IPhone 17 Presents New Features To DeactivATE Screen Strobing For The Sake Of Eye Comfort

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) has been a problem for some users since the iPhone X. (photo: x@hiiarbonlang)

JAKARTA - Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) has been a problem for some users since the iPhone X. Fortunately, Apple is now preparing to address screenstrobing issues with new accessibility options.

A new accessibility setting called "Display Pulse Smoothing" has been found in the iOS 26 release candidate for the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup. This button allows users to disable Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), offering a more subtle way to dim OLED screens at low brightness levels.

As reported by MacRumors, this feature will appear in accessibility settings and can be enabled or disabled. This is Apple's first built-in option to reduce OLED screen flashes.

If this button is enabled, PWM will be disabled to provide an alternative method in damping OLED screens. In theory, and depending on several factors, this can result in a smoother display at low brightness level. However, Apple states that disabling PWM can affect screen performance at low luminosity.

This feature will reportedly be available on the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Most likely, this feature will also be available on the iPhone Air.

Why Is Pulse Width Modulation Important?

There's a lot about PWM in the world of electronics as a whole, but on the iPhone starting from the iPhone X, PWM is a method Apple uses to set individual color cell brightness on the screen.

An incandescent knife that can be stripped will emit fewer photons as power is lowered, proportionally to the magnitude of the power reduction. If the power is reduced by half, it will shine about half the brightness.

Unlike incandescent flares, on OLED screens such as those used on iPhones, brightness control and color mixing is performed by turning on and turning off color cells very quickly. If the full power is given constantly to color cells, then the cells are at "time on" or 100% duty cycle, and fully shining.

While there is an overall screen refresh frequency factor that needs to be considered regarding health, briefly, to reduce brightness at a fixed frequency, color cells are turned on and turned off very quickly. A 50% duty cycle means cells are on or off for half a time, resulting in a luminosity of about half.

This action effectively creates astrobing effect for users at different frequencies from the overall screen frequency.PWM has been used on iPhone OLED since the iPhone X, and this is very important for screen operation. However, this feature has always been a concern for some people.

Now, it looks like Apple is giving the iPhone owner the option at least for iPhone 17 users to disable this setting.