OLED Burn-In Test
Cycle solid colours to reveal retained images on an OLED panel.
Look for a faint ghost of something that used to be on screen for a very long time: a taskbar, a channel logo, a game HUD, or a browser toolbar. Grey and the secondary colours show it best, because the blue subpixel ages fastest and uneven wear shows as a tint rather than a shape. This finds permanent burn-in — temporary image retention usually fades on its own after a few minutes of varied content.
Your test runs locally in your browser. No device data is uploaded.
How to use the burn-in test
Go fullscreen and step through the colours, or let them cycle automatically. Look for a faint ghost of something that was on screen for a very long time — a taskbar, a channel logo, a game HUD, a browser toolbar. Grey and the secondary colours usually show it best.
Burn-in against image retention
Image retention is temporary. A bright static image can leave a shadow that fades after a few minutes of varied content, and that is normal behaviour rather than damage. Burn-in is permanent uneven wear of the pixels themselves and does not fade at all.
The test for which one you have is simply time. If the mark is still visible after ten minutes of ordinary use, it is burn-in.
What can be done
Very little, once it is permanent. Most OLED TVs run a pixel refresh cycle automatically that evens out mild wear, and some let you trigger a longer panel refresh manually. Neither recovers a strong ghost.
It is worth checking your warranty, since some manufacturers cover burn-in for a period and others explicitly exclude it. Reducing the risk in future comes down to varying content, hiding persistent interface elements, and lowering brightness on static screens.
If you are testing an LCD rather than an OLED, this is the wrong test. LCDs do not burn in the same way, and the uniformity test is the one that finds their equivalent problems.
Frequently asked questions
- What does burn-in look like?
- A faint ghost of something that was on screen for a very long time: a taskbar, a channel logo, a game HUD or a browser toolbar. It appears against flat colour fields and is usually easiest to see on grey or on the secondary colours.
- What is the difference between burn-in and image retention?
- Image retention is temporary and fades after a few minutes of varied content. Burn-in is permanent uneven wear of the pixels and does not fade. If a mark is still there after watching something else for ten minutes, it is burn-in.
- Can burn-in be repaired?
- Not really. A pixel refresh or panel refresh cycle, which most OLED TVs run automatically, can even out mild wear. Genuine burn-in needs a panel replacement, so it is worth checking whether your warranty covers it.
- Does this apply to LCD screens?
- Rarely. LCDs can show temporary image retention but do not burn in the way OLED does, because they do not have per-pixel emitters that wear. If you are testing an LCD, the uniformity test is the more useful one.