Develop Bugs

[Q] Screen Burn-In Questions

I have an Epic 4g Touch (SGSII), and am wondering about screen burn-in.
I already know it's possible to burn-in our Super AMOLED+ screens, but I'm wondering what kind of things I can do to prevent it, and if doing certain things will accelerate the burn-in or not.
1. I'm mostly indoors, so I always keep the brightness set to 30%. This should be sufficiently low to slow the burn-in, correct?
2. I use ADW Launcher Pro, but I don't have it auto-hiding the notification bar. My screen is on between 1-3 hours per day. Should I be using the auto-hide feature?
3. I was thinking about using the clock in dock mode at night while I charge my phone. I set the brightness to the lowest possible setting, and I know that after a few minutes, the phone sets a black background with the clock text being yellow and moving around the screen every minute or so. With all of that in mind, is that going to be bad for the burn-in?
4. This is kind of related to #3. If a pixel is pure black, is it susceptible to burn-in?
Thanks in advance to all replies. I'm pretty tech savvy, but kind of a noob when it comes to these advanced screen questions.

Awesome, thanks. Wasn't aware of that strobe trick; I'll have to start doing that

newalker91 said:
My suggestion to reduce any and all burn-in is the same trick used to fix stuck pixels on LCD screens. Download a strobe light application that uses multiple colors, and once every couple of weeks allow your phone to sit while your screen rapidly flickers through all of the colors for about 10-15 minutes. This will wash away any burn-in that may be building.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just had a thought...
Isn't burn-in caused by pixels becoming physically damaged? So how can a strobe light app that uses these damaged pixels "wash away" burn-in?
Not trying to be rude or anything; I definitely appreciate everyone's knowledge on this subject. I guess I'm just looking for more information.

personally i wouldn't worry too much about burn in. things move around enough on these phones to mostly prevent it.
and for what it's worth i still use my original samsung launch day moment as a clock for the last year or so and have yet to notice any burn in at all (and that clock doesn't bounce around) sometimes during the day i still use it as a media player or terminal device too. screen still looks awesome (not compared to the gsii but)
granted the moment was super amoled not super amoled+ but heh....

newalker91 said:
No, the Samsung Moment was sure not Super AMOLED. It was LCD. I've taken probably a thousand of them apart.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you sure? the og box i have on my shelf def says amoled.
EDIT. ok maybe its not SUPER AMOLED. But it def is AMOLED.
"3.2-inch AMOLED display"

newalker91 said:
Regular AMOLED displays are basically the same as LCD screens. They function completely different than Super AMOLED.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the only difference between amoled and super amoled is the PenTile RGBG pixel matrix is replaced with a common RGB subpixels arrangement, going from eight to twelve subpixels in a group, resulting in finer details. The screen technology is also brighter, thinner and 18% more energy efficient. super amoled+ adds more of the same just brighter lighter and less power hungry.
yes any led panel (amoled and super amoled) is just an led panel thats true.
its the material used for the led catalyst (organic) and position of the film in the glass (under not over) that differentiate them.
but then again it's really not an issue. and i could be wrong.
all i know is that my moment has been left on in situations that i know would cause burn in on any normal lcd style device and has never been an issue.
for the length of time that most people keep a phone (2years or so) i personally wouldn't worry about it.
that being said OLED pixels degrade with use (become dimmer, and the different colour pixels degrade at different rates), but according to most screen datasheets ive seen we are talking 15-20,000 hours of screen on use for a noticeable difference.
just ask yourself this do you ever see screen burn in on display phones that are left running screen on all day?
but didn't mean to push the thread offtopic

I have seen burn in on my Captivate, so yes it will happen.

yep it will happen in certain circumstances i just went looking through my old amoled info and found this link
http://data.4dsystems.com.au/downloads/micro-OLED/Docs/4D_AMOLED_Presentation.pdf
this has a lot of good info but is out of date.
what we get isn't true burn in (although the outcome is similar)
what we see as burn in is really the degradation of pixel intensity and has alot to do with the colors the screen must display. so even a moving clock is degrading the pixels just that it's degrading them (hopefully evenly across the screen) the super amoled+ screens seem to have added a white led to the mix to help prevent burn in from white screens/txt and lower power consumption.
it also appears some colors are better for screen life than others with blue having the shortest life.
keep in mind if your interested in looking at the link that it is describing the first gen amoled screen and much has been improved since then.
from this i would also make the assumption that flashing the screen doesn't unstick any pixels it just burns them all out a bit.
i'll shut up now

