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OLED tech gets better every year
Built in pixel shifts and better hardware is making burn-in on OLEDs a lot more comparable to the normal amount of burn-in LCDs and plasmas experience
If you can afford it, OLED everytime for everything imo
Not quite everything.
Garmin has transflective screens for their watches that are not only better on the battery life, but become MORE visible in sunlight. Resolution is not nearly as good but I think for an exercise/health device that’s acceptable. For some reason though, probably because the amoled screens look nicer in the store, those are considered “premium”.
I think eink for any significant reading instead of OLED. Boox has an android tablet with a color screen, even though the colors are washed out looking. Eink is easier on my eyes for reading books and I’m hoping to get that tablet for reading Lemmy too since I end up looking at the screen so long.
OLED for pretty much everything else. Though the black smearing was slightly annoying in VR, the switch to LCD lost a lot with the blacks not looking black, more like gray. I hope they switch back to OLED.
This is the reason I’m still using my old Pebble Time Steel. Garmin is the only one producing quality watches with transflective displays, and I don’t like their OS :(
I miss my Pebble Time Steel, but then I found the Amazfit Bip.
That same lovely transflective screen, and overall smaller and lighter than any of the Pebbles - and a 45 day battery life. (Yep. About 6 weeks between charges.)
And the latest versions switched to OLED for god knows what reason. Like there aren’t enough oled smartwatches.
It can’t respond to messages, though, right?
There’s a lot of things that one can do that the other can’t. They both have trade-offs for hardware and software.
For specifically that… I don’t know. Probably not?
Yeah if you are a regular consumer the software in their watches is a bit disappointing, but you get used to it. For example, they JUST added pictures to notifications, and you still can’t type a response to texts, just a few premade responses.
If you’re a programmer, it’s even more frustrating. I struggled to write a weight lifting app on Samsung’s Tizen, but I was eventually successful. Not so much with Garmin. Garmin does not allow for SQL databases (just key value pair), and worse, they give such a small amount of space to save data it’s almost worthless. I think with mine, one of their top end watches, they give like enough space for me to save a few hundred sets. Sounds like a lot but it’s basically like ten visits to the gym and then it would have to delete stuff. They do have another method, but I was unable to figure out how to work with their fit files.
So yeah they make great watches but I wish they would put some time in to make the user and programmer experience a bit better.
I’m confused, and I suspect it’s from limited understanding here, but smartwatches are typically paired with a phone, so wouldn’t it make more sense to offload dataset handling like you’re describing to the smartphone than any onboard storage/memory in the watch?
Or is that part of the odd jank of some smartwatch systems atm that they don’t interoperate like that?
Yes it’s true I could probably do it that way, but what I want in a fitness watch is a phone replacement while working out. For example, I don’t carry my phone on a run. For weight lifting, with my old Samsung, I just left my phone in my locker and used my app to record the weight lifting I was doing. I could switch back to a workout I hadn’t done in a year and see what I was lifting then. I never even thought about my phone, accidentally leaving it at the bench, or worrying about damaging it. It’s really freeing to just get away from the phone for a while.
My point was just agreeing with the previous comment that, while Garmin makes a great watch, their software could be improved. The limitations they put in are also somewhat arbitrary. I have plenty of storage for songs and podcasts, so a couple MB of data storage should totally be fine.
Ooh, I see now. It wasn’t clear from the previous comments that you were wanting to use it apart from your phone, which is why I asked. I’ve helped someone with a Garmin watch before and I definitely agree that their software could be improved from the little I experienced of it.
I have been hearing this for years now and all OLEDs still burn in like crazy from normal use on phones. They are probably great for people who like to needlessly upgrade every few years, but I’m not sold on them anymore.
I’ve had the same OLED screen daily driver since the first week of 2018, no burn in or any other problems.
They’re not all bad.Been using amoled for few yrs now, on my previous and current phone. Have never experienced any burn in or heard any burn in complaints on mobile before. Don’t know what was your experience but its definitely exaggerated.
AMOLED phone from 2014 with no burn in. Had to replace some components to keep it alive, screen is still original.
I think it has to do with brightness. I only turn it up when I’m in the sun.
