oled burn-in question? Will running Waze down a long straight road burn a car into my screen?

Question

Level 1

11 points

oled burn-in question? Will running Waze down a long straight road burn a car into my screen?

I have a 6s, and of course I'm considering buying an 8 or X. My question is about Oled burn-in. Apple is being very vague, e.g. "extended use", "lower the intensity", etc. My question (probably too soon for a definitive answer) is whether e.g. running Waze on a long, straight drive (for those who don't use it, Waze is a car GPS that has a simplistic screen where the car icon, the road icon and a blue area to the sides would be centered for a long time in more or less the same pixel space. Also, it will be at full intensity since it is meant to be seen clearly in full daylight) ruin my screen forever? Like with a ghost car in the center? And, many Oled TVs claim they can cure burn-in by running an anti-burn program, but some non-Apple phones seem to occasionally develop "permanent" burn in. Apple, if you are reading this, can you give me some more specific reassurances? I use my phone a lot as a GPS in my car, and frankly I would be justifying the higher price on the assumption that a X (no! sorry! its AN X) will last at least 3 years, compared to 2 for the older models (although my 6s is fine after 2 1/2, so I can wait a bit before making a decision.)

iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.3

Posted on Nov 5, 2017 8:59 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Nov 5, 2017 9:42 AM in response to nex02

The reality is we won't know until more people have used iPhone X in the wild for a bit of time. Apple did publish a mild warning that keeping a static image up on an OLED screen for an extended time, could cause minor burn-in, but they also said it would in the long term not detract from the gorgeous screen overall.

Because I am aware that burn-in is a common symptom of OLED technology, I personally won't keep a static image on my screen for an extended time. If I were you, and I used Waze in your car, I would lower the brightness of the screen.

Reply

Answer 2

Nov 5, 2017 10:08 AM in response to nex02

Any display technology - CRT, LCD or OLED can experience burn in when a truly static image is left displayed for very long periods of time (it also has nothing to do with the display intensity setting).

That is different from transient image retention though (which is far more common and what people often mean when they refer to image burn in), which disappers once the screen changes for awhile afterwards.

Modern OLED displays like TVs (I have a 2017 model LG OLED TV) use firmware code to subtly shift or jitter the image regularly to avoid true image burn in. I don’t know if the specs for the iPhone X display use that sort of thing, but honestly, I’d be surprised if it did not as such burn in protection firmware is pretty standard on OLED displays of all sizes.

Mild image retention will disappear on its own once you start displaying anything different on the screen again.

So unless you’re driving continuously for days with Waze on 24/7 and never once changing to a different app or display, or sleeping the screen while eating or sleeping, I wouldn‘t worry about it.

Quite honestly, now that we’ve had OLED TVs and smart phone displays in regular sales and use around the world for 5-10 years, the whole concern about image burn in is over hyped quite a bit. The iPhone X is not the first high end smart phone to use an OLED display, and the other makes and models that use them don’t seem to have issues with burn in and normal use (and turn by turn nav on a smart phone would certainly qualify as normal use).

Reply