OLED Burn-In Test
Fill your screen with even grays and colours to spot burn-in and image retention on an OLED monitor, TV or phone. Free and instant.
How to test
- 01Turn the brightness up and look at the screen straight on.
- 02Press Start and step through the grays and colours.
- 03Look for faint shapes of things that usually sit still: the taskbar, a logo, a status bar, a game's HUD.
- 04If you see one, check again after the screen has been off for a few hours.
What burn-in looks like
OLED pixels make their own light, and each one dims slightly as it ages. Pixels that show the same bright element for hours (a taskbar, a channel logo, a game's health bar, a phone's status bar) age faster than their neighbours.
On an even gray, those worn areas show as a faint ghost of the element. On a solid colour, wear on one sub-pixel colour shows as a tinted patch.
Burn-in or image retention?
Image retention is temporary: a shadow of a recent static image that fades within minutes to hours. Many OLED monitors and TVs also run a short pixel-refresh cycle after they're switched off, which clears it.
Burn-in is permanent. The simplest way to tell them apart is time: if the shape is still there after the screen has been off overnight, it's burn-in.
Tips for an accurate check
- Test at high brightness in a dim room, looking at the screen straight on.
- Start with the 20–30% grays: they show most burn-in.
- Check the solid colours too, for colour-specific wear.
- Photograph a mark against gray, so you can see whether it changes over the following weeks.
What your result means
A faint shape that fades after a few hours off
Image retention: temporary, and common on OLED.
Nothing to worry about. Run the screen's pixel refresh if it has one.
A shape still there the next day
Burn-in: some pixels have aged unevenly. It's permanent.
Check your burn-in warranty; many recent OLED monitors include one.
Darker or tinted patches on gray
Uniformity variation (banding or vignetting), not burn-in.
Some variation is normal; heavy banding on a new screen is worth a return.
Even grays and colours everywhere
No visible burn-in.
Your screen passes.
How to fix it
OLED monitor or TV
- Run the built-in pixel refresh (often called Pixel Refresh, Panel Refresh or Pixel Cleaning) from the screen's menu. It helps retention, not true burn-in.
- Turn on the screen's own protections: pixel shift, logo dimming, screen saver.
- Hide static elements: auto-hide the taskbar, use a dark wallpaper that changes.
Phone
- Use dark mode and auto-brightness.
- Shorten the screen timeout so static screens don't stay on.
- If burn-in shows on a phone under warranty, contact the maker; burn-in coverage varies.
Questions
What's the difference between burn-in and image retention?
Image retention is temporary: a ghost of a static image that fades within minutes to hours. Burn-in is permanent: pixels have aged unevenly, so the shape is still there the next day.
Can burn-in be fixed?
True burn-in can't be undone by software or videos. Pixel refresh cycles can even out retention and slight unevenness. For real burn-in, the fix is a warranty claim.
Do LCD screens get burn-in?
Rarely. LCDs can show temporary image retention, but permanent burn-in is mainly an OLED and plasma issue.
Which colours show burn-in best?
Even mid and dark grays show most marks. Solid red, green and blue can show colour-specific wear.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The test runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you see, say or film is sent to us or stored anywhere.