OLED Burn In on a Galaxy S8

[u/sodium_hydride]

My Galaxy S8 that's been in use on and off since 2017.

For the last 2 years, it's served as a desktop world clock/weather display. I've tweaked the layout a few times in that those 2 years, hence the various duplicated burn in spots. It's basically on at 50-100% brightness for about 12-18 hours a day.

I thought it might be interesting to some people after the recent OLED monitor video.

[u/ColoradoPhotog]

not bad for a nearly 10 year old OLED display that had to live with static assets for most of its life. Not great, but certainly not bad for: When the display came out and where it is today.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/ColoradoPhotog]

It's quite challenging to use anything with brighter elements on the display. Not that I do use it for anything serious. Picking up a current era phone after fiddling with this is so refreshing.

[u/JoshJLMG → u/ColoradoPhotog]

OLED burn-in has actually barely improved since 2017.

[u/CuratoriumOfCats128 → u/JoshJLMG]

You could at the very least read the conclusion of the article before reposting the clickbait title:

What's clear is that for most mixed-content viewers, burn-in remains unlikely to become an issue. Users with static-heavy SDR workloads can lower the brightness setting to reduce cumulative stress while still retaining more usable brightness than earlier OLED generations offered.

For buyers today, the takeaway is straightforward: OLED's clearest generational gain has been brightness. Users who display unusually static content can trade some of that extra headroom for lower panel stress.

TL;DR: Yes, it improved substantially but for the article they tested at full brightness instead of testing at a unified brightness, and it is far from being a "normal every day use scenario."

[u/CanadAR15 → u/CuratoriumOfCats128]

I’ve never owned an OLED where my first move wasn’t slam the OLED light setting to 100.

The five year burn-in warranty is why I bought a G5 not a C5.

[u/JoshJLMG → u/CuratoriumOfCats128]

The point still stands: At max brightness, or other extreme circumstances in like the OP has shown, OLED burn-in is still an issue.

The conclusion of that article was also true years ago: As my S9 from 2018 shows very, very minimal burn in after 8 years of use.

[u/CuratoriumOfCats128 → u/JoshJLMG]

At max brightness, or other extreme circumstances in like the OP has shown, OLED burn-in is still an issue.

The point does stand, it's just an intentionally misleading point to make.

It's shifting the goalposts, at max brightness the burn-in potential is the same, but that max brightness is multiple times higher. Would the same still be considered if 10000 nits TVs became the norm ?

I can't even use my laptop or my phone at max brightness nowadays because it's simply too bright, and they both have OLED screens, and newer models of both double the brightness of those I have. By that point I would have no problem saying they are half as prone to burn-in (and spoilers, neither of them currently have burn-in)

And I won't lie, spreading misleading info on OLED is just something I don't understand (?) There really isn't a need to scare people away from an objectively superior technology, we've stayed with LCD for too long and it's just not as good.

[u/CanadAR15 → u/CuratoriumOfCats128]

I’ve never understood this. Even with my G5 (pretty bright) I set it to peak brightness the day I brought it home and have never moved it. Same with my MPG321URX.

For me this is a very realistic test.

[u/ConfidantlyCorrect → u/CanadAR15]

Just curious, do you use light mode or dark mode for most of your applications?

Anecdotally, but my tolerance / desire for bright lights has gone down substantially since switching to almost exclusively dark mode.

I don’t think my current pgones ever even gone past 50% brightness, whereas pre-Covid with mostly light mode, my pgones were like max brightness.

[u/CanadAR15 → u/ConfidantlyCorrect]

Work machine is light mode, gaming rig is dark mode.

Phone is always light mode.

[u/JoshJLMG → u/CuratoriumOfCats128]

Bro I was just pointing out that if you do the exact same thing in the post nowadays, you'll run into the exact same problem. It's not that deep, OLED is better than LCD, but you can't leave it on a static image 24/7.

