Does retina display harm your eyes?
- Thread starter martieda
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If it's the same retina display as on iPhones, there would've been class-action lawsuits by now if the display damaged eyes.
That said, each person's eyes have different tolerances. If your eyesight is in question, best to consult with your eye doc and maybe buy and test drive an iPad 3, if it actually ends up with retina display. If it bugs your eyes and no one else's, it still comes down to the buyer's eyes as the only ones that matter.
That said, each person's eyes have different tolerances. If your eyesight is in question, best to consult with your eye doc and maybe buy and test drive an iPad 3, if it actually ends up with retina display. If it bugs your eyes and no one else's, it still comes down to the buyer's eyes as the only ones that matter.
MikesTooLz
iPF Novice
Why would it harm your eye's?
The only difference is that the tiny pixels are closer together so that you can't see the lines in-between the pixels.
HD TV's dont hurt your eye's just because they have more pixels and better resolution.
3D on the other hand depending on the method used can strain your eye's and give headaches if watched for an extended period of time, but I don't think that apple plans on doing any 3D stuff.
The only difference is that the tiny pixels are closer together so that you can't see the lines in-between the pixels.
HD TV's dont hurt your eye's just because they have more pixels and better resolution.
3D on the other hand depending on the method used can strain your eye's and give headaches if watched for an extended period of time, but I don't think that apple plans on doing any 3D stuff.
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MikesTooLz
iPF Novice
Shhh... don't tell anyone.@MikesTooLz: Ok, I fell for it and scanned your avatar.
Hi there everyone!
I just wanted to let all you guys know that retina/high resolution displays that you generally have to keep close to your eyes (phones/tablets/monitors), WILL hurt your eyes and even possibly damage them. This occurs because of the "infinitely" high detail of the graphics, texts, etc., because the eye can actually see the very fine details (for example, if you zoom out in a browser and a text is 1 millimeter in height, you can actually still read that text). This is not usually a problem, because the eyes are meant to do this from time to time when we need them to analyze a small object, but with the new high resolution displays, this happens many many times during the use of such a display. The damage comes from the eye going from "general picture" mode to "fine details" mode and back, repeatedly, many times over. If the details would not be so good, and there was pixelation involved, the eye would not bother to decipher the fine details, (as it "knows" it would only find more pixels) so it wouldn't need to get into that "fine details" mode (i think there is also a little bit of user psychology involved in this somehow).
HD TVs dont have this effect, first off because Full HD doesn't come anywhere near retina DPI because of the large screen size, and also because the TV set stays far away from you, and the "fine details" mode of the eye only gets activated when inspecting something up close.
I do have an adjacent wild theory to this: perhaps the psychological impact of the transition from a low res display to a high res, retina display, makes it that users start looking at the pictures/texts in more detail, basically "because they can", and because it looks really pretty, something that was not possible to experience on their old devices, where they simply did not care and were able to just focus on the big picture. In this case, it may be that with time, people will simply adapt to the new displays, and such damage will not occur any more. But who knows, it remains to be seen. For the time being, if my second wild theory is incorrect then I expect a lot of class action lawsuits to happen in the next years, as devices should not, in any way harm their user, with normal use.
A temporary solution for this problem, only for people with MAC computers, is to lower your display resolution. For iPad/iPhone/iPod users, like myself, try not to do a lot of work on your devices, use your computer instead if you can.
Have a good one!
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Do you have anything to back up your opinion? The evidence I have seen supports the opposite point of view, that the higher the screen resolution, the better it is for your eyes.
http://mashable.com/2012/03/19/ipad-retina-display-eye-strain/
http://mashable.com/2012/03/19/ipad-retina-display-eye-strain/
ardchoille
iPF Novice
Excellent point!
It was not meant to be a joke, it happens to me every time when using my iphone for ~20 or more minutes, after which my vision is so very blurred that i almost can't use the normal desktop monitor until my vision gradually gets back to normal, over 10-15 minutes.. I tried holding the phone further or closer, it still happens.
Like i said, it is a bit of a wild theory, only backed by what we learned in school about the eye's properties.
Sadly the straining effect is also backed by many other posts on different websites, where lots of people report they started having eye problems after starting using retina monitors or tablets. It is true that there are also other people saying it is actually better for the eyes, i am not sure each in what percentage, but there seamed to be a lot of people With problems. Check out also this thread on apple forums:
[Update: links not allowed, so you can search for the name of the thread: "Retina Display MacBook Pro eye problem and strain"]
Sorry if I seamed a bit too sure on what i was saying in the first post, I don't want to be an alarmist, but it is better that to check on these things and find that it's all b.s., rather than duck up our eyes for good..
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I think you'll find it's more about the backlight than the retina quality of the screen. Staring into a brightly lighted device is not so good for us, thus the eye strain and recommendation to look up and away from the iDevice for a while. In addition, turn the brightness down as far as you can stand it.
Marilyn
Marilyn
That's what I found as well, when researching this topic. Most professionals are also in agreement that you should use higher resolution screens because high resolution screens cause less eye strain, not more.
LannyC
iPad Fan
My wife complains that long sessions at her iMac hurt her distance vision temporarily. But she runs her screen too bright, and refuses to dim it, so all I can do is shrug. I've always kept my screens--computer and iPad--as dim as practical, adjusting the brightness as necessary according to ambient conditions and the task at hand.
Since my cataract operations, I have to wear glasses to read anything, 2.25 diopter for the iPad and 1.5 for the iMac. I have zero accommodation (fixed plastic lenses in my eyes), so sharp focus is strictly a matter of finding the correct distance for the glasses I'm wearing. When I take off the glasses to look out a window, everything is razor sharp, whether I've been using my iMac or my Retina iPad, so I'm not experiencing the effect in question.
This post handcrafted from 100 percent post-consumer recycled electrons.
Since my cataract operations, I have to wear glasses to read anything, 2.25 diopter for the iPad and 1.5 for the iMac. I have zero accommodation (fixed plastic lenses in my eyes), so sharp focus is strictly a matter of finding the correct distance for the glasses I'm wearing. When I take off the glasses to look out a window, everything is razor sharp, whether I've been using my iMac or my Retina iPad, so I'm not experiencing the effect in question.
This post handcrafted from 100 percent post-consumer recycled electrons.
ardchoille
iPF Novice
A problem for you doesn't equate to a problem for everyone. As twerppoet mentioned, if near infinite resolution were bad for our eyes, we'd all be blind before entering high school - reality is near infinite resolution.
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