Help Diagnosing Eye Strain with Modern Phones and Monitors?

[Ererer433]

Hello!

Over the last 15+ years I've never seemed to have any issues with eye strain on any sort of display. However, several displays I've tested recently have caused some sort of discomfort.

About me, I have a mild prescription and glasses for near-sightedness (I can't see far away) as well as mild astigmatism in one eye. I've seen an optometrist recently and don't have any other vision issues. I have a pair of prescription lenses, but I don't typically wear them and they haven't made any difference on the devices I've tested.

Here's a list of devices I've tested:

No Eye Strain:
1. Pixio PX276 - 27 inch 1440p TN Panel 144hz (matte) - I've had this monitor for quite a while (over 5 years) and used it various lighting, distance, framerate, and VRR configurations, all without issue. Something I noticed with this display is that is has a fairly dramatic PWM flicker that can be captured on a smartphone camera, but this has never bothered me.
2. HP P223 - 21.5 inch 1080p VA Panel 60hz (glossy)
3. Ipad Air 2
4. Ipad 4th Generation
5. Alcatel Idol 5S (LCD smartphone)
6. Google Pixel 4a 60hz (OLED smartphone)
7. Hisense 50H8F - 50 inch 4k VA TV 60hz (glossy)
8. LG C1 (Model: OLED65C1PUB) - 65 inch 4k OLED TV 120hz (glossy)
9. Various CRT TV's

Eye Strain:
1. AOC AGON Pro AG274QZM - 27 inch 1440p IPS Mini-LED 240hz - By far the worst display I've ever used for eye comfort. This display caused severe eye strain, both with HDR/local dimming enabled and disabled.
2. AOC Q27G3XMN - 27 inch 1440p VA Mini-LED 165hz - With HDR and local dimming disabled, this display only caused minor eye strain. However, with HDR/local dimming enabled, eye strain was significantly worse (though this may have been related to the increase in brightness).
3. Google Pixel 8a 120hz (OLED smartphone) - On this device, reducing the framerate to 60hz somewhat helped reduce eye strain, but not entirely. I also tried using a heavy matte screen protector, which did not have much impact.
4. Samsung Galaxy S24 120hz (OLED smartphone)
5. Motorola G Power 2024 120hz (LCD smartphone)

Based on other replies on the forums, I've tried testing the following:
- PWM flicker - This does not seem to be a major concern. Both the Pixio monitor and Google Pixel 4a have reported PWM flickering, which did not seem to be an issue.
- polarization - using a pair of polarized sunglasses, most displays tested allow light through both vertically and horizontally. The Hisense TV only allows light though when viewing the display horizontally.
- high contrast / wide color gamut - Seems unlikely to be the culprit, no issues with the Google Pixel 4a or LG C1 OLED.
- blue light - utilizing software solutions (night mode, f.lux) does not make any noticeable difference.
- brightness - high brightness can cause strain, but once adjusted to a comfortable level this hasn't been an issue.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post! Any insights on what might be causing my eye strain are very much appreciated.

[kyube]

Eye Strain:
1. AOC AGON Pro AG274QZM - 27 inch 1440p IPS Mini-LED 240hz - By far the worst display I've ever used for eye comfort. This display caused severe eye strain, both with HDR/local dimming enabled and disabled.
2. AOC Q27G3XMN - 27 inch 1440p VA Mini-LED 165hz - With HDR and local dimming disabled, this display only caused minor eye strain. However, with HDR/local dimming enabled, eye strain was significantly worse (though this may have been related to the increase in brightness).
3. Google Pixel 8a 120hz (OLED smartphone) - On this device, reducing the framerate to 60hz somewhat helped reduce eye strain, but not entirely. I also tried using a heavy matte screen protector, which did not have much impact.
4. Samsung Galaxy S24 120hz (OLED smartphone)
5. Motorola G Power 2024 120hz (LCD smartphone)

Based on other replies on the forums, I've tried testing the following:
- PWM flicker - This does not seem to be a major concern. Both the Pixio monitor and Google Pixel 4a have reported PWM flickering, which did not seem to be an issue.
- polarization - using a pair of polarized sunglasses, most displays tested allow light through both vertically and horizontally. The Hisense TV only allows light though when viewing the display horizontally.
- high contrast / wide color gamut - Seems unlikely to be the culprit, no issues with the Google Pixel 4a or LG C1 OLED.
- blue light - utilizing software solutions (night mode, f.lux) does not make any noticeable difference.
- brightness - high brightness can cause strain, but once adjusted to a comfortable level this hasn't been an issue.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post! Any insights on what might be causing my eye strain are very much appreciated.