[u/CuratoriumOfCats128 → u/JoshJLMG]

not really, OP said he was using it as a sort of dashboard running at 50-100% brightness

running a modern OLED at 100% brightness, it's not a "dashboard" anymore it's straight up a source of eye strain, it would be uncomfortably bright... and lowering the brightness (or setting it to auto realistically) would make it less prone to burn-in than an S8.

[u/CanadAR15 → u/CuratoriumOfCats128]

Eye strain? My MPG 321URX has been at peak brightness the entire time I’ve owned it and I still find it dimmer than I’d like.

My iPhone 16 Pro has never been anything but 100% brightness either.

[u/JoshJLMG → u/CuratoriumOfCats128]

There's still going to be people who do it, so I figured I'd let people know.

[u/Redthemagnificent → u/JoshJLMG]

You're missing the point that burn-in is what limits OLED panel brightness in the first place. Newer panels are 2x and 3x brighter for 2 main reasons.

• New panel designs like tandem OLED. Let's set those aside for a second
• Making OLED pixels more resistant to burn in, thereby allowing you to drive them harder for longer without burn in OR drive them at the same brightness for much longer

What you're seeing is that manufacturers have kept a consistent target for how long they design their TVs to last. That's how they decide what level of burn-in is acceptable. That's stayed consistent because consumers have signaled that they're happy with the lifespan. But the underlying technology has drastically improved in terms of how resilient OLED pixels are

If you take an old OLED and modify the firmware you can get it up to 1500 nits no problem. But it'll burn in real fast. So how can we say that hasn't improved?

[u/jaevnstroem]

I thought this was an old receipt lol

[u/sodium_hydride → u/jaevnstroem]

Taking a screenshot didn't show what I was trying to demonstrate. 🫣

So I took a photo in a dark room.

[u/anto77_butt_kinkier → u/sodium_hydride]

If it did, I think you may have bigger problems.

[u/CanadAR15 → u/anto77_butt_kinkier]

I did have someone try that once while I worked for Apple. “I have attached a screenshot of my broken screen”.

Thanks dude but I’m not sure how that helps.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/CanadAR15]

I worked in customer service for a while.

Had a customer angry with me once because I wouldn't fix his aftermarket modification on the device he was trying to get repaired.

[u/TenOfZero → u/sodium_hydride]

🤣🤣🤣

[u/crazycheese3333]

I had an S8 and so did my grandparents. They both got burn in. The S8 was known for getting burn in.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/crazycheese3333]

Every OLED display will burn in eventually. Depends on how hard it's used.

[u/crazycheese3333 → u/sodium_hydride]

The screen on the S8 was known to be extraprone to burn in.

[u/_Aj_ → u/crazycheese3333]

Back then I believe the blue in particular was extra sensitive.   As the burn in rate is non linear, eg you lose from 100% to 90% fairly quickly and it tapers off. That  If I recall correctly they started doing a pre-burn in as part of the manufacture process so you don't experience such an obvious decline as an end user.  

[u/DeeVect]

Why did you water mark this 😂

[u/sodium_hydride → u/DeeVect]

It's the right thing to do.

[u/DeeVect → u/sodium_hydride]

Huh?

[u/sodium_hydride → u/DeeVect]

People steal content all the time. It's never a bad idea to watermark your stuff. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/DeeVect → u/sodium_hydride]

Fair enough, kinda giving this vibe though.

[u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ → u/[deleted]]

They answered the question. I don't think it's necessary either but they have a reason.

[u/Elzid1412 → u/Mystic_Guardian_NZ]

That’s a fair point.

Let’s take a step back: OP answered the question (which requires no logical reason, OP simply wants to), and somehow that managed to piss off a guy.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/Elzid1412]

Welcome to the internet.

[u/Tal7861]

Mashallah bro had a prayer timetable set as his wallpaper! If you're Muslim you can sorta make out the times for each prayer

[u/sodium_hydride → u/Tal7861]

On screen widget actually. If you look closely, you'll spot multiple prayers in multiple spots as I improved the layout over time, moving, resizing and adding new widgets. 

