I have no problem with Macbook Air Big Sur (2020), I can look at the screen for hours, but I cannot even look a few minutes at the screen on the new MacBook Pro M1 Monterey. I tried all the adjustments for the screen to no avail.
Someone at Reddit says the reason is that the screen is so smooth that the eye cannot focus. It's weird that only some people are bothered by this but I see enough complaints online for Apple to pay attention.
I tend to disable all the fancy transparency and animation options (reduce motion) in the preferences & accessibility settings and that made Monterey visually more tolerable for me. Also, disabled the "show color in tab bar" option on both OSX and iOS devices...
I also have a similar experience with my new 16" Macbook Pro. There's something odd about the Mini LED display. I can't quite put my finger on it, maybe it'll just take me a bit to get used to it.
I also got used to OLED screens (the color changing depending on angle drove me crazy in the beginning)
This is the problem with Apple products. If you don't like anything - display, keyboard, etc. - you will not be able to get an alternative (except peripherals). But some people like it to not have a choice.
Over the years I had the best experience with Apple screens but M1 Pro changed this for me. It would be nice to know at least if this is a hardware or software issue.
We have quite a few of these and the 13" Pros. I'll have to ask around.
I would be curious to know if the poster uses any optical prosthesis and the latitude they're in. February in the north would mean longer hours in the dark or with artificial lighting.
It also sounds like they may have just grown accustomed to the 2013 display over an 8 year period and haven't readjusted. I used a 2013 for several years, and it is lower resolution, muted, and dimmer than the M1. The pixels were almost visible. I might even suggest that because of the significant improvements to battery life and usability that they may just be tiring their eyes the natural way- by being able to use it more comfortably for longer stretches, to the point of RSI.
As someone else suggested, the improved panel and color reproduction may also be confusing their focus and causing them to attempt to peer beyond the image, similar to the strain caused by Hulu-style DOF blurring to change the focus within a shot or misapplied artistic blur in VR like in Avatar. That was the case the first time I moved to a HiDPI 10-bit display- my eyes couldn't tell where the panel physically was and tried to navigate depth based on shading information alone.
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 51.0 ms ] threadSomeone at Reddit says the reason is that the screen is so smooth that the eye cannot focus. It's weird that only some people are bothered by this but I see enough complaints online for Apple to pay attention.
I have it because we are going to build some software and want M1 native support. Looks like I will just leave it on Big Sur for a while yet.
Software is my gut feel on this. Have seen talk about Big Sur being good, Monterey not so good on the same hardware.
What I have right now seems good. Maybe I am not affected. But, I can hold off on Monterey and see what comes.
I also got used to OLED screens (the color changing depending on angle drove me crazy in the beginning)
If I buy any laptop, other than Apple, I get whatever parts they managed to get from the lowest bidder.
I find the display to be very nice. Aside from one dead pixel, it’s a joy to look upon.
The only thing that seems to tire my eyes is my iPhone 12 Pro.
I have the M1 Macbook Air as well, and haven't noticed eye strain. At least no more than experienced from other devices.
I would be curious to know if the poster uses any optical prosthesis and the latitude they're in. February in the north would mean longer hours in the dark or with artificial lighting.
It also sounds like they may have just grown accustomed to the 2013 display over an 8 year period and haven't readjusted. I used a 2013 for several years, and it is lower resolution, muted, and dimmer than the M1. The pixels were almost visible. I might even suggest that because of the significant improvements to battery life and usability that they may just be tiring their eyes the natural way- by being able to use it more comfortably for longer stretches, to the point of RSI.
As someone else suggested, the improved panel and color reproduction may also be confusing their focus and causing them to attempt to peer beyond the image, similar to the strain caused by Hulu-style DOF blurring to change the focus within a shot or misapplied artistic blur in VR like in Avatar. That was the case the first time I moved to a HiDPI 10-bit display- my eyes couldn't tell where the panel physically was and tried to navigate depth based on shading information alone.