I've assessed the footage this time and good news! The images look very close to the "raw" results in RUclips's compressed 4K mode, so you should get a pretty accurate representation of burn in this time (most of the time it's not compression artefacts)
Seems like companies don't release much MiniLed specially MiniLed Ultrawide. I want to play a lot of Poe2 with static skill bars and watch youtube a lot. Having a better quality with Oled but paying quite more for something that wouldn't last anywhere near a Miniled sounds like a terrible idea for a budget conscious consumer.
I use monitor for good 14-16hrs per day. And have static apps and programs always on. And the Taskbar. That is my regular usage. Yeah am worried getting an OLED. But seriously the Picture quality makes me want to get one.
Hello @Monitorsunboxed , I have an OLED for 1 Year now! AW3423dwf. And I can also report: (Tldr: Still works fine. Use OLED Panel Maintenance Funktions (Monitor Options.) Let it clean itself every night after shutdown.) 1. I have the newest driver! I installed the newest driver "M3B107" shortly after i bought it. I started with 105 or 106. I bought the Monitor ca. 6 months after realese. 2. I use my screen like I used my old one ( Dell U3415W ) which I used for 8 - 9 years. Still worked, when I soled it. 3. I use my screen weekdays 1 - 6 hoors and weekend 6 - 12 hours. 4. I have the selfcleaning maintenance option on. So after PC shutdown it cleans it self for 6 - 8 minuts. NEVER remove your oled from energy! Or the maintenance doesn't work. 5. The more intense PANEL REFRESH option started while using the PC ONCE so far! I took a few hours! The timing was lucky for me. 6. I used "True black 400 nits" for some time. And now "HDR Peak 1000" for ca. half a year alredy. 7. So far no problems :D !!! yay. It needs to last minimum 5 years!
It's always good to get the "worst case scenario" for comparison, instead of the usual "Ehh, it's probably going to be fine unless you abuse it." -judgments, as people use these monitors in very different ways and have different standards for what counts as unreasonable. Someone who plays casually on the weekends and for the rest of the week the monitor is off is not exactly in the same league of "monitor abuse" as someone who works from home, stares at bright white spreadsheets for 8 hours a day and then uses the screen for entertainment on top of that. In latter case burn-ins aren't just paranoia anymore, if you want the screen to last for 5 years.
Great giving updates, but what has stopped me from getting OLED are those pixel and screen refresh cycles that may take several minutes but would annoy the heck out of me.
@@sparketech I've got 4783 hours on my LG 27GR95QE-B using it as my main monitor and the refresh cycles are not intrusive or annoying. I have no visible burn-in or ghosting. I'm using it just like I use an LCD monitor with simple preventitive measures like hiding the taskbar, dark mode, wallpaper cycling and inactive sleep mode. I play a lot of games and do a lot of web browsing with no issues. I think OLED is the best upgrade you can make right now.
@@MidWitPride its not even worst case scenario tho...he still ran the refresh cycles once a day. even with OLED burn in care features, it still burns in super fast. I'd bet by 1.5 years the middle line burn in will be super visible...OLED is just not ready.
@@theendurance I set a black screensaver to come on after 2 minutes of idle time. Since I do a mixture of gaming, content consumption and static work, I expect at least 5 or more years without any issues. OLED is more than ready.
What he needs to do is make an onscreen note letting people know what they are seeing in the burn in close ups is youtube's terrible bitrate. I doubt the majority of people will understand that and think the burn in looks atrocious when it's really just youtube compressing the video to hell
So in case anyone dont know (like me before googling this). This monitor is third gen QD OLED (most recent gen). Great video. QD-OLED (and prob WOLED) seem to really mature..
The funny part in my case is that I watched the 6 month update literally yesterday, since I was researching an OLED monitor to buy for Black Friday, haha
I agree OLED is amazing (since I own an OLED TV myself) and at least in the monitor area LCDs don't come close in terms of picture quality, but I wish people realized how much of a colossal difference in longevity is between the two techonolgies. I think I've bought like 10 monitors for myself, friends and family since the early 2000s and none of them ever broke and the displays work just as well as the day they arrived. One of them was like 200 euros in 2008 and it saw 5 day a week heavy office use for about 15 years and there's no sign of image degradation or noticeable brightness decrease.
That's really the big hangup for me. A 4-figure (more or less) monitor should not have a comparatively very limited lifespan. My current monitors are 8 and 5 years old and there's nothing wrong with them. That won't be the case with OLED.
What's wrong with the image quality of IPS? It is perfect, the difference with OLED is only in the black color, but the visibility of dark shades is much more important and IPS has excellent visibility
@@lizardx6504high end LCDs can be very close to OLEDs. But infinite contrast aside, it has instantaneous response time and perfect panel uniformity (no light bleed for example) which can be a big deal depending on the type content
@@lizardx6504 Black is not a color, OLED tech is far superior to any backlit tech. Oled response is way faster. It`s about contrast, and ips sucks at blacks and black detail. No wonder, it`s only 1 to 900 contrast. Oled 1 to 1000000 contrast. See the diiference.
Thank you so much for doing this, i was initially worried a bit over burn in risk... but after weighing the risk and watching some of your videos on how to make a more informed decision... I leapt in and bought an ASUS PG32UCDM. (i love it.)
This gives me a ton of hope for what the next couple generations of OLEDS will bring. Thanks for the updates! Im excited to see when this eventually maybe gets bad
This is so freaking helpful to see. I've been shopping for a do-it-all monitor for my home office (which includes zero gaming) and looking at a ton of OLED monitors for the job. Sure, they're not designed for my use case, but they look awesome and there are WAY better deals right now for OLED than for productivity-specific monitors. It's not possible to read or watch an OLED review without hearing about the dreaded burn-in, but nobody has quantified. These results have me feeling even more confident that I'll be happy with OLED. Thanks for this!
People are greatly exaggeratingthe problem of burn in on these QD Oled, I mean come on, 2200 hours repetive content, highest brightness settings, and still nowhere near distracting burn in during normal usage. This means one can expect to use a monitor like this at least 5 years before expecting to see visible burn in, when using it solely for gaming and movies like me, I expect well over 5 years of usage. The visual quality improvement is more than worth it.
@@kiekiekIDK, it sounds much closer to normal use than a 20 hour per day test like rtings is doing 5 years wouldn't be that great for a super expensive monitor, but would align nicely with being just out of warranty
I have an LCD side monitor where the task bar and all desktop icons sit, it's very practical because I can easily access them even when my main display is occupied by a game or something.
I just bought the smaller 27" version of this monitor, and planning to do exactly this(except I will enable the longevity features, but this will be my home office and general media consumption monitor as well), we'll see how it goes. Please keep it coming, this update was highly appreciated!
I am using an LG CX 48" for around 4 years now as a Monitor and there is no noticable Burn In yet. It's running for about 7500 hours now with mixed usage: Gaming, Streaming and also for my studies. I have to say that i didn't put on test screens to look for Burn In, because if I don't see it in my everyday use, it doesn't bother me. I'm using Wallpaper Engine for animated backgrounds and a hidden task bar, though. Idk, maybe this information is usefull for someone :)
I'm glad to see users of previous gens reporting their cases with no problems, I got a brand new AW3423DWF which is using first gen qd oled, 4 months and no noticeable burn in at all even when I'm looking for it with colored and grey screens, a bit too early maybe, still looks brand new whenever I clean it. I also have everything in dark mode, wallpaper engine and hidden task bar, main usage is gaming but I've been doing a bit of everything actually
That’s good to hear. I have a C9 that has burn in on the left side of the screen. It doesn’t bother me though. It’s really only visible in shades of dark blue or dark gray images. I think I’ve got about 5000 hours on it. I do not use it for productivity, it’s varied gaming use only
Been using my LG OLED monitor for a couple years now. Mainly gaming. Tons of hdr usage for media consumption. Lots of regular browsing and am happy to report no burn in issues yet. However I do have a dead pixel after 2 years, nothing crazy. If you're on the fence about one, don't be! Gaming on OLED is mesmerizing
I'd say a dead pixel after 2 years is something to write home about when alternatives can last 10x that long without showing a single sign of degradation. Just my take though.
Really appreciate the tests! I used an LG OLED TV as my monitor a few years back and it got burnt in beyond recognition after 2 years of use. Really glad to hear the tech is maturing. That said, I would probably still consider OLED monitors to be disposable products due to the inevitability of burn in, and likely won't be getting one unless the pricing starts to reflect that. At the current price points I expect a product that lasts decades without any need for babysitting, and OLEDs just can't deliver on that front. Still have my fingers crossed for other display tech to displace it eventually.
My alienware aw3423dw has reverse burn in. I watch a lot of 16:9 content with black bars on the side. After two years, the sides of the monitor are noticeably brighter
Thank you for continuing this series, this is really useful information! To tag on to this, I'm still running the 32" Alienware slight curved OLED, though more carefully. I do hide the taskbar, I will toss a YT video that is safe for OLED displays if I will be away from some time, and run in dark mode. I have not seen any noticeable burn in using the current gen OLEDs, which gets 8+ hours of use a day on mixed content.
