PWM Ranking - Notebooks, Smartphones, and Tablets with PWM

[Ket]

Please answer me. If this is pwm 1500000 on my device is it danger for me&

[Andriyya]

No. This is all danger in 80-400 pwm frequency. In 1500000 this is not any danger.

[nadnpoy]

All 12 iphone series are disastrous

[RandomPerson]

What does it mean when a link is greyed out? E.g. Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 10.4 (2020) is grey and not clickable, but the chart still has a value for its PWM.

Also Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 shouldn't have the value 0, the review clearly states it flickers at 60Hz.

[Zohaib]

Any user who has personally used any laptop and smartphone that has low flicker and pwm.
Any device that is easy on eyes.

[Henno]

Any user who has personally used any laptop and smartphone that has low flicker and pwm.
Any device that is easy on eyes.

HP Elitebook 820 G3. I have the touch screen version (not sure it affects). Zero problems with eyes. I used to use an MBP 16" 2019 and it was like wearing too strong prescription glasses and the eyeballs felt like they were burning at the back and closing the eyes made eyeballs sting, even long after I stopped using the machine (until the next morning). Same story with the Apple M-series laptops.

[Henno]

Any user who has personally used any laptop and smartphone that has low flicker and pwm.
Any device that is easy on eyes.

HP Elitebook 820 G3. I have the touch screen version (not sure it affects). Zero problems with eyes. I used to use an MBP 16" 2019 and it was like wearing too strong prescription glasses and the eyeballs felt like they were burning at the back and closing the eyes made eyeballs sting, even long after I stopped using the machine (until the next morning). Same story with the Apple M-series laptops.

But based on my years of research it's extremely likely that it is not the display which is the root cause of the issue but it is the video driver that is ordering the display to flicker in order to expand the color range (look up temporal dithering). I was able to make my MBP 2019 a lot more bearable by using SwitchResX and switching from "billions of colors" to "millions of colors" and using sRGB color profile. My HP is using Intel HD 520 Graphics, so I guess any machine using the same video card is okay.

[Henno]

If you have an Intel video card, there is a program called "Dithering Settings for Integrated Graphics" which enables you to disable temporal dithering on some of the Intel video cards. Full list of the supported can be found on the program's Github (user skawamoto0) project page (file database.csv).

[lucuz]

Xiaomi Redmi K50i PWM please

[silvia]

i'm looking for a close to stock android phone which is comfortable to the eyes.

does anyone have experience with these models?

- motorola edge 30: amoled 250

- motorola g82 5g: amoled 119.4

- sony xperia 10 iv: oled 253

google pixels are not available where i live. i'm open to other recommendations too, preferably a phone that will continue to get android updates. thank you.

[silvia]

i misread the information and thought that the lower the number the better (as those with 0 are ideal). i guess these three phones wont be ideal for someone with sensitive eyes.

[mtee]

The data is full with invalid results.

All 50Hz and 100Hz are the results of your ambient lights with 50Hz or 100Hz AC electricity.

All results less than the devices' refresh rates are also invalid. You can't have PWM frequency less than refresh rates. If so, there will always be a couple of frames that are never lit by backlight. (Assuming the pulse width is very short at low brightness)

On OLED device, the PWM frequency must be the multiple of refresh rate, that's how OLED works. So results like 250Hz on 60Hz device are all invalid. 240Hz should be the actual result.

there are some results that are clearly just measuring noise.

Last but not least, there are some results that are simply typos. For example
Nokia-T20-Tablet-review-Pad-with-LTE-lasts-forever

Aside from invalid results, the numbers shown here didn't take the modulation depth into consideration. For example, a 50Hz PWM with 100% modulation depth is easily noticeable, but a 10Hz PWM with 1% modulation depth is barely perceivable. If you check the waveform, some of the wave pattern is very far from the time axis, indicating the modulation depth is very small.

[sekai]

Could you test the 2019 27-inch imac screen? Thank you very much.

[Flowboy]

A useful article, despite the negative comments from some. At least you made the effort to write the article & make a list, rather than us all being completely in the bloody dark! Even now, 2023, still the PWM information is not listed in Laptop specs. As you have said (& it explains the unhelpful response from a retailer when I asked about display specs), as long as makers use different displays for exactly the same model, we have no idea what PWM, if any, we will get. It makes any list somewhat unreliable as you also may only have tested one of possibly several different displays in any model. Let alone the possible effects of different graphics cards or drivers as has been suggested.
Many people have eye problems & with the massive increase in hours-long screen staring over the past couple of decades, many more will develop them & come to regret it. It can only be made worse by PWM & the complete lack of transparency over its use in such displays... 

[Gollygeewillikers]

Is there a way to get a notification when a particular device review is posted? I always check on here to see the PWM for new devices. But I never know when they are published. Maybe there could be a link within articles leading up to the Notebookcheck review. On your end it could help grow email signup and remind users to come back to the site later. Just a thought! Thanks for all the data in these reviews. It's saving my eyeballs and device returns.