Special eye-friendly monitors for people with dry eyes and healthy people (must read)

[ostas12345]

Hello
I have some good news for people with dry eyes and healthy people too
I did a little research about special monitors for dry eyes

I found some monitors for computers, that should be more eye-friendly than standard LCD monitors (as eye-friendly as reading an ordinary paper book)
- E-Ink black and white paperlike Onyx Boox Mira 13.3'' and 25.3''
Available now - https://shop.boox.com/products/mira
- E-Ink black and white paperlike Dasung 13.3'' and 25.3''
Available now - https://dasung-tech.myshopify.com/
- Reflective LCD monitors from Sun Vision Display company
Available since January 2022 - https://www.sunvisiondisplay.com/reflective-lcd-monitor
- Colorful E-Ink paperlike ClearInk
Unavailable now, coming soon - https://www.clearinkdisplays.com/

I have recently bought this E-Ink Onyx Boox Mira 13,3'' monitor and I stopped using LCD monitors, ever
After several months of usage I can tell you that I feel the difference, my eyes don't freak out from looking at this E-Ink monitor and I don't have to constantly apply drops or ointments every 10 minutes, which I did when I was staring at standard LCD monitors
I use third display mode with maximal image update speed and with front-light modes disabled, turned off. This way I have guarantee that no artificial light is coming off this monitor and that there isn't any PWM or insane refreshing of the image

Onyx Boox Mira is compatible with many computers, some phones and probably some TVs when using hdmi to micro hdmi and usb-c cables
here is Onyx Boox Mira 13.3'' monitor on ebay for around 770$
https://www.ebay.com/itm/373779493540

there is a larger and more expensive monitor from the same company Onyx Boox Mira Pro 25.3'' for around 1800€
https://ereader.store/en/store/onyx-...nitor--99.html

there are also similar but more expensive and in my opinion less compatible monitors from Dasung in the same sizes as Onyx 13.3'' and 25.3''
https://dasung-tech.myshopify.com/

These black and white E-Ink monitors are based on an electrophoretic display which use electrical impulses to control black or white particles. They are just like reading an ordinary book or newspaper and they were specially designed to prevent eye strain or other problems with the eyes. They don't emit phototoxic light or radiation and don't display an image with a refresh frequency of 60 Hz. They also consume very little power, only for setting colorful particles in the right positions, not for light emission like in LCD monitors. Image on such a monitor is displayed even when the monitor becomes unplugged from electricity, because colorful particles remain in their fixed positions for a long time without electric supply. Also particles on these monitors change their position only when there is a change of the part of the image the particles are on. Unlike LCD monitors which refresh the whole image all the time even when there is no change in the image. Which makes activities like reading e-books on LCD monitors quite crazy instead of reading the same book in paper form. Because LCD monitor needs to consume a lot of power and do a lot of insane refreshing only to render some pages of the book

Very recently, interesting colorful RLCD (reflective LCD) monitors from the Sun Vision Display company have been created, possibly in January 2022. For around 1500$
these RLCD monitors should be better for the eyes than ordinary LCD monitors because they do not emit this harmful, artificial light but reflect natural light from the environment. They are good for outdoor use, especially under the sun, while standard LCD monitors are quite unusable under the sun. The LCD monitors outdoors must consume much more power to become as bright as the light outside which causes power over consumption and overheating

I even wrote an email to this company Sun Vision Display at the end of last year about my eye problems and that I could use a better monitor
they were very nice, wrote back to me that many people have already written to them about the problems with dry eyes and that they have almost finished creating a new RLCD monitor specially designed for these people
Maybe I will buy one of those SVD RLCD monitor soon and try it out to see if it is good for the eyes. I am still concerned and afraid of the fact that this RLCD monitor displays images with 60 Hz refresh rate. This way I will check out if image refreshing is harmful for the eyes. I might update this topic about my experiences with SVD RLCD monitor

I noticed that colorful RLCD monitors like those in Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance don't hurt my eyes. I also noticed that those old fstn displays on calculators and old phones don't hurt my eyes too. So SVD RLCD monitors might be an interesting option

Very soon new interesting monitors are going to be available on the market for sale
Clear Ink - Colorful paperlike E-Ink, which are similar to the black and white E-Ink, but this time with a color dyes, not only a black or white dyes controlled by electrical impulses
https://www.clearinkdisplays.com/

Some smartphones and tablets already have E-Ink displays or even colorful E-Ink displays. You can find more information about this here
https://goodereader.com/blog/product-category