Well I've done some more research too, and found that what mjcollum said is pretty much the case for us. We don't actually get a "burn-in", but rather the pixels degrade and leave a sort of "ghost" image where the degradation is worse than surrounding areas.
The "half life" of older AMOLED pixels was 14k hours, but most articles I've encountered mention that technology has improved, ergo the pixels should last a bit longer in our Super AMOLED+ displays.
But still, there will definitely be some degree of degradation. I suppose it's a lot like sex; leaving the screen off will keep your pixels the safest, but it's a lot more fun to use what you've got
I only wonder if a dim display degrades slower than a brighter display... ?

interesting. good to know.
does this apply to qhd displays like the photon also? or is this only a amoled thing?

newalker91 said:
Regular AMOLED displays are basically the same as LCD screens. They function completely different than Super AMOLED.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The moment was AMOLED... it had a seperate digitizer.
The Galaxy S was Super AMOLED it incorporated the digitizer with the pentile matrix.
The Galaxy S II is Super AMOLED+ which replaces the pentile layot with the standard RGB grid.
To prevent burn in limit screen on time, no need to do any crazy pixel unsticking tricks as it'll just reduce the vibrancy of your screen.

thanks warlord good to know.
one thing to think about is even if the pixel halflife is only still 14k hours
365(days) x 24(hours) = 8,7650 hours if you left it on for a full year.
so i say just use the thing.
---------- Post added at 10:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:13 PM ----------
SpaceMonky said:
interesting. good to know.
does this apply to qhd displays like the photon also? or is this only a amoled thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i could be wrong but i believe the qhd part just references the resolution.
and the photon has a normal style lcd display. so if it got burn in at all it would be the normal lcd style.

mjcollum said:
i could be wrong but i believe the qhd part just references the resolution.
and the photon has a normal style lcd display. so if it got burn in at all it would be the normal lcd style.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're correct, qHD only references the resolution, not the display type. Which is funny, because a lot of Google searches are for "qHD vs Super AMOLED+". I think people are just trying to pit their Droid Bionics against our SGSIIs

Disadvantages of AMOLED screen

Hi all.
Last night I accidentally discovered the burnt pixels on my one year old Focus screen The sights of high contrasts Metro-style icons (such as IE, phone and marketplace) are visible on the white background as a darker "shadows" (actual color is like a light-light yellow, close to white). These "shadows" are visible on the white background in the dark only.
It's not a big deal but I'm kinda disappointed
So, my conclusions are:
- high contrasts Metro-style tiles on the home screen are evil, at least for AMOLED screens. However live tiles (probably) can solve the issue (he-he, just thought - may be it's a real reason why MS implemented and pushing live tiles? Kidding );
- periodical changing of tile location on the home screen also can help;
- using AMOLED handsets for development is not so good. The best practice is to keep AMOLED screens off all the time (what is not acceptable for development).

My Focus is one year old, but I don't have any burn in problems some reported. Granted, I don't leave my phone screen on for extended periods, but my live tile arrangement really never changed.
Now that I have the HTC Titan, I have no regrets with the SLCD screen. The colors seem more natural to me. While AMOLED screens certainly have a "pop" factor, it's not a must-have for me.

This is a well known issue that you have to live with: AMOLED will get screen burn-in if it is use for an extend period of time.
I know most of the Android Galaxy phones also have screen burn-in especially on the status bar.
My own Samsung Focus developed screen burn-in (esp. Metro buttons) after only three months of use.

day2die said:
This is a well known issue that you have to live with: AMOLED will get screen burn-in if it is use for an extend period of time.
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Click to collapse
How about Super AMOLED screens, is problem still persists?

