How bad is the Amoled screen burn-in problem?

[RichBrown68]

Read the replies of 'normal' people whose phones have been burned in by normal use! A friends S6 Edge has a serious burn in issue after just 4 months. There is a problem, a big problem. You can't just be ignorant and say they only happen with excessive usage because my friend only kept the screen on for around 4 hours a day! I use my IPS phones for around 8+ hours a day and my 3 year old phone still has no burn-in, ghosting or any degradation that's visible to my eye whereas her S6 Edge has keyboard ghosting after 4 freaking months.

But these situations always only happen to a
"a friend," rarely to the person posting.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[lgossin]

I have a galaxy S5, you can see the app drawer quite clearly when changing screens along with the icons across the bottom they appear as yellowish outlines. This is really easy to see when I launch chrome which covers the full screen. I have had the phone since November 23, 2014. The screen is set to time out, I will admit I have the brightness at about 60-70% and not on auto, 5 minute time out and stays on when I am looking at it

SM-G900V
Build RU2BPB1
security patch 2016-02-01

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

This is an S6 Edge+ store unit.

Turned on almost 24/7 each day, never left asleep, full-brightness, displaying the same thing over and over again.



My stand still remains. OLED burn-in is still an issue, but I don't consider it as significant now because more recent OLED panels look to be more resilient to that issue.

I have yet to experience burn-in on even an aging S3, and I'm pretty sure you should largely be fine if you use your phone normally, though exceptions are always a thing.

The short version? Don't be so paranoid about it. The tech is getting better and current panels aren't as susceptible to burn-in as the older ones in many cases. As long as your usage pattern isn't like that of a store unit (honestly, you shouldn't, because if your usage pattern is like that, it makes me concerned), your phone should be fine. Talk to my S2 and S3.

 

[hamzaalijoiyah]

My MOTO X 2014 had burn in within my first week of use, around 3-4 hrs SoT, on navigation bars but I fixed it with amoled burn in fixer. Now I am using xposed module that hides nav and staus bars on many of my frequently used apps. Although It is still coming back, but quite slowly. My old Moto G that I used for almost an year with quite heavy usage never had an issue so far. Its a thing with AMOLED screens and the price to pay for that infinite contrast.

 

[dsstrainer]

Non-existent. Honestly we've all been using AMOLED phones for years and I've never heard an issue about it until recently. Nobody leaves their phone on a static image for a ridiculous amount of time that would cause burn at the highest brightness.

 

[mckillio]

Seeing as how I didn't know it was a problem at all, yes it's exaggerated.

 

[MartinMPL]

While I'm not getting hysterical about it, you haven't considered the static images present.

The Nexus One definitely showed burn it in on the status bar with the battery icon, signal and WiFi etc all burned in.

Of course I'm expecting the S7 Edge screen tech to be a whole lot better, but there are still static elements of the UI which may pose a risk.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

While I'm not getting hysterical about it, you haven't considered the static images present.

The Nexus One definitely showed burn it in on the status bar with the battery icon, signal and WiFi etc all burned in.

Of course I'm expecting the S7 Edge screen tech to be a whole lot better, but there are still static elements of the UI which may pose a risk.

Static elements are going to be an issue with any display. However, as a technology, OLED is more sensitive to those elements for the reasons we stated.

I remember knowing that the default color for the status bar icons on Samsung devices are actually light grey instead of white, which apparently reduces the risk of those icons burning-into the display.

I'm still pretty confident that OLED tech has gotten better over the years, so I should have no issue with the display on the upcoming Note 6 (it's going to be my new daily).

 

[rkirmeier]

It's a none issue for reasonable phone lifetime (4-5 years). It's absolutely silly to prefer IPS over Amoled for this reason and Amoled is better in most other ways...

 

[1812dave]

Samsung has just issued an update to AOD to reduce the possibility of screen burn-in. The image will now move 1 pixel every minute, in addition to 1 hour "large" movements of the image, and the image brightness is dimmed considerably from the original AOD feature. I guess Samsung knows that AMOLED displays can burn-in.

