Should you be worried about OLED burn-in? The increasing evidence is yes, but it's not catastrophic

The new LG UltraGear 32GS95UE is my favourite gaming monitor. It is, of course, OLED. And it's amazing. But for how long? With any OLED, there's the same niggling doubt. Will it wear out rapidly in normal PC usage?

OLED tech remains new enough for the answer to that to remain unclear. But the evidence is beginning to stack up. And it seems even the latest OLED panel tech does suffer from burn in. But it's not catastrophic.

The latest data points come from Monitors Unboxed and Rtings. The former has been running an informal test using an MSI MPG 321URX, the very same model that heads up some of our best gaming monitor guides.

The channel is now six months into its test, which involves using the panel as a primary productivity screen for all-day work duties. And the result? After one month, little to no burn-in was visible, after three months some light burn in could be seen, and after six months that burn in was a little bit more visible.

It's worth noting that the burn in noted by Monitors Unboxed was mild even after six months of heavy use in the region of 1,200 to 1,500 hours. It can only be seen when viewing large areas of certain dark colours. It doesn't show up against brighter backdrops. 

For the most part it's invisible. And even when it is visible, it's fairly subtle. But it is visible—and that's not something you'll typically have to put up with on an LCD monitor.

Meanwhile, Rtings has also been assessing burn in on a larger and more formal scale with 100 OLED panels on test running the CNN news channel 24/7. Rtings only has a trio of actual PC monitors in the test, with the remainder being TVs. 

They added the Dell Alienware AW3423DWF, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8/G85SB S34BG85, and the LG 27GR95QE-B in March 2023 and in the latest update in July this year had this to say: 

"As for the three monitors on this test, there's very little change over the last update. The CNN news banner is faintly visible on all three, but it's still relatively minor and not really noticeable with real content."

Again, there's definitely visible burn in. But again, it's only mild. What you'll make of all this is somewhat of a subjective call. Some may consider any visible burn in as unacceptable, especially considering how expensive these displays are. Others may deem it all good so long as it's not distracting.

For us, one remaining major concern involves the warranty. Pretty much all current OLED monitors, at least those from the big brands, come with three-year cover that includes burn in.

That's great, but it's not totally clear what constitutes burn in for warranty claim purposes. Will any given manufacturer replace your screen at the faintest sign of burn in? Or does it have to be pretty obvious?

And if the latter, will you find yourself a couple of years into ownership with a bit of burn, pondering whether to attempt an RMA? Might you even be in the odd position of hoping it gets worse before the warranty expires so that you can be confident of a claim? 

Ultimately, the status of OLED monitors remains in something of a limbo. Burn-in is definitely a problem, but it's not catastrophic and how much of an issue it is will vary from person to person. It's a subjective call. Which probably isn't the simple, declarative answer you were looking for—but it is the reality of the situation.