PWM in Alienware displays: eye fatigue, headaches?

Hi everyone,

I have noticed some Alienware models (at least Alienware 13 with touchscreen) have displays with a relatively low resolution PWM, 240hz in the case of the 13".

PWM is known to cause eye fatigue/strain or headaches in sensitive subjects.

I could not find any reference to PWM in the owners threads, so I'm wondering whether people bothered by PWM returned their laptop, or if they're just living with it or they have no problems at all.

I'm considering buying the 13" OLED, but PWM seems to be a real dealbreaker if you're sensitive to it.

Any experience?

 

Honestly if your having issue with your eyesight and headaches you really shouldn't even be using a 13.3 screen and opt for the larger screens sizes which would strain your eyes less.

 

Don't notice anything myself. No difference in eye and head when viewing the 13" OLED or 34" Dell monitor. I assume that it depends on the individual.

The PWM is pretty low in OLED smartphone too if that is the lowest baseline for eyestrain (PWM combined with small screen size).

EG: if you can't look at a 5" OLED smartphone for more than 10 minutes, an hour of the AW 13 OLED might get to you

 

That is interesting. I saw the PWM section on Notebookcheck and was curious about it. I think the Razer Blades IPS and IGZO displays are 200Hz. I was a bit worried about it being 240Hz but I had a Galaxy S2 with SAMOLED for 2 years but never had issues with it.

 

I see, thanks for sharing your experience.

The thing is you usually spend much less time looking at the phone display vs laptop display, so you might never look at it long enough for it to become a problem.

But you still have a point, I could borrow an OLED phone which has PWM and see if I can notice anything off after a long phone-gaming session

Yeah, there are plenty of threads on the web about how disappointed people are with high-end laptops shipping with PWM, hence my confusion :/

 

anyone else who would like to share his/her experience with any flickering or eyestrain caused by the PWM of the OLED display?

It'd be helpful to know if people notice anything off at 10% brightness, which is when the effects should be more visible

 

I've used it at brightness of 25% and 50% and personally have not noticed it. 25% is pretty dim enough for me in my lighting condition.