My humble opinion after watching this carefully is: No burnin after 9 months. No perception of burning while really using it AT ALL. ZERO. Those unreal tests with all black or gray or white represents nothing to me... use Windows, play a game and watch a movie. Are burnin noticeable while doing these? Not at all??? So no burnin. Thanks for the video and all the effort!!!!
Thanks for this very helpful test, it explains exactly what I needed to know in relation to my daily use. I'm happy that I can get an OLED without worrying to much about burn in.
I have a 42" C3 and ive been abusing it pretty much the same way, I use it for both work and entertainment pretty much 24/7. 4888 hours, 12+ hours a day, no OLED care features enabled. There is barely any noticeable feint lines on grey content. Doing a screen reset clean usually fixes it pretty good. I do not notice any of this in normal content like movies and games or while browsing my desktop, only when specifically searching for it. Bought this thing refurbished essentially brand new with 0 hours and the screen peel still on it and havent had any problems with it thus far. Don't be afraid to enjoy your OLED!
That's good to hear. For my setup I have mine as my main screen but have my icons and task bar on my secondary non OLED monitor, and keep my browser on the secondary 90% of the time, with the C3 bring for full screen video watching and gaming. So hopefully the only thing that might affect it long term are game UIs, though I don't play a single game constantly so fingers crossed my screen lasts for years lol
@@Katastra_ if you're not full time at 100% luminosity, if you have a dark screensaver and if you keep or increase "burning security" in your settings I think you're good
I have a 65 inch c1 with 10000 hours on it and its flawless. I only use it for movies and shows pretty much. Im at 50% brightness on non HDR content (for optimal visuals, not for anti burn in) 100% brightness on HDR content. No power saving settings on. I do have OLED care on I think (anti watermark stuff, etc) and it will do a maintenance thing after 4 hours of content and every once in a while ask me to do a bigger one. I feel like people who have issues with burn in on a good quality oled arent hitting the 4 hour mark very often so it never does the maintenance. I am guessing its going to be 20k-30k hours before I can find the smallest of imperfections looking for them on an all one color screen.
Yeah dude I got on board in 2020 with a LG 48ich oled cx tv 120hertz gsyinc as my main monitor amd I have never looked back. I only recommend like 37 to 40inch away from your eye. I got slight burn in but I blast the colors full and use dynamic lights. It's fine I dont even see it in games or movies. Remember to have a 2nd monitor for web search ect so you don't get bar burn in. I play up to 10hr or more some days it's gtg
So, get a warranty replacement? At least here in the first 24 months, they have to warranty it by law and with that kinda display, they better give you a few years on it.
@@cromefire_ Not as simple as that, let's say a company like Apple find what they say is damage via a drop or suspected water damage your going to void any sort of warranty.
@@leokimvideo I mean don't buy from Apple then I guess they're notoriously bad at that. They seem to try to pursue not giving you anything even if it's probably often unlawful to reject. Most companies I've dealt with before honored their warranties and I never had an issue with that. That's probably even better if you buy from a trusted 3rd party store as they live or die by their reputation and not honoring warranties usually alienates their customer base, so they'll usually do a good job of taking care of you. Everything I've had to return up until now including a motherboard (might even have been 2 already), a mouse and an SSD I was able to return no questions asked.
I've been adamantly following this series. I really want an OLED, but the monitor would be used 75% for productivity and the other for gaming. So far the results seem pretty decent as long as you take a lot of precautions. Thanks for the update video!
And this is exactly why an OLED TV for me won't work. I don't want to take precautions. If I buy an expensive TV, I want to be able to use it at its best and brightest most of the time. And if I buy an OLED, its brightest will be significantly lower and its best will degrade too fast for my usage. I have my current TV for about 5.5 years and I've had it on for about 22K hours so far. It's fine because it isn't an OLED, but there's not a single OLED that would last me more than 2-3 years with this same type of usage (my PC is hooked up to my TV btw). I'd recommend OLED for any average person. But not for anyone who would put their display through heavy duty usage all the time. The situation might've improved compared to a few years ago, but they're still extremely fragile and just won't last with this type of viewing/using behaviour (and probably won't ever reach that point before being replaced with better tech).
@@thenonexistinghero actually TV make more sense for oled because videos aren't typically static and logo dimming + pixel shifting works a lot better on gaming and broadcast videos. I've had my oled TV since 2020 and there is no sign of burn in.
After 2 years my Alienware aw3423dw has horrendous burn in from only video game usage while using all the built in precautions. Even worse, Dell has refused to honor the 3 year burn in Warranty stating "there's something wrong" in broken English. Other's experiences may differ but I would highly suggest considering another manufacturer based on my experience.
I was an owner of this monitor doing 1.5+ years of the exact type of work described in this video. I also got bad burn in, but Dell was actually great at honoring the OLED panel warranty for me. You have to keep pushing support. After a very in-depth proof process with their support agent, I got a brand new replacement shipped to me overnight, so it was a good experience. I actually decided to stay with Dell and get a AW3225QF when it came out because of this support. I’ll say that I believe the 3423dw being a 1st gen QD-OLED did not help and I am positive the panel maintenance cycles are fundamentally broken in firmware and not running when they should be. I had one of the first versions though, and the monitor does not allow firmware updates because of the G-Sync module, so perhaps yours is a little newer firmware, but I still wouldn’t trust it on 3423dw. The AW3235QF is a 3rd-gen panel, and I know for a fact the compensation cycle is running every ~4hrs as it should be.
My 240hz ips panel that I bought for €750 when it came out had had a driver update 3 weeks after my 2year warranty expired, I installed it and instantly got a blue line of dead pixels on the far right side of the screen. Contacted support multiple times without succes
@@TypeErrorDubs Unfortunately they have some bug with my Warranty that non of the support can bother to deal with, I've had 3 reps tell me I'll have my exchange monitors in a few days then they just ghost and won't respond. I think this shows that when things don't go smoothly they are unwilling or unable to move you up to someone who can actually fix things. As far as the firmware, you actually can update the original models through a DP connection, it was added after the F model released and is a bit sketchy but can be done.
"Compensation cycles" disguise burn-in by burning the _rest_ of the panel, so it would be more informative to do this with no compensation cycles (for at least 6 or 12 months) to see the real effects of burn-in, then do some compensation cycles until the burn-in becomes unnoticeable, and see how that affects the panel as a whole (i.e., any changes in gamut / gamma / contrast).
yeah people think its just burned in pixels when in reality its also worse color volume and lower brightness. insane how anyone thinks OLED is good when it has such horrible downsides like this
@@theendurance - Yep. And it degrades even if you only use it for gaming and watching videos, it just degrades _more evenly,_ so it's not as obvious. I guess it's "okay" for people who don't mind replacing their monitor and generating a ton of e-waste every 3 years or so (because replacing just the OLED panel costs more than buying a new monitor). Meanwhile, my LED-backlit IPS LCD monitor has 40k hours of use and still looks and works fine.
@RFC3514 your LCD backlight degrades as well though, but there's not a couple million of them doing so at different rates & the overall process is an order of magnitudes slower. OLED pixel lifetimes aren't ideal, that's for sure, framing compensation cycles as a bad thing isn't entirely accurate either though. As with most things in life: moderation is the best option the majority of the time. I.E. probably let the compensation cycles run the way the manufacturers intended, for the more optimal consumer experience.
@@MLWJ1993 - I've never used my LCDs' backlight at 100%. In fact, I think I've always had them set to less than 60%. I might need to set them to 65% to get the "original" 60%, but they can still deliver (more than) the amount of light I want. And where did I "frame compensation cycles as a bad thing" for consumers? I said running those cycles too frequently (around twice a day, when set to auto) makes it harder to evaluate (visually, at least) how much the panel is actually degrading. You'd have to run full measurement and calibration each time and keep adding up very small changes. That's just not practical (or visually interesting, for a video). It's much more practical to _not_ run compensation cycles for a longer period, see how much burn-in you got, then run compensation cycles until the burn-in becomes as unnoticeable as possible, and _then_ go through measurement & calibration to see how each aspect of the panel has degraded as a result of normal use _and_ as a result of the compensation cycles. You get clearer results with _less_ work. It's similar to checking how quickly printer ink fades. You don't make a new print every day and compare it to the previous day. You make one print, cut it in half, store one half under optimal conditions, leave the other one out, and one year later you compare those halves with each other and with a "fresh" print. Clearer results with less work.
@@theendurance OLED starts off amazing and goes downhill relatively fast while LCD starts off decent and stays decent for over a decade except for dark scenes, which look horrible and stay horrible looking.
I have the 1440p version from msi and got recommended this video. This has eased a lot of my doubts (but I will still be careful not to abuse it just because of this video!), thank you for this
I'm not so sure that the vertical line in the middle is burn in, i never use my FO27Q3 that way(as in dividing the screen in the middle with two applications) and i can still see that line faintly on a 5% grey screen. It could be an inherent quality of these oled monitors from manufacturing or from how they work.
I have got same center vertical line in my Samsung OLED G8 when I got it newly. Heard some people say it's normal to see vertical lines in %5 percent grays and it would be less visible after the more usage and pixel refresh cycles are done. After 9 months of careful consumption, I still see it faintly from time to time. I would assume it would be manufacturing problem like you described.
