don't have burn-in and the increase in likelihood of eye strain?

Lowering the brightness certainly helps but no matter what I do my vision gets blurry after more than a couple of hours of use and then it would become impossible to have a sharp focus on anything I look at for the rest of the day. On good days I can sit in front of the MBP Retina for up to four hours and if I take a long break (more than an hour) and come back, I can do another two or three hours but this is rare. The thing is I also own an iPad (3rd generation), which is equipped with a Retina screen (by Sharp I believe) and I never have any eye-related problem with it (even with extended use).

I conclude that this is most likely a problem that's unique to LG manufactured Retina screens and perhaps people who read this can confirm it for us afflicted with this condition?

The problem has become so intolerable that I placed an order on an early 2013 Samsung LCD screen (so as to avoid the new IPS technology) yesterday. I'll keep you guys updated on whether the situation improves with the Samsung screen.

Hi guys,

I have tried the AOC E2476VWM6 monitor.

Unfortunately.. it did not work for me.

I could look at it for a few minutes longer than a regular LED monitor, but that was it.

My guess is that an LED screen emits so much blue light that even if you reduce it by 90%, it's still too much.

I guess I will have to stick with my old LCD monitor for the foreseeable future.

I've found that the only way I can look at an LED screen is by putting on amber colored anti-blue light glasses.

So, it's either that or a CCFL-backlit LCD monitor for me.

I had high hopes for this anti-blue light technology. But now I see there is no way to make an LED screen harmless..

So, if you're curious you may want to to try out this monitor yourself.

But I wouldn't expect miracles.

Cheers.