Advice for suitable display types when you can't handle QD-OLED and Nano IPS

[Lurtz]

I'm trying to upgrade to an OLED PC monitor right now but my eyes make this challenging. I wear glasses with about minus 6 diopter.

My current monitor is an IPS, LG 27GN800P-B. I tried Nano IPS back then but couldn't handle it at all. I couldn't focus the screen and got eyestrain and headaches after about 15 minutes.
The text clarity etc. is far from perfect on my current display, but I never had any noticeable eyestrain with it, even after long office hours. I also don't have any problems with the IPS monitors at my work place.

Right now I'm trying to upgrade to OLED, but again it's proving challenging to find a display type that doesn't cause physical problems.
I first tried a glossy QD-OLED, 27" 1440p. In general thought text was okay, but after about a week I was seeing the color fringing everywhere and also noticed tiring eyes and slight headaches.
Right now I have the semi-matte Samsung G80SD in my office, 32" 2160p. Text clarity is pretty great and much sharper than the old IPS. I have minor eyestrain that gets better when I lower the contrast a little and use a warmer color temperature. I think I can still see the color fringing but it's not really that noticeable anymore. Still especially dark mode text or text in game UIs seems to somehow glow unnaturally.
However my headaches haven't gotten better, only worse. It also seems to affect my whole well being a little (like feeling a little nauseous). It sounds so esoteric and hard to describe, I wouldn't really believe it myself if I wouldn't experience it.
So eye strain seems to be better with 140 ppi, headaches worse.

On the desktop I'm using "office" settings. So sRGB mode, about 100 cd/m² brightness. No wide gamut color spaces, not blasting 250 nits into my eyes all the time.

I've read a lot about how QD-OLED causes some people severe symptoms like this that are gone with WOLED. So it's probably either the (subconscious) text fringing or the Quantum Dot layer.
It can't be OLED in general. I'm using a Pixel 7 as my smartphone and while it took some getting used to OLEDs on smartphones (maybe due to PWM) I've been using ones with bretty bad PWM for years now and am not really bothered by it anymore, even in darkness with very low brightness.

So I wonder what makes sense in my case. Somehow I think the root cause is probably the Quantum Dot, as I was already having trouble with Nano IPS before. So I guess IPS monitors with Quantum Dot and QD-OLED is no option anymore.
Would you agree with this theory or am I overlooking something here? Do you think WOLED could be the answer to my problem?

[kyube]

I'm trying to upgrade to an OLED PC monitor right now but my eyes make this challenging. I wear glasses with about minus 6 diopter.

My current monitor is an IPS, LG 27GN800P-B. I tried Nano IPS back then but couldn't handle it at all. I couldn't focus the screen and got eyestrain and headaches after about 15 minutes.
The text clarity etc. is far from perfect on my current display, but I never had any noticeable eyestrain with it, even after long office hours. I also don't have any problems with the IPS monitors at my work place.

Right now I'm trying to upgrade to OLED, but again it's proving challenging to find a display type that doesn't cause physical problems.
I first tried a glossy QD-OLED, 27" 1440p. In general thought text was okay, but after about a week I was seeing the color fringing everywhere and also noticed tiring eyes and slight headaches.
Right now I have the semi-matte Samsung G80SD in my office, 32" 2160p. Text clarity is pretty great and much sharper than the old IPS. I have minor eyestrain that gets better when I lower the contrast a little and use a warmer color temperature. I think I can still see the color fringing but it's not really that noticeable anymore. Still especially dark mode text or text in game UIs seems to somehow glow unnaturally.
However my headaches haven't gotten better, only worse. It also seems to affect my whole well being a little (like feeling a little nauseous). It sounds so esoteric and hard to describe, I wouldn't really believe it myself if I wouldn't experience it.
So eye strain seems to be better with 140 ppi, headaches worse.

On the desktop I'm using "office" settings. So sRGB mode, about 100 cd/m² brightness. No wide gamut color spaces, not blasting 250 nits into my eyes all the time.

I've read a lot about how QD-OLED causes some people severe symptoms like this that are gone with WOLED. So it's probably either the (subconscious) text fringing or the Quantum Dot layer.
It can't be OLED in general. I'm using a Pixel 7 as my smartphone and while it took some getting used to OLEDs on smartphones (maybe due to PWM) I've been using ones with bretty bad PWM for years now and am not really bothered by it anymore, even in darkness with very low brightness.

So I wonder what makes sense in my case. Somehow I think the root cause is probably the Quantum Dot, as I was already having trouble with Nano IPS before. So I guess IPS monitors with Quantum Dot and QD-OLED is no option anymore.
Would you agree with this theory or am I overlooking something here? Do you think WOLED could be the answer to my problem?

Eye strain is sadly trial and error, as you've very likely read up on and noticed yourself.
WOLEDs can definitely be a nice change of pace when it comes to color gamut, it's great that you've tried NanoIPS and QD panels and came to the conclusions that it might affect you.
I'd avoid the older WOLED panels however, due to fringing issues. Try looking for a RGWB one, as that will provide the least amount of fringing. You can do so by using this search query on google

"RGWB" site:rtings.com

Keep in mind desktop OLEDs have much less flicker than smartphones (~25% brightness drop every refresh cycle), but you've already stated it's not that much of an issue.
Also do keep in mind that RGWB is still not as perfect as RGB substripe, that's just a Windows OS limitation that we have to keep up with.
It's great that you've tried lowering contrast. That's one of the ways to tone down the impact of flicker on the eyes.
Another thing you could try is using light mode whenever you can, that also helps.
HDR can also impact your experience on OLED, keep in mind.

Hope this helped you in some way.