Best phones for PWM/flicker sensitive people 2024

If you’re like me, using a Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel, or Apple iPhone has become increasingly difficult due to these phones’ use of flickering displays. The OLED panels that power these devices sure look nice, but unfortunately for us, our eyes and brains just don’t like how they operate.

Thankfully, several options on the market offer a great experience without sacrificing processing power, camera quality, or overall experience. We’re working to deliver the best guide for PWM/Flicker-sensitive people to make an informed buying decision and are aiming to include phones from every product category and price range.

I’ve tested a lot of phones over the years and have been specifically testing phones for flicker sensitivity since originally posting about becoming PWM-sensitive in mid-2023. Many of these phones are also the best Android phones, and some, surprisingly, even use OLED displays. If you’re extremely sensitive to flickering and PWM dimming, it’s safe to say most phones with OLED displays are likely not in your future.

Some upcoming phones like the TCL 50 series sport “paperlike” LCD displays that use no PWM according to my brief testing at MWC 2024. Look forward to those if you need an LCD-based upgrade this year.

People who are sensitive to display flicker aren’t all sensitive to the same problems, so what works for one person may not work for another. I’ve included as much information as I can on each phone to help you make the best decision.

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At a glance

Best overall

Motorola took us by surprise this year when it released the Motorola Edge Plus (2023). Motorola’s premium phones had been struggling in recent years so it was refreshing to see Motorola not only release a phone with such stellar hardware but also back that hardware up with a four-year software update promise and a PWM-friendly OLED display.

Motorola sells this model as the Motorola Edge Plus (2023) in the U.S. and as the Motorola Edge 40 Pro in most of the rest of the world. It’s also sold in China as the Moto X40.

Motorola debuted a relatively new flicker-reduction option with the Edge Plus (2023) that ensures the phone’s display is on 99.51% of the time during the duty cycle. In practice, this is identical to DC dimming, which means the phone is actually reducing the voltage to the OLED diodes instead of using PWM flickering to fake a dimmer display.

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As is telling from light flicker measurements, the brightness dips a little bit each time the display refreshes. In this case, the display is refreshing at around 120Hz. This is normal for all DC-dimmed OLED displays.

As long as the flicker reduction feature is enabled, the Motorola Edge Plus (2023) never switches to PWM dimming, even at the lowest brightness settings. Because of this, you might notice some display noise that looks a bit like an old 35mm movie. That’s because OLED diodes have difficulty showing consistent brightness levels and color when voltage is reduced.

The upside is that the display doesn’t flicker or use PWM to manage these negative factors, meaning it’s a lot more comfortable to look at.

If you disable the flicker reduction feature, you’ll see that 720Hz PWM dimming is used below 35% brightness. Check out the video below to see it in action.

This is my personal favorite premium phone and I have no comfort issues from using this phone all day long.

Aside from just having a comfortable display, the Motorola Edge Plus (2023) is a downright amazing phone. It’s got a blazing-fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, plus 2-day battery life and those timeless Motorola features that make using Motorola phones so convenient.

The camera could be better but it’s surprised me more than a few times. Just make sure you stick to 1080p video recording quality if you want to use all the best camera features the phone has to offer.

Runner-up

The Xiaomi 13 is a community pick and the one that best fits in the category of best international premium phone. We’ve had the pleasure of reviewing the Xiaomi 13 Ultra and Xiaomi 13 Pro, and Android Central’s Harish Jonnalagadda also has the regular Xiaomi 13 as well, so we’re familiar with the software and overall phone experience.

But the smaller (and less expensive) Xiaomi 13 is the one to pick for PWM-sensitive folks. Out of the box, it utilizes a 1,920Hz PWM OLED display, but you can enable DC dimming by selecting the “anti-flicker” setting in the display options.

Graphs from the same Opple Light Master light meter I use can be found here, and you can see the difference between the two modes in this video.

Aside from a vision-friendly display, you’re getting a cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, great battery life, and faster charging than anything offered by Google, Apple, or Samsung.

It’s also got a great camera — even if it’s not as good as the Xiaomi 13 Pro or Ultra models — and MIUI is always feature-packed and updated regularly.

The phone is clearly styled after the iPhone with its shiny, flat sides. This is something that people will either love or hate, as is evidenced by the constant design changes back and forth over the years. MIUI is also extremely Apple “inspired” and has always been a sort of iOS clone since its inception.

Best camera

If camera performance is the most important part of a smartphone for you, the Honor Magic 6 Pro’s camera will seriously blow you away. Not only are everyday shots from the 50MP main camera and 180MP telephoto camera incredible, but the phone’s software is smart enough to take pictures for you.

But before we get into all that, let’s go over the display because this is one weird OLED panel. First off, it’s capable of emitting an eye-searing 5,000 nits of brightness at its peak, something it regularly staves from by utilizing DC-like dimming to keep the eye pain at bay.