I notice things on my Omnia 7. Normally if i've had a menu open for a minute or more and i switch to a black background i can see a kind of greyish imprint of the last displayed icons.

sensboston said:
How about Super AMOLED screens, is problem still persists?
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Click to collapse
SAMOLED has it as well. I'm sure it was a big issue in the focus forums last year

The biggest disadvantage of an amoled screen is when you move to another type of screen, and notice just how gray blacks can be. Using my old focus and having the blacks blend with the bezel was so visually pleasing, and the colors had so much pop. I hear that the colors aren't as accurate, but what does that mean really? 90% of what I look at on a phone is arbitrary colors anyway; how would I ever know that the blue tiles are really supposed to be one shade vs. another, and why would I care?
(btw yes, I had the same screen burn-in problem on my focus)

Yeah i had a major burn in problem with my Omnia 7, I think it was something to do with the bright blue theme i used, i have pictures here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=973337

use a screen saver?
Oh ya.. nevermind

Wow... I had no idea of this...
I have a Galaxy S I9000 (as well as an LG Quantum) and luckily it hasn't burnt in...
Is this a really wide spread problem?

renatofontes said:
I have a Galaxy S I9000 (as well as an LG Quantum) and luckily it hasn't burnt in...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to look at your screen in darkness (set white background on the fullscreen first), then say "luckily"

sensboston said:
How about Super AMOLED screens, is problem still persists?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is particularly bad on Super AMOLED screens.
Super AMOLED is still AMOLED.
My Vibrant, if I turn my screen on to the home screen and let it sit there for 10 seconds and then open another app, I can see the shadows on the home screen superimposed onto the app that's running. It's very noticeable, and gets irksome after a while. You won't see that on LCD screens.
The status bar is burnt in, which is noticeable when the phone is used in landscape mode because you can always see that faint strip where the status bar is (in portrait) on the side of the screen.
I set my screen timeout to 30 seconds to "preserve" the screen.
---------- Post added at 05:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:30 PM ----------
renatofontes said:
Wow... I had no idea of this...
I have a Galaxy S I9000 (as well as an LG Quantum) and luckily it hasn't burnt in...
Is this a really wide spread problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All of Samsung's displays have this issue. Perhaps you just haven't noticed it, or are just fortunate
Not really widespread, and not really a "problem" per se. Just a component of the screen tech. It burns in and shadows easily.
However they have better power management than LCD screens and better brightness, viewing angles, and outdoor visibility - as well as better color saturation and reproduction. For example, I increase my Vibrant's stock battery life by like 4+ hours doing absolutely nothing but putting a true black background on the launcher...
It's a trade-off. It's worth it for someone like you who doesn't notice it, though. It's worth it even for some people who do. It really depends on how long you keep your phone, Lol. If you upgrade yearly it's not that big a deal. I can't see myself going 2 years with the Vibrant as my primary device and dealing with it, though. It's too startling to look at at times, especially after you spend a significant amount of time in one app with static UI elements and move to something else...

If you look at the AMOLED technology, it's understandable really. All the colours displayed on the screen are composed of green, red and blue sub-pixels.
In an AMOLED screen, there is no backlighting. The sub-pixels themselves generate the visible light, hence why the blacks are so black, because the black pixels are not powered on. (Think of an AMOLED screen as having thousands of tiny tiny LED's)
However the problem with AMOLED is the manufacturers could not produce a specific chemical compound for each colour that would wear evenly. For example, the blue sub pixel has a shorter lifespan than the green. When the AMOLED sub-pixels gets used, the intensity of light produced decreases, hence there is uneven wear. The pentile arrangement was to actually arrange the pixels in a way, which as the display wears, the colours look normal. When there are static pixels displayed, a certain portion of sub pixels gets used more than others, hence why you can notice it.
In an LCD, each sub-pixel is a polarizing filter, which filters out either red/blue/green and displays it or blocks it, so an LCD doesn't suffer from screen burn in as much as AMOLED and PLASMA displays.
From day one I have only ever used my phone on the lowest setting and I have alternated every few days from red/green tiles. I have never used blue due to the low lifespan of blues!!

I don't think it's a huge problem if you are smart. I made the mistake of leaving my screen on as often as possible when I first got my focus. Once I started noticing the burn in, I moved my tiles around, put my screen on 2 minute timeout, and didn't notice any more of the burn in. Just the original images.

As Big K mentions, blue pixels are the quickest to degrade, that is why you never use a blue theme with an AMOLED display. Also, displaying white actually activates some blue pixels and draws more power, so the black system theme should always be used over white.
Every AMOLED owner should know these 2 things and it is a shame that Samsung and the carriers don't do a better job of informing their customers of these simple facts.
I cringe every time I see an AMOLED phone with a white background and blue theme.

