Katarzyna Petru
OLED has been under scrutiny for years due to the risk of burn-in, but the latest three-year test conducted by Rtings shows something completely different. Over the long term, it is OLED televisions that have proven to be the most reliable, clearly ahead of traditional LCD.
Rtings tested as many as 102 televisions, which operated for 18,000 hours in extreme conditions – non-stop, at maximum brightness, displaying the same 24-hour news channel with an unchanging news ticker at the bottom of the screen. The aim was to check how different technologies cope with prolonged load and static image elements.
Results? Brutal
Out of the whole group, 20 televisions totally refused to function, and another 24 were in a critical condition - the picture was barely watchable. Interestingly, all models survived the first 10,000 hours without major issues, which corresponds to about three years of usage at eight hours a day.
LCD has its own problems
Although OLED burn-in was noticeable in some cases, the most problems were related to LCD TVs with LED backlighting without local dimming. After 18,000 hours, nearly 60% of such models had noticeable image defects, and in each of them, some of the LEDs simply burned out. A good example is the Hisense H8G, whose condition after testing was far from ideal.
OLED burns in, but rarely and under specific conditions
In the case of OLEDs, failures have been exceptionally rare. Burn-ins mainly occurred with static elements, such as information bars, causing the “ghosting” effect visible after a long time. With dynamic content, the problem virtually did not occur. This is an important distinction - in normal television usage, where content frequently changes, the risk of burn-in is minimal. Rtings also emphasises that OLED burn-ins are a much bigger issue in gaming monitors than in televisions.
Which brands performed the best?
The lowest failure rate was recorded in models from LG Electronics and TCL, although Rtings notes that the number of tested models for each brand was limited, so these results should be treated with caution. One of the more surprising conclusions is the lack of any correlation between the price of the television and its lifespan. Only the type of panel and the method of backlighting turned out to be crucial, rather than the price range.
Final Conclusion
According to Rtings, OLED is currently the most durable television technology, also compared to Mini-LED. OLED televisions fail less frequently and degrade more slowly over time, even in extreme testing conditions that have little in common with everyday use. If you want to see how some televisions looked after three years of torture, Rtings has published a full video summarising the test.
