Burn-in remains the great worry when it comes to OLED panel technology. Now a new investigation by Ars Technica claims that what you do with your OLED monitor matters more than the panel type or brand.
That makes a lot of sense. What it doesn't do is help you choose an OLED monitor if you're actually in the market for one.
Ars Technica spoke with several figures within the industry, including monitor manufacturers and developers, plus representatives from trade bodies including VESA.
The overall conclusion is that usage or user behaviour is ultimately more important than the material specifics of the panel in question, even if there are differences between LG's WOLED and Samsung's QD-OLED tech, which are currently the only two panel types used in PC gaming monitors based on OLED displays.
Ars also points out that the perceived greater susceptibility of Samsung's QD-OLED tech to burn in could be more about so-called TFT image retention that can be largely removed via a brief compensation cycle.
All that said one of Ars' interviewees, the co-founder of controversial monitor maker Dough, makes a thoroughly salient point. «If you're a consumer planning to use an OLED monitor for gaming for two to three years, it's a good choice. Beyond that, we don't yet have enough real-world data to make a definitive judgment,» Konstantinos Karatsevidis said.
At the same time, pretty much all of the interviewees agree that OLED technology is going to improve, generation on generation, when it comes to resisting burn-in. So, that's where we are, a tricky mix of being confident that the technology is improving without being totally clear on how significant the issue of burn-in really is for PC monitors.
Best OLED gaming monitor: So much
Read more on pcgamer.com