But the weird thing is that Honor uses a 360Hz backplane for its DC-like dimming structure, which means it might feel more like 360Hz PWM dimming to some people.

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At 100% brightness, the display uses a moderate 17% modulation rate which is 3x deeper than the Motorola Edge Plus 2023 at the same brightness. It’s nowhere near phones like the Galaxy S23 Ultra or Google Pixel Fold with their 99% modulation rate at full brightness, but it’s not quite as good a some others on this list.

But when you drop the display to 30% brightness and below, something very odd happens. The 4,320Hz PWM rate kicks in below 30% brightness but it’s interwoven with the same 360Hz DC-like dimming method from higher brightness levels.

The effect is so strange that my Opple Light Master IV can’t pick it up at all and reads it as 360Hz all the way to 0% brightness. Despite what my measurement instrument is telling me, a high speed camera shutter proves that the phone does use 4,320Hz PWM dimming below 30% brightess.

For me, this display was super comfortable from the moment I started using it. Thus far, this has been my main phone since I began using it in early February 2024 and I have yet to feel any discomfort form the display.

In fact, this is one of the few phones I’ve been able to use with auto brightness enabled. The consistency that the 360Hz frequency delivers is likely the reason for this as it helps emulate a sine wave pattern similar to an incandescent bulb.

Beyond the display, I’ve mostly enjoyed using the phone and heartily recommend it over past Honor phones. While Magic OS is still very iOS-heavy in its design, Magic OS 8.0 overhauled the UI and fixed a lot of problems I had with previous Honor Magic OS releases. It no longer feels clunky and outdated, even if I don’t care for the iOS style split notification panels and some other UI elements.

I’ve had my fair share of quirks along the way though, including a sometimes unresponsive app drawer and the occasional notification that’ll get missed. If you pick one up, make sure you disable all the nonsense power saving “features” that are enabled by default and enable notifications on all apps. Otherwise, you’ll end up missing a lot.

The phone sports some seriously incredible performance and battery life even when you disable the silly power saving features, though. Honor is using a new type of battery with the phone and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor soars through every test imaginable. It’s a bit win overall, despite the quirks.

Best folding phone

The worst part about being a fan of folding phones is when you’re also someone who’s sensitive to display flicker. Most folding phones use Samsung AMOLED panels, and, as a result, most of them flicker a lot. Motorola uses pOLED panels by LG, and these allow for proper DC dimming at high brightness levels.

Motorola’s flicker reduction option in display settings further helps keep things under control, but that doesn’t mean this phone will work for everyone who is flicker-sensitive.

As you can see from the charts below, the phone uses refresh rate-locked DC dimming for the OLED panel, meaning there’s a slight dip in brightness every time the screen refreshes. Dropping the refresh rate to 60Hz may make this phone more comfortable for some folks since the dips happen less often.

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But, even with DC dimming enabled, the modulation rate is a bit higher than what’s comfortable for some flicker-sensitive folks. For me, anything below an 8% modulation rate is usually the most comfortable.

Other flicker-sensitive folks might find this display is still comfortable, though, since it doesn’t use PWM dimming above 25% brightness. Extra dim is supported on this panel, but it triples the modulation rate, so I wouldn’t recommend using it.

The video confirms that modulation is low throughout most brightness levels. You can see the difference between the flickering levels with the flicker reduction setting enabled and disabled here, too.

The phone’s cover display modulates at the exact same rate as the large folding display, so using that more often won’t change much.

If you’re comfortable with these numbers, Motorola’s flip phone is one of our favorite flip phones of all time. While it doesn’t have as many software features as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip series, Motorola’s cover display is much more useful than the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s because Motorola lets you do anything with it. It’s all here, from running full apps, swiping through widgets, or even playing games without having to flip open the phone.

It uses an older Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor which still feels snappy despite being a few years old now. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean battery life is particularly good — something that plagues all flip phones. Thankfully, Motorola’s chargers are quicker than Samsung’s, and you can top up in just a few minutes without worry.

Best mid-range phone

If you know anything about Nothing’s phones, you’ll know the company takes its design language seriously. The company’s first budget-friendly option, the Nothing Phone 2a, delivers a superb mid-range experience without compromising on design. It’s still got the glyph interface lights on the back, and the company’s trademark transparent design language looks as good as ever.

More impressively, the company kept an OLED display onboard that uses DC-like dimming above 50% brightness and 2,160Hz PWM dimming below 50% brightness. While the refresh frequency is more aligned to the refresh rate than the Nothing Phone 2, the Phone 2a’s modulation rate is a bit higher.