This is why I still stick to Super LCD.
I saw an S2 get a burn in within 2 months of use. Lawl.

ohgood said:
use a screen saver?
Oh ya.. nevermind
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The solution is ridiculously obvious: turn off your screen when you're done using the phone. Duh. That's obvious from a simple battery life perspective.
Of course, I see people *constantly* who just set their phones down with the screen on and walk away. Idiots.

jasongw said:
The solution is ridiculously obvious: turn off your screen when you're done using the phone. Duh. That's obvious from a simple battery life perspective.
Of course, I see people *constantly* who just set their phones down with the screen on and walk away. Idiots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The solution is not ridiculously obvious because other screen types do not suffer from thsi issue, therefor the user who moves from an LCD screen to an AMOLED has absolutely no clue that this screen type has these deficiencies. They simply assume their screen will always look the way it does as long as they take care of their phone.
That is not a bad assumption. It just doesn't jive with this display tech.
I love the deep blacks and color saturation on Samsung's AMOLED screens, but I don't think I can ever convince myself to get another one.
The issue isn't just keeping the screen on. I've always used a 30 second screen time-out on all my phones, so they aren't just sitting there a ton with an image on them. Even when you have something on the screen for like 10 seconds and move to another app you can see the image shadows on the screen. Yes, it gets pretty noticeable after a while to the point where it's constantly drawing your attention.
It's actually worse than the PenTile they use in the 1st gen SAMOLED screens, TBH.

N8ter said:
The solution is not ridiculously obvious because other screen types do not suffer from thsi issue, therefor the user who moves from an LCD screen to an AMOLED has absolutely no clue that this screen type has these deficiencies. They simply assume their screen will always look the way it does as long as they take care of their phone.
That is not a bad assumption. It just doesn't jive with this display tech.
I love the deep blacks and color saturation on Samsung's AMOLED screens, but I don't think I can ever convince myself to get another one.
The issue isn't just keeping the screen on. I've always used a 30 second screen time-out on all my phones, so they aren't just sitting there a ton with an image on them. Even when you have something on the screen for like 10 seconds and move to another app you can see the image shadows on the screen. Yes, it gets pretty noticeable after a while to the point where it's constantly drawing your attention.
It's actually worse than the PenTile they use in the 1st gen SAMOLED screens, TBH.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1st gen? It's being used in the Galaxy Nexus, too

It's a really useful point to raise, and something to think about for people using their phones for development. Automatic screen time-outs can be an annoyance when you're testing features (against a real device), and wanting to stay connected (in visual studio) to the phone for debugging info and deployment. I know I have my current phone on most of the day to test tile and page updates etc. so there's bound to be large areas of the screen remaining static for long periods of time.
It's made me think twice about getting a Lumia (which I assume would be prone too) for this reason
I'm surprised manufactures don't include info on it bundled with the phones (e.g. on not having a white background) - that's pretty irresponsible.

Well my screen has a burn in where the nav bar is

Watching Netflix or anything in full screen it's noticeable. Very noticeable. After one week of owning it about a month ago, I saw a similar topic and thought "this would never happen to me". Fast forward a month later, I have it. And a scratch on my screen after putting it in my pocket only with nothing else in it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

monkey hung said:
Watching Netflix or anything in full screen it's noticeable. Very noticeable. After one week of owning it about a month ago, I saw a similar topic and thought "this would never happen to me". Fast forward a month later, I have it. And a scratch on my screen after putting it in my pocket only with nothing else in it.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take a photo and post it please.

Mine does too, mighty thanks to amoled
This is going to happen regardless of what you do.
Acceptance is key

Can someone post a picture? I would like to see what all the fuss is about.

By nav bar, do you mean the notification/status bar? If so, I know exactly what you're talking about. The static cyan text is a burn-in waiting to happen. I noticed a little bit of cyan tint in that area when brightness is low and the screen is white. It's by no means that bad at all but I use the hide the status bar option in ADW to prevent it from getting worse. 2 months later and it hasn't gotten worse.

waiaung1 said:
By nav bar, do you mean the notification/status bar? If so, I know exactly what you're talking about. The static cyan text is a burn-in waiting to happen. I noticed a little bit of cyan tint in that area when brightness is low and the screen is white. It's by no means that bad at all but I use the hide the status bar option in ADW to prevent it from getting worse. 2 months later and it hasn't gotten worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By nav bar they mean the soft keys (Home - Menu - Recent - Back) buttons on the bottom.

