Apple's first OLED MacBook Pro is driving some buyers to return it within days, after the laptop's flickering display left them with headaches, dizziness and nausea.
The culprit is the new PROLED XDR tandem OLED screen, which dims using Pulse Width Modulation, a technique that rapidly cycles the display on and off. On the 14-inch model, that cycling runs at just 240Hz at 99% brightness or below, a frequency low enough for flicker-sensitive eyes to catch and react to.
By comparison, the previous M4 Pro MacBook Pro's mini-LED screen flickered at 14,880Hz, more than 60 times faster and far harder to notice. Other measurements put the new laptop's range between 240Hz and 480Hz, with 240Hz in use most of the time.
Owners with sensitive eyes say the symptoms hit fast. One wrote online that using the laptop below half brightness left him feeling horrendous after just 15 minutes; another called the screen almost disorienting and said his eyes could not lock onto a single line of text. Hundreds have replied to such posts, and some have already shipped the laptop back or say they are about to.
There is no macOS setting to soften the flicker. Apple added a Display Pulse Smoothing option to the iPhone 17 that disables PWM dimming, but it works only up to 25% brightness, and no matching control exists on the Mac. Apple has not publicly addressed the complaints.
Timing offers buyers one cushion. The holiday return window lets products received between November 6 and December 25 be returned through January 8, 2027. Anyone who knows they are flicker-sensitive should test the screen in a store first, and see a doctor if headaches or dizziness keep coming back.