When Asus and MSI battle over OLED monitor burn-in warranties, consumers win

[Shawn Knight]

In brief: Asus and MSI are seemingly locked into a battle over OLED monitor warranties, besting each other with extended coverage. In the end, however, it's the consumer that ultimately win with more purchasing peace of mind.

Earlier this week, Asus rolled out updated two-year warranties for all of its OLED monitors, including the latest PG32UCDM and PG34WCDM models. As X user TFT Central points out, the changes aren't yet reflected on Asus' main warranty page but do show up when looking at specs for individual products.

Not to be outdone, rival MSI has since announced a new three-year warranty on select OLED panels. Like the Asus warrant, MSI's also covers damage from burn-in.

MSI also introduced a new technology designed to help protect against burn-in, called MSI OLED Care 2.0. The company didn't elaborate on the feature, but it is likely an advanced version of the original which consisted of three parts: pixel shift tech to move pixels at regular intervals, a dual-option panel protect mode, and a static screen detection setting that can automatically dim the panel when static elements are detected on screen for a set period of time.

MSI's three-year warranty covers the following models:

• MAG 271QPX QD-OLED
• MAG 321UPX QD-OLED
• MAG 341CQP QD-OLED
• MPG 271QRX QD-OLED
• MPG 321URX QD-OLED
• MPG 491CQP QD-OLED
• MEG 342C QD-OLED

Late last year, RTINGS.com concluded a longevity test involving more than 100 TVs and three OLED monitors running a CNN news feed at maximum brightness for over 6,000 hours, which simulated just over four years of real-world usage. The test revealed that while some form of burn-in is inevitable, severity varies greatly by model.

Have you had any experience with burn-in on OLED displays? I haven't yet made the switch to an OLED panel but experienced plenty of burn-in issues with my old plasma television. Newer sets like the Samsung LED I'm currently using aren't nearly as bad when used normally as a television, but the one I am using as my desktop monitor does show some serious burn-in after years of use.

Image credit: Seyed Sina Fazeli

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https://www.techspot.com/news/101785-when-asus-msi-battle-over-oled-monitor-burn.html

 

[gamerk2]

"Have you had any experience with burn-in on OLED displays?"

My first OLED was an LG B6P which I ran into the ground. The Windows taskbar burnt in after about a year, and a year and a half of WFH really wore out the screen. It saw heavy use over a 5-year period.

I moved on to a LG C2 two years ago and no burn in or wear in sight.

Some basic care steps:

*Turn down the OLED backlight; I'm currently living at 30 (of 100), and its plenty bright even in HDR mode. Trust me, this helps with longevity.
*Black desktop background and minimal icons
*Minimize the Windows taskbar
*Turn off the display when going away for long time, just in case (for whatever reason) Windows doesn't enable the screensaver or the display doesn't automatically dim/turn off.

I would say most burn-in issues are largely resolved, but would still caution that some basic care is still preferable.

 

[CrisisDog]

Had a plasma for 15 years