It has been 12 months since we started aggressively burning-in our 4K OLED monitor by utilizing it completely for productiveness work. With a full 12 months of utilization behind us, this marks an essential milestone, so it is time to verify in and see how the monitor is holding up. Is it horribly burnt in and fully unusable, or is it nonetheless faring moderately nicely regardless of how we have been utilizing it?
There have been no adjustments in how we have been utilizing our MSI QD-OLED. That’s, a worst-case situation for OLED utilization, utilizing the show largely for static content material, comparable to writing scripts, looking the online, modifying movies, and so forth. Consequently, there’s principally no content material consumption or gaming occurring on this show – the exact opposite of how we usually suggest folks use OLED panels.
For those who missed the earlier updates, we suggest going again and trying out no less than the preliminary article the place we clarify the setup we’re utilizing and why we determined to make use of MSI’s 4K 240Hz QD-OLED gaming monitor as our workstation show. The concept is to carry out a real-world check of OLED longevity within the worst potential configuration, successfully burning within the show on objective.
The Worst-Case OLED Utilization Situation
To see whether or not OLED displays can really be used as long-term LCD-equivalent productiveness shows, I personally swapped my workstation’s 32-inch 4K IPS LCD for this QD-OLED and adjusted nothing about my utilization – no darkish mode, no screensavers, nothing…
I exploit my monitor greater than 8 hours a day, and generally that utilization is steady, with no breaks for the show to show off and relaxation. This results in hours upon hours of static utilization – one thing that has been completely effective for LCDs for a very long time however is kind of dangerous on newer OLED screens.
The development up to now has been as follows:
- After one month and 200 to 250 hours of utilization, we noticed no indicators of burn-in.
- After three months, 650 to 750 hours of utilization, and 71 panel compensation cycles, we noticed faint indicators of burn-in.
- After six months, 1,200 to 1,500 hours of utilization, and 141 compensation cycles, burn-in was a bit extra noticeable than at three months however not overly problematic.
- At 9 months, 2,000 to 2,300 hours of utilization, and 224 compensation cycles, burn-in was nonetheless current however had modified comparatively little in comparison with six months.
12 Months Later: How Seen is Burn-In?
Now, at one 12 months of utilization, that is the state of play. The 321URX is reporting 322 compensation cycles, which aligns with our typical every day utilization, if barely greater than typical. At this stage, we estimate the panel has been used for between 2,700 and three,000 hours, which is 8 to 10 hours of utilization at 200 nits of brightness per compensation cycle. That is the equal of utilizing the show for eight hours a day, each single day, since we obtained it.
The really useful price for panel safety cycles is each 4 hours, so it is a significantly intense stress check. Not solely is the panel being utilized in a worst-case situation for static content material, nevertheless it’s additionally being run at a comparatively excessive brightness degree with no software program mitigations to attenuate burn-in (comparable to placing the show to sleep after a couple of minutes of inactivity) – all whereas working the panel safety cycle half as usually as really useful.
The one burn-in safety options enabled are a number of the display-side instruments, like dimming the show after a interval of inactivity. However it is a very sensible use case: it is precisely how we used an LCD earlier than switching to OLED.
Evaluating Burn-In Development Over Time
On this replace, we’re specializing in the three, 6, 9, and 12-month outcomes. Once more, we’re trying on the heart of the show, the place seen burn-in was famous in earlier months: a line down the middle of the display screen, most certainly resulting from frequent use of side-by-side functions.
The 12-month replace continues a stretch of comparatively excellent news. Burn-in continues to be remoted to the identical sorts of exams as in earlier months, largely affecting mid-to-dark gray check patterns. It stays primarily not possible to identify burn-in with brighter content material, comparable to functions that use a largely white background.
Nonetheless, in apps with a uniform darkish gray background, like Adobe Premiere, the road down the middle of the display screen could be seen at occasions. After 12 months of utilization, we hardly ever discover the road in on a regular basis use – it is seemingly my mind has simply tuned it out – but when I actively search for it, it is seen in darker apps.
The influence throughout the assorted subpixels stays comparatively unchanged. There isn’t any seen burn-in with the crimson subpixel, a faint however barely noticeable quantity with the blue subpixel, and a extra apparent quantity with the inexperienced subpixel. The inexperienced subpixel continues to be the first contributor to the burn-in seen in greyscale exams.
Month-over-month adjustments present that the vertical line was extra seen within the 12-month replace than at 9 months. Curiously, within the earlier replace, we discovered this line to be barely much less burned in at 9 months in comparison with 6 months, suggesting that the compensation cycle had decreased its visibility. Within the 12-month outcomes, the extent of vertical line burn-in is extra just like the 6-month mark than the 9-month mark, and normally barely worse than at 6 months. If we take the worst-case results of both the 6- or 9-month pictures, that is principally what the display screen appears to be like like after 12 months.
