Apple has brought tandem OLED technology to the MacBook Pro, joining the Mini-LED display that has served the range since 2021 (and which Apple continues to sell). Apple calls this a “PROLED XDR Display”. It features individually illuminated pixels, effectively infinite contrast, wonderfully deep blacks and the sort of image quality that Mini-LED, for all its considerable strengths, can’t fully equal. Peak HDR brightness has increased, and Apple has introduced a new display engine designed to manage colour, luminance and pixel usage with extraordinary precision. And of course, in a first for any Apple notebook display, it has touch-input capability.
When Apple unveiled the new MacBook Pro, the initial reaction to the screen was overwhelmingly positive.
But there’s a burgeoning discussion taking place within the Mac community that deserves attention. On MacRumors forums, a thread titled RIP MacBook Pro PROLED for PWM Sensitive Eyes - apple cmon! has attracted people describing remarkably similar experiences. Discussions are also appearing across Reddit, with owners describing discomfort shortly after using their new machines. Some report headaches; others describe a strange sensation of eye fatigue, dizziness, nausea, or an inability to concentrate on the screen for extended periods. Some have already returned the device.
Mike Wuerthele, of AppleInsider, published an article on 10 November titled If you’re getting dizzy using PROLED MacBook Pro, you are not alone, examining these reports.
The following caveat probably doesn't need to be made, but I will make it anyway: these are individual experiences, not evidence that the new MacBook Pro is causing problems for everyone. Plenty of owners are likely perfectly content with (and dazzled by) their new displays. But that isn’t really the point. For the people experiencing these symptoms, the fact that somebody else can happily spend several hours staring at the same screen isn’t particularly reassuring, especially given Apple's long-standing commitment to accessibility. A display can be technically spectacular and still be a spectacularly poor display for a subset of people.
Much of the discussion centres on Pulse Width Modulation, or PWM. It’s a technique used to control screen brightness by rapidly switching or modulating the light output. On an OLED display, the pixels themselves produce the light, rather than relying on a separate backlight. By varying the way that light output is modulated, the display can control its apparent brightness.
At sufficiently high frequencies, this flickering isn’t something most people can consciously detect. But some people are particularly sensitive to this kind of modulation and can experience eye strain, headaches and other forms of discomfort when looking at displays that use it.
This is a pretty good demonstration of PWM on an M4 iPad Pro, which also has a tandem OLED display:
Neither PWM nor the discussion surrounding it is new. It’s been a talking point for years, particularly around OLED displays, and something manufacturers have increasingly had to consider as display technology has evolved (including Apple — more on this later).
Notebookcheck, which conducted laboratory testing of the 14-inch MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, measured PWM at 240Hz. This is its worst-case reading, with flickering detected at brightness settings of 99% and below.
To put that into perspective, the M4 Pro MacBook Pro with Mini-LED display measured 14,880Hz in Notebookcheck’s testing. At 240Hz, the brightness fluctuation repeats 240 times per second; at 14,880Hz, it repeats almost 15,000 times per second. That’s one hell of a difference. The reported modulation frequency of the new MacBook Pro’s OLED panel is roughly 62 times lower than that measured on the Mini-LED model.
Frequency isn’t the only consideration, though. The extent to which brightness fluctuates during each cycle also matters, as do the characteristics of the display’s dimming system. We shouldn’t assume that these figures translate directly into how comfortable somebody will find a particular display. There’s no simple, one-size-fits-all formula for predicting who will experience problems.
It’s also worth avoiding the temptation to treat PWM as a universal explanation for every headache or instance of eye strain. Screen discomfort can have numerous causes. Some users’ discomfort may have nothing to do with PWM.
The MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is emphatically not an inexpensive laptop with a budget screen. This is Apple’s flagship professional notebook. The PROLED XDR configuration represents a substantial investment, and the display is arguably its most important selling point. Apple has spent years refining its displays, and there’s a reasonable expectation that moving to OLED should represent some sort of improvement in almost every meaningful respect, especially given the savagely high price tag of these new machines.
PWM isn’t exclusive to OLED. LCD displays can use it, too, including Mini-LED displays. The difference is that OLED panels often use PWM as part of their brightness-control behaviour, and manufacturers have considerable flexibility in how they implement it. Some OLED displays use relatively high-frequency modulation; others use a combination of PWM and DC (Direct Current) dimming to manage brightness.
