OLED burn-in test

Four patterns that make retained images and uneven wear visible, with the speed and the field under your control.

Test mode

Every mode runs from elapsed time, so the interval you set is the interval you get on any display.

Shortcuts

←→: Previous / next field
Space: Play or pause
1–4: Switch test mode
H: Hide the controls
Esc: Leave full screen

Speed

2.0 s / field

Held at half a second or slower: the checkerboard inverts once per interval, and faster than that becomes flashing content.

What you are looking at

Burn-in Permanent uneven wear. It does not fade and no software reverses it.
Image retention Temporary. Clears on its own, or faster with a colour cycle.
On an LCD True burn-in does not occur. Retention can, and it is usually brief.

What this test can and cannot tell you

This shows you the patterns on which burn-in and image retention are most visible. It does not detect either one. There is no automatic burn-in detection in any browser, because a page cannot read the light coming off your panel.

It also cannot tell you which of the two you are looking at. That distinction is made by time, not by software: run the burn-in fixer, or leave the screen off overnight, and look again. A ghost that clears was retention. A ghost that survives is burn-in, and no software will remove it.

Nothing here can tell whether your display is OLED, LCD or anything else. If you see no variation at all on the grey fields, that is a good sign whatever the panel type.

More on this: what a browser cannot detect and how these measurements work.

How to run this test

Turn off adaptive brightness and any ambient light feature. Those change the panel level mid-test and hide a faint ghost.
Pick a test mode. Start with the solid colour cycle, then try the checkerboard flip if you suspect an edge you cannot quite see.
Set the speed. Two seconds a field suits a first pass; slow down to five or more when you are studying one area.
Go full screen and look specifically where static content lives: a taskbar, a status bar, a game HUD, a channel logo.
If you find a retained image, run the burn-in fixer and check again. What clears was retention; what stays is burn-in.

What a problem looks like

Image retention: A faint ghost of something recently on screen, which fades within minutes to hours or clears with a colour cycle. Temporary, and not damage. Almost everything people panic about on a new OLED is this.
Burn-in: A permanent ghost from uneven pixel wear. It does not fade, does not clear with a cycle, and no software can reverse it. Clearest on mid grey, and it often takes on a colour cast rather than being simply darker.
A band along one edge: Usually the ghost of a taskbar, dock or status bar that has sat in the same place for a very long time. The most common location for genuine burn-in on a monitor or a phone.
Uneven tint across a grey field: Large, soft, irregular variation is more likely panel uniformity than burn-in, especially on a big OLED television. Burn-in tends to have the shape of something recognisable; uniformity variation does not.
Nothing visible on any field: The good outcome. A faint retained image can be invisible on white and obvious on 50 per cent grey, so run the whole sequence before calling a panel clean.

What to do next

If something looks wrong, check it again in a normally lit room and from straight on, then check whether it appears on a second device. If it only happens on this screen and you are still inside the return window, that is the time to contact the retailer.

Questions people actually ask

Can a website detect OLED burn-in automatically?

No. A page cannot read what your panel is emitting, so it cannot find a retained image for you. What it can do is put up the specific patterns on which burn-in and retention are most visible, in a sensible order, and tell you what to look for.

Which test mode should I use?

Start with the solid colour cycle, which is the standard method. If you think you can see an edge but are not sure, switch to the checkerboard flip: a boundary that stays put while everything around it inverts is much easier to spot than one on a still field.

What is the difference between burn-in and image retention?

Retention is temporary and fades by itself, usually within minutes or hours, and a colour cycle speeds it up. Burn-in is permanent differential wear in the pixels. If a ghost survives a twenty minute colour cycle and a night switched off, it is burn-in.

Why will the speed not go below half a second?

Because the checkerboard mode inverts once per interval, and anything faster than about two flips a second starts to count as flashing content. This page is not gated for that, so the floor keeps it comfortably below the threshold.

Can burn-in be fixed?

Permanent burn-in cannot be reversed by any software, including the pixel refresher built into televisions. Those features redistribute wear and clear retention; they do not restore pixels that have already aged. Temporary retention clears readily.