Oh, in that case I haven't seen that problem but I have heard of people with it. You can get rid of those soft-keys with custom mods too that makes your phone full-screen.

I noticed this on my Gnex as well. Rotating the screen clockwise to a landscape orientation, the left side of my screen where the soft buttons were has a notably bluer tint. For the record, I keep my screen on auto, which I was hoping would reduce the burn-in effect. Setting the screen brightness to 100% seems to hide the burn-in. Dunno if that will always be true.
Even worse, when I did a screen compare of my previous Nexus vs the display model at the Verizon store back in early Jan, the demo model's screen was noticeably dimmer and off color even at full brightness. Seemed like running in torch mode 24/7 with a bright red background caused the screen to degrade noticeably after only a week or so.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

The only time I notice any sort of image retention (relating to the notification bar) is when I first open the XDA app and it quickly goes full screen. Other than that I never see it. However, I commonly see image retention going from home screen to Market but it fades very quickly.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Mine as well as my friend's has burn-in at the top and bottom where the status bar is and the soft buttons. Also my old nexus S as well as my friend's has burn in at the top status bar. It's inevitable I guess...

I started seeing this too but i quickly switched to transparent top and bottom bars so that those pixels got even wear, and it actually reversed my burn in mostly. My screen is near perfect now.

this happen to me, too. it sucks. can this be exchanged in person somewhere instead of shipping it? i don't want to wait.

Burn in was a term for lcd screens. For this situation think of it as "reverse led fatigue". The leds that are not used as much as the rest of the screen will appear brighter giving you the impression that it is burn in. On the first gen amoled's some would leave and entire white screen on full brightness overnight to normalize or calibrate the leds. Doesn't bug me one bit though.
good day.

chopper the dog said:
Burn in was a term for lcd screens. For this situation think of it as "reverse led fatigue". The leds that are not used as much as the rest of the screen will appear brighter giving you the impression that it is burn in. On the first gen amoled's some would leave and entire white screen on full brightness overnight to normalize or calibrate the leds. Doesn't bug me one bit though.
good day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly right. But the term burn in is so familiar to people it will likely never change.
I forgot to say that to eliminate this burn in i also use full screen browser at all times to hide the status bar. And i consistently rotate the screen to different views while i read my webpages to give the other pixels a rest. The effect is excellent.
To test this the best, install dead pixel detect from market and toggle thru every color. Rotate the screen too to see both areas. The color red is the only one that shows the burn in for me. Which is strange cause blue is the weak color that wears out the quickest. But my blue looks fine.

This will probably happen to all of us to some degree sooner or later.
The image retention that lasts 1-3 seconds we might see within a month or two usage is actually one of the characteristics of AMOLED "Ghosting effect"
which is not the same as AMOLED "reverse led fatigue" (or although technically incorrect but more widely understood term "Burn-ins") which maybe seen as permanent image retention shown as yellowish outlines of icons / keyboard outlines, etc.
Sadly, there's really nothing you can do about this problem after the fact, except to change the screen itself if it is really bothersome. Or you may try to change/delete/make transparent of the permanently placed icons/other objects/pictures to try to reverse these effects.
The only preventive measures would be changing screen rotation from vertical to horizontal, and make sure you don't have the screen on at a stay still image (preferably set auto screen off to 30seconds or so.)

It is humorous how particular many people are about "pocket" screens. Oled technology in reality is like the merger of lcd and plasma screens. And oled does get image retention and burn in similar to plasma. It is harder to avoid on a cell phone with so many possibilities of static images. Really though, it is good to mention/complaint about it so it gets attention and oled manufacturers try to improve upon the technology and try to minimize or get rid of the issues altogether. Many people still think plasmas get burn in very easily and that is far from the truth. The last 3 years or so Panasonic and Samsung have made great strides in minimizing the possibility and you see very few complaints about it. And it is even more humorous that many people think lcd technology is better for viewing because it is newer than plasma when the exact opposite is true. LCD technology is older than plasma, and aside from power usage and weight, lcd doesn't have many benefits over plasma. And because of the post processing to try and overcome the deficiencies of lcd viewing lcd screens are closing the gap in power consumption with plasma. But yeah, all you can do about the image retention of oled now is put pressure on samsung and lg and any newcomers to the technology to improve it. Hopefully, oled will overcome its shortcomings to lcd and plasma and be the better tech out of all three in the near future. I wish they made laptops with plasma screens. That would be an awesome option for laptop users that use theirs as desktop replacements like myself.
Sent from my Nexus in Texas.