[ostas12345]

I have also some theories regarding LCD monitors or similar artificial, harmful light emission

My story can be read here
https://forum.dryeyezone.com/forum/d...-bowel-disease

We know that people who have autoimmune disorders like Sjögren's syndrome, or GvHD disease or are after Accutane or LASIK/eye surgery, develop dry eye disease as deficiency or lack of some of 3 layers on surface of the eyes (mucin, aqueous, lipid)
My theory is that when there is no layer covering the eyes or layers are disturbed then eyes are particularly susceptible and vulnerable to all external factors, especially LCD monitors or other harmful artificial light emission
Further my theory is that LCD monitors are generally unhealthy for the eyes and most of the healthy people who have these 3 layers on the surface of the eyes are protected against harmful influence of LCD monitors while people with dry, uncovered eyes will quickly have their eye surfaces damaged and inflamed from the usage of LCD monitors
I noticed that even completely healthy people can have their eyes damaged and inflamed when they over abuse them by staring at LCD monitors for around 16 hours per day, using LCD monitors overnight and not sleeping much. I heard that zealot programmers and computer games players who live this way also have similar big problems with the eyes as us even when they are otherwise healthy

My theory is that LCD monitors might emit phototoxic light or radiation and might be also harmful for the eyes by displaying images with insane refresh frequency like 60 Hz
Manufactures of LCD monitors might have also added PWM feature to save power of LCD monitors at the cost of bigger harm and eye strain to the eyes as described here
https://iristech.co/pwm-flicker-test/
I think that I noticed on myself and other people that people who use LCD monitors for a prolonged time develop pimples and blemishes on their face and inflammation of the eye surface, as if these LCD monitors were radioactive and caused radiation sickness on people's faces (like in Chernobyl )
isn't it suspicious that this problem of dry, burning eyes is quite pervasive in northern countries like Canada or the Scandinavian countries? where it's dark, cold and people are constantly sitting in dry air apartments and staring at these LCD monitors without break. While in southern, warmer countries like Spain, Italy people spend a lot of time outside, get a lot of vitamin D, and use a lot of natural light instead of artificial light. I haven't heard about troubles with the eyes in these, warmer places

There have also been incidents with other artificial lights, not just LCD monitors. Even fluorescent lights mounted on ceilings and other places might cause similar health problems as if some types of artificial lights were particularly harmful for health. Probably natural light is healthier than artificial light. Just another fact backing up this theory
You can find more information about this below
http://fluorescent-headache-eye-stra...nitor-eye.html

I think that if I were a farmer or forester and never looked at LCD monitors then maybe I would never have these problems with inflamed eyes
I think I might have "burned" my eyes out while working in a corporation as a programmer, when I stared at these LCD monitors for about 7-9 hours per day, more than ever before. This is where I started to have these problems with burning eyes sensation. Isn't that suspicious?
When I was at the university I read a lot of paper books and never experienced any burning sensation or other issues with my eyes. and I was staring at the books carelessly for a long time without blinking
On the other hand when I used computers with LCD monitors during my studying period sometimes I felt glimpses of the burning sensation of the eyes that I experience now all the time, even when I used LCD monitors for a short time

I also experimented a lot with sunglasses with UV, blue filters, f.lux program, dark theme modes or night light on, blue filter on modes of images displayed on LCD monitors. But I didn't quite notice any improvement, no matter what configuration I tried. LCD monitors seem to damage my eyes regardless of what I try
On the other hand, since I started using E-Ink I can feel the difference. my eyes don't freak out from looking at this E-Ink monitor and I don't have to constantly apply drops or ointments every 10 minutes

[ostas12345]

I noticed recently that more and more people and younger and younger people are getting this dry eye disease. this is quite correlated with increasing number of tasks done using the computers and LCD screens
this can be a civilization disease, a plague caused by much more extensive usage of LCD monitors and computers these days than in the past
I know some older people above 40 years who didn't use computers when they were young but who began to have this dry eye problems several years after starting a job which required extensive computer usage
I received my first computer when I was 12 and it was too slow and impractical to use
now I see that now smartphones and computers with LCD screens are stuck to kids even when they have only 5 years
the result might be that we observe younger and younger people getting this dry eye disease, 20 years averagely, even some cases with 17 years

