Amoled Screen Burn!!!

[Old Faithful]

Well folks, I saw something I thought I'd never see again, something I hadn't seen since the early eighties on CRTs... Screen Burn! On two Amoled screens, one the Samsung Galaxy S2 and one Motorola Razr (standard screens apparently don't suffer form this)

The problem appears from having the screen constantly on at a home page. So I let the salesman know, he said "I know... The manufacturer asked us to keep the screen constantly on for our display phones"

On a white screen the screen burn appears dull yellowish in negative, in the shape of the home screen icons.

So folks, beware, don't leave your amoled screens on, and get yourself an extended warranty, because who knows how long these screens will last!

[B407]

I've had two phones so far with amoled screens and use them quite heavily and never had an issue with burn in. I'm sure it can happen, but most people do not have the displays turned on for 12 hours straight a day.

[Steve Punter]

I have a Samsung Galaxy S Captivate that's over 14 months old and it has been used extensively during that time. It sometimes spent hours displaying the Slacker Radio screen as I listened to that in the car, but there is no sign of burn-in whatsoever.

I just pulled up a solid white screen on it and I looked carefully for any sign of discoloration or ghost images. All I saw was consist white across the entire screen. Perhaps the burn-in only occurs after displaying the same thing for a VERY LONG TIME. It doesn't otherwise appear to be cumulative.

[Old Faithful]

Your comments are interesting, because it helps establish the prevalence of this problem, something that is impossible to establish from anecdotal reports such as mine and others who have seen it first hand.

Maybe a more scientific approach should be used to determine the importance of this phenomenon - I saw many posts about this phenomenon on different sites online. Maybe it affects only those amoled devices that are constantly on or that use high contrast static elements on their display. Or perhaps it has noting to do with time on, but perhaps more to do with ambient temperature.

Perhaps adding a poll would be a good idea... [done]

For those who don't know, amoled panels are revolutionary because the subpixels themselves are the source of light, just like phosphors on CRTs, contrarily to LCDs that are simply shutters placed in front of a background light source. Hence the possibility for super tin, even flexible displays. The problem comes form the fact the elements are made of organic materials that have a finite lifespan (especially blue - hence the yellow cast on the burnt in areas of the display)

[erichau]

Galaxy S2 here, using for 6 months. But I noticed it after a month or so.
There is a little bit... but I only see it on lowest brightness setting.
1 tiny level higher, I don't see it.
I don't actually see the burn in icons, more like darkened lines.

[ytwytw]

Mine Galaxy Nexus screen burnt BLUE after 3days when i bought it

Exchange immediately for a Galaxy S2

[computergeek541]

The Nokia N97 was very bad for screen burn in. I've had my hands on 3 of them and al 3 had noticeable burn in of the on screen clock and program icons on the home screen.

[kav2001c]

Its impossible to "burn in" an LED
You might have an image issue but not a burn

[Old Faithful]

Its impossible to "burn in" an LED
You might have an image issue but not a burn

You are mistaken, it is well known that amoleds suffer significant decay, sometimes in as little as 1000 hours, especially the blue.

The way it appears is as a dark yellowish reverse intensity imprint on a white background. The phone had been left on for just 2 months, and the imprint was that of the bottom row home screen icons.

[kav2001c]

You are mistaken, it is well known that amoleds suffer significant decay, sometimes in as little as 1000 hours, especially the blue.

The way it appears is as a dark yellowish reverse intensity imprint on a white background. The phone had been left on for just 2 months, and the imprint was that of the bottom row home screen icons.

Again this is not a true burn in as it is reversible
Burn in is permanent

[jonnypage]

this thread is useless without pics showing the degree of any burn in, and, my own amusement.

[Old Faithful]

this thread is useless without pics showing the degree of any burn in, and, my own amusement.

You are absolutely right; I usually have a camera with me, last time I passed by that store I didn't, but next time I pass by I will have my camera with me and provided that phone is still on demo, I WILL take a picture!

In the mean time have a look at this, although the picture is terrible, it's the closest I could find online to show the phenomenon, although in this case it is much less severe (much lesser burn-in) than what I saw, but it is similar (notive the faint shadow of the home row icons in reverse on the white background)

[Old Faithful]

Again this is not a true burn in as it is reversible
Burn in is permanent

Could you be more specific? Are you saying this is NOT permanent? How can it be reversed?

[pnjunction]

It's more like burn out than burn in.

Easily visible on most galaxy s phones in the notification area when displaying a solid blue screen (blue burns out the fastest). The AM/PM, especially the M obviously, were plainly visible on white or blue screens after only 6-8 months on my phone. (I have been using 24-hour clock since!)

One thing I notice now is that the notification bar areas are brighter than the rest, I think this is due to these being black starting in 2.3. Since those areas (horizontal and vertical bars, the horizontal is on the right since I usually tilt the phone such that the buttons are at my right hand) are more often black they are not wearing out evenly with the rest of the screen.

I just installed ice cream sandwich a few days ago. The bars are black but even worse the content in the bars is blue which burns out the fastest. On gingerbread I had a mod to make things there green (burns out the slowest and also has 2x the pixels as red/blue in non-plus SAMOLED) it will probably look into that again.

It's worth noting that to this day 18 months after buying the phone it is only really noticeable if I look at a solid blue screen. I would still buy another AMOLED. The shortage of red and blue subpixels on the SGS screen (half of the advertised resolution) bugs me way more than this minor flaw.

[Dro]

Its impossible to "burn in" an LED
You might have an image issue but not a burn

LED is different from OLED. LED display still uses a backlight as its light source. Different technology here. Perhaps the term burn in is not the technical term for this phenomenon. The Xda galaxy nexus forum actually has a long thread about it.