I’ve had OLED phones since the Nexus 5 and have only had burn-in once, which was on the Nexus 5. It was due to me enabling the dev option to never turn the screen off. After 2 weeks of the screen being on 24/7 there was burn-in from the top bar.
The Nexus 5 did not have an OLED screen.
Nor did the Nexus 5x that followed it. I’m not sure about the first Pixel, but the Pixel 2 had AMOLED and mines still going strong, no burn in or screen issues of any kind, even despite me prying it off a couple of times to replace both the battery and usb port.
I still use my Pixel 3a, bought in summer 2019. Maybe there’s some burn in, but I really don’t notice it in day to day use. If I don’t go looking for it, it’s all right…
Yeah my C9 just passed 6000hours of use and still looks amazing, tbh wish plasma was more popular in the day, still use my pioneer 50" plasma from 2008 in the living room. All the lcds I bought have weird backlight or pixel issues after 3 years
I vote that the next generation of computer monitors bring back the degauss button.
Even if it’s a fake effect, I’d still buy the first flatscreen that does this.
I been using oled for years on phones/laptops… never noticed any burn in. The issue seems like a chronically online nitpicking more than anything that a real user will encounter.
I was under the impression that this was only really an issue when they first introduced OLED. And doesn’t really affect the current gen
it can affect current Gen, it’s just way harder to the point it doesn’t really matter.
My nexus one had an OLED display iirc, thing had huge volumes of burnin after 12 months.
I’ve not seen burnin on any of my subsequent devices, my S10+ is still going strong since 2019. Shame about the Samsung soc.
For how long do you use your phones? If you have an OLED android phone you’ll definitely get burn in where the status/notification bar is. If you get a new phone every 2 years you won’t notice it. I’ve got it after around 4 years.
I’ve got a Samsung Note 9 from Sept 2018 (I checked the serial number) with an AMOLED screen and no burn in. I have turned off the always on display and spend a fairly normal amount of time on it. Not sure if I’m just lucky.
Got an s9. It’s got some globe from its previous owner and two bars from me. It’s not a big deal really.
I have burn in on my s8+
Had my phone for a few years now, no burn in yet.
I have a halo around my front camera, but no status bar burn in
You don’t use your phone with static elements for as long as you use your monitor.
What are you talking about? My phone has an average screen on time of 7 hours a day and the status bar is literally a permanently static element. So are the three software buttons for home back and app switch. But they still don’t burn in
What do you do in your life that your phone screen is for 7 hours straight? I guess you’re just imagining things.
Also, while I don’t know which phone you have, stock Android changes the status bar constantly. For example, you scroll your Insta feed and it’s light grey with dark grey icons. You tap on a video and now it’s black with light grey icons. Then you switch to Maps and now it’s semi-transparent and each pixel changes every time you move the map around.
Button bar on the bottom also changes non stop together with app theme. And button icons change all the time. Android doesn’t have a single static element on the screen. And you NEVER keep screen on for 7 hours straight. It is completely different to office or industrial work. Heck, even my IPS gets a temporary burn-in (ghosting) all the bloody time!
You can check LTT video about LG TV Linus was using for work. He was so happy about it at first. One year later - it’s a total burnt garbage.
Which doesn’t make sense still unless you play games with no hud. It’d take 1 Factorio session to burn in
To be fair, my Factorio sessions are days long because I just get too addicted.
If you play factorio the burn in wouldn’t matter because you don’t need anything than the factorio ui!
The factory must grow!
Serious question, why not? Do they produce some harmful flicker or something?
burn in with static ui elements - The idea is, that regular very different images reduces the risk.
Static UI elements you say?
Like games have?
Yea, but people don’t play the same game non-stop for 8 hours… actually, never mind.
Some screens have pixelshifting to mitigate this. Also, burn in doesn’t happen as quickly as you might think.
Now, you wouldn’t want to go using an OLED for a billboard.
So the same issue we’ve always had with crt, lcd, and plasma.
Actually a different issue. With CRTs and plasma, burn-in would actually burn an image into the phosphors of the screen.
OLEDs will slowly burn out after continued use, usually starting with the blue LEDs, giving a similar appearance, but not exactly the same (for example, you can only see the image persistence when displaying an image).
