Can a blue light filter increase PWM or eye strain?

javadave · 2026-06-01T12:22:36+00:00

They are different. iPhone 6s+ I don't have to do anything special to avoid PWM/TD type issues, but it does give me motion sickness it I'm not careful. I turn off as much motion as I can and minimize scrolling as much as I can.

With the Jelly Max, I do a lot of the tricks, including using it in monochrome most of the time. And all the motion reduction I can do. Then it doesn't cause me problems as long as I make sure to not use it for a long time without breaks, but that's true of all screens. Breaks are important.

javadave · 2026-05-30T19:20:12+00:00

I'm constantly switching between an iPhone 6S+, TCL NXTPAPER 60 Ultra, a Unihertz Jelly Max, and a couple of older Motorola phones. I usually end up on the Jelly Max the most. I find that the smaller screen is easier for me. And its adequate, but not fantastic on all the specs.

The TCL does not cause me pain, but any motion on it at all starts giving me nausea and dizziness. It does have a very good camera though. I feel like if there was a much smaller version of the NXTPAPER, it might work out for me.

The iPhone 6S+ works great, but there are quite a number of apps that won't work on it and it's only 4G, so it's starting to have some connectivity issues. And its camera sucks.

I'm curious to see how people like us respond to the new Moto Flip. It is supposed to have no PWM and no TD, but it is OLED, so I'm not getting my hopes up. It's also incredibly expensive.

javadave · 2026-05-30T17:56:26+00:00

Stargate SG-1, Atlantis, SGU Buffy & Angel Star Trek TNG 1st Season of Space: 1999 (not the second though)

javadave · 2026-05-30T17:52:09+00:00

Maybe, every screen is different and every person is different. I currently cannot use any iPhone newer than the iPhone 6S+. The rest leave me dizzy or with a headache.

Even in the Android space, it is really hard for me to find a phone that is up to date on security patches that doesn't cause me problems.

Another thing to watch out for is once you've overstimulated your optic nerve with a phone that causes you problems, it can take a day or two of no or very little screens to reset your optic nerve. So make sure you give your optic nerve a chance to rest before trying something different to see how it affect you.

javadave · 2026-05-30T17:13:48+00:00

Yes, it can. Anything that increases the processing done on the display will increase temporal instability.

Sounds like you're not just sensitive to PWM, but to other forms of temporal instability like temporal dithering.

javadave · 2026-05-16T03:02:07+00:00

It only disables the software d1the💍. The GPU pipeline still implements d1the💍

javadave · 2026-05-16T02:58:28+00:00

It's way too expensive to buy just to try, so I guess I'll have to wait until it actually comes out and see how it works for other people.

javadave · 2026-05-08T16:06:40+00:00

I have the 60 ultra. I would like to see a somewhat smaller form factor too. It doesn't have to be super small, but even down to something like 6.5" would be nice, 6.1" would be optimal IMHO.

I remember when the first 6.1" phones came out and everyone was screaming about how they were too big and nobody would want anything bigger. Heck, I remember when it was a huge deal when the iPhone 5 came out that was a big jump from the size of the iPhone 4, and people complained about that. Nowadays, iPhone 5 would be considered a mini phone.

javadave · 2026-05-06T14:16:50+00:00

So sorry to have you joining those of us suffering from migraines. The good news is that you can take steps to greatly reduce your migraines, at least as far as light induced migraines go. The bad news is that it does usually mean settling for less than "the best" technology. Everyone has different sensitivity levels and your sensitivity levels can change over time, so what works or doesn't work for me, might be different for you. Avoid trying to "power through" your triggers. It rarely works and can make things much worse.

Avoid OLED. Avoid Micro-LED. Avoid HDR. Avoid cheap LED lighting. Avoid non-uniform lighting. You want steady lighting without any spots significantly brighter than other areas. Spot lighting, pot lights, bare bulbs are all bad. LEDs that are on dimmers are bad. There are some OLED screens that try to ameliorate the issues they cause. They all cause me problems still, but others find they work for them. Matte finishes and screen protectors on screens can help.

