How the test works
The page cycles through six solid colours, ten seconds each: mid grey, white, red, green, blue and black, then back to grey, until you exit. A tap or the right arrow moves on early, the left arrow goes back, and if your system asks for reduced motion the page waits for you instead of advancing. The caption in the corner names the colour, counts the cycles and shows a timer, and fades out after a moment of stillness so the field stays uniform. Escape, a swipe down or the cross leaves.
Burn-in is uneven wear. On an OLED every sub-pixel is its own light source and dims slightly with use, so an area that showed a bright static element for hundreds of hours, such as a taskbar, a channel logo, a news ticker or a keyboard, ends up dimmer than its surroundings. A uniform field is the only place this becomes visible: the grey page shows the ghost as a darker shape, and the primaries show which colour of sub-pixel has aged most. LCDs rarely burn in but can retain an image for a while; the same cycle reveals that too.
- Look for shapes you recognise: a bar along one edge, a rectangle where a window sat, letters.
- Give grey the most attention; white and the primaries confirm which channel is affected.
- Compare with a second run after ten minutes of other content to separate retention from burn-in.
Nothing is measured and nothing is uploaded. The page draws colours; the judgement is yours.
What the result means
The result card counts the full cycles you ran and the time. The result is what you saw on the grey and white fields:
- A clean, even grey. No burn-in. On an OLED that has been used for years this is good news and worth the two minutes.
- A faint ghost that was on the screen a moment ago. Retention. Show something else for a while and check again; it should be gone.
- A ghost of an element that was on the screen for months. Burn-in. It will still be there tomorrow. The primaries tell you which sub-pixels aged: a shape visible on red but not on blue means the red channel is worn.
- A ghost on white but not on grey. Very mild wear, or a difference in sub-pixel brightness, that only shows near the panel's limit. Most people never notice it on real content.
- Vertical or horizontal bands on the primaries. Not burn-in but a panel uniformity issue, worth a look at the backlight bleed test's grey levels.
What to do about a problem
Retention needs nothing but time and varied content. For burn-in, OLED TVs and many phones have a pixel refresh or compensation cycle in the settings, which runs for an hour with the screen off and measures and corrects the wear a little; run it if you have not for a while. Beyond that, prevention is the only strategy: auto-hide static bars, use a screen saver or automatic screen-off, keep brightness moderate for static work, and rely on the manufacturer's pixel shift, which is on by default.
Do not use "burn-in fixer" videos or pages that run for hours. They cannot restore worn sub-pixels, and on an OLED the extra hours of bright content are exactly the wear you are trying to avoid.
When to return or claim the warranty
A new device should show no burn-in at all, and a ghost on the grey page on day one is a reason to return it, because it means the unit was used or displayed. For older devices, check whether your model has burn-in cover; some OLED monitors and TVs sold since 2023 carry it for a fixed period, most others exclude it. Photograph the grey page in a dim room with the camera exposure locked, from straight on, and describe the shape and where it came from. Manufacturers do accept claims when the ghost is clearly a static element from normal use rather than a game HUD left on for a thousand hours.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between image retention and burn-in?
Retention is temporary: a ghost of what was on the screen that fades within minutes or hours once the content changes. Burn-in is permanent: the sub-pixels in that area have aged more than their neighbours and stay dimmer for good. The test shows both; time tells them apart. Run it again the next day, and what is still there is burn-in.
Why is grey the best colour for spotting burn-in?
Mid grey drives all three sub-pixels at about half power, which is where a small difference in wear between neighbouring pixels is most visible. On white the panel is near its limit and the difference compresses; on black nothing is lit. That is why the cycle starts with grey and why you should spend most of your attention there.
Can this cycle fix burn-in?
No, and neither can any website that claims to. Retention fades on its own once the static content is gone. Permanent burn-in cannot be reversed; OLED TVs and phones run a compensation cycle from their own menu that evens out wear a little, which is the only real tool. The page here is for finding the problem, not curing it.
How long should I run the test?
One or two full cycles, a minute or two. Burn-in shows immediately on grey; it does not need time. If you suspect retention, run one cycle, wait ten minutes with the screen showing something else, and run it again. Leaving the cycle on for hours does nothing useful and on an OLED it is mild wear of its own.
Is burn-in covered by warranty?
Usually not: most manufacturers class it as wear rather than a defect and exclude it explicitly. A few brands added limited burn-in cover to recent OLED monitors and TVs, typically two or three years, so check the terms for your exact model and keep the purchase date. Photographs of the grey page with a locked exposure are the evidence a claim needs.