OLED Burn-In: Causes, Prevention, and How to Check

OLED delivers perfect blacks, but static content can wear pixels unevenly and leave a permanent ghost ("burn-in").

What causes it

Each OLED sub-pixel ages as it's used. Elements that stay on screen for hundreds of hours — taskbars, channel logos, game HUDs — wear faster, leaving a faint outline.

How to check

Run the Color Test and step through solid colors, then view a 50% gray field via the Brightness Uniformity Test. Burn-in shows as a faint outline of logos or bars where static content used to be — gray makes it easiest to see.

How to prevent it

• Lower brightness for static content.
• Enable pixel shift, screen savers, and logo dimming.
• Hide the taskbar/dock; auto-hide menu bars.
• Vary content; don't leave a paused game or news ticker on for hours.
• Run the panel's built-in pixel refresh/compensation cycle.

Burn-in vs temporary retention

Brief image retention fades on its own after varied content. Burn-in is permanent. If an outline persists across many different images, it's burn-in — modern panels resist it far better than early OLEDs, but managing static elements still matters.