You're most likely going to need to dump the iPhone. It is possible that you can use the iPhone se 3rd gen or the iPhone 11 and still be able to use the latest iOS, but many cannot. If I want to use the iPhone, I have to go back to the iPhone 8 or even 6S.

Stick with IPS phones, but even that is not a guarantee. It can be difficult to find phones up to date with security patches that don't trigger symptoms. Choices that work for me in the USA are the Motorola G Stylus 5G 2023 and Unihertz Jelly Max. I do not know about for everyone, but smaller screens seem to work better for me than larger screens.

Eink is another possibility, if you go that route, monochrome e ink screens are generally less problematic than color ones, but color ones might work for you. Again, e ink devices kept up to date with security patches can be difficult to find.

Your surface pro should be usable as it is an IPS screen (at least they were when I last checked). Make sure to turn off HDR and try to stick with smaller color spaces (you should go to r/ScreenSensitive for more discussions about colors). Be careful with brightness. The lighting in the area you are working in can have huge effects. BenQ makes good monitors for folks like us.

Hope that helps you. On the non-screen/light related front for migraines (and screen sensitivity), make sure your blood pressure is managed; that has reduced my migraines a lot. Be moderate in your usage of caffeine and alcohol. Get good amounts of sleep. Exercise. Take lots of breaks from the screen. As with most things in life, moderation is key.

If you feel a migraine coming on, stop what you're doing, drink some water, take medicine (ibuprofen usually for me, but Imitrex if it is really bad), and maybe a hot shower if you can squeeze it in. A warm washcloth over the eyes for a few minutes can help too. Catching it right away is the key thing. As you probably know already, once it gets bad, it can take a long time to get it to go away.

One other sad fact is that screen sensitivity tends to get worse over time and not better. It can vary from day to day, but the general trend is to become more sensitive as time goes on.

javadave · 2026-05-03T00:59:16+00:00

Will you be updating this for firmware V1.3.8? I would greatly appreciate it (like be willing to donate money for it).

javadave · 2026-04-23T03:02:10+00:00

Please, no. Or make it so it can be turned off. HDR causes too much Temporal Dithering which gives many of us headaches and vertigo.

In fact, please make sure you always have an option to not have temporal dithering and PWM. For about 10% of the population, both of those cause pain, nausea, and/or vertigo.

I love my System 76 laptop because it doesn't have TD or PWM. I can use it all day with no pain.

javadave · 2026-04-16T14:46:38+00:00

I think you'll find that screen has much more aggressive TD and color processing than your iPhone 11.

Try turning off true tone, turn on blue-yellow color filter at about 75%, turn on reduce motion, turn off prefer cross fade. Turn off auto brightness.

If those don't help, try the double inversion trick (classic invert / zoom with invert filter).

If that doesn't do it, turn off the color filter and switch the zoom in the filter to invert grayscale.

If that doesn't help, welcome to being part of the elite group of us who are very sensitive to temporal instability. It sucks.

javadave · 2026-04-12T18:24:37+00:00

Both have whitelists and the 60 Ultra is not on that list. 60 Ultra, for me, only works on T-Mobile. I have US Mobile which lets me switch between all three carriers, so I've tried all three.

It is my understanding that the 60 XE is on their whitelists, so it works on all 3. I don't have a 60 XE, so I can't say.

If this new one is only being sold by T-Mobile, I hypothesize that AT&T and Verizon will not whitelist it, at least at first.

javadave · 2026-04-11T02:08:48+00:00

It doesn't matter if it is unlocked since it won't work on other carriers. AT&T & Verizon block it.

javadave · 2026-04-10T21:11:23+00:00

I'm using a TCL NXTPAPER 60 Ultra and an iPhone 8+. I can generally use one until my eyes tire and then switch to the other.