DC dimming generally involves reducing the current supplied to the display rather than relying entirely on rapidly switching the light output on and off. It’s often considered preferable for people who are sensitive to PWM. But the presence of DC dimming doesn’t necessarily mean PWM has been eliminated. The new MacBook Pro appears to use a combination of PWM and DC dimming. Notebookcheck notes that DC dimming is present across brightness levels, but that the panel still exhibits 240Hz flickering.
One of the problems with PWM discussions is that they tend to quickly become highly polarised. Someone says they experience headaches, and someone else responds that they’ve been using OLED displays for years without any issues. Two things can be true at once.
The most important aspect of this discussion, to me, is the number of people insisting they had no difficulty using OLED devices prior to using this new MacBook. This matters because PWM sensitivity is often discussed as though it’s a straightforward, binary distinction between people who can tolerate OLED and people who can’t. That binary distinction doesn’t exist. Sensitivity exists along a spectrum.
Different displays use different modulation frequencies, amplitudes and dimming characteristics. Two OLED panels can behave differently, even if they’re based on broadly similar technology. Someone who has been happily using an OLED iPhone Pro for several years might find a different OLED screen uncomfortable; someone who has experienced headaches with one OLED laptop might have absolutely no problem with another. And there is a distinction between OLED technology itself and the particular implementation of OLED in this particular MacBook.
To give an example, someone on the PWM_Sensitive subreddit posted this about their experience with the new MacBook Pro (shared with their permission):
I was really surprised I was affected by this. Have been looking at various OLED screens for years and did not expect to have issues.
Then I got my PROLED 16 inch last week and during the first few hours I thought I just had a bad day. Now it’s so obvious. As soon as I look at the screen I get lightheaded, I feel like I am floating away … and when I then get up and start walking, I feel dizzy for like an hour or two, then it gets better again. But as soon as I look at the screen for more than a minute, the dizziness comes back.
This is first machine in 20 years as an Apple customer that I return literally anything. Too bad, because the laptop is amazing in all aspects otherwise, I was in love with it the moment I took it out of the box (coming from an M1 Pro 16 inch). It would have been my daily driver for the next 5 years. So, now I am waiting for the M7 variant and hope they will find a way to mitigate this issue. I am returning the MacBook tomorrow morning after less than a week of using it.
Apple has built up a loyal audience of professional Mac users who spend enormous amounts of money on the machines, and enormous amounts of time in front of their displays. Photographers, designers, developers, writers and video editors can spend entire working days looking at a MacBook screen (I do). So imagine upgrading from an M4 or M5 Pro MacBook Pro with Mini-LED, expecting a more beautiful version of something you already love, only to discover that you can’t comfortably use the new machine for more than a short period. Good customer experience is usually Apple's guiding North Star. Bad customer experience is usually Apple’s Kryptonite.
There are plenty of engineering considerations involved in developing a tandem OLED panel for a laptop — brightness, power consumption, thermal management, longevity, colour accuracy and uniformity all have to be balanced.
Apple's displays have always involved trade-offs to one degree or another. Take the Mini-LED display — while it's truly excellent in many respects, it notoriously suffers from blooming (an inherent limitation of Mini-LED local dimming) and has also typically had poor pixel response times. These are compromises Apple has had to accept in order to deliver the particular combination of brightness, contrast and HDR performance that makes the Mini-LED display so impressive.
Apple has made some ambitious claims about the new PROLED XDR display, particularly around its brightness and the intelligence of its display engine. We don’t know why Apple has ended up with this particular dimming behaviour, or what trade-offs were involved in achieving it. But I think it’s reasonable to ask whether display comfort received enough consideration in the process. The new MacBook Pro produces extraordinary blacks, stunning HDR highlights and exceptionally accurate colours, and so on. But none of that matters particularly much if the person sitting in front of it develops a headache, or feels like they want to throw up when they're using it.
