OLED gaming monitor shows minimal burn-in after 3,000 hours of daily use

OLED displays have come a long way in recent years and are now widely considered the best option for PC gaming and entertainment. From the near infinite contrast to the vibrant colors and per-pixel lighting, the "upgrade" over a traditional LCD panel is such that once you go OLED, it's hard to look back. However, burn-in, or image retention, has been a primary concern since the display technology was introduced and persists to this day.

Which is why it's always good to look at in-depth burn-in reporting for more modern OLED panels. YouTube channel and creator Optimum has put their LG UltraGear 32GS95UE-B dual-mode 32-inch OLED monitor to the test, reporting on the state of image quality with respect to burn-in after over 3,000 hours of use.

And even though there is some burn-in after this amount of time, with static objects on the screen as the culprits, the "damage" is barely visible. Optimum notes that they primarily used this display for three apps: Blizzard's Overwatch, and using DaVinci Resolve and Fusion 360 for creating video content.

After this amount of time, with the overall brightness set to around 85-100% the whole time, burn-in occurred on high-contrast static on-screen elements like the health bar in Overwatch and the scroll bars in editing software. However, the burn-in effect isn't noticeable during daily use and only becomes apparent when editing photos and using bright grey or blue single-color images. Turning off the pixel refresh option on the display (as it interrupts gaming and other tasks) is an interesting choice, as many panel manufacturers recommend leaving it on to prolong OLED display life and mitigate issues like image retention.

One interesting note is that Optimum discovered that after over 3,000 hours, the peak brightness of the display dropped from 262 nits to 258 nits - which is minimal. Even though there is evidence of burn-in, the real-world example shows that modern OLED display technology can last for years, even when you're not watching movies but using the same apps and playing the same games.