I wonder if dry eye disease was so prevalent before the age of information technology, computers and the internet. I guess it might be less prevalent before

other users on this forum also reported harmful effect of electronic monitors in these topics. it backs up this theory of LCD monitors harmfulness

https://forum.dryeyezone.com/forum/d...ry-eye-victims

https://forum.dryeyezone.com/forum/d...nduced-dry-eye

new non-LCD monitors like Onyx Boox Mira or others mentioned above should be a remedy to this problem

[ostas12345]

I have an interesting update for this topic

I did a little research on smartphones and tablets with special eye-friendly screens like E-Ink or RLCD. Below I made a list of all quite usable smartphones and tablets with special screens that are currently available for sale on the market

there is an awesome blog about devices with special monitors which prevent eye strain
https://goodereader.com/blog/product-category

Smartphones:

Hisense:

Hisense devices are produced in China and are most likely to have only Chinese and English languages and possibly no Google Play installed, but this has been improved recently in new models and there is a way to install all languages and Google Play on Your own. More information about this in links below
https://goodereader.com/blog/knowled...hisense-phones
https://goodereader.com/blog/smartph...d-hisense-a7cc

list of Hisense devices available for sale on ebay
https://www.ebay.com/sch/9355/i.html...isense&_sop=15

Colorful E-Ink:
Hisense A5 Pro CC Color E-INK Smartphone 5,84''
around 340$

Hisense A7 CC Color E-INK Smartphone 6,7''
around 530$

Black & White E-Ink:
Hisense A5 4/64GB 4G B&W E-INK Smartphone 5,84''
around 230$

Hisense A5 Pro 6/128GB B&W E-INK Smartphone 5,84''
around 340$

Hisense A7 5G B&W E-INK Smartphone 6,7''
around 460$

HiSense A6L 64/128 GB B&W E-Ink Smartphone 6,53''
around 500$

YotaPhone:
list of YotaPhone devices available for sale on ebay
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...70.l1313&_nkw= yotaphone&_sacat=0

YotaPhone 2 32 GB 5'' Android 5 with dual LCD and E-Ink screen on the back
around 250$

YotaPhone 3 64/128 GB 5.5'' Android 8 with dual LCD and E-Ink screen on the back
around 450$

Tablets:
Hisense Q5 RLCD tablet 10.5'' has RLCD screen (reflective without backlight) which shouldn't be harmful for eyes and uses Vision OS built upon Android OS. Vision OS is quite functional and used on various devices produced by Hisense
around 540$
https://www.ebay.com/itm/194394620673

[ostas12345]

Here are the photos of my Onyx Boox Mira monitor compared with standard LCD monitor
Onyx Boox Mira has optional front light/glow light which is in two modes more blue-like light and more warm-like light. Each of two modes has its own light intensity setting
This Onyx Boox Mira also has 2 contrast intensity settings and screen image changing speed setting, different than refresh rate of LCD monitors I think

[ostas12345]

I checked whether E-Ink monitors like my Onyx Boox Mira can be used as TV
It seems that they can if You appreciate watching films in black & white images and with a bit low image resolution
In below link I uploaded video how watching TV looks like on my Onyx Boox Mira monitor
https://imgur.com/a/JG9jxy6
I connected my E-Ink monitor to video codec with hdmi cable.
This E-Ink monitor doesn't have sound speaker, but audio signal is transmitted in hdmi cable alongside with video signal.
So one could buy a special signal splitter for hdmi cable to split video & audio signal from 1 hdmi cable to 2 hdmi cables and connect 1st cable with video signal to monitor and 2nd cable with audio signal to separate sound speaker.

[mooner]

Thanks for this research. I do know that certain types of LED monitors make my eyes dryer. I feel like I've had better look with OLED screens. Even certain smartphones make my eyes noticeably dryer.

[ostas12345]

thanks Mooner, for the update confirming the theory of LCD monitors harmfulness
I also have a little update for this topic
I tested out Yotaphone 2 smartphone with LCD screen in front and E-Ink on the rear side
Basically, E-Ink rear side screen can be used constantly and LCD screen can be used rarely only when You need to see something in colors
Although this Yotaphone 2 is quite old model, it is slow and have only 32 GB (not extendible). You can upgrade android operating system on this smartphone maximally up to android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is quite low operating system compared to 12,13 available now. Upgrading to android 6.0 on Yotaphone 2 might be a bit complicated, You can search for useful information here
https://forum.xda-developers.com/f/yotaphone.3784/

I would recommend using newer and faster smartphones with E-Ink like Yotaphone 3 or Hisense smartphones

Below I added a link to video showing the usage of this Yotaphone 2 smartphone
https://vimeo.com/784955981