OLED: Screen burn-in is not dead, but large screens are hard to come by

The rise of OLED technology has brought new breakthroughs to mobile phones, TVs and other products that use screens as selling points. Flexibility, thinness, wider color gamut, theoretically infinite contrast and faster response speed have made OLED the new favorite of screens. Although the cost is higher, there are more and more products equipped with OLED screens.

As the world's largest and most technologically advanced OLED panel manufacturer, Samsung has a strong voice in the entire industry. Not only are its flagship phones equipped with its own OLED screens, but many brands in the entire mobile phone industry have chosen to cooperate with Samsung and use its OLED screens in their flagship mobile phone products. Even industry benchmark companies such as Apple have chosen to use Samsung's OLED screens in iPhone X.

In the TV industry, OLED technology is like a spring breeze that has opened the hearts of many TV manufacturers. In the market, we can see many large-screen products equipped with OLED screens, and the gradual popularization of this technology is also seen by many TV manufacturers as a node to change the industry.

However, Samsung, which has a lot of influence in the field of OLED, has a different view. Although Samsung has advanced OLED technology, it has never been involved in large-screen products such as TVs and monitors, but has only been engaged in small-size products such as mobile phones and tablets. The reason behind this is the weakness that OLED cannot solve.

According to media reports, the most fundamental reason why Samsung is reluctant to get involved in the field of large-screen OLED is the burn-in problem of OLED. Samsung believes that unlike small-screen consumables such as mobile phones and tablets, large-screen products such as TVs and monitors are durable goods. For this reason, the OLED burn-in problem is almost unavoidable on these large-screen products, seriously affecting their service life.

First of all, we should understand what screen burn-in is.

Screen burn-in can be simply explained as pixel afterimages, which is mainly caused by the excessive use of certain pixels and their inability to disappear normally from the bottom of the screen, thus affecting the normal display of the entire screen.

If it is difficult to understand, please take a look at the picture below.

When the screen is in the same picture for a long time, screen burn-in will occur. At the same time, since the pixels of the OLED screen are independently illuminated, screen burn-in is more likely to occur.

Samsung phones have always had screen burn-in, which is unavoidable among mobile phone products. Google's Pixel 2XL, which is known as the best camera phone, also had multiple screen burn-in incidents within less than a month of its release. For this reason, Google even extended the warranty for Pixel 2XL users to two years.

Faced with the problem of screen burn-in, manufacturers have no substantial solution and can only use technical means to reduce the excessive use of a single pixel, such as the Samsung S8's Always On home button that can change its position by itself.

So why is Samsung so pessimistic about large-screen OLED?

Unlike small-screen products such as mobile phones and tablets, large-screen products such as TVs and monitors are obviously more concentrated and longer in terms of usage time. For example, when we turn on the TV, it will basically remain on for a long time, even 24 hours. This usage time is a huge test for OLED panels.

In addition, when we watch a TV program, we will choose to stay on a certain TV channel. Although other pictures are not static, the position of the TV station logo is fixed. Therefore, the position where the logo appears has become the part of the OLED TV most prone to screen burn-in.

CCTV looming

The most important point is that the screen damage caused by screen burn-in is irreversible. That is to say, once the screen is burned in, the only solution is to replace it with a new one. This is the biggest flaw for durable products such as TVs.

Mobile phones have become fast-moving consumer goods nowadays, and most users will replace their phones with new ones within one to two years. In comparison, the update frequency of TVs is several times lower. Chinese families generally use TVs for more than 10 years, at least 7 or 8 years, which is basically an impossible task for OLED screens, because after a few years of use, you may find many inexplicable marks on the screen that cannot be removed.

With the development and popularization of OLED technology, the large-screen field will eventually become a battlefield for OLED panel manufacturers to compete, but how to seize opportunities while avoiding problems that may arise is also a problem that manufacturers have to consider.

At least when the burn-in problem still occurs frequently and there is still no way to solve it, large-screen OLEDs will also face the problem of difficulty in long-term development.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.