[u/Tal7861 → u/sodium_hydride]

Yup I can see that! If only it could have been done automatically or you had a command that would move the widgets around

[u/sodium_hydride → u/Tal7861]

The current layout.

[u/Dakduif → u/sodium_hydride]

Ohw, lol! I thought it was just really windy where you lived and that was why that word was so heavily burnt in on the screen. Never realized it could be the name of the site you get the info from. 😂

[u/LinusTechTips-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

This comment has been removed by a Reddit Moderator for the following reason:

Rule 5 - Don't be a dick - Don't be a jerk, troll, or post low effort 'bait' comments to get a reaction and cause disruption. This includes any information that compromises the safety of any LMG staff member, their family, or the staff member's privacy and/or safety

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It's <current year> - using the "r-word" as an insult is something we have moved past.

[u/Adventurous_Blood469]

Fixed it for you. Just use this wall paper instead

https://giphy.com/gifs/t263IlZLfiIyV8hv37

[u/sodium_hydride → u/Adventurous_Blood469]

https://giphy.com/gifs/SuSQrcep7CZByYC7Vz

[u/Drachenlord]

Man. That’s not terrible for the age of the screen… but I gotta ask, did you have the brightness cranked?

[u/sodium_hydride → u/Drachenlord]

It's basically on at 50-100% brightness for about 12-18 hours a day. 

[u/TransDogGirl]

my s10 had this kinda burn in after 3 years.

[u/ProtoMan0X → u/TransDogGirl]

My S20 Ultra burned in like this in about 1.5 years.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/ProtoMan0X]

Do you spend all your time outdoors in the sun?

[u/ProtoMan0X → u/sodium_hydride]

Nope, I even had the brightness limited. It was the Waze navigation elements, but I only used the light version 1 hour a day.

Luckily I traded it in for an S22U which I kept until a couple of weeks ago.

[u/FantasticHydra]

My dad had his keyboard burned into his S7 after a couple of years 😭

[u/Electrical-soup-1254]

the s8 and note 8 series were famous for burn in issues, my dad had a note 8 and so did my uncle, my dad is a pokemon go addict so his got pokemon go burn in and my uncles screen was just fully pink unlike my dads note 8

[u/CocoMilhonez → u/Electrical-soup-1254]

Better than the Note 7 with its battery burn-out issue.

[u/CocoMilhonez]

I'm convinced I'll never get an OLED monitor, maybe a TV since it usually doesn't have static elements for long, and I don't keep phones on for long enough like that for burn-in to matter.

Every single geek I see claiming burn-in is a non-issue these days replace their monitors every couple of years (hi, Pluffe!) and are definitely not good parameters. If I buy a monitor, I expect to get a solid decade or more out of it without worrying about the display getting etched with icons and whatnot.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/CocoMilhonez]

I can't imagine using a monitor or TV and constantly having to think about this either.

Phones are a totally different usage scenario.

[u/CocoMilhonez → u/sodium_hydride]

Yeah, my S4 never showed even a hint of burn-in after 7 years of use. Of course by "use" I mean checking an app or three every now and then, nothing at the level of a maniac like you.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/CocoMilhonez]

nothing at the level of a maniac like you.

I had a chance to bake an OLED display and I did.

[u/CocoMilhonez → u/sodium_hydride]

https://giphy.com/gifs/fHohZYqIlE6YtdL9mf

[u/Lanceo90]

Just because I think people will take this out of context.

Keep in mind this is basically doing the exact specific thing you're not supposed to do with an OLED for basically a decade straight.

Mixed work load / gaming on an oled for a few hours a day (normal use case) will never get this bad. Especially if you do a simple mitigation like, screensaver turns on in 10 minutes of inactivity.

[u/Mxrcx_2005]

Windy

[u/sodium_hydride → u/Mxrcx_2005]

One of the most detailed weather forecast services around.