LCDs don’t have either issue, but sometimes crystals can get stuck in a specific orientation, leading to (usually temporary) image retention. Gets worse in very cold weather. This is rare, though.
Doesn’t QD OLED fix this? Because the actual OLED part of it is only the backlight, then color filters produce the other colors
I don’t have personal experience with it, so I don’t want to talk out of my ass.
So the parts of the screen that rarely ever change might be burned in…with the image of the thing that is almost always in that spot anyway…
But OLED dark mode looks so much better!
I just watched the RTINGS video on burn-in and understand the repurcussions of my flippant attitude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa7V_OOu6B8
Interesting watch. She recommends only use the monitor for gaming, but NYEH!
That was a cool video. But if it takes over 5000 hours of time on. I doubt that as a regular user you’re going to see any significant or noticeable degradation but after several years. 5000 is just 208 days, but it has to be continuous and severe. More realistically, with off time and varied usage, the effect will never be as dramatic as with testing. So, it doesn’t sound like something critical. CRTs were worse and people coped just fine. Just use your monitor.
Sounds like it’s time to break out the bouncing word screensaver again.
With my old plasma tv if I ever started to notice burn in I would set it to a channel with no signal so it would do the static “snow”. It forces every pixel on the screen to go full spectrum by alternating between white and black. Leaving it like that for like 5-10 mins would greatly reduce noticeable burn in. TV is still going strong after 14 years of doing this.
That’s a genius use for static
Newer OLEDs are also far less susceptible to burn in than older generations, I think much of the concern is still stigma from earlier models.
With that said, I’m sure I am not alone in saying I have a rather old OLED that I’ve just used as a normal every day monitor and haven’t experienced any issues in the 6+ years I’ve had it.
I have a newer OLED and the pixel layout is trash for text.
It’s beautiful when gaming or watching video though. So it balances out imo
Yeah plasma had the same issue, by the time I even heard about it everyone said it was awful for burn in. But that wasn’t true at all buy mid 2000s
If you work 8 hours a day from home and then do a couple of hours of browsing, your 5000 hours will expire in two years. That’s a bloody joke to buy a new monitor every two years! And don’t get me started on that fucking pentile layout…
TLDR: I took the plunge on OLED TV in 2021 as a primary monitor and it’s been incredible
I’ve been using an LG C1 48" OLED TV as my sole monitor for my full-time job, my photography, and gaming since the start of 2021. I think it’s at around 3000 hours of screen time. It averages over 10 hours of on time per weekday
It typically stays around 40 brightness because that’s all I need, being fairly close to my face the size. All of the burn-in protection features are on (auto dimming , burn-in protection, pixel rotation) but I have Windows set to never sleep for work reasons.
Burn in has not been a thing. Sometimes, I leave it on with a spreadsheet open or a photo being edited overnight because I’m dumb. High brightness and high contrast areas might leave a spot visible in certain greys but by then, the TV will ask me to “refresh pixels” and it’ll be gone when I next turn the TV on. The task bar has not burned in.
Experience for work, reading, dev: 8/10
Pros: screen real estate. One 48" monitor is roughly four 1080p 22" monitors tiled.The ergonomics are great. Text readability is very good especially in dark mode.
cons: sharing my full screen is annoying to others because it’s so big. Video camera has to be placed a bit higher than ideal so I’m at a slightly too high angle for video conferences.
This is categorically a better working monitor than my previous cheap dual 4k setup but text sharpness is not as good as a high end LCD with retina-like density because 1) the density and 2) the subpixel configuration on OLED is not as good for text rendering. This has never been an issue for my working life.
Experience with photo and video editing: 10/10
Outside of dedicated professional monitors which are extremely expensive, there is no better option for color reproduction and contrast. From what I’ve seen in the consumer sector, maybe Apple monitors are at this level but the price is 4 or 5x.
Gaming: 10/10
4K 2160p120hz with 3ms lag, perfect contrast and extremely good color reproduction.
FPSs feel really good. Anything dark/horror pops A lot of real estate for RTSs Maybe flight sim would have benefited from dusk monitor setup?