Thank you for your work. OLED is objectively inferior in a few major ways, and many tech reviewers like to effectively lie by omission, and even big names like LTT can be misled by such lies. OLED looks better if you don't have much light in the room, but it costs more even though it's expected to last 1/5 to 1/10 the amount of time a cheaper "lower end" LCD would (you can safely expect an LCD monitor to work well for over a decade). And there is the worst bit: cost. OLED is disposable tech that is not actually designed to replace LCD, even though it's been marketed as such. That would be just fine if it cost way less than an LCD, but if you want a durable reliable monitor, you literally get the cheaper "outdated" option. If I had to buy a new 200 dollar monitor every year, I'd definately put up with OLED since it does look better in many cases. But I would actually have be be bad at managing money to buy an OLED monitor (I can literally afford to buy one because I use 5-15 year old monitors throughout my house, so please don't try and tell me LCDs don't last over a decade).
just remember, he is using it in the worst case scenario. this isnt an actual use test. Just showing what happens when you dont use the OLED safety features and treat it poorly.
@inceptionsd You are massively overstating the problems or what to do about them. After two years of playing mixtures of content including quite a lot of 16:9 RUclips every day on my QD-OLED, there is no sign of letterboxing and I don't expect that to be the way it comes in either (probably more of a scattered dimming towards the screen centre). Obviously, you buy any OLED knowing it has a limited life but mine clearly has years more to go. And as Tim points out, when the degradation comes, that doesn't mean your screen is going to look terrible; your most-displayed content type is going to mask its own issues to some extent.
@@JoeGrizz1y Yup, I run only games and some AI stuff on my personal rig and always preferred dark theme. Still I was a bit hesistant a few months ago, but made up my mind about a week ago, still if Tims OLED is that well after 9 months of abuse, mine should be fine for at least 5-6 years.
@inceptionsd True, but, I just can't set up my current 27" miniled + 27" LCD, I've tried every configuration and it never worked for me, in recent months OLEDs got much cheaper and I've got a 150$ coupon, so it's pretty much a free upgrade to me. Fortunately my personal PC is mainly gaming rig, and I'm going to buy 15 in portable screen as a 2nd screen, it will be under 21:9 OLED. I have a large TV for movies etc.
Great info. I just picked up an MSI 271qpx 240hz QD-OLED from Newegg. $499 for Black Friday sale, I couldn’t pass it up! Glad to see mixed use isn’t a huge concern right now. Plus, MSI has their 3 year burn-in warranty, for what that’s worth
It would be cool if you did the inverse of this where you do best case scenario only dynamic content. Then you could compare the difference in the months to see how much of an impact doing burn in prevention things has. Idk if this would be possible with your current testing so maybe have another person do it
@@kasadam85 Software developer in homeoffice? I assume there are a ton of jobs that pay well and can be done on PC. Unless you have a highly unrealistic standard for "pays well"
@@theendurance Idk bout you guys but when I code and develop web apps for a living, I'm constantly switching screens from VSCode to Browser(stack overflow) to command line git to VSCode to Browser(Localhost app) to VSCode to Browser(youtube tutorial or brainrot break) then gaming after work. It may be different for people that primarily work on Excel or Word I guess.
2k hours ok my aw3225qf. Hdr full brightness half that time. Pubg the rest. Still cleaner than any lcd I've ever seen. He's abusing his monitor on purpose
@@LishtenbirdTech Like me but not actually being productive at all 😂. Oled would most likely be terrible for me as I never ever turn my screens off and I don't baby them either so they're on all day and night long unless I'm away from the pc for more than 15 minutes (when they go into sleep mode but still not technically turned off).
I was worried the first months, now I dont really think of it. I am watching much content in 16:9 aspect, so I know there is a risk. I use the monitor between 30-50 hours per week, and I run my cycles every 4 hours. I do not have the slightest burn in after 4 months. And the gaming experience is so much better than with an IPS.
This is super helpful. I'm probably going to upgrade to a 5090 when it drops, and am wanting to upgrade my main monitor to fully take advantage of it, but I'm also a full-time video editor as well, so I'm kind of in that rough spot where I want an amazing looking display, but at the same time probably more susceptible to burn-in. If I do go the OLED route, I'll probably still do most of my editing on my 4k 60hz LCD display, to minimize the risk of that, and then drag things over when I start working on color, and, I'd imagine I could probably still get a couple good years at least doing things that way.
This test is so good. I’m a WFH software engineer who lives in my editor 8 hours a day and games for 2-3 hours most nights, and want to know if the latest generation OLEDs will work. My XG27AQMR was my compromise while tests like these are run!
I've had an LG B9 OLED for almost five years now and I see absolutely no signs of burn in or image degredation. Granted, I haven't gone looking for it (and I never will), but still. I got it as a used display model from Best Buy with something like 10,000 hours and it now has over 26,000 hours, basically being on all day, every day. By far the best electronics purchase I've ever made. I pulled the trigger on an Alienware AQ2725DF five months ago and it's been just as much of a game changer as the LG--an instant, massive improvement to the visuals of PC games old and new. I don't do any kind of real work on my desktop and very little web browsing, but I'm not the least bit worried about its longevity. At this point to me, OLED is 100% worth both the price and potential lowered lifespan compared to LCD.
Cool, Mr Moneybags. You can afford to be unwise with your money. I cannot. Most people aren't willing to pay an extra to get a monitor that only looks better if you turn the lights off and has about 1/8th the lifespan of an LCD that costs a quarter of the price and looks slightly better as long as you have lights on in your room.
@@awesomeferret Weird comment, man. I'm not "Mr. Moneybags," far from it. I just prioritize my hobbies and save for what I want. I also buy used; 55" LG OLED for $650 from Best Buy five years ago, $600 for the Alienware earlier this year. That's the cost of a console or a mid-tier GPU upgrade these days, for displays that I plan on keeping far longer than most people run the same GPU. Already gotten my money's worth out of the LG. But if you disagree, that's perfectly fine. Buy whatever makes you happy. I was just sharing my thoughts on a technology that I'm excited about and has treated me well so far.
@@blaww89It’s interesting, because I’m in a situation where I’m about to buy a really nice monitor, probably buying new just because getting something right out of the box in mint condition is fun and exciting, and comes with less risk, and some people like the guy who gave you the snarky comment would probably likewise come at me for doing so, but the thing is, I’ve noticed a lot of these people in the tech/gaming pc space will buy parts, and then when the next series comes out they buy different parts, and then when the series after that comes out they buy different parts again, and so on. Constantly swapping things out, where even if they’re not buying at the high end they’re paying hundreds of dollars every couple years for incremental gains and barely using any one thing for any time at all. Personally, I just want to buy something good that’ll last me as long as possible, and once I have it I will happily use it indefinitely unless it breaks or becomes obsolete. No fuss, just enjoyment. I feel like that’s pretty reasonable.
I have an LCD from 2020, and although they don’t suffer from burn in, the backlight is noticeably more uneven and has darker areas, lighter areas, browner areas.. if I move a window from left to right and watch the window, I see a lot of variation. So LCD is not immune from degradation over time either!
@ that’s not really what my comment was about - it was about backlight degradation over time, and it becoming significantly obvious compared to when the monitor was new. What you described is still an LCD issue but bleeding is usually present when the monitor is new
@@Arakkiinteresting! Same thing happened to my old Samsung tv. Developed a weird blur spot and some yellow spots. When people say LCD doesn’t burn in, it’s not totally true.
Thanks for another, as always, great video! Will there ever be a software update to Windows / Cleartype so that OLED will display text-characters as well as LCD? Br
What amazing informative video and analysis because I am thinking to switch oled from IPS for productivity. You are the best channel for monitors. hands down
Real question is why they didnt have another one running along side it, cloned. Running at half the brightness, say 100 nits and with all the regular OLED Care features enabled. That way we could see how it actually fares in more realistic scenarios compared to the deliberate one.
Did you have the 3 month and 9 month locations swapped a time or two? With the enhancement filters? Watched this on several different screens and could barely see the 9 month burn in but the 3 month burn in looked properly bad. How bizarre. Thank you for the content!
Definitely reassuring. I just got the Alienware 3423DWF for Christmas and it will mostly be use for gaming with some productivity (at most 2 hours a day). Though I am still nervous about game UI contributing since games like World of Warcraft have static elements on screen constantly. At least it will have a 3 year warranty for burn in.
9:01 I think that in fact, if you give it half the use that you give it, its useful life would be more extended, not only double, say a little more, burn in is basically overheating of the screen right? Using the monitor for 8 hours in a row really is a reason for high temperatures, plus this accumulates, but if you only use it for 4 hours in general it should remain in good condition much longer, or am I wrong? I am here to learn, if what I say does not make sense please correct me. Greetings
Burn in is not overheating. OLEDs(really any LEDs, but particularly OLEDs) degrade when current is applied, regardless of heat or not. That said, heat can accelerate the issue. You are not going to see much higher temperatures after 8 hours compared to 4 hours anyhow.
Really interesting! That reminds me I've seen burn in significantly improve before. A few years ago I bought a second hand galaxy note 9 with noticeable burn in, but after I used it for a year or so the burn in practically completely disappeared so there's definitely some way to improve burn in.