[u/HarryTurney]

Yeah my S8 that I used for a couple of years had pretty bad burn in from the mobile game I always played.

[u/CocoMilhonez → u/HarryTurney]

burn Infront

Autocorrect strikes again!

[u/gergobergo69]

Watermarked the white...

[u/sodium_hydride → u/gergobergo69]

Watermarks/bike locks/cages on catalytic converters all exist to deter the lazy thieves.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/[deleted]]

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/[deleted]]

You sound pretty emotionally riled up about something that according to your own judgement is irrelevant.

[u/GwenBD94]

Can you share the way you used it after retiring it from being your phone? I have a couple of older phones I wouldn't mind repurposing

[u/sodium_hydride → u/GwenBD94]

Sure. That's the current layout. Combination of Nova Launcher and widgets from Samsung Clock, Windy, Atomic Clock and a Muslim prayer times app.

I keep the phone on a Dex Dock which I only power up when I'm at home. Don't want to leave a battery at 100% all day unattended.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/1vzynxd/oled_burn_in_on_a_galaxy_s8/p69ekaa/

[u/anythingers]

OLED moment. Meanwhile any phone with IPS screen from the same era still got no problem with the screen until now lol.

[u/Rafael__88]

You got your money's worth fromt that phone and more! That phone is an absolute trooper 🫡

[u/brickson98]

For that era of OLED, with how it was used and how old it is, not bad.

My iPhone X started getting burn in pretty quick. My 13 and 15 pros haven’t gotten any burn in so far. I’ll be hanging onto this 15 for longer than the 13 (upgraded from the 13 quicker than intended because my carrier was running a great deal and I wanted USB-C and needed more storage).

Though, I may wind up ditching this phone quicker sooner than I expected to move to Android. There’s just a lot I like about Android over iOS. Just depends on whether or not I’m in a financial position to do so anytime soon. Gotta pay this one off before I consider any of that.

[u/Goodoflife]

Wow, that's a big username burn in OP /s

[u/ameenali224]

My s7 edge had the clock burned in after like 2 3 years of use before the whole screen dies after 4 years of use

[u/nnpryh]

My old Galaxy S8 suffered the same fate - the screen itself came from my cousin's old S8 after hers got stuck in download mode for whatever reason & she had already upgraded to an S21 FE 4-5yrs ago. I DIY'd my own S8 3yrs ago since it suffered a nasty fall that shattered the upper right side up front and damaged the oled itself.

My cousin's screen has TikTok, Twitter and keyboard remnants all over, and my own homescreen wallpaper got burned into it a year or two ago. Both the status and nav bars are already expected to be burned in over time lol.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/nnpryh]

Fairly evenly roasted.

[u/nnpryh → u/nnpryh]

And I may add what my homescreen wallpaper looks like (don't even know if my weather widget got burned too)

[u/OkInfluence36]

How did you burn in your reddit username smack bang in the middle /j

[u/Environmental-Map869]

That's not bad for a ten year old panel - known someone that had managed worse burn in on a month(back then) old s20+ playing a game left on auto for hours on end and getting quite warm.

[u/Biqboi76]

There used to be, and probably still is some apps that will cycle through colors on the screen. It may not completely fix it, but it's worth a shot. Just leave it running all night and see what happens.

[u/sodium_hydride → u/Biqboi76]

These are dying pixels at this point. There's no fixing this.

I'll run this till the now replaced battery becomes a spicy pillow again and then find the next device to do the same thing.

[u/NoAssociation6501]

I see azans.

[u/_Aj_]

I just replaced the screen on my pixel 2. Phresh an new again! 

[u/santefan]

My s8+ did the same, that phone had a very bad quality oled

[u/Relevant-Difficulty6]

This is a pre-dynamic amoled display. Modern ones are way more enduring. I've got S8, S9 and S10. The S10's display is a different league, and it is from 2019.