When do you have to fear about OLED burn-in on PCs? We requested an skilled
OLED displays had been far and wide at CES 2026, however in a reasonably thrilling means—if solely as a result of they’re one of many few issues not massively affected by RAM costs. And if anybody is aware of their OLEDs, it’s Tim Schiesser of {Hardware} Unboxed. Adam cornered him on the conference to ask about OLEDs and that implausible sequence of burn-in testing that the HUB staff has been doing for nearly two years now.
OLED burn-in is a critical fear for PC customers, particularly if you happen to’re planning on placing down lots of of {dollars} on one. The static nature of a pc’s consumer interface lends itself in direction of burn-in far more than, say, an OLED TV or telephone.
However is it one thing you should be involved about? Properly, that relies upon, in keeping with Tim. In the event you’re largely gaming, most likely not—it’d act extra like a TV than a monitor. However if you happen to use it for normal Home windows-style duties lots—50 % of the time or extra—then it could be an issue.
There are issues you are able to do to alleviate it. Use fullscreen apps and video games each time attainable. Disguise the Home windows taskbar (if you happen to don’t discover that annoying like Tim and I do). However the 2-to-3-year warranties in opposition to burn-in that include many OLED displays could be comforting. On high of that, most of them include new applied sciences and strategies which can be trying to alleviate burn-in points, like static picture and taskbar detection, localized dimming, that type of factor.
However there’s solely a lot you are able to do to keep away from burn-in for productiveness duties on an OLED, particularly if you happen to’re spending hours a day on that monitor. One of the promising new developments is presence detection within the newest displays. This has been round as a battery- and power-saving function for a very long time, however directing it in direction of preserving OLED panels is an attention-grabbing method that may do much more than the assorted band-aid approaches.
It might be a giant deal as OLEDs turn into an increasing number of standard for PC gaming, particularly as costs come down. However before you purchase one, you would possibly need to anticipate the following Displays Unboxed OLED burn-in check, which ought to be popping out quickly. And because you’re already headed to YouTube, why not subscribe to PCWorld for extra interviews and take a look at The Full Nerd for our weekly discussions on all issues tech?
