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How does OLED burn-in truly happen and why doesn't my phone show any signs of it? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 4 months ago by UnRelatedBurner to c/[email protected]

37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Title almost says it all. OLED monitors are getting more and more affordable, but it's almost out of the picture when buying a monitor because of toolbars and HUD elements. I don't understand why monitors "burn-in", when I shine my LED flashlight or some LED xmas lights they won't simply start emitting the same light even when I turn them off. I know it's a dumb comparison, but still, what happens?

The other thing that I don't understand is the fact that I've never seen any signs of burn-in on anyone's phone. Alright, technically that's a lie, I did see some on a work phone (or two), that only had some chat app open, seemingly since ages, and the namebar was a bit burned-in, or something like that, as you'd guess I also didn't interact with that phone a lot. As as said above "but still," I've had my phone for a while now, so does my family and friends, some of us even doomscroll, and I've never seen any signs of burn-in on any (actually used) phone.

so, I can watch my background all day, but I should open my browser every like 3 hours press f11 twice and I'm safe? Ff I'm away just let the screensaver save my screen? In that case why would anyone ever worry about burn it, you almost have to do it intentionally. But if it's really dangerous, like I immerse myself into a youtube video, but it has the youtuber's pfp on the bottom right (does youtube still do that?), and it was hbomberguy's, am I just done, toasted, burnt-in?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

LEDs and OLEDs work the same way, the only difference is their composition. Standard LEDs use metals, OLEDs use organic compounds (which, yes, are more sensitive to breakdown over time, but come with the advantage of being smaller, lighter, more flexible, etc).

And actually, it's that size and flexibility that makes an OLED panel possible. An LED display is actually just a color LCD display with a white LED backlight; you need OLED to have the individual pixels generate their own light. Burn-in on a non-organic LED display would be a completely different thing (and is possible but rare).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

It's a nitpick, but since we got out the important details, technically they're semimetals, or simple compounds with semimetalic properties.

An actual metal doesn't have the separation between electron bands necessary to support multiple different conduction regimes (i.e. the magic). Again, a nitpick.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Interesting. I knew they were semiconductors, but I didn't know they were also semimetals. Thanks for the details!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yeah, there's a lot of overlap there. TBH I suspect semimetal is just what we called things in between the two electronic structures before we had quantum mechanics to explain it, but that's a guess.

Like I mentioned in my own reply, silicon is fairly metal-like physically, but it's hard and brittle like diamond above it on the periodic table, as opposed to being ductile like every true metal is to a degree (AFAIK).