Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
At some point, I realised that on top of being sensitive to PWM dimming, my eyes have also gotten quite sensitive to something called temporal dithering (also known as FRC en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate_control). It basically flickers pixels to achieve higher colour depth, like from 8-bit to 10-bit or even 12-bit. The 240fps slow mo video above is taken on an iPhone 7 displaying a solid grey colour under a Carson microflip microscope. The screen is pretty much unbearable to use for me.
It's not like I'm so sensitive that anything that dithers is completely unusable for me (like somehow OnePlus Ace 5 Ultra seems bearable even though it has some dithering), but from my experience (when playing around with demo units at stores), a lot of them causes me noticeable eyestrain. It's kinda hard to review and properly test a phone when I can't even look at them for long.
Oh well. Maybe one day when brands start to pay more attention to PWM dimming and do more fully DC-like dimming phones, when true 10-bit panels becomes more common, or maybe when a smartphone company will have an accessibility option to completely disable dithering, I will be able to try out more phones again. 🙃
At some point, I realised that on top of being sensitive to PWM dimming, my eyes have also gotten quite sensitive to something called temporal dithering (also known as FRC en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate_control). It basically flickers pixels to achieve higher colour depth, like from 8-bit to 10-bit or even 12-bit. The 240fps slow mo video above is taken on an iPhone 7 displaying a solid grey colour under a Carson microflip microscope. The screen is pretty much unbearable to use for me.
It's not like I'm so sensitive that anything that dithers is completely unusable for me (like somehow OnePlus Ace 5 Ultra seems bearable even though it has some dithering), but from my experience (when playing around with demo units at stores), a lot of them causes me noticeable eyestrain. It's kinda hard to review and properly test a phone when I can't even look at them for long.
Oh well. Maybe one day when brands start to pay more attention to PWM dimming and do more fully DC-like dimming phones, when true 10-bit panels becomes more common, or maybe when a smartphone company will have an accessibility option to completely disable dithering, I will be able to try out more phones again. 🙃