The thing I am noticing from a lot of these videos is that burn in exists, but is only noticeable in certain use cases and at worst where static content is usually displayed on fringes of monitor it almost looks like it gets closer to a state of very mild "IPS glow" which usually exists on those panels from the first day you buy it. I think it's almost a non-issue when most people live in a world where their TV's and older monitors always had uniformity issues due to backlight tech. The only reason people notice it is because they get used to the perfection that OLED offers from factory. It's not unusual to expect a product, whether it be the paint on your car, or the battery and oleophobic coating on your smartphone to degrade as it ages. Expecting OLED's to be perfect over the entire lifetime in that perspective is a bit unrealistic of an expectation.
If early next year after 12 months of Tim stressing the crap out of QD-OLED things look about the same as they do now, I'll pull the trigger, because that'd be good enough for me. Thanks a bunch, Tim, for doing this!
Some people don't realize how fast the time flies. Starting to get faint burn in at only 9 months of owning expensive monitor sounds insane to me. And comment section is full of copium filled comments "oh yeah this is fine". Like, what? I'm a tech nerd and I never owned a monitor for less than 6 years. I usually keep them for 6-10 years. I think people got their reality twisted after watching countless youtubers and influencers unbox and "daily drive" new monitors every other month. This is not how normal people buy and use monitors. Monitor showed in this video will look abysmal after 6 years, where as something like 6 or 10 year old Dell UltraSharp still looks as good as the day you bought it (unless something catastrophic happened like logic board failure, which ofcourse OLED isn't immune to either).
MSI has a 3 year burn in warranty. This guy is testing this oled with extreme usage with high brightness so using this normally will have slight burn in with 3 years. That means you'll get 6 years total once you use the warranty replacement.
I'm looking to buy a new monitor sometime next year, quite afraid of burn in from my usage, but at the same time oled seems like the obvious choice. I bought my Aorus AD27QD 6 years ago and it's been a terrible monitor, gets too hot, has really bad image retention and there has been a real lack of needed firmware updates from Gigabyte. I don't think 6 years is a long time for a monitor so I'm not only looking for a monitor that is better out of the box, but that I can still get use out of in some way a decade later. Your channel is really good at covering a wide range of monitors and doing important tests like this.
Sure it might be less than what you expected, but still... I'm still on a monitor I bought over a decade ago, and there's not a hint of burn in. This is a huge improvement over the CRT screens we used to have as those were likely to show some burn in within a decade, if they survived that long. Now as old as it is it's not a great monitor today. The big disadvantage is the refresh rate and text betting a bit blurry while scrolling. But it's a IPS monitor and that was one of the things I looked for when I bought it. It's also a 16:10 aspect ratio monitor instead of 16:9 which was something I really wanted. I still think 16:9 monitors are just to darned wide compared to their height. I have a few 4K displays and I just don't like them. I bought a 1440p monitor and it was just not for me. It had to high a PPI. Having counted on it a 32" 1440p screen should probably be about right for me. If I were to go 4K it would have to be over 40" to reach a decent PPI of about 100. But a monitor that big would either be hard to use or sit so long from me the PPI would need to be even lower. So say 50" screen, perhaps more. Now about OLED... I want a monitor with the abilities of an OLED, but it can't have any tendency for burn in and it has to have a color layout that works with clear type features. I spend over 90% with static elements on the screen. I hate dark mode and I spend about 16 hours a day at my computer every day of the week. So for the moment OLED is not for me. My next monitor will most likely be a 32" 1440p IPS monitor.
@@keppycs No it's not. The scaling in windows isn't really that good. It require that applications use the "right" way of handling text and a lot of them doesn't. Another thing is games where text are often presented in bitmap format and not always is scalable. besides my eye sight has a hard time handling text when the PPI goes above about 104 and my eyes are not getting younger. So I want to keep the PPI at no more than 100 if possible. My current monitor has a PPI of 94 if I remember correctly, and more than that is really not feeling good for me.
IMO, Oled is the type of luxury monitor you have on hand to play through your favorite games or watch favorite movies only. Mixed usage is prohibited to me. IPS does have its advantage (peace of mind) no doubt
@@blahorgaslisk7763 having had 4k 42 inch OLED now for a week. The text fringing is not visible to me. That is probably due to pixel density. If text clarity is important, I'd take 4k over 1440p any time (regardless of display technology).
Has anyone else noticed that auto hiding the taskbar doesn't actually hide it? There's still a line of pixels visible at the bottom. So even doing that won't prevent burn in, especially if you have apps with a colour in their taskbar button (or a loading/streaming indicator).
@@mpauls85I've seen budget LCD monitors last longer than 15 years with 5 days a week heavy office use. They were eventually replaced, but only because they looked outdated. Picture quality was still like the day they arrived. There's a massive difference in longevity.
Using this test still as a reference for my own use. Glad to see 9 months is no worse than 6 months. My personal usage is a bit closer to the use here so definitely relevant. I use a lower brightness but almost exclusively light themes given the option. Even my task bar is light. I feel my use is a bit lighter but still similar enough to be relevant. Will mostly wait for the 1 year mark to see if I upgrade my primary monitor to oled.
I've assessed the footage this time and good news! The images look very close to the "raw" results in RUclips's compressed 4K mode, so you should get a pretty accurate representation of burn in this time (most of the time it's not compression artefacts)
Seems like companies don't release much MiniLed specially MiniLed Ultrawide. I want to play a lot of Poe2 with static skill bars and watch youtube a lot. Having a better quality with Oled but paying quite more for something that wouldn't last anywhere near a Miniled sounds like a terrible idea for a budget conscious consumer.
PLEASE REVIEW BENQ PD3205U (most monitors u recommend are not available in India so is it possible to recommend monitors available Amazon India)
I use monitor for good 14-16hrs per day. And have static apps and programs always on. And the Taskbar. That is my regular usage. Yeah am worried getting an OLED. But seriously the Picture quality makes me want to get one.
Hello @Monitorsunboxed , I have an OLED for 1 Year now! AW3423dwf. And I can also report:
(Tldr: Still works fine. Use OLED Panel Maintenance Funktions (Monitor Options.) Let it clean itself every night after shutdown.)
1. I have the newest driver! I installed the newest driver "M3B107" shortly after i bought it. I started with 105 or 106. I bought the Monitor ca. 6 months after realese.
2. I use my screen like I used my old one ( Dell U3415W ) which I used for 8 - 9 years. Still worked, when I soled it.
3. I use my screen weekdays 1 - 6 hoors and weekend 6 - 12 hours.
4. I have the selfcleaning maintenance option on. So after PC shutdown it cleans it self for 6 - 8 minuts. NEVER remove your oled from energy! Or the maintenance doesn't work.
5. The more intense PANEL REFRESH option started while using the PC ONCE so far! I took a few hours! The timing was lucky for me.
6. I used "True black 400 nits" for some time. And now "HDR Peak 1000" for ca. half a year alredy.
7. So far no problems :D !!! yay. It needs to last minimum 5 years!
@@KING_DRANZERget a cheap 100 dollar monitor for productivity work and an OLED for media, win-win
This is such a good way of showing usage of OLED by giving constant experience updates or few intervals. Thanks a lot really.
It's always good to get the "worst case scenario" for comparison, instead of the usual "Ehh, it's probably going to be fine unless you abuse it." -judgments, as people use these monitors in very different ways and have different standards for what counts as unreasonable. Someone who plays casually on the weekends and for the rest of the week the monitor is off is not exactly in the same league of "monitor abuse" as someone who works from home, stares at bright white spreadsheets for 8 hours a day and then uses the screen for entertainment on top of that. In latter case burn-ins aren't just paranoia anymore, if you want the screen to last for 5 years.
Great giving updates, but what has stopped me from getting OLED are those pixel and screen refresh cycles that may take several minutes but would annoy the heck out of me.
@@sparketech I've got 4783 hours on my LG 27GR95QE-B using it as my main monitor and the refresh cycles are not intrusive or annoying. I have no visible burn-in or ghosting. I'm using it just like I use an LCD monitor with simple preventitive measures like hiding the taskbar, dark mode, wallpaper cycling and inactive sleep mode. I play a lot of games and do a lot of web browsing with no issues. I think OLED is the best upgrade you can make right now.
@@MidWitPride its not even worst case scenario tho...he still ran the refresh cycles once a day. even with OLED burn in care features, it still burns in super fast. I'd bet by 1.5 years the middle line burn in will be super visible...OLED is just not ready.
@@theendurance I set a black screensaver to come on after 2 minutes of idle time. Since I do a mixture of gaming, content consumption and static work, I expect at least 5 or more years without any issues. OLED is more than ready.
I love that “Monitors Unboxed is monitoring unboxed monitors” can be an accurate description for this video series.
New channel name right here
Or, even better:
"Monitors Unboxed monitors unboxed monitors"
"We'll keep monitoring things". I see what you did there.
Pun intended
What he needs to do is make an onscreen note letting people know what they are seeing in the burn in close ups is youtube's terrible bitrate. I doubt the majority of people will understand that and think the burn in looks atrocious when it's really just youtube compressing the video to hell
@@pcmasterracetechgod5660 He said several times that it looks heavier in the video than in reality.
