PWM Samsung S21 Ultra

[Lunalil]

I last had the S 10+ and it was causing me the most intense eye pains and headaches for months on end, in the end I had to sell it and I swapped to the iPhone 11 which gave me no issues. I was told it was because it is an LCD screen not Oled..

Obviously I am bored to tears on iPhone and wanted to come back to Samsung so I bought the Samsung S 21 Ultra with o2 yesterday. I didn’t use it for that long I kept pacing myself not constantly being on the screen and today I’ve woken up with pain behind my eyes which is what are used to get on this S 10. I always have my phone on low brightness and use the eyes comfort filter to block out the blue lights which works fine on the iPhone but for some reason Samsung phones give me a really bad headache regardless of me using the blue light filter, low brightness and dark theme.

I was told it’s to do with PWM and I am guessing Samsung have not addressed this in the latest series. Does anybody know?

Also if a phones on contract you've 14 days to return the phone. I’ve kept the protective plastic on the screens and not used the sim yet. Can you return a phone if the protective sticky films come off? It’s hard for them not to when trying out the phone or they gather fluff under them. Also seal on box cut in half to be able to open the box. I’ve never returned a contract phone before so I don’t know 🤷‍♀️ 

Thank you 

Luna

[papashaun]

Re returning it - would call your network provider and check with them

[Lunalil]

Thank you.

[Joeeye]

The S10+ is an OLED panel (Samsung have never used an LCD panel in their flagship android phones) as is the S21 Ultra (same for the iPhone which is also a Samsung panel). The iPhone employs PWM in its displays just as Samsung. If you are suffering from the effects, I'd recommend increasing brightness to 50%.

[Lunalil]

Thank you.

I use the iPhone 11 which is an lcd panel and I’ve read many people don’t get the headaches and eye strain going back to an iPhone 11, but horrendous headaches with the iPhone 12, Samsung models etc as they use oled. 

[papadawg]

Hello, I have experienced the same issues as you but I actually have a solution that apparently works for me. It is true that the S21 ultra uses PWM to regulate the brightness. The resulting flickering propably causes the eye strain. The flickering can be seen when you see your display to another phone's camera. So I tested a little bit.

What I noticed was that the flickering was very intense especially when you have set your display to low brightness. At about 30% and above the flickering is quite ok and the eyes feel much better.

So make sure to keep your display brightness at least at 30%. For example by turning off adaptive brightness so you have full control over it. You will get used to that brightness very quickly.