 

[tnt4]

There are going to be subjective answers all over the board on this one. The fact of the matter is an OLED screen can have burn-in. It will depend on your usage. It's likely being overblown. Based on mixed messages, and making the assumption that not everyone lies just to lie, it might be safe to say some OLED screens are more prone to it out of the box than others are.

On a slightly unrelated note, I have owned many phones over the years and can never seem to fully get used to OLED. The blacks are deeper, but everything else about it feels like it's a slight strain on my eyes - not bad, but like walking against the wind vs no wind at all. I don't know what it is to be honest. But every time I go from an OLED screen to an IPS/LCD screen, no matter how crappy that IPS/LCD screen is, it feels like a slight relief to my eyes. Maybe I just can't handle the contrast? I don't know. I've always found it odd. Because of that I'm not a fan of the trend towards OLED. Edit: I also believe any claims that OLED provides better battery life than IPS/LCD are flat out false.

 

[tlacour]

But these situations always only happen to a
"a friend," rarely to the person posting.

Posted via the Android Central App

Has happened to me on three different phones. Not store phones, not a friends phone, no excessive use.

 

[RichBrown68]

Samsung has just issued an update to AOD to reduce the possibility of screen burn-in. The image will now move 1 pixel every minute, in addition to 1 hour "large" movements of the image, and the image brightness is dimmed considerably from the original AOD feature. I guess Samsung knows that AMOLED displays can burn-in.

Interesting argument. As I understand it, you're saying that the fact that companies have made strides to keep burnin from being an issue means that burnin is an issue. Like I said, interesting.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[tlacour]

It's a none issue for reasonable phone lifetime (4-5 years). It's absolutely silly to prefer IPS over Amoled for this reason and Amoled is better in most other ways...

It is an issue. Again, I've had it happen to three different phones in less than 6 mos of normal use. It's not a crazy problem that would make me get rid of an otherwise good phone, but it is a noticeable issue.

 

[joebloggs13]

From my understanding this is only for the always on display. What about the night clock that is displayed on the edge screen? It's always displayed on the upper portion of the edge screen and doesn't move at all. Has the latest update changed that as well?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[RichBrown68]

I had my S6 Edge Plus for 7 months, the night clock feature on the edge was always on, no sign of burn in anywhere

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[tnt4]

The other potential problem with OLED is the inconsistencies with the panels. It seems to have become more of a problem after they started pumping out screens with quad HD resolution. Some come with slight pink hue fades, for example - this is actually a pretty widespread "issue", but it's not a horrible one by any means. It just bothers me that a flaghsip, $600+ device would have any inconsistency at all.

I had a Droid Turbo with it a couple of years ago and now I can't unsee it on any OLED panel that has it, even slightly. All of the top OLED displays the past couple of years have had this issue - S6, S7, Turbo/2, Nexus 6/6P

Here is a good example, though the fade varies in intensity and location from device to device:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AGNM00ZrXk3GS-E&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

 

[Connor Thompson]

I have had a Nexus 6 for a round 9/10 months now and the Navigation Bar at the bottom has started to burn into the screen. It's fairly faint but on certain colours I can always see the bar and the navigation icons, and I haven't even had it that long. This is probably due to the fact these are near enough constantly shown on screen, so may not be so bad on phones which don't have constant elements.

 

[wmurch3]

Got a Note 4 on ebay a few weeks ago that has horrible screen burn in. I compared it to a coworkers who also has a note 4 and it's like night and day. 3/4 of my screen had a yellow/orange tint and at the top it was white and you could make out the status bar icons against a blue/white screen.

Yes this is a real issue.

 

[jer85008]

Mine was fine for the first year as well. Purchased in Nov 2014, and was a daily driver since. Burn in started a few months ago and got bad fairly quick. My front glass was severely cracked, then the battery started flaking out so I retired it a few weeks ago.