I’ve never had anything but a good gaming experience. I did have a 144hz monitor before and going to 120 IS marginally noticable for me but I don’t think it’s detrimental at the level I play (suck)
Reviewers had mentioned that it’s good for consoles too though I never bothered
Movies and TV: 10/10 4K HDR is better than theaters’ picture quality in a dark room. Everything I’ve thrown on it has been great.
Final notes/recommendations This is my third LG OLED and I’ve seen the picture quality dramatically increase over the years. Burn-in used to be a real issue and grays were trashed on my first OLED after about 1000 hours.
Unfortunately, I have to turn the TV on from the remote every time. It does automatically turn off from no signal after the computers screen sleep timer, which is a good feature.
This TV has never been connected to the Internet… I’ve learned my lesson with previous LG TVs. They spy, they get ads, they have horrendous privacy policies, and they have updates which kill performance or features… Just don’t. Get a streaming box.
You need space for it, width and depth wise. The price is high (around 1k USD on sale) but not compared with gaming monitors and especially compared with 2 gaming monitors.
Pixel rotation is noticeable when the entire screen shifts over a pixel two. It also will mess with you if you have reference pixels at the edge of the screen. This can be turned off.
Burn in protection is also noticable on mostly static images. I wiggle my window if it gets in my way. This can also be turned off.
Thank you for such a detailed writeup of your experience. I have twin 32 curved LCDs and one frame is starting to crack so I’ve been mulling over my options.
I’m in terminals all day long for work, videos and games when I have some downtime. It sounds like an OLED TV is going to be the ticket for me. I’ve been hesitant because the perceived loss of real estate losing a whole display, but that’s clearly more mindset and habit than reality.
Sharing is a concern, I do a lot with coworkers and customers, but I’m sure I can find a way around that. Even if it’s something silly like a VM that I run shares out of. Just sharing single windows won’t do the trick as I’m often sharing a web UI alongside terminals and notes.
Well I literally just ordered an ultrawide OLED for work, but I guess I’ll have to play some games then to protect the monitor…
Should this be a concern for my steam deck acquisitions?
No. Check out the video of the guy who left his Switch OLED on nonstop for a year. Expect similar results from the Steam Deck. (Spoiler: You have nothing to worry about.)
Great, I’ll just be concerned by the price tag then
Have 48" oled as my main monitor only 2 1/2 years old and 4500 hours, no burn in yet but tbh my last lcd monitor burned in quicker (was an ultrawide had a line down the middle after a couple years from split screening windows). When It does I don’t think I’ll mind, was the cheapest upgrade from my last monitor with all features I wanted
I think people who can afford oled will be able to afford a new one 2 years later when it burns in.
I want oled TV just because I get a ginormous screen for like totally acceptable prices. I dont need 2 monitors or whatever.
Welcome to like… a decade ago?
Just one decade? Screensavers were literally invented for this.
Screensavers were invented for vacuum tube televisions. Lmao
I meant OLED burn in specifically but I suppose a screensaver would technically work, although I prefer the pixel shift hack available on some devices. Does stuff like draw status bar icons with a dithering pattern and swaps the on pixels with their off neighbors. Dunno if it actually works as intended though. The phone that had it got destroyed.
I use an LG C1 as my primary display now. After Rtings video and data on burn in there’s no need for FUD.
Even if I were to use my display for 6 hours a day for 3 years only watching CNN, which is a crazy test, the burn in is minimal. Rtings results. And the LG C2 basically has none, which shows how much better tech has gotten.
Unlike CRTs, OLEDs don’t burn in. They burn out. So you can even out the wear and mitigate it. As long as you run compensation cycles for TFT layer retention it’s fine. You can notice the whole screen shifts a pixel at times, but it’s not often (once every hour?). I use an all-black screensaver that kicks in after 5 minutes.
I wouldn’t trust Samsung’s code though. They don’t run maintenance cycles sometimes. Maybe you can fix it by being on top of when Samsung fails to do it manually, but it’s good knowing this LG will probably last me yet another couple of years. And by then, I’ll probably want a better TV/monitor anyway.
Phones don’t have all these features IIRC. TVs are built for longer use. Maybe that’s intentional.
Modern OLEDs are way less prone to burn in than the first ones. Now it’s only really an issue if you’re holding the same image for days on end
Nor for gaming, nor for video… Basically, LCD all the way.
