The Galaxy S25 and Pixel 10 should immediately copy this iPhone 17 eye protection feature

Among all the iPhone 17 models that Apple unveiled this week, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max grab the most limelight for their new design, improved cameras, and enhanced thermals. However, all new models come with an upgraded display, featuring parity in refresh rate across models, a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, and Ceramic Shield 2 with an anti-reflective coating. While Apple did not pass up the opportunity to boast about these upgrades, another meaningful change, left unacknowledged, has now surfaced.

All iPhone 17 models reportedly come with a hidden setting to toggle PWM (pulse-width modulation) on or off. The setting is supposedly buried among Accessibility options in iOS 26 release candidate for the iPhone 17 series, and was discovered by MacRumors.

Why is PWM dimming an issue?

Pulse-Width Modulation is a technique used on OLED displays to control brightness. When you intend to lower the brightness, the individual LEDs in the display turn on and off rapidly at a high frequency, creating a visual illusion that makes the display appear collectively dimmer than each LED would individually. However, since it involves the display’s frequent on and off, PWM can vex users with sensitive eyes and even cause problems like persistent headaches and sore eyes, since it is essentially similar to being strobed with bright light. Meanwhile, prolonged usage can even cause chronic sensitivity.

This is especially a problem for the iPhone, as it has traditionally had a low dimming frequency, which is more easily detectable by human eyes. As tested by Reddit user DragonKnight1507, this frequency goes down to about 240Hz (the screen flickers 240 times each second).

Most Chinese phone makers, including OnePlus, Honor, and Xiaomi, among others, have skirted around the issue by relying on substantially higher values, in the range of roughly 2,000–4,000Hz. Meanwhile, Apple, Google, and Samsung have been reluctant to switch to displays with high PWM. Incidentally, Google also recently added a 480Hz PWM dimming option for the Pixel 10 Pro models, but this may seem too little compared to what Chinese phone brands offer. While the Pixel 10 Pro Fold only features it on the inner display, the base Pixel 10 skips out entirely.

With iPhone 17, however, Apple takes the approach of disabling PWM. However, the information provided by MacRumors suggests that disabling the feature may affect the display’s performance at lower brightness levels. It does not clarify the replacement methodology used here, instead of PWM dimming.

Notably, before switching to high PWM, some brands, including OnePlus, used another technique called DC Dimming. Instead of making the display flicker, DC Dimming reduces the current supplied to the display, thereby reducing the brightness. However, this technique has its own drawbacks, resulting in issues such as color inconsistency and artifacts at lower brightness levels.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s unclear whether the iPhone 17 series utilizes a technology similar to DC Dimming — even though the approach sounds identical. And knowing Apple, we’re unlikely ever to get an official confirmation. However, we can hope that both Samsung and Google will adopt a similar solution to help reduce eye strain.