Apple snuck a bit of a hidden display change on the iPhone 17 line-up: a system toggle for removing PWM dimming at low brightnesses. It’s a practical acknowledgment to the many folks who are susceptible to headaches, eye strain or even nausea as a result of OLED flicker. If Samsung and Google are truly the health- and access-friendly giants we need on our home screens, the Galaxy S25 and Pixel 10 will have this same kind of “flicker-free” switch from day one.
What Apple altered — and why
While we are yet to verify anything, there have been several reports, one of which came via MacRumors from the latest iOS build, which point towards iPhone 17 models featuring a buried Accessibility option to switch PWM off. PWM, pulse-width modulation, is how you control the brightness by pulsing the pixels on and off really quickly. It’s energy efficient, and wonderfully effective in preserving color accuracy, but the strobing—particularly at lower frequencies—can be uncomfortable for some users.
In the past, iPhones have been measured by the community somewhere in the 240-480Hz range (at least depending on brightness, with lower being more noticeable to sensitive eyes). That is well below the threshold of “generally low-risk” above 3,000Hz recommended for lighting flicker by the guidance from IEEE 1789. That’s not the case for Apple’s new toggle— it doesn’t increase the frequency, it seems to send PWM out at all on the low end.
This is one of the rare cases that a simply changing something may end up helping out more people than a spec bump.
You don’t have to understand panel tech to tap a setting and end the flicker that could be giving you headaches you can’t shake when scrolling through things at bedtime.
PWM, DC dimming and your eyes
PWM is present in many OLED phones, the reason being that it maintains color quality and uniformity right down to the low end of the brightness spectrum. The trade-off is flicker. Alternative solutions like DC dimming reduce screen current instead of flickering pixels themselves, or modulating backlight brightness, but can introduce colour shifts, banding, or gamma instability at low light—failures rigorously catalogued by display reviewers and R&D lab testing outfits like NoteBookCheck and Display Supply Chain Consultants.
Instead, Chinese brands have taken another approach: dial PWM way up. Honor, OnePlus and Xiaomi phones – 1,920-4,320Hz Honor’s, OnePlus’s and Xiaomi’s devices have such high PWM frequency. That extends flicker beyond the perception levels of most people. It works well for many but not all displays, and not every panel behaves the same way through the brightness curve.
Google’s latest step is incremental. The Pixel 10 Pro is said to switch to a 480Hz PWM mode, while the Pixel 10 Fold makes use of it for the inner display. Better, but still nowhere near the multi-kilohertz frequencies that rivals employ. There could be an actual user-facing, system-wide toggle to reduce flicker even more for those who need immediate relief.
Why Samsung and Google need to respond
Two things are true: practically every flagship device today has OLED, and a non-negligible number of people get bothered by flicker. Online forums for people who are sensitive to PWM are replete with firsthand accounts of headaches, eye strain, and insomnia caused by late-night phone use. It may be a minority, but accessibility isn’t a niche — particularly when you’re a brand that ships hundreds of millions of devices.
For Samsung and Google, it’s not like they need to start from scratch to give their panels a boost. A prominently marked “Reduce Flicker” switch like iPhones 47th would acknowledge the problem and offer an opt-in escape hatch. Samsung already tunes some displays with hybrid schemes that switch control methods depending on brightness; exposing a user-facing option would formalize that choice.
That is also consistent with guidance issued by regulators and experts. Temporal light modulation has been highlighted by health organisations and standards bodies as detriment to vision and comfort. Smartphones may not be room lights, but the principle is the same: High-frequency or low modulation safes brains that are sensitive, especially when their pupils are dilated in the dark.
What a fix for Android should look like
First, offer a master toggle in Accessibility: “Reduce Screen Flicker (Disables PWM at low brightness).” This allows you to see that turning it on may compromise between color accuracy and minimum brightness — a reasonable expectation.
Second, I would add an “Adaptive Flicker Control” mode. This would switch between DC dimming and Hi-Freq PWM dynamically on content and brightness, but also without introducing low-frequency strobe again.
Third, surface the data. A “Show flicker info” readout may optionally show the current modulation frequency or technique. Honesty commands trust and allows tent-inclined visitors to find a comfort zone.
Finally, collaborate with panel suppliers. There are some more ultra-high PSTS panels from Samsung Display, BOE, and CSOT. Combining those with a system-wide flicker toggle would be the best of both worlds: great color accuracy and actual relief for sensitive eyes.
So what?: reuse the toggle, help more users
The approach for the iPhone 17 is refreshingly matter-of-fact: enough already with the arguments about PWM frequency, give people a way to opt out. For the Galaxy S25 and Pixel 10, a feature that is only a copy of that Accessibility feature would be a high reward, low-cost win. The science is not in dispute, the user feedback is deafening and the remedy is simple. Place the flicker switch in settings and people can opt for comfort.