So in case anyone dont know (like me before googling this). This monitor is third gen QD OLED (most recent gen). Great video. QD-OLED (and prob WOLED) seem to really mature..
Thank you for your service.
And they say there are no true heroes anymore.
@@maxpower9979nobody says that bro
This is the best unboxed series.
Damn time flies... Feels like 6 month update was yesterday
swear second half of the year always goes quicker
I just watched it a few days ago :D
we’re all getting old :(
@@FJaypewpewagree
The funny part in my case is that I watched the 6 month update literally yesterday, since I was researching an OLED monitor to buy for Black Friday, haha
This experiment is SO valuable! Thank you so much!
Thanks!
Thank you for running this test
I agree OLED is amazing (since I own an OLED TV myself) and at least in the monitor area LCDs don't come close in terms of picture quality, but I wish people realized how much of a colossal difference in longevity is between the two techonolgies. I think I've bought like 10 monitors for myself, friends and family since the early 2000s and none of them ever broke and the displays work just as well as the day they arrived. One of them was like 200 euros in 2008 and it saw 5 day a week heavy office use for about 15 years and there's no sign of image degradation or noticeable brightness decrease.
That's really the big hangup for me. A 4-figure (more or less) monitor should not have a comparatively very limited lifespan. My current monitors are 8 and 5 years old and there's nothing wrong with them. That won't be the case with OLED.
@Batman-bh6vw yeah... exactly
What's wrong with the image quality of IPS? It is perfect, the difference with OLED is only in the black color, but the visibility of dark shades is much more important and IPS has excellent visibility
@@lizardx6504high end LCDs can be very close to OLEDs. But infinite contrast aside, it has instantaneous response time and perfect panel uniformity (no light bleed for example) which can be a big deal depending on the type content
@@lizardx6504 Black is not a color, OLED tech is far superior to any backlit tech.
Oled response is way faster.
It`s about contrast, and ips sucks at blacks and black detail.
No wonder, it`s only 1 to 900 contrast. Oled 1 to 1000000 contrast. See the diiference.
Very interesting, thanks for experimenting and showing this off!
Monitor's Unboxed has been popping off these last few weeks. Good stuff 👍
Trying to see his 32URX burn in whilst using my own 32URX and wondering which is his and which is mine xD
How long have you had yours
lmfao!!!
@@soldonwish like 3 weeks. No burn in, using all the tools provided, but also I literally can't see his burn in without the enhanced filter anyway
Same, hahahah
hahaha
Great testing as always!
My date: So what do you do for fun?
Me: I'm watching videos on RUclips.
Her: Interesting videos?
Me: Let's change the topic.
Wouldn't have to change the topic if they were also a tech nerd :D
The modern day "I collect mold, spores, and fungus."
@@The11devans hahahaha pissing myself at this mini thread. This is me
😂
It is interesting
Thank you so much for doing this, i was initially worried a bit over burn in risk... but after weighing the risk and watching some of your videos on how to make a more informed decision... I leapt in and bought an ASUS PG32UCDM. (i love it.)
This gives me a ton of hope for what the next couple generations of OLEDS will bring. Thanks for the updates! Im excited to see when this eventually maybe gets bad
Been waiting for this video ever since the last update
This is so freaking helpful to see. I've been shopping for a do-it-all monitor for my home office (which includes zero gaming) and looking at a ton of OLED monitors for the job. Sure, they're not designed for my use case, but they look awesome and there are WAY better deals right now for OLED than for productivity-specific monitors. It's not possible to read or watch an OLED review without hearing about the dreaded burn-in, but nobody has quantified. These results have me feeling even more confident that I'll be happy with OLED. Thanks for this!
People are greatly exaggeratingthe problem of burn in on these QD Oled, I mean come on, 2200 hours repetive content, highest brightness settings, and still nowhere near distracting burn in during normal usage. This means one can expect to use a monitor like this at least 5 years before expecting to see visible burn in, when using it solely for gaming and movies like me, I expect well over 5 years of usage. The visual quality improvement is more than worth it.
@@kiekiek the burn in is already visible in 9 months, the mental gymnastics to get to 5 yrs is crazy. Keep coping
@@kiekiekIDK, it sounds much closer to normal use than a 20 hour per day test like rtings is doing
5 years wouldn't be that great for a super expensive monitor, but would align nicely with being just out of warranty
I spend more than 4k hours a year playing the same game for the past 4 years and this won’t change. Burn in will definitely happen.
@@6ghastlyghoul9Then it's not for you, most people don't spend the majority of their life playing a single game
This is such a great series. Thank you alot. I just got my oled monitor and you tests really help me knowing how to treat it properly
Very reassuring to hear these results!
That his screen burns in? very reassuring indeed...
how? knowing your monitor will have burn in by the end of year of normal usage, 8hrs a day for 5 days a week is not alot of hours for any gamer
@@Blue-bf8lv Bro just watch the video, it's not hard to comprehend the words coming out of his mouth
you are so right assurering that i still want mini LED over OLED monitor xD
@@Blue-bf8lv Who the hell has time to play 8 hours daily?
Very high-value video review for consumers. Thanks for the work!
You're a legend Tim ! I love my QDOLED
This is the sort of review that really matters. Thanks for the time and effort that goes into this.
I have an LCD side monitor where the task bar and all desktop icons sit, it's very practical because I can easily access them even when my main display is occupied by a game or something.
I just bought the smaller 27" version of this monitor, and planning to do exactly this(except I will enable the longevity features, but this will be my home office and general media consumption monitor as well), we'll see how it goes. Please keep it coming, this update was highly appreciated!
I am using an LG CX 48" for around 4 years now as a Monitor and there is no noticable Burn In yet. It's running for about 7500 hours now with mixed usage: Gaming, Streaming and also for my studies. I have to say that i didn't put on test screens to look for Burn In, because if I don't see it in my everyday use, it doesn't bother me.
I'm using Wallpaper Engine for animated backgrounds and a hidden task bar, though.
Idk, maybe this information is usefull for someone :)
I also have an LG CX 48" and have put some serious use into for about 3 years and no issues for me either
I'm glad to see users of previous gens reporting their cases with no problems, I got a brand new AW3423DWF which is using first gen qd oled, 4 months and no noticeable burn in at all even when I'm looking for it with colored and grey screens, a bit too early maybe, still looks brand new whenever I clean it. I also have everything in dark mode, wallpaper engine and hidden task bar, main usage is gaming but I've been doing a bit of everything actually
That’s good to hear. I have a C9 that has burn in on the left side of the screen. It doesn’t bother me though. It’s really only visible in shades of dark blue or dark gray images. I think I’ve got about 5000 hours on it. I do not use it for productivity, it’s varied gaming use only
Thank you, Tim!
I appreciate your efforts in this experiment.
Been using my LG OLED monitor for a couple years now. Mainly gaming. Tons of hdr usage for media consumption. Lots of regular browsing and am happy to report no burn in issues yet. However I do have a dead pixel after 2 years, nothing crazy. If you're on the fence about one, don't be! Gaming on OLED is mesmerizing
I'd say a dead pixel after 2 years is something to write home about when alternatives can last 10x that long without showing a single sign of degradation. Just my take though.
I wouldn't be happy dropping +1k and getting a dead pixel bruh
Really appreciate the tests! I used an LG OLED TV as my monitor a few years back and it got burnt in beyond recognition after 2 years of use. Really glad to hear the tech is maturing.
That said, I would probably still consider OLED monitors to be disposable products due to the inevitability of burn in, and likely won't be getting one unless the pricing starts to reflect that. At the current price points I expect a product that lasts decades without any need for babysitting, and OLEDs just can't deliver on that front. Still have my fingers crossed for other display tech to displace it eventually.
My alienware aw3423dw has reverse burn in. I watch a lot of 16:9 content with black bars on the side. After two years, the sides of the monitor are noticeably brighter
Another drawback of ultrawide
Nah UW is awesome
Thank you for continuing this series, this is really useful information! To tag on to this, I'm still running the 32" Alienware slight curved OLED, though more carefully. I do hide the taskbar, I will toss a YT video that is safe for OLED displays if I will be away from some time, and run in dark mode. I have not seen any noticeable burn in using the current gen OLEDs, which gets 8+ hours of use a day on mixed content.
Is that text on your shirt a result of burn-in?
Can I ask how many hours you wear it per day/week/year? Thx!
Wow, the newer OLED monitors actually might be worth buying. Thanks for doing this test!
My humble opinion after watching this carefully is: No burnin after 9 months. No perception of burning while really using it AT ALL. ZERO. Those unreal tests with all black or gray or white represents nothing to me... use Windows, play a game and watch a movie. Are burnin noticeable while doing these? Not at all??? So no burnin. Thanks for the video and all the effort!!!!
Thanks for this very helpful test, it explains exactly what I needed to know in relation to my daily use. I'm happy that I can get an OLED without worrying to much about burn in.