Thanks for the great write-up on your panel history, it helps troubleshooting attempts tremendously.
When it comes to desktop displays, I wouldn't write out the possibility of WCG (KSF/PFS or QD) having an impact on you.
Your problematic displays are all wide-color gamut based and miniLED to top it off, which suffers from flicker.
I assuem you've read through some of my replies to users around this subforum.
Have you tried using a high refresh rate 1080p display or one of the 1440p displays I recommend around here?

As for phones:
They've changed how 120hz smartphones implement PWM dimming recently, which would explain why the S24 was uncomfortable for you.
About the LCD you've tried, I've read something about Mediatek's MiraVision implementation causing severe eye strain for some individuals, which is a form of dithering algorithm specific to the Mediatek chipset.
Try using a Qualcomm, Exynos or Apple-based LCD phone instead, this might work out for you.

Hope this helps.

[Ererer433]

Thanks for the great write-up on your panel history, it helps troubleshooting attempts tremendously.
When it comes to desktop displays, I wouldn't write out the possibility of WCG (KSF/PFS or QD) having an impact on you.
Your problematic displays are all wide-color gamut based and miniLED to top it off, which suffers from flicker.
I assuem you've read through some of my replies to users around this subforum.
Have you tried using a high refresh rate 1080p display or one of the 1440p displays I recommend around here?

As for phones:
They've changed how 120hz smartphones implement PWM dimming recently, which would explain why the S24 was uncomfortable for you.
About the LCD you've tried, I've read something about Mediatek's MiraVision implementation causing severe eye strain for some individuals, which is a form of dithering algorithm specific to the Mediatek chipset.
Try using a Qualcomm, Exynos or Apple-based LCD phone instead, this might work out for you.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your help! I was hoping you would reply

For monitor's, I'll have to do some research on wide color gamut technologies. Do you know of any resources for determining if a display uses KSF/PFS or QD?

For the phones, it's interesting that both the Alcatel and Pixel 4a were low refresh rate displays using Qualcomm chips. I'll have to demo another Qualcomm device and see if there's a connection.

[kyube]

Thanks for your help! I was hoping you would reply

For monitor's, I'll have to do some research on wide color gamut technologies. Do you know of any resources for determining if a display uses KSF/PFS or QD?

For the phones, it's interesting that both the Alcatel and Pixel 4a were low refresh rate displays using Qualcomm chips. I'll have to demo another Qualcomm device and see if there's a connection.

The only way you can determine if a panel uses a type of WCG backlight, be it KSF/PFS or QD, is to look through reviews.
Most 1440p >200hz displays are KSF/PFS, QD is usually explicitly mentioned as a selling point for most Samsung panels & a few other vendors.
I assume both AOC displays you've tried are KSF/PFS, since that's the more common WCG backlight type due to it's lower cost.
This is the case with the 4k >100Hz section as well.
Only 1080p >200Hz displays are mostly with the old YAG phosphor style backlights, apart from a few 360hz IPS & most E-TN's (KSF/PFS), the exception being the XL2586X (QD)

As for phones, I can give you these recommendations:
LCD phones: IPhone SE 2022, IPhone 11, Samsung XCover 6 Pro, Samsung M33 (A33 clone), Motorola Moto G75, Moto G35, Moto G200, Moto G100, Realme 9 5G, Xiaomi MI 10T Pro, Poco X4 GT
OLED (if you can deal with scan-out flicker): Edge+ 2023 with “Flicker Prevention” enabled. I believe the Huawei P30 also has this type of feature, but I'm unsure. PAM dimmed OLEDs are rare, which would be exactly how your LG TV behaves in terms of flicker.

For displays, I assume you're looking for the 1440p segment? If so, you could consider the AOC Q24G2A (YAG) or HP Omen X 27 (YAG), as they don't have a KSF/PFS backlight.
Apart from them, getting a W-OLED panel or QD-OLED panel might work out for you too.

I have a list of a few recommended desktop displays listed on this guide I've written, take a look here: https:// rentry.co/cdrg
Blurbuster forums doesn't let me embed, just fix the link yourself.
Green & uncolored displays listed there may be of interest for you to try.

Hope this helps.