HONOR 90 Risk Free Eye Protection Technology Explained: Is It Real or Merely Hype?

The flagship HONOR 90 is launching on July 20 and with it, they’re introducing a proprietary protection technology that many will be intrigued to find out about: Risk-Free Dimming Eye Protection.

What is dimming and how does it cause eye strain?

To understand dimming, we need to understand how LCD screens differ from OLEDs. LCDs adjust brightness of a screen by adjusting the amount of power supplied to it, i.e., more voltage equals brighter screen.

OLEDs on the other hand, like the one found in most flagship phone, adjusts the brightness of a screen by merely changing how much the screen is on versus off. The higher the brightness, the more times the OLEDs flicker on, and the lower the brightness the fewer times the OLEDs flicker on.

Different OLED screens and the flickering captured by a camera at high shutter speeds

The frequency it turns on or off is imperceptible to the human eye, so we don’t notice the flickering of the screens, but when you set your phone screen to a lower brightness, the pulse width modulation (PWM) dimming technology used in OLEDs adjusts the flickering on your screen and decreases the amount of times the screen is on and thus, the phone screen is dimmer and in essence is flickering as pixels go on and off.

Generally, OLED screens use 480Hz or even lower 360Hz PWM low-frequency dimming that is harmful to our eyes and can cause optical problems like eye strain, fatigue, and blurred vision among others.

Though our eyes cannot physically see the flickering, the lights are flickering and can be the cause of eye strain.

How does the HONOR 90 protect your eyes?

To get around this issue, HONOR 90 has introduced a world-first Risk Free Dimming Eye Protection that achieves 3840Hz ultra-high frequency PWM dimming that’s recognised by TÜV Rheinland Flicker-free certification.

The result of 480Hz low-frequency PWM dimming can be seen in the picture above and the thicker darker lines show up at lower brightness and can’t be seen by the naked eye.

With the 3840Hz ultra-high frequency PWM dimming, it is considered risk-free dimming according to IEEE Std 1789-2015 standards.

HONOR has been leading the charge in eye protection and even established a light laboratory in 2016 in its efforts to create safer screens for your eyes and have rolled out four phones that feature eye protection:

• HONOR 50 in 2021 had 1920Hz high-frequency PWM dimming

• HONOR Magic4 Pro in 2022 introduced an additional power-saving LTPO display

• HONOR Magic V added Circadian Night Display and Dynamic Dimming eye

• HONOR Magic5 Pro received the TÜV Rheinland Circadian Friendly certification with 2160Hz PWM dimming.

HONOR 90 3840Hz ultra-high frequency PWM launch

The HONOR 90 is priced at RM1,799 for 256GB storage while the 512GB storage variant is priced at RM2,099. Purchase now to get free gifts worth up to RM647 which include a pair of HONOR Earbuds X5, an extra year of warranty and a 180-day screen crack warranty*. If you are looking for a more affordable option, HONOR 90 Lite priced at RM1,099 is definitely your best choice.