Taskbar burn-in has not progressed considerably in comparison with earlier months, even when utilizing the burn-in enhancement filter utilized in prior articles to focus on variations.
This filter creates a higher-contrast model for evaluation functions solely, so it doesn’t mirror how the monitor appears to be like in actual life. Like in earlier months, taskbar burn-in is tough to identify in real-world utilization as a result of the taskbar itself obscures the affected space. Even when viewing full-screen movies, burn-in is difficult to detect until the content material could be very uniform.
The fitting facet of the vertical line continues to turn out to be barely much less uniform and a bit darker than the remainder of the display screen, seemingly resulting from favoring snapping functions to the proper facet. Nonetheless, this side of burn-in is refined and much much less apparent than the vertical line itself in darker functions like Premiere and Photoshop.
Brightness stays unchanged after 12 months. We’ve recorded 243 nits at max brightness in each replace, and this month is not any exception. Sometimes, panel compensation cycles cut back brightness over time to deal with burn-in and preserve uniformity, however after 322 cycles, brightness stays unaffected.
The one noticeable influence is that the monitor is turning into very barely redder over time. This shift has resulted in round a 100K influence to white stability, dropping from roughly 6,450K when initially examined to six,350K now. This seems to be resulting from uneven ageing of the subpixels – there’s primarily no burn-in on the crimson subpixel, however extra on the inexperienced, which drags the colour stability towards crimson as inexperienced output diminishes.
How is the Burn Shaping Up?
The place do issues stand general after 12 months of deliberately burning in our OLED monitor? Panel degradation is progressing slowly, with outcomes just like or barely worse than at 6 and 9 months. The overall traits of the burn-in have not modified a lot – it stays largely confined to darkish gray check patterns – and whereas the vertical line and taskbar space are nonetheless seen in sure situations, the general influence stays minimal.
After 2,800 hours of use, it is no shock that burn-in has elevated because the 700-hour mark at three months. Nonetheless, the gradual price of burn-in has been a pleasing shock. Throughout many exams, solely minor adjustments have occurred regardless of a further 2,000 hours of use.
Burn-in is just not considerably impacting every day utilization, and the monitor stays near, although not fairly, a non-issue. The faint vertical line is seen in some darkish gray functions however is just not significantly distracting. Provided that we’ve got been subjecting this show to excessive situations, we anticipated to see extra burn-in on the one-year mark than we’re seeing right this moment.
If we extrapolate how burn-in would possibly progress after a further 12 months of utilization, we’re guessing that the panel will nonetheless be fairly usable after we verify again initially of 2026. In fact, we are going to proceed with common updates between every now and then, however we’re optimistic this MSI 321URX can have a degree of burn-in after 2 years that also is not distracting in on a regular basis use. We do not know the way it will carry out after 4 or 5 years, which is throughout the affordable lifespan of this kind of show, however 2 years should not be problematic – or so we hope.
We predict the outcomes we’re seeing are excellent news for folks with extra sensible utilization situations. 2,800 hours of use is equal to eight hours a day of static content material each single day for a 12 months, or 8 hours a day, 5 days every week, for 16 months.
Burn-in with OLEDs is immediately associated to hours of utilization and is cumulative. So in case you solely use static apps for 4 hours a day, it’s best to anticipate to see your lifespan double in comparison with what we’re suggesting right here. Mixing in dynamic content material between intervals of static content material normally will not enhance the burn-in outcomes – it is all associated to the cumulative variety of hours displaying the identical static content material on display screen.
Relative to our utilization situation, you may additionally see lifespan enhancements in case you run the monitor at a decrease brightness degree (under 200 nits), flip off the show extra steadily after inactivity (with a timer set under 2 hours), and use darkish mode in Home windows (we use gentle mode).
Working the compensation cycle extra usually – we run it each 8 to 10 hours on common, whereas each 4 hours is really useful – can even theoretically assist prolong the lifespan. Taking all these components under consideration, we imagine most individuals is not going to expertise important burn-in considerations utilizing an OLED, even for productiveness use, throughout the first two years, presumably two and a half years. That’s to say, the outcomes we have proven after 12 months are in all probability extra just like what you may see after 24 months or extra. That timeframe might prolong additional in case your OLED is primarily used for gaming.
We nonetheless imagine that 5 or extra years of use from a $1,000 monitor is cheap, so getting solely two to a few years with out important burn-in wouldn’t be acceptable. The way it fares past that timeframe stays unsure. Primarily based on our testing, these panels will seemingly survive a couple of years of regular use, and burn-in has not progressed as rapidly as we anticipated. Hopefully, the excellent news continues as we monitor progress all through 2025.