I have a 42" C3 and ive been abusing it pretty much the same way, I use it for both work and entertainment pretty much 24/7. 4888 hours, 12+ hours a day, no OLED care features enabled. There is barely any noticeable feint lines on grey content. Doing a screen reset clean usually fixes it pretty good. I do not notice any of this in normal content like movies and games or while browsing my desktop, only when specifically searching for it. Bought this thing refurbished essentially brand new with 0 hours and the screen peel still on it and havent had any problems with it thus far. Don't be afraid to enjoy your OLED!
That's good to hear. For my setup I have mine as my main screen but have my icons and task bar on my secondary non OLED monitor, and keep my browser on the secondary 90% of the time, with the C3 bring for full screen video watching and gaming. So hopefully the only thing that might affect it long term are game UIs, though I don't play a single game constantly so fingers crossed my screen lasts for years lol
@@Katastra_ if you're not full time at 100% luminosity, if you have a dark screensaver and if you keep or increase "burning security" in your settings I think you're good
@@erwile Or if you just shut off the display when you leave it?
I have a 65 inch c1 with 10000 hours on it and its flawless. I only use it for movies and shows pretty much. Im at 50% brightness on non HDR content (for optimal visuals, not for anti burn in) 100% brightness on HDR content. No power saving settings on. I do have OLED care on I think (anti watermark stuff, etc) and it will do a maintenance thing after 4 hours of content and every once in a while ask me to do a bigger one. I feel like people who have issues with burn in on a good quality oled arent hitting the 4 hour mark very often so it never does the maintenance. I am guessing its going to be 20k-30k hours before I can find the smallest of imperfections looking for them on an all one color screen.
Thanks for these videos. Gave me the confidence to use a LG OLED TV as my main monitor for both work and games.
Yeah dude I got on board in 2020 with a LG 48ich oled cx tv 120hertz gsyinc as my main monitor amd I have never looked back.
I only recommend like 37 to 40inch away from your eye. I got slight burn in but I blast the colors full and use dynamic lights. It's fine I dont even see it in games or movies. Remember to have a 2nd monitor for web search ect so you don't get bar burn in. I play up to 10hr or more some days it's gtg
Hey I had a Apple Studio Display and it blew up in 18 months. $2500 POOF, so don't get too worried about burn in, just hope it doesnt blow up
Do you enjoy making stuff up?
So, get a warranty replacement? At least here in the first 24 months, they have to warranty it by law and with that kinda display, they better give you a few years on it.
@@cromefire_ Not as simple as that, let's say a company like Apple find what they say is damage via a drop or suspected water damage your going to void any sort of warranty.
@@leokimvideo I mean don't buy from Apple then I guess they're notoriously bad at that. They seem to try to pursue not giving you anything even if it's probably often unlawful to reject. Most companies I've dealt with before honored their warranties and I never had an issue with that. That's probably even better if you buy from a trusted 3rd party store as they live or die by their reputation and not honoring warranties usually alienates their customer base, so they'll usually do a good job of taking care of you.
Everything I've had to return up until now including a motherboard (might even have been 2 already), a mouse and an SSD I was able to return no questions asked.
@@cromefire_ I absolutely agree with all you say here
Love the shirt and love this series, thank you.
There seems to be a bit of backlight bleed on your T-shirt 😉
Jokes aside: Thanks for this great series and all the other MUB and HUB content, Tim! ❤️
Thanks for making compelling content. Very awesome
I've been adamantly following this series. I really want an OLED, but the monitor would be used 75% for productivity and the other for gaming. So far the results seem pretty decent as long as you take a lot of precautions. Thanks for the update video!
A lot of companies are giving 3 year warranties with these 4K QD OLED panels. It's worth it imo. Picture quality is outstanding.
I'm 7 months in with the same monitor, software developer by day, gamer by night. I use light mode IDE and zero burnin so far ;)
Light mode IDE? I'd be worrying about eye burn-in over OLED burn-in
And this is exactly why an OLED TV for me won't work. I don't want to take precautions. If I buy an expensive TV, I want to be able to use it at its best and brightest most of the time. And if I buy an OLED, its brightest will be significantly lower and its best will degrade too fast for my usage. I have my current TV for about 5.5 years and I've had it on for about 22K hours so far. It's fine because it isn't an OLED, but there's not a single OLED that would last me more than 2-3 years with this same type of usage (my PC is hooked up to my TV btw).
I'd recommend OLED for any average person. But not for anyone who would put their display through heavy duty usage all the time. The situation might've improved compared to a few years ago, but they're still extremely fragile and just won't last with this type of viewing/using behaviour (and probably won't ever reach that point before being replaced with better tech).
@@thenonexistinghero actually TV make more sense for oled because videos aren't typically static and logo dimming + pixel shifting works a lot better on gaming and broadcast videos. I've had my oled TV since 2020 and there is no sign of burn in.
I recently bought an OLED monitor! Thank you so much for all the great info on these monitors!
After 2 years my Alienware aw3423dw has horrendous burn in from only video game usage while using all the built in precautions. Even worse, Dell has refused to honor the 3 year burn in Warranty stating "there's something wrong" in broken English. Other's experiences may differ but I would highly suggest considering another manufacturer based on my experience.
I was an owner of this monitor doing 1.5+ years of the exact type of work described in this video. I also got bad burn in, but Dell was actually great at honoring the OLED panel warranty for me. You have to keep pushing support. After a very in-depth proof process with their support agent, I got a brand new replacement shipped to me overnight, so it was a good experience. I actually decided to stay with Dell and get a AW3225QF when it came out because of this support.
I’ll say that I believe the 3423dw being a 1st gen QD-OLED did not help and I am positive the panel maintenance cycles are fundamentally broken in firmware and not running when they should be. I had one of the first versions though, and the monitor does not allow firmware updates because of the G-Sync module, so perhaps yours is a little newer firmware, but I still wouldn’t trust it on 3423dw. The AW3235QF is a 3rd-gen panel, and I know for a fact the compensation cycle is running every ~4hrs as it should be.
I came here to say my DWF is at 2 years of mixed use and has no visible burn in. It sees 8 plus hours a day of use.
My 240hz ips panel that I bought for €750 when it came out had had a driver update 3 weeks after my 2year warranty expired, I installed it and instantly got a blue line of dead pixels on the far right side of the screen. Contacted support multiple times without succes
@@TypeErrorDubs Unfortunately they have some bug with my Warranty that non of the support can bother to deal with, I've had 3 reps tell me I'll have my exchange monitors in a few days then they just ghost and won't respond. I think this shows that when things don't go smoothly they are unwilling or unable to move you up to someone who can actually fix things. As far as the firmware, you actually can update the original models through a DP connection, it was added after the F model released and is a bit sketchy but can be done.
@@ChopperKrios I'm glad it's going well for you brother, mine's fucked though.
Thank you for your service!
"Compensation cycles" disguise burn-in by burning the _rest_ of the panel, so it would be more informative to do this with no compensation cycles (for at least 6 or 12 months) to see the real effects of burn-in, then do some compensation cycles until the burn-in becomes unnoticeable, and see how that affects the panel as a whole (i.e., any changes in gamut / gamma / contrast).
yeah people think its just burned in pixels when in reality its also worse color volume and lower brightness. insane how anyone thinks OLED is good when it has such horrible downsides like this
@@theendurance - Yep. And it degrades even if you only use it for gaming and watching videos, it just degrades _more evenly,_ so it's not as obvious.
I guess it's "okay" for people who don't mind replacing their monitor and generating a ton of e-waste every 3 years or so (because replacing just the OLED panel costs more than buying a new monitor).
Meanwhile, my LED-backlit IPS LCD monitor has 40k hours of use and still looks and works fine.
@RFC3514 your LCD backlight degrades as well though, but there's not a couple million of them doing so at different rates & the overall process is an order of magnitudes slower.
OLED pixel lifetimes aren't ideal, that's for sure, framing compensation cycles as a bad thing isn't entirely accurate either though.
As with most things in life: moderation is the best option the majority of the time.
I.E. probably let the compensation cycles run the way the manufacturers intended, for the more optimal consumer experience.
@@MLWJ1993 - I've never used my LCDs' backlight at 100%. In fact, I think I've always had them set to less than 60%. I might need to set them to 65% to get the "original" 60%, but they can still deliver (more than) the amount of light I want.
And where did I "frame compensation cycles as a bad thing" for consumers?
I said running those cycles too frequently (around twice a day, when set to auto) makes it harder to evaluate (visually, at least) how much the panel is actually degrading. You'd have to run full measurement and calibration each time and keep adding up very small changes. That's just not practical (or visually interesting, for a video).
It's much more practical to _not_ run compensation cycles for a longer period, see how much burn-in you got, then run compensation cycles until the burn-in becomes as unnoticeable as possible, and _then_ go through measurement & calibration to see how each aspect of the panel has degraded as a result of normal use _and_ as a result of the compensation cycles.
You get clearer results with _less_ work.
It's similar to checking how quickly printer ink fades. You don't make a new print every day and compare it to the previous day. You make one print, cut it in half, store one half under optimal conditions, leave the other one out, and one year later you compare those halves with each other and with a "fresh" print. Clearer results with less work.
@@theendurance OLED starts off amazing and goes downhill relatively fast while LCD starts off decent and stays decent for over a decade except for dark scenes, which look horrible and stay horrible looking.