People experiencing unusual, poorly understood or relatively uncommon health problems have often found themselves struggling to be heard — they have to explain their symptoms repeatedly, defend their experiences and convince others that their difficulties are genuine. I don't personally know anybody who suffers from PWM sensitivity, and I appreciate that it can be difficult for someone without these experiences to understand how something so ordinary could become a source of physical discomfort for another person. But personal experience shouldn't be a prerequisite for compassion. We don’t need to experience somebody else’s symptoms to acknowledge that they are struggling.
Stories like this tend to surface only once an ill-defined and arbitrary threshold of people complaining is crossed. But even if something only affects a small minority, doesn’t that minority matter? Apple certainly appears to care about the minority — they put an extraordinary amount of work into accessibility features, many of which are incredibly important to relatively small groups of users. It’s one of the things which sets Apple apart. Features such as VoiceOver, AssistiveTouch and other accessibility technologies exist because Apple recognises that different people interact with technology in different ways. Why shouldn’t display comfort receive similar consideration? It doesn’t mean Apple must abandon OLED, or compromise the experience for everyone. It means offering alternatives where technically feasible.
Apple previously introduced a ‘Display Pulse Smoothing option’ on supported iPhone models. It’s an accessibility setting which can be toggled in the Settings app. Apple describes Display Pulse Smoothing as a way to create a smoother dimming experience at low brightness on supported iPhones. Its support documentation cautions that disabling PWM may affect low-brightness display performance under certain conditions. It took Apple a long time to include this feature by the way (it arrived nearly 8 years after the iPhone X was released). Incidentally, Apple has also included Display Pulse Smoothing on the new iPad mini with OLED display.
Could something similar be offered on the Mac? We shouldn’t assume that a software feature would completely resolve the issue. Changing the way the display is driven could introduce other compromises, and Apple would need to implement it carefully. But even a degree of user control would be gratefully received.
For now, anyone concerned about PWM sensitivity should be cautious about buying the new machine without trying it first. A quick demo in an Apple Store isn’t necessarily representative of spending an entire working day in front of the display. Don’t assume that being comfortable with an OLED iPhone means you’ll be comfortable with this MacBook. If you experience discomfort, don’t assume that increasing brightness or changing colour settings will necessarily resolve it.
The existing Mini-LED MacBook Pro thankfully remains a viable alternative for people who have found that display comfortable. But the Mini-LED MacBook Pro might not stay around for much longer. Apple looks to be transitioning to OLED across their devices — this may have consequences unless Apple changes the way they're implementing this particular technology.
We sometimes get so caught up in the pursuit of better specifications that we forget what these devices are actually for. The most important part of a display is that it's something you sit in front of for hours at a time.
Displays to my mind are like mattresses — they're not something you should compromise on, unless financial constraints demand it. I've often been puzzled why people baulk at paying a lot for a display when they’re likely going to be using it for several hours a day. Similarly, I’ve often wondered why people baulk at paying a lot of money for a mattress, when they’re going to be spending roughly a third of their lives lying on one. A decent mattress is probably something you should invest in. The specs of the mattress matter, of course, and individual comfort matters enormously. The same thing is true with a display, which is why I have no issue having spent the money I did on a Studio Display XDR.
And this is what's so problematic with the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR display. According to many reviewers this is one of the best displays they've ever seen, and it has a price to match. Starting at £2899 for the 14-inch version (£3399 for the 16-inch), boy is it expensive. If the technology responsible for making the PROLED XDR Display look spectacular also makes it uncomfortable for some people to use, then we need to ask if that trade-off is worth it.
I suspect most people buying the new MacBook Pro will never think about PWM. They’ll open the lid, admire the display and get on with their lives. But for the people who have discovered that they can no longer comfortably use the latest MacBook Pro, this is a really big deal.
I’d like to see Apple explain why the new display behaves so differently from the Mini-LED panel used in other MacBook Pro models, and whether there’s any possibility of improving its dimming characteristics through software. Perhaps there’s a perfectly reasonable engineering explanation. Perhaps there are limitations inherent in this particular panel.
I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has experienced this first-hand, particularly those who have previously used Apple’s OLED iPhones or iPads without difficulty, but are now struggling with the new MacBook Pro.
Get in touch at hello@macanorak.com
You can also submit feedback to Apple here: https://www.apple.com/feedback/macbook-pro/