Although OLED technology offers vivid and sharp colors with deep blacks, it is prone to burn-in in the long term (three to five years), leaving, in some cases, the screen completely unusable, since it can be more expensive to repair it than acquire a new one.
This happens because each pixel on the OLED panel of your monitor or TV is made up of organic compounds that emit light when electricity passes through them. Over time, these organic materials degrade and the process accelerates when you have the screen on for many hours.
However, to stop deterioration, there are a series of tricks that you can apply to take care of the panel in the best possible way:
How to prevent your OLED panel from burning
If you take these precautionary measures, the OLED screen of your monitor or TV will remain in perfect condition for more years.
– Use pixel refresh: This function is a scan performed by the device to detect which pixels are the most damaged or have image retention. Then proceed to reset the diodes back to normal to prevent them from burning out.
Pixel updating is done automatically by the monitor or TV, but you must enable the function for it to start. The step by step may change slightly depending on the model and brand, but you can almost always find the tool like this:
Go to “Settings” – “All settings” – “Picture” – “OLED panel settings” – “Pixel Refresh”.
– Activate “Pixel Shift”: Also known as pixel shifting, this tool moves pixels to prevent the retention of static elements such as logos, screen savers, video game HUDs, etc. The function works in the background and does not cause any hassle.
To use Pixel Shift, do the following: go to “Settings” – “All settings” – “Picture” – “OLED panel settings” and activate the switch for the Pixel Shift option.
– Be careful with static images: You should be careful with long-exposed static images on an OLED display because this increases the chances of the panel burning in and retaining the image.
This way, if you are using your monitor and you are going to be away for several minutes, do not leave the screen on, turn it off so that the static image is not recorded in the pixels. The same thing happens if it is a paused game or any other image that does not have movement, always turn off the panel so that it is not damaged.
– Lower the brightness: Although the brightness of OLED displays has increased over time, it is not a good idea to use maximum brightness or set a high percentage (between 80 and 90%). High brightness requires higher voltage, which results in greater wear and tear on the panel because the pixels will consume more electricity.
When it comes to the OLED panel of your monitor or TV, it is best that the brightness does not exceed 75%, although if the room is dimly lit, 50% will be sufficient.
– Change the screen saver: This applies to OLED monitors, the usual thing about working on the computer is that you open small windows, so your desktop background will be seen. So, because activities on the PC are more static, the OLED panel could start to retain your background image over time.
For this reason, it is advisable to change the background at least once a week so that it does not become recorded on the panel. You can also set a screen saver to prevent static images when you are not using your computer.