Awesome series, really appreciate the commitment for science!!!
He just wanna see the world burnin!
I have the 1440p version from msi and got recommended this video. This has eased a lot of my doubts (but I will still be careful not to abuse it just because of this video!), thank you for this
I'm not so sure that the vertical line in the middle is burn in, i never use my FO27Q3 that way(as in dividing the screen in the middle with two applications) and i can still see that line faintly on a 5% grey screen. It could be an inherent quality of these oled monitors from manufacturing or from how they work.
I have got same center vertical line in my Samsung OLED G8 when I got it newly. Heard some people say it's normal to see vertical lines in %5 percent grays and it would be less visible after the more usage and pixel refresh cycles are done. After 9 months of careful consumption, I still see it faintly from time to time. I would assume it would be manufacturing problem like you described.
The panel manufacturer needs to fire that guy on the production line who keeps folding them in half 😁
Great in depth analaysis. Actually comforting to know after buying an MS oled recently.
Thank you for your work. OLED is objectively inferior in a few major ways, and many tech reviewers like to effectively lie by omission, and even big names like LTT can be misled by such lies. OLED looks better if you don't have much light in the room, but it costs more even though it's expected to last 1/5 to 1/10 the amount of time a cheaper "lower end" LCD would (you can safely expect an LCD monitor to work well for over a decade). And there is the worst bit: cost. OLED is disposable tech that is not actually designed to replace LCD, even though it's been marketed as such. That would be just fine if it cost way less than an LCD, but if you want a durable reliable monitor, you literally get the cheaper "outdated" option. If I had to buy a new 200 dollar monitor every year, I'd definately put up with OLED since it does look better in many cases. But I would actually have be be bad at managing money to buy an OLED monitor (I can literally afford to buy one because I use 5-15 year old monitors throughout my house, so please don't try and tell me LCDs don't last over a decade).
Thx for the big effort!
What a great timing, I'm just about going to pick some ultrawide QD-OLED.
Thanks Tim.
just remember, he is using it in the worst case scenario. this isnt an actual use test. Just showing what happens when you dont use the OLED safety features and treat it poorly.
@inceptionsd You are massively overstating the problems or what to do about them. After two years of playing mixtures of content including quite a lot of 16:9 RUclips every day on my QD-OLED, there is no sign of letterboxing and I don't expect that to be the way it comes in either (probably more of a scattered dimming towards the screen centre). Obviously, you buy any OLED knowing it has a limited life but mine clearly has years more to go. And as Tim points out, when the degradation comes, that doesn't mean your screen is going to look terrible; your most-displayed content type is going to mask its own issues to some extent.
@@JoeGrizz1y Yup, I run only games and some AI stuff on my personal rig and always preferred dark theme.
Still I was a bit hesistant a few months ago, but made up my mind about a week ago, still if Tims OLED is that well after 9 months of abuse, mine should be fine for at least 5-6 years.
@inceptionsd True, but, I just can't set up my current 27" miniled + 27" LCD, I've tried every configuration and it never worked for me, in recent months OLEDs got much cheaper and I've got a 150$ coupon, so it's pretty much a free upgrade to me.
Fortunately my personal PC is mainly gaming rig, and I'm going to buy 15 in portable screen as a 2nd screen, it will be under 21:9 OLED.
I have a large TV for movies etc.
My 34 inch alienware qd oled is on ebay rn 👀 buyyy ittt
Great info. I just picked up an MSI 271qpx 240hz QD-OLED from Newegg. $499 for Black Friday sale, I couldn’t pass it up! Glad to see mixed use isn’t a huge concern right now. Plus, MSI has their 3 year burn-in warranty, for what that’s worth
Would the current WOLED monitors hold better with burn in?
great job, very valuable content for folks hesistant with oled. these are highly favourable results
It would be cool if you did the inverse of this where you do best case scenario only dynamic content. Then you could compare the difference in the months to see how much of an impact doing burn in prevention things has. Idk if this would be possible with your current testing so maybe have another person do it
Thank you alot, amaizing work!!! 😮
does room temp make a difference, it has too, right? colder better or warmer? does it change the transition time?
Thank you for your service
I just bought a QD-OLED monitor which I plan on using for work & gaming so this video is releasing at the perfect time
Don’t worry, mine looks fine after 4 years of extensive use. Just avoid static images for too long.
@@dinvsl literally impossible for work and gaming lol.
What work that pays well can be done on PC? 🤔
@@kasadam85 Software developer in homeoffice?
I assume there are a ton of jobs that pay well and can be done on PC. Unless you have a highly unrealistic standard for "pays well"
@@theendurance Idk bout you guys but when I code and develop web apps for a living, I'm constantly switching screens from VSCode to Browser(stack overflow) to command line git to VSCode to Browser(Localhost app) to VSCode to Browser(youtube tutorial or brainrot break) then gaming after work. It may be different for people that primarily work on Excel or Word I guess.
Thank you for your efforts. I appreciate it!
The test results are looking very promising
This is my favourite tech series. Cya next year for the update.
I really appreciate these videos. I just got my first QD-OLED a few days ago and I am like unreasonable worrying about burn in 😉
2k hours ok my aw3225qf. Hdr full brightness half that time. Pubg the rest. Still cleaner than any lcd I've ever seen. He's abusing his monitor on purpose
@@veilmontTVOne man's "abuse" is another man's regular short productivity day.
@@LishtenbirdTech Like me but not actually being productive at all 😂. Oled would most likely be terrible for me as I never ever turn my screens off and I don't baby them either so they're on all day and night long unless I'm away from the pc for more than 15 minutes (when they go into sleep mode but still not technically turned off).
You're lucky then QD-OLED has more lifespan and brightness than WOLED.
I was worried the first months, now I dont really think of it. I am watching much content in 16:9 aspect, so I know there is a risk. I use the monitor between 30-50 hours per week, and I run my cycles every 4 hours. I do not have the slightest burn in after 4 months. And the gaming experience is so much better than with an IPS.
This is super helpful. I'm probably going to upgrade to a 5090 when it drops, and am wanting to upgrade my main monitor to fully take advantage of it, but I'm also a full-time video editor as well, so I'm kind of in that rough spot where I want an amazing looking display, but at the same time probably more susceptible to burn-in. If I do go the OLED route, I'll probably still do most of my editing on my 4k 60hz LCD display, to minimize the risk of that, and then drag things over when I start working on color, and, I'd imagine I could probably still get a couple good years at least doing things that way.
Dude: Aggresively burning his monitor
Monitor: Just staying in the corner for 9 months
is this another chill guy meme
i don't call what he's doing aggressive.
@@Karishin32 But most other people do.
This test is so good. I’m a WFH software engineer who lives in my editor 8 hours a day and games for 2-3 hours most nights, and want to know if the latest generation OLEDs will work. My XG27AQMR was my compromise while tests like these are run!
I've had an LG B9 OLED for almost five years now and I see absolutely no signs of burn in or image degredation. Granted, I haven't gone looking for it (and I never will), but still. I got it as a used display model from Best Buy with something like 10,000 hours and it now has over 26,000 hours, basically being on all day, every day. By far the best electronics purchase I've ever made.
I pulled the trigger on an Alienware AQ2725DF five months ago and it's been just as much of a game changer as the LG--an instant, massive improvement to the visuals of PC games old and new. I don't do any kind of real work on my desktop and very little web browsing, but I'm not the least bit worried about its longevity. At this point to me, OLED is 100% worth both the price and potential lowered lifespan compared to LCD.
I’ve owned multiple LG WOLED panels, and I too have had no issues at all with burn-in. Will be very happy with my 27 inch LG monitor for a long time
Thanks for the feedback. I just purchased an MSI HQ-OLED, and the “burn in” worries I had have subsided.
Cool, Mr Moneybags. You can afford to be unwise with your money. I cannot. Most people aren't willing to pay an extra to get a monitor that only looks better if you turn the lights off and has about 1/8th the lifespan of an LCD that costs a quarter of the price and looks slightly better as long as you have lights on in your room.
@@awesomeferret Weird comment, man. I'm not "Mr. Moneybags," far from it. I just prioritize my hobbies and save for what I want. I also buy used; 55" LG OLED for $650 from Best Buy five years ago, $600 for the Alienware earlier this year. That's the cost of a console or a mid-tier GPU upgrade these days, for displays that I plan on keeping far longer than most people run the same GPU. Already gotten my money's worth out of the LG.
But if you disagree, that's perfectly fine. Buy whatever makes you happy. I was just sharing my thoughts on a technology that I'm excited about and has treated me well so far.
@@blaww89It’s interesting, because I’m in a situation where I’m about to buy a really nice monitor, probably buying new just because getting something right out of the box in mint condition is fun and exciting, and comes with less risk, and some people like the guy who gave you the snarky comment would probably likewise come at me for doing so, but the thing is, I’ve noticed a lot of these people in the tech/gaming pc space will buy parts, and then when the next series comes out they buy different parts, and then when the series after that comes out they buy different parts again, and so on. Constantly swapping things out, where even if they’re not buying at the high end they’re paying hundreds of dollars every couple years for incremental gains and barely using any one thing for any time at all. Personally, I just want to buy something good that’ll last me as long as possible, and once I have it I will happily use it indefinitely unless it breaks or becomes obsolete. No fuss, just enjoyment. I feel like that’s pretty reasonable.
