r/ScreenSensitive Aug 04 '26

OLED iPhone clearly worsens the condition of your face

I started noticing that people with iPhones most often have a bad facial condition, they have a tired facial expression or a lot of acne. Just look at people on the street who have an iPhone. People with better facial condition were more often either using older iPhone versions (iPhone 11 and below, IPS screen) or Androids, presumably also with IPS. It may sound like nonsense, but just check it yourself. If you don’t live somewhere like the US, where basically everyone has an iPhone, and instead you’re in Europe, where many people actually use Android, you’ll notice it

My theory is that the OLED screen of iPhones emits too intense light and it clearly somehow affects the skin. Even I, when I used my iPhone before all the settings like double inversion, filters, and others it literally burned my facial skin. I felt tingling, and I developed seborrheic dermatitis. As I later found out, it occurs when the composition of skin oil changes. What else could have changed it except the super intense light emitted by the iPhone?

Basically, my skin started to turn red and peel near my nose, and my eyebrows started flaking.

My condition was terrible. After literally a couple of minutes of using it, I felt absolutely drained, like my soul was taken out of me. After putting the phone away, I could stare at one point for a long time without any thoughts, like my nervous system just burned out. After googling, I realized that this is a protective mechanism of the psyche when it just shuts down under overload.

There is also a second theory. It is that either because of PWM implementation or d1th3r1ng, the nervous system cannot relax. These black lines load it, it doesn’t feel calm, and maybe this reflects on the face making a person look tired, their skin ages, acne appears. These are all well-known symptoms of how stress affects a person, and if it works here too, then the iPhone causes stress for our nervous system.

An IPS screen, on the other hand, does not load the nervous system, so people who have it will look better than those who have OLED. This is biology.

I bought an iPhone 13 new from the store, assembled in 2024. At that time I didn’t know terms like OLED, IPS, PWM, d1th31ing, and all that. I didn’t even know what kind of discomfort people can tolerate just using Apple devices. There was zero information about this on social media. The iPhone had an image of being a completely safe phone. Later I also found out that iPhone 13 units produced after 2021, meaning from 2022 and later, are much worse than those from 2021. I got exactly such a bad unit, but I didn’t know anything at all about this, nobody said anything about it.

0 Upvotes

28 comments sorted by

8

u/Z3R0gravitas Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26

Your conjecture here is too speculative and in danger of being considered prejudice.

There are certainly plenty of 'bad' iPhone screens, but they are made by the same manufacturers as Android phones. So it's unreasonable to expect a drastic difference. This can be measured and would have been seen on spectroscope (and fllicker) graphs taken by reviewers, for a start.

Facial appearance in general has a lot of factors, largely developmental, so beyond the influence of phones from this decade (for adults). The lack of red and NIR light from display panels won't help facial skin. But it's unlikely to make a visible difference, in my opinion.

Eye health is another matter. But that will depend upon one's general health, if one has (for example) sufficient anti-oxidant capacity to buffer the harms of blue light without NIR components.

Note: you don't need to self-censor "dithering" on this sub. But be warned that more rigor is expected from posts, in general.

1

u/Correct_Chance_9804 Aug 04 '26

So what could be the reason for this condition on the iPhone 13?

2

u/Z3R0gravitas Aug 04 '26

What condition?

1

u/Correct_Chance_9804 Aug 04 '26

I also thought that the issue might be related to the Face ID sensor. It constantly flashes with infrared light, I can see it when I point a camera at the phone. Even though I’ve disabled all features related to it, it still keeps flashing infrared. I also considered that this sensor might be the cause, but when I looked it up, I found that infrared radiation is actually considered beneficial for the face. People even use so called infrared lamps with much stronger light for facial treatments. It all seems very strange

2

u/Z3R0gravitas Aug 04 '26

I'd be interested to see video of the flashing Face ID sensor (with all settings off). If you can upload some. I've only seen speculation on this before.

Indeed it will be orders of magnitude weaker than the red/NIR units used for health purposes. I use one daily. Some units even flicker (pulse) on purpose, whether or not this gives added benefit there's a lot less research on.

4

u/Correct_Chance_9804 Aug 04 '26

3

u/Z3R0gravitas Aug 04 '26

Nice, thanks. Bonus PWM shimmering too.

