The Steam Deck OLED console has shown little burn-in after a 1500-hour stress test conducted by YouTuber Wulff Den. Although 1500 hours or 63 days is a long time, the OLED version of the Steam Deck experienced burn-in much faster than the Switch OLEDwhich, as Wulff Den demonstrated earlier, burned out in about 3500 hours.
Since the inception of OLED displays, the problem of image retention, called burn-in, has been critical. However the latest OLED panels have a better design that should reduce the risk of burnout. The YouTuber decided to compare Steam Deck OLED with Switch OLED. Both devices are almost identical at the subpixel level, and the displays may come from the same manufacturer.
For the test, a game screenshot was posted on the screen The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (just like for Switch before) with several color test bands. The enthusiast set the brightness to 100%. The screenshot and screen were in SDR mode, the brightness was approximately 600 nits.
The test was stopped at the 1500 hour mark when faint but noticeable signs of burn-in appeared. The colors that faded the fastest at the sub-pixel level were red and blue, with green remaining the most stable. Size is an important risk factor for burn-in, and since the red subpixels are the smallest on the Steam Deck OLED display, their faster burn-in is not surprising. The blue subpixels, however, are the largest, but they also faded the most.
As for the Zelda UI elements, the only remaining detail seems to be the red hearts in the upper left corner. But even in this area, the burn-in was quite minor and much harder to distinguish than the burn-in caused by the color bars.
Wulff Den suggests that the reason for the faster burn-in may be the brightness. In Switch OLED, it is only 400 nits, higher brightness requires exponentially more power. Wolfe Den also refers to a test done by another YouTuber, The Phawx, who tested burn-in with 1000 nits of HDR content and saw clear burn-in after 750 hours. Only 67% brighter to cut the time in half.
Wulff Den reached out to Valve for comment on whether the OLED Deck uses any burn-in prevention technology — the company said no. However, Valve stated that they are not aware of any burn-in issues that users of the «experience under normal use of the», and that the one-year warranty will cover burn-in.
Although burn-in can be a concern, Wulff Den concludes that the risk can be easily mitigated by lowering the brightness and turning off HDR. «Be careful with increasing the brightness». Playing on an external monitor is another option, especially for users who spend hundreds of hours on the same game.
Source: Tom`s Hardware