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Apple confirms: iPhone X users might experience "burn-in"

Written by Matti Robinson @ 04 Nov 2017 2:06 User comments (5)

Apple confirms: iPhone X users might experience "burn-in"

Apple finally started officially selling the iPhone X yesterday, and some elements of the device are coming to light for the first time. Some of the more important features of the phone have been reviewed over and over again in the past few days but some aren't going to unveil themselves for long time.
Face ID has been one of the more closely inspected features, and it seems that excluding a few problems with the face detection most impressions have been positive. Another important feature is of course the new 5.8 inch display, a first OLED panel in an iPhone.

Now Apple has released a document that details some of the features of an OLED display. This includes explaining the many pros of the first ever iPhone OLED but also a few cons that might affect your viewing pleasures.

According to the document you may experience shifts in colors when viewed off-angle. This is of course normal for an OLED display, and according to reports nowhere near as bad as with the Pixel 2 displays, which have been criticized heavily.



The second one is another one of OLED's typical shortcomings, "burn-in". The burn-in, or "image persistence", is a phenomenon where a static image may burn a ghost image in the display that will be permanent.

The severity of the problem depends on the display but hasn't been much of a problem in other Samsung produced displays. Apple also says that the display is "best in the industry in reducing the effects" and that they have engineered it themselves that way specifically burn-in in mind. The iOS 11 experience also takes into account that iPhone X has an OLED display and reduces the severity of burn-in effect with software solutions.

The iPhone X has a 5.8 Super Retina HD (2436 x 1125 resolution, 458 PPI) display which covers the front panel nearly entirely. It has been manufactured by Samsung but Apple takes credit for engineering and designing it. It has a million-to-one contrast ratio and HDR support.

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5 user comments

14.11.2017 14:50

burn in !!!! that happens with every monitor or display device every one needs to stop putting the settings too bright or extremely vivid.

24.11.2017 23:33

Some a FAR more susceptible than others. Plasma panels, for example, have a nasty tendency to do so.

35.11.2017 00:53

Yes I agree I have a plasma monitor and if you tone down the display settings the burn in will not happen or take longer

47.11.2017 16:52

Originally posted by deak91:
burn in !!!! that happens with every monitor or display device every one needs to stop putting the settings too bright or extremely vivid.
Originally posted by deak91:
burn in !!!! that happens with every monitor or display device every one needs to stop putting the settings too bright or extremely vivid.

I've "seen" the burn-in on monitors but that's like 15 years ago.

Network engineer here and a tech for 21 years. I have yet to see burn-in in ANY current day devices. Not saying it's impossible, just saying i have yet to see this in "every monitor and display".

Brightness adjust won't help much my friend. Even if it did, most aren't willing to trade struggling to see a dim lit screen for longevity of a monitor w/o burn-in.

And plasmas are supposed to have eradicated that shortcoming...........or am i thinking reversed from LCD? It's been so long.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 07 Nov 2017 @ 4:54

57.11.2017 17:10

Yes true. the object is to have your phone lest 2-3 years. then get a new one . I have a plasma monitor going on 10 years I think . I can say I lowered the colors and shuch and no burn in .moved it to the living room as a tv now and still no burn in . I’m lucky I guess because I reduced the colors and such right away .

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