I don't have any "burn in". I guess different screens behave differently.

case0 said:
I don't have any "burn in". I guess different screens behave differently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many people think they dont have it till they install dead pixel detect and check each color. I bet you have it on the color red.

RogerPodacter said:
Many people think they dont have it till they install dead pixel detect and check each color. I bet you have it on the color red.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All my pixels are fine but I notice the notification bar retention on brown with the XDA app and I notice the bottom (whatever it's called bar) on grey from the app you suggested. Either way, I still love the phone!!!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

RogerPodacter said:
Many people think they dont have it till they install dead pixel detect and check each color. I bet you have it on the color red.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't. Out of curiosity I tried that app out after reading about it on this thread.

Does night light helps to save AMOLED screen from brun-in ?

Hi,
I just got a refurbished OP3. Before, I had a Nexus 5X and a Nexus 5, both have LCD screens. But a long time ago I had a HTC One S, which have an AMOLED screen, and after 2 years of use the screen had huge burn-in marks and an ugly yellow tint.
Of what I know, burn-in begins by the blue LED giving the ugly yellow tint, and it's an irremediable phenomenon. But can I lower it on the OP3 by activating the "night light", reducing the usage of the blue LED ?
Thanks

This phone doesn't have burn in issues

Atok_fr said:
Hi,
I just got a refurbished OP3. Before, I had a Nexus 5X and a Nexus 5, both have LCD screens. But a long time ago I had a HTC One S, which have an AMOLED screen, and after 2 years of use the screen had huge burn-in marks and an ugly yellow tint.
Of what I know, burn-in begins by the blue LED giving the ugly yellow tint, and it's an irremediable phenomenon. But can I lower it on the OP3 by activating the "night light", reducing the usage of the blue LED ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Burn in is an actual amoled problem. Yet this was a much worse on the early Samsung panels. But currently on the newer panels that we have been using since a long time this issue has severely decreased. Amoled Burn in will only occur when you putting your phone stationairy for multiple days and at max brightness. Don't worry about burn in, if you don't use your phone as a showcase device like they do in the shops then there is nothing to worry about.

I have some burn ins but my whatsapp chat screen is 24/7 on. So the text input box, call, video call, menu button and the contact's name is burned in to my display (of course statusbar icons too) but that is my fault. For one year this device been on the same screen for 6 - 7 hours straight. So don't worry about the burn ins with regular use it's nearly impossible.

My OP3 is almost two years old and has no burn-in at all.

Thanks to you all

I have the navigation bar burn-in. Any idea how to fix it?

neil.richard said:
I have the navigation bar burn-in. Any idea how to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Burn in is perm damage so no.

Black Bleeding on Screen

So my screen is having issues when I scroll and I know this happens on this device. The question is do all the devices do this or is this just an issue with certain ones. Is my phone broke or will it be fixed with an update. The smearing is pretty bad and I notice it even with the brightness turned up.

Every OLED device I have has done it, but I haven't had an LCD device for a while. So I don't know if it's a characteristic of OLED screens or all screens. My last device was Samsung and had it pretty bad.

I'm having the same issue,
It bleeds/smears with dark/black color when used in dark i.e no light in the room.
I think it happens all the time, just that its visible and annoying when we use it in dark.
What did you do? Did you get it replaced?

Hi!
Same here... It seems normal, anyway with two years warranty if something is wrong with screen (black bleeding, burn in, ...) Google have to repair it or change the smartphone.
Regards!

It should only be visible in low brightness. It's normal for oled but the pixel 2 XL is a bit noticeable because Google set the gamma to high. So it can actually be improved through software.
If you see black smear etc during the day and any other time than maybe at night when the screen is at low brightness I would rma it

Seems like sensors are causing problem if move phone around in dark it will go away I have a case and tempered glass on phone