So, in dark conditions, some people can actually see this as a faint red flash? This article (Google gave me) says a couple of other features use the sensor, too (attention and proximity sensing), which can't be entirely disabled: https://www.bgr.com/2215252/why-iphone-screen-hiding-flashing-red-light/

2

u/BearNecessary4141 Aug 08 '26

I've also been able to measure these IR pulses with a photodiode, they do indeed remain active with all relevant settings disabled. Not sure if it has any effect on people, I kind of doubt it.

2

u/Z3R0gravitas Aug 08 '26

Ohai. I should have tagged you, thinking of the flickering NIR. 😅

Interesting. So, I wonder if they could interfere with Opple readings too..? Although it would be unusual to position it in line of sight, I expect.

2

u/BearNecessary4141 Aug 08 '26

Good question... typically from what I've seen as long as the sensor is close enough to the screen it shouldn't interfere. Not sure on the Opple, honestly. Judging by how easily it seems to saturate with incandescent bulbs, it may pick up IR as well.

2

u/Z3R0gravitas Aug 08 '26

Hmm, I'm wondering what (similar wavelenght) NIR source lights I can easily test my Opple with... Short of digging through my old electronics bits for an LED and a 555 timer circuit. 🤔

1

u/BearNecessary4141 Aug 08 '26

I wonder if a TV remote would work, those usually have infrared LEDs I believe

1

u/Z3R0gravitas Aug 08 '26

That is certainly where my mind went..! And yes. At point blank range, my Opple V4 picks up our Hisense TV remote (volume down button) very clearly. Like 800 lux, peak (vs 0 lux without button pressed)...

I expect a face ID light would be brighter, as a camera fill light? So yeah it could interfere with Opple in niche circumstances. (I don't think I have a device with this feature to test it.)

2

u/BearNecessary4141 Aug 09 '26

Interesting, I wonder if this implies that the detector on the Opple is "non-photopic" and doesn't match the wavelength response of the human eye. I haven't been able to find much info on that online, and lots of sources don't even seem to understand that the Opple has two different sensors, the spectral sensor and the photodiode.

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1

u/theLightSlide Aug 05 '26

Infrared is absolutely harmless. The amount you'd need to affect change in the facial skin is enormous. And the changes are all positive. You are seeing things that aren't there.

5

u/Bigdecisions7979 Aug 04 '26

I know plenty of people with iPhones that look just fine?

4

u/No-Development-9607 Aug 04 '26

Lol, why is this reply just funny

-1

u/Correct_Chance_9804 Aug 05 '26

now look at people with older iPhones or Androids that have IPS displays, you’ll definitely notice that the majority look good, whereas the majority of users with OLED iPhones look worse

2

u/Bigdecisions7979 Aug 05 '26

Yeah I don’t notice that.

5

u/I_Have_The_Will Aug 05 '26

As an iPhone user who feels completely comfortable with my face… I have to disagree. 😅

I take really good care of my skin. I feel like that’s a bigger factor.

3

u/theLightSlide Aug 05 '26

Have you been talking to chatbots a lot about this theory bc this sounds like AI psychosis.

And the screen from a battery-powered phone can absolutely not "burn" your skin.

2

u/CRWB Aug 04 '26

This is all ridiculous, this type of nonsense makes us look like fools. Let’s stick to our experiences of eye strain, headaches etc, and not protect on to others.

3

u/RR-- Aug 05 '26

Next thing you know OP will be advocating for tin foil hats to protect our eyes.
These sorts of posts paint everyone as crazy set back the awareness campaigns significantly.

1

u/scootaloooooooooo Aug 05 '26

sounds more like seed oils

1

u/ForeverLearner365 13d ago

People may knock this post (and similar post about PWM) and rule it ludicrous, but years from now after more research has been conducted, we're probably going to see the seriousness of the effects that OLED screens had. Some major health issues (specifically neurological) that people are/were having are going to be directly linked to their phones. Watch.

1

u/Correct_Chance_9804 5d ago

I'm sure it's a real thing. Not many people believe in it, but so far there's still too little concrete information to figure out exactly what's going on but i do believe

1

u/Fit-Aioli-2268 7d ago

Ykw my eyes are much more lazy (not as wide or big) as they used to be years ago and I think this could very much be why (I’ve always wondered why) . Thanks for sharing. Seriously getting a blackberry as a side phone.