S4 and Screen Burn Prevention

androidforum

Well-known member
Dec 14, 2012
47
0
0
Hello guys,
I'm going to buy the S4, but the only thing stopping me is the Super Amoled screen. The screen burn problem will be a bit of a road block for me since I will need this phone to last for about 2 years. I did some research and I thought if I'm going to buy it, I will do the following-

#Run the "Screen Burn-in Tool" app every week(for about 2 hours) to use all the pixels. All it basically does is play a set of colors which change every half a second or so for an amount of time.
#Change the wallpaper every month
#Download the "GMD Gesture Control" app to hide the notification bar to avoid that burning in.

Will this prevent burn in for about 2 years? Or should i just get a phone with an LCD screen? The reason I'm all riled up is because I have read in some other forums that people have been getting screen burn after a few months.
Thanks for reading!
 
I have never experienced screen burn on an amoled display. Unless you set your phone to never turn off the screen you should be fine. I use the 30 second display timeout option and have no fears of burn in.

The only time I have ever seen screen burn was at a carrier store with the Galaxy Nexus that I'm sure somebody left on all day.

One thing I would be careful about is docking it if the screen remains on while it's docked because that can definitely burn a screen. Other than that in regular daily use I don't think it is a real issue.


Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk HD
 
Op, that is actually a bad idea to run the burn in tool so frequently. You see, the nature of amoled is that pixels become weak (dim) if they are used over a prolonged period of time. In situations like store demo phones, the time is always showing, and white pixels use the most energy. Over time, these pixels become dimmer than surrounding pixels hence causing the burn in effect.

Now back to your comment, if you run the burn in tool frequently, what will happen is your entire screen will become dimmer equally. what it does is burn in all of your pixels instead of select pixels.

What you really should do is to prevent any image from staying in the same spot for a prolonged period of time, especially watch out for white pixels, especially apps such as night stand time where they stay on overnight with only the time showing, because these selective pixels use the most energy. Black pixels will never burn in. So as long as you switch wallpapers, move your screen around, use it for different activities, it should be fine

If you do use your phone a lot, it might be impossible to prevent burn in on the top notification area, since the time and other icons are always there and hardly moved. but since it uses up so little space it shouldn't cause too much distraction
 
Thanks mate! I had a bit of a feeling doing it every week would be overkill but wasn't to sure ;)
I don't use any of those deck clock thingys so I reckon that shouldn't be a problem.

- - - Updated - - -

I have never experienced screen burn on an amoled display. Unless you set your phone to never turn off the screen you should be fine. I use the 30 second display timeout option and have no fears of burn in.

The only time I have ever seen screen burn was at a carrier store with the Galaxy Nexus that I'm sure somebody left on all day.

One thing I would be careful about is docking it if the screen remains on while it's docked because that can definitely burn a screen. Other than that in regular daily use I don't think it is a real issue.


Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk HD

For how long did you use an Amoled device? What kind of usage was it?
 
Hi svneln,

I would like to inquire also if the AMOLED screens are capable of image retention?

Burn in is a permanent effect while image retention is a temporary. IR is common on the IPS LCD.

How about leaving the screen with a blank image for a prolonged period of time. (eg. leaving blue,green,red or white screen)

Thank you..
 
I use Dock Clock every single night since I got the S4 almost a year ago. There is no indication of any screen issues. I use dark red numerals on a black background and the numbers orbit the screen by default at regular intervals. Under normal usage you'll be upgrading to the next best thing before your screen shows you any problems.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
954,214
Messages
6,960,927
Members
3,162,943
Latest member
NewGuyinKY