How bad is the Amoled screen burn-in problem?

[jfgriffiths]

How in the world are you burning in screens like this? I know it's possible but really? I've got 4, 5 year old AMOLEDs with no burn ins.

I can help you understand.

1. Buy a new Samsung Galaxy S7. Make sure to pay full-price so you get the full effect of the screen burn AND the personal burn of it. And just because you're other AMOLED screens didn't burn, don't let that stop you doing this with an S7. Better yet, try it with a new S8!!

2. Get a job about 30 - 40 minutes away from where you live.

3. Use the Waze navigation app every time you drive to work, because it does a wonderful job of letting you know when you should take an alternate route.

4. In about 6-8 months you'll have your answer!!

 

[chanchan05]

I can help you understand.

1. Buy a new Samsung Galaxy S7. Make sure to pay full-price so you get the full effect of the screen burn AND the personal burn of it. And just because you're other AMOLED screens didn't burn, don't let that stop you doing this with an S7. Better yet, try it with a new S8!!

2. Get a job about 30 - 40 minutes away from where you live.

3. Use the Waze navigation app every time you drive to work, because it does a wonderful job of letting you know when you should take an alternate route.

4. In about 6-8 months you'll have your answer!!

I use Waze for driving thank you. 8 hour long drives even. I've also used my previous phones for the same thing.

Second, Waze isn't stationary. It moves around. Even if it's 30min every day with lots of stationary positioning, Waze pops out stuff whenever your stationary, making the screen active. Further, most of the anecdotes here don't mention Waze as the source of burn in.

Third, AMOLED screens are 'historically' rated for 14000 hours before the blue pixels degrade at 50% brightness. Thats approximately 18months of continuously turned on. So it extends a lot if you're using auto brightness because it lowers below 50% on several occasions. And it also decreases exponentially if you're using max brightness always, so it degrades at less than a year. Even some modern LCDs will have a problem if used the same way as you use OLEDs and create burn ins. Some LCDs use OLED backlights, so the brightness will decrease as you use it more. Although perhaps a bit longer because white LED lasts longer than the blue LED.

So the only way I see you can burn your screen in less than 8mos is if you're one of the people who like their phones to light up an entire room with their phone whenever they use it because they always have it on max brightness, and have it on static images. Which is not how Samsung or any othrr OLED manufacturer expected for use. That's part of the reason they slapped auto brightness there.

 

[jfgriffiths]

I use Waze for driving thank you. 8 hour long drives even. I've also used my previous phones for the same thing.

Second, Waze isn't stationary. It moves around. Even if it's 30min every day with lots of stationary positioning, Waze pops out stuff whenever your stationary, making the screen active. Further, most of the anecdotes here don't mention Waze as the source of burn in.

Third, AMOLED screens are 'historically' rated for 14000 hours before the blue pixels degrade at 50% brightness. Thats approximately 18months of continuously turned on. So it extends a lot if you're using auto brightness because it lowers below 50% on several occasions. And it also decreases exponentially if you're using max brightness always, so it degrades at less than a year. Even some modern LCDs will have a problem if used the same way as you use OLEDs and create burn ins. Some LCDs use OLED backlights, so the brightness will decrease as you use it more. Although perhaps a bit longer because white LED lasts longer than the blue LED.

So the only way I see you can burn your screen in less than 8mos is if you're one of the people who like their phones to light up an entire room with their phone whenever they use it because they always have it on max brightness, and have it on static images. Which is not how Samsung or any othrr OLED manufacturer expected for use. That's part of the reason they slapped auto brightness there.

Well...my screen brightness is set to automatic and this is how I now have screen burn from my Waze app, which is what caused me to find discussions like this one regarding screen burn. Nothing special here other than annoying screen burn on my S7.

 

[chanchan05]

Well...my screen brightness is set to automatic and this is how I now have screen burn from my Waze app, which is what caused me to find discussions like this one regarding screen burn. Nothing special here other than annoying screen burn on my S7.

Honestly I have to question practices of US carriers. The only times I've seen screen burn in on a non-retail display phone is on an original Galaxy S, and that's 8 year old tech by now. It's not yet even SUPER AMOLED if I remember correctly.

Sometimes I wonder if the phones that get burn ins quickly are actually refurbished ones that came from abusive use prior, and they're selling it as new. I hear US devices don't come with seals when you receive them.

I live in Asia, and at least in my country, replacement by refurbished phones aren't a thing. Warranty only covers free repairs, but the carriers will not take your phone back for replacement of a refurbished device.

Edit:
I've been using AOD for the past year, no burn in yet, but at least if there's going to be burn it, it's the bat.

 

[Nighthawk117w]

Well...my screen brightness is set to automatic and this is how I now have screen burn from my Waze app, which is what caused me to find discussions like this one regarding screen burn. Nothing special here other than annoying screen burn on my S7.

I just noticed this issue today on my Galaxy S7 and started looking it up online.
I use Waze approximately 2 hours a day and as of now I start seeing the orange report button when I'm looking at a white section of the screen. Maybe it was already there earlier, but I only noticed it today. The phone is about a year old now.
My brightness is on auto most of the time, only rarely it happens that I turn it up manually.

 

[jfgriffiths]

Sorry to hear you have it as well. The S7 and the S8 appear to have this issue with the Waze App. About the only thing you can do is rotate the position of your phone, day to day, when using Waze, so you balance out where the static images appear. But now that you have a shadow of the orange dot, you're probably going to have that going forward. It's not horrible, but it really is annoying at times. I can only assume the S9 will have the super AMOLED as well, so I'm probably going HTC for my next round.

 

[okanfx]

This is my Galaxy S7 Edge. I started noticing the burn in within a year. Same exact thing happened to my Note 4 as well which later developed other problems (usb charging port then the battery contacts died) and died after a year of use as well.

 

[RodBarnes]

Just to add to evidence: I've had an S7 for less than a year (activated Sep 6, 2017) and which clearly exhibits this issue. I regularly use my phone for routing and navigation with the display in "always on" mode. I can clearly see icons and text from the app I use for navigating "ghosted" on the display in the locations where they always appear.

Clearly, I use it in a way different than most folks (display is on 6-7 hours straight for multiple days on a trip, and several trips a year) but it is not a non-existent issue despite what some have said.

I don't think it would be much different for any other display but it is still disappointing.

 

[Travis Cesarone]

Can be bad ye