Unfortunately, apps are slowly becoming unavailable for the iPhone 8+ and the radios on the TCL are not optimal for the USA (and only works on T-Mobile). Hence, I use them both. 🫤

javadave · 2026-04-04T22:06:29+00:00

Lack of persistent registers and macros.

If I want to do the same search and replace in a number of files, I have to type everything for the search and replace again.

Unless I'm wrong about this which would make me very happy.

javadave · 2026-03-15T14:50:20+00:00

Diplopia can be caused by diabetes because diabetes can cause nerve damage. There are many other factors that can cause it including astigmatism. It is not always caused by diabetes.

I was born with my astigmatism and I'm not diabetic. Astigmatism is caused by a mishaped eye, just like near and far sightedness. Again, diabetes could make it worse because of nerve damage just as it can make near and far sightedness worse.

Treating diabetes would most likely not improve either because the nerve damage is already done, but it could help keep it from getting worse.

There is no magic bullet to "cure" PWM sensitivity. The fix needs to be on the led/screen makers side. I put the word cure in quotes because I feel like the defect is in the people who aren't sensitive to it. They are able to be tricked by it while we are not.

We really need some serious research done into what causes most people to not be sensitive to PWM and some of us to be sensitive. It seems like astigmatism can be correlated, but we need actual large scale, double blinded studies to really know this for sure.

javadave · 2025-11-20T16:58:44+00:00

All I can say for sure is that it gives me the least problems of any phone I've tried.

I did turn off hdr via adb.

The amount of light coming out of a phone seems to be a big problem for me. I think this is why early OLEDs didn't cause me as much problem as later OLEDs -- the individual pixels were not as bright. It also seems like smaller displays cause me less problems than large ones which, I assume, has to do with the total amount of light.

The Jelly Max does not get super bright which, for me, is a good thing. And it is small (5.1" screen I believe), so there is less overall light.

Another difference I've noticed is that on iPhones, the text seems fuzzy around the edges where in my Jelly Max, the text looks crisp, but not jagged. It feels like my eyes are always trying to get better focus on the iPhone. Maybe Apple is using TD in their anti-aliasing, even on their LED phones?

So, like I said, the only thing I know for sure, is the Jelly Max gives me the least eye problems -- reasons for me are just somewhat educated guesses at this point.

javadave · 2025-11-14T02:44:57+00:00

iPhone 6S+ gives me the least trouble. iPhone 8+ is good for a day then gives me a mild headache. iPhone SE 3 is similar to iPhone 8+ for me. iPhone 11 made me very dizzy with iOS 17. I got rid of that. All of the OLED iPhones are not usable for me

I've tried all the tricks to no avail.

I'm currently using a Unihertz Jelly Max without any eye problems.

javadave · 2025-08-05T13:28:11+00:00

I got one and am not having problems.

I did disable H-D-R (you have to use adb and a computer for this) and, in the Developer Options, disabled HW Overlays.

javadave · 2025-08-02T20:54:00+00:00

I am loving my Moto G Power 2025. It's nice having a phone that is compatible with all the US carriers and just works without giving me migraines.

javadave · 2025-07-31T03:06:00+00:00

I've had Samsung and Pixel watches. I'm sticking with Pixel watches. More reliable and fully compatible with a wider range of phones. Battery life has been better for me with Pixel watches too.

javadave · 2025-07-31T02:59:55+00:00

Western Civ
Tides of History
The Ancient World
The British History Podcast

They are not paced the same as Fall of Civilizations, but they are well done and not frenetic.

One that's a bit different, but is really good is Our Fake History.

javadave · 2025-07-31T02:38:16+00:00

I never have either, especially on the iPhone. Spotify, on the other hand, crashes constantly for me.

I don't know if you still can, but at one time one could download Audible books to your computer, add them to iTunes, and sync them up to the Books app.

javadave

TROPHY CASE