Motion Blur Test
Read moving text to judge how much your display smears motion.
Stationary reference — this is how sharp your screen can be
Follow the moving text with your eyes and read as much as you can, then compare it against the stationary line above. The speed at which the moving text stops being readable is a practical measure of motion clarity. Higher refresh rates hold each frame for less time and blur less; backlight strobing modes such as ULMB or ELMB cut it further at the cost of brightness.
Your test runs locally in your browser. No device data is uploaded.
How to use the motion blur test
Follow the moving line of text with your eyes and read as much of it as you can, then compare against the stationary line above. Work up through the speeds. The point at which the moving text stops being readable is a practical measure of your display's motion clarity.
Persistence is not ghosting
Ghosting is the panel being slow to change a pixel, and it leaves a trail behind a moving object. Persistence blur is different: the pixel shows a perfectly correct colour, but holds it for the entire frame while your eyes keep moving, so the image smears across your retina. It happens even on a panel with instant response.
That is why this test uses readable text rather than a moving block. A trail test shows pixel response; only something you have to actually resolve shows what persistence costs you.
How to reduce it
Refresh rate is the main lever, because a higher rate holds each frame for less time. Going from 60 Hz to 144 Hz roughly halves persistence blur, and 240 Hz halves it again.
Backlight strobing modes such as ULMB, ELMB or DyAc cut it much further by flashing the backlight so each frame is shown only briefly. The cost is brightness and, for some people, visible flicker. OLED fixes response time but not persistence, which is why a 60 Hz OLED still blurs in motion.
Frequently asked questions
- How is this different from the ghosting test?
- Ghosting is the panel being slow to change a pixel, and you look for a trail behind a moving object. Persistence blur is the pixel holding a correct colour for the whole frame while your eyes keep moving, which smears everything even on an instant panel. A trail test cannot show that, so this measures what persistence actually costs you: whether moving text stays readable.
- Why is there a stationary line of text?
- So you are comparing against your own display's best-case sharpness rather than against memory. The gap between the two lines is the blur.
- How do I reduce motion blur?
- A higher refresh rate is the main lever, because each frame is held for less time. Backlight strobing modes such as ULMB, ELMB or DyAc cut it much further by flashing the backlight, at the cost of brightness and sometimes flicker. OLED helps with response time but not with persistence.