Does the SP3 cause eye strain?

[Liam2349]

My mother used to tell me not to sit too close to the television as it would ruin my eyes.
"Straining" your eyes cannot have any effect on your vision. She was wrong about that.
(Funny though, she was right about loud rock music.)

I'm not completely in tune with biology, but the strain is caused by the muscles around your eye when you're trying too hard to focus on something.

 

[ScottyS]

I'm not completely in tune with biology, but the strain is caused by the muscles around your eye when you're trying too hard to focus on something.

Yeah, squinting may cause headache or "eye strain" but will not affect the function of the eye, or affect vision.
The equivalent of what can cause damage to the eye like long exposure to loud music of other loud noise would be like starring into the sun or other very bright light or lasers, etc.

 

[PCAnyWhere]

I was recently on a 4 hr flight with my SP3 and I agree with Deryl McCarty above that while battery draining the increase in brightness really helps to alleviate straining to see the screen.

I do have to admit I was using more Microsoft Office products which scale nicer and even easier to use with touch / stylus which made life easier still.

I wish the keyboard brightness buttons were actually for screen brightness. I would probably use those WAY more often than the 2 primary keys dedicated to keyboard backlight

 

[bluegrass]

Bubbles, I would argue with you that you're the oldest on this forum but that's neither here nor there. I wouldn't want to spend all day looking at the Surface screen. If I were you if you can, I would make a setup that includes a 20" or larger monitor to use at home. I sometimes take my Surface to the recliner or couch some of the time but I do most of my serious work hooked up to a 24 inch monitor. I don't have very good vision either. I use drugstore glasses for reading and computer work.

 

[bluegrass]

Actually all computer screens can cause eye strain. I'm sure the degree of eye strain varies with the different displays and the person using them.

 

[ScottyS]

Actually all computer screens can cause eye strain. I'm sure the degree of eye strain varies with the different displays and the person using them.

I agree.

I thought I might be the oldest on this forum, and I too wear progressive lens (that's glasses for myopia with magnifying power towards the bottom for presbyopia--- that's Latin for old person's vision, needing reading glasses). I see the SP3 screen best without any glasses. I use it at work to access an EMR which can't scale and the fonts are very small. But I use this for short periods of time. The SP3 in MUI mode for reading news, Flipboard, PDFs in portrait is fine. At home its plugged into a 27" monitor.

Might I suggest: there are other older posts on this forum discussing brightness. I believe the SP3 decreases brightness by actually flashing the LEDs on and off at very high frequencies (rather than dimming the light's intensity) and this has been blamed as a cause of eye strain. I keep the brightness at 100% all the time. Perhaps some of those with eyestrain have the brightness turned down.

 

[JackieInCo]

I can't wear my glasses while using my SP3 if I want to be able to read the screen.

 

[ScottyS]

Dimming the backlight by using Pulse Width Moduluation (PWM) is discussed in several past threads. http://www.surfaceforums.net/thread...n-and-how-i-got-rid-of-it-buyers-beware.9399/
and
http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/surface-pro-pro-2-eye-strain.8731/

 

[kevinlevrone]

I used a SP2 for one year at work without eye strain. The SP3 is a revelation in this regard I have the text set to 175% in Internet Explorer, there is no possibility of eye strain.