You can see this effect in the video below. The Phone 2a has a darker single line at high brightness while the Nothing Phone 2 has double lines that are dimmer. The means the Nothing Phone 2 pulses at a higher rate, which could be less comfortable with DC-like dimming, but the brightness dip at the end of the duty cycle isn’t quite as stark as it is on the Phone 2a.

In a nutshell, this means the Phone 2 will be more comfortable for some people while the 2a might be more comfortable for other folks. It all depends on what bothers your eyes more.

I found the Nothing Phone 2a was most comfortable at 49% brightness, as the higher PWM rate actually felt great to use. That makes it a little harder to see outside in the sun, but it’s about as bright as your average budget LCD phone at this level, so it’s not too bad.

In fact, one of the reasons I think this brightness level was so comfortable for me is because the graph, seen below, looks very similar to what a good LCD display looks like. The line is quite flat despite using PWM, and that made it feel gentler on my eyes.

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Coming from the Honor 90, which was our previous pick for this category, the Nothing Phone 2a’s Nothing OS is a breath of fresh air. While Honor tends to stick closely to iOS-style design, Nothing OS feels a lot more like classic Oxygen OS used to.

It’s got a super light and fast feel while retaining a unique visual look. The company’s dot matrix-style font stands out, and the home screen customization settings will help immediately differentiate your phone from everyone else’s — as if the transparent back and LED glyph interface on the back doesn’t already do that!

Plus, I really enjoyed the build of this phone. Sure, it’s completely made of polycarbonate with an aluminum frame for support, but the company made the edges with a sandpaper-like texture. That makes it very easy to grip and pick up from a table, plus the centered camera island means it won’t wobble when you place it down like so many other phones do.

Best affordable phone

OnePlus has long been a company focused on delivering value, and the Nord series fulfills its diehard customers’ expectations of that idea. The Nord N30 is the 2023 U.S. Nord release, and it brings the usual suite of improvements along with one surprising change: the 60Hz OLED display on the N20 was swapped out for a 120Hz LCD panel on the N30.

That LCD panel is super friendly for anyone suffering from flicker sensitivity as it uses proper DC dimming at an extremely high frequency — greater than 15,000Hz, in fact — to get things done.

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This display is mostly flicker-free at all brightness levels, as evidenced by the video below. However, there seems to be a slight flicker below 10% brightness that doesn’t get picked up in the video.

Some users in the PWM-sensitive community have picked up the phone and found that it does bother them at very low brightness levels like this, so I wouldn’t recommend using it at super low brightness.

Aside from the flicker-free display at most brightness levels, the Nord N30 is a fantastic budget phone that’s littered with features thanks to OxygenOS. This is the same OxygenOS you’ll find on more expensive OnePlus phones, so you’re getting the best features at a bargain price.

And the processor in this phone is fast enough even for graphics-intensive games like The Division Resurgence thanks to fast internal storage speed and general improvements in optimization in OxygenOS over the years. Plus, battery life is truly excellent, and it charges in about 30 minutes flat with the included charger.

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How to choose

What’s the best phone for PWM/flicker-sensitive people?

If you’re PWM or flicker-sensitive, it can be extremely difficult to figure out which phones work best for you. As a rule of thumb, IPS LCD panels are usually friendlier on the eyes than any kind of OLED panel, but even that’s not guaranteed. PWM dimming is sometimes used for cost reasons, while it’s used to mask poor low light screen quality in other instances, so even LCD panels can use it.

OLED displays have to use PWM dimming at a certain brightness level to retain accurate colors and details. You can read about why that’s the case in detail here. But know that most OLED displays can use DC dimming to maintain brightness at high levels. Some manufacturers — like Samsung, Google, and Apple — just refuse to do this.

While the phones on this list have been tested and used by us, everyone’s eyes and brains work a little differently. That means what works for one person won’t always work for another person. If you’re PWM-sensitive, there’s a high likelihood that you may have to try several options on the list before you find something that’s comfortable for you.

If you find your phone bothers your eyes when using automatic brightness, try setting it to manual at 100% brightness. Then use an app like this screen and notification dimmer to artificially lower the brightness. I’ve tested a lot of screen-dimming apps, and this is the best one.

Folks looking for a premium phone in the U.S. should look no further than the Motorola Edge+ (2023). Motorola uses a special flicker reduction DC dimming method that ensures the screen’s duty cycle remains on 99.51% of the time.

In simple terms, that means the screen isn’t flickering like other OLED displays no matter the brightness level. Just make sure you enable “flicker reduction” in the phone’s display settings. The Motorola Razr Plus uses a similar method of flicker reduction, making it the only foldable phone available in the U.S. that’s vision-friendly.

Internationally, there are a lot more options. Many smartphones from Asia offer DC dimming methods, including the Xiaomi 13, Honor Magic 6 Pro, and several other options. More and more companies have begun to increase their display PWM rates and have been better about clearly marking the rate in the phone’s marketing.

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