Awesome series, please keep up
I have an LCD from 2020, and although they don’t suffer from burn in, the backlight is noticeably more uneven and has darker areas, lighter areas, browner areas.. if I move a window from left to right and watch the window, I see a lot of variation. So LCD is not immune from degradation over time either!
Yeah it is my only problem with my LG 34 ultrawide... Bad backlight bleeding, when i am watching dark scenes. On OLED, the black is black. Not grey.
@ that’s not really what my comment was about - it was about backlight degradation over time, and it becoming significantly obvious compared to when the monitor was new. What you described is still an LCD issue but bleeding is usually present when the monitor is new
Most likely it's the diffusion layer melting (physically), RTings is testing TV's and they exhibit the same issue
@@Arakkiinteresting! Same thing happened to my old Samsung tv. Developed a weird blur spot and some yellow spots. When people say LCD doesn’t burn in, it’s not totally true.
Thanks for the update
Thanks for another, as always, great video! Will there ever be a software update to Windows / Cleartype so that OLED will display text-characters as well as LCD? Br
What amazing informative video and analysis because I am thinking to switch oled from IPS for productivity. You are the best channel for monitors. hands down
Real question is why they didnt have another one running along side it, cloned. Running at half the brightness, say 100 nits and with all the regular OLED Care features enabled. That way we could see how it actually fares in more realistic scenarios compared to the deliberate one.
Because there wouldn't be any burn in for years lmao
Thanks Tim!!
Did you have the 3 month and 9 month locations swapped a time or two? With the enhancement filters? Watched this on several different screens and could barely see the 9 month burn in but the 3 month burn in looked properly bad. How bizarre. Thank you for the content!
Definitely reassuring. I just got the Alienware 3423DWF for Christmas and it will mostly be use for gaming with some productivity (at most 2 hours a day). Though I am still nervous about game UI contributing since games like World of Warcraft have static elements on screen constantly. At least it will have a 3 year warranty for burn in.
Sorry if this is a dumb question: what level of burn-in do you need in order to claim warranty? (And do companies even honor these warranty claims?)
Cheers Tim, thanks for your sacrifice.
9:01 I think that in fact, if you give it half the use that you give it, its useful life would be more extended, not only double, say a little more, burn in is basically overheating of the screen right? Using the monitor for 8 hours in a row really is a reason for high temperatures, plus this accumulates, but if you only use it for 4 hours in general it should remain in good condition much longer, or am I wrong? I am here to learn, if what I say does not make sense please correct me. Greetings
Burn in is not overheating. OLEDs(really any LEDs, but particularly OLEDs) degrade when current is applied, regardless of heat or not. That said, heat can accelerate the issue.
You are not going to see much higher temperatures after 8 hours compared to 4 hours anyhow.
Really interesting! That reminds me I've seen burn in significantly improve before. A few years ago I bought a second hand galaxy note 9 with noticeable burn in, but after I used it for a year or so the burn in practically completely disappeared so there's definitely some way to improve burn in.
Genius t-shirt!
Yeah, that's exactly what I expected...
Great video!
These videos put me at ease. I’ll be sleeping good tonight
Yep, I sleep good at night with my LCD.
The thing I am noticing from a lot of these videos is that burn in exists, but is only noticeable in certain use cases and at worst where static content is usually displayed on fringes of monitor it almost looks like it gets closer to a state of very mild "IPS glow" which usually exists on those panels from the first day you buy it.
I think it's almost a non-issue when most people live in a world where their TV's and older monitors always had uniformity issues due to backlight tech. The only reason people notice it is because they get used to the perfection that OLED offers from factory. It's not unusual to expect a product, whether it be the paint on your car, or the battery and oleophobic coating on your smartphone to degrade as it ages. Expecting OLED's to be perfect over the entire lifetime in that perspective is a bit unrealistic of an expectation.
Thanks for the informative updates on this! In completely unrelated news, I'm looking into mini LED backlit IPS monitors...
Thanks so much for doing this. Now I’m not too worried about upgrading my monitor to a oled. Just waiting for the 1k models to be more around 800.
I am a software developer, maybe it's better to stick to ips 😂
If early next year after 12 months of Tim stressing the crap out of QD-OLED things look about the same as they do now, I'll pull the trigger, because that'd be good enough for me. Thanks a bunch, Tim, for doing this!
Some people don't realize how fast the time flies. Starting to get faint burn in at only 9 months of owning expensive monitor sounds insane to me. And comment section is full of copium filled comments "oh yeah this is fine". Like, what? I'm a tech nerd and I never owned a monitor for less than 6 years. I usually keep them for 6-10 years. I think people got their reality twisted after watching countless youtubers and influencers unbox and "daily drive" new monitors every other month. This is not how normal people buy and use monitors. Monitor showed in this video will look abysmal after 6 years, where as something like 6 or 10 year old Dell UltraSharp still looks as good as the day you bought it (unless something catastrophic happened like logic board failure, which ofcourse OLED isn't immune to either).
MSI has a 3 year burn in warranty. This guy is testing this oled with extreme usage with high brightness so using this normally will have slight burn in with 3 years. That means you'll get 6 years total once you use the warranty replacement.
I'm looking to buy a new monitor sometime next year, quite afraid of burn in from my usage, but at the same time oled seems like the obvious choice.
I bought my Aorus AD27QD 6 years ago and it's been a terrible monitor, gets too hot, has really bad image retention and there has been a real lack of needed firmware updates from Gigabyte. I don't think 6 years is a long time for a monitor so I'm not only looking for a monitor that is better out of the box, but that I can still get use out of in some way a decade later. Your channel is really good at covering a wide range of monitors and doing important tests like this.
Sure it might be less than what you expected, but still... I'm still on a monitor I bought over a decade ago, and there's not a hint of burn in. This is a huge improvement over the CRT screens we used to have as those were likely to show some burn in within a decade, if they survived that long. Now as old as it is it's not a great monitor today. The big disadvantage is the refresh rate and text betting a bit blurry while scrolling. But it's a IPS monitor and that was one of the things I looked for when I bought it. It's also a 16:10 aspect ratio monitor instead of 16:9 which was something I really wanted. I still think 16:9 monitors are just to darned wide compared to their height. I have a few 4K displays and I just don't like them. I bought a 1440p monitor and it was just not for me. It had to high a PPI. Having counted on it a 32" 1440p screen should probably be about right for me. If I were to go 4K it would have to be over 40" to reach a decent PPI of about 100. But a monitor that big would either be hard to use or sit so long from me the PPI would need to be even lower. So say 50" screen, perhaps more.
Now about OLED... I want a monitor with the abilities of an OLED, but it can't have any tendency for burn in and it has to have a color layout that works with clear type features. I spend over 90% with static elements on the screen. I hate dark mode and I spend about 16 hours a day at my computer every day of the week.
So for the moment OLED is not for me. My next monitor will most likely be a 32" 1440p IPS monitor.
In what universe is a high PPI a bad thing? Is UI scaling not an option for you?
@@keppycs No it's not. The scaling in windows isn't really that good. It require that applications use the "right" way of handling text and a lot of them doesn't. Another thing is games where text are often presented in bitmap format and not always is scalable. besides my eye sight has a hard time handling text when the PPI goes above about 104 and my eyes are not getting younger. So I want to keep the PPI at no more than 100 if possible. My current monitor has a PPI of 94 if I remember correctly, and more than that is really not feeling good for me.
Some of the monitors/TVs with thousands of dimming zones seem like a decent OLED alternative if you are looking for that.
IMO, Oled is the type of luxury monitor you have on hand to play through your favorite games or watch favorite movies only. Mixed usage is prohibited to me. IPS does have its advantage (peace of mind) no doubt
@@blahorgaslisk7763 having had 4k 42 inch OLED now for a week. The text fringing is not visible to me. That is probably due to pixel density. If text clarity is important, I'd take 4k over 1440p any time (regardless of display technology).
Has anyone else noticed that auto hiding the taskbar doesn't actually hide it? There's still a line of pixels visible at the bottom. So even doing that won't prevent burn in, especially if you have apps with a colour in their taskbar button (or a loading/streaming indicator).
well done! 4 years and 3 months to go (what i expect a monitor to last as a minimum)
More like 9 years and 3 months...
@@mpauls85I've seen budget LCD monitors last longer than 15 years with 5 days a week heavy office use. They were eventually replaced, but only because they looked outdated. Picture quality was still like the day they arrived. There's a massive difference in longevity.
I've had my BenQ 144Hz since 2018. No burn in lol. Though it's just for the home server now. Still works!
Using this test still as a reference for my own use. Glad to see 9 months is no worse than 6 months.
My personal usage is a bit closer to the use here so definitely relevant. I use a lower brightness but almost exclusively light themes given the option. Even my task bar is light.
I feel my use is a bit lighter but still similar enough to be relevant. Will mostly wait for the 1 year mark to see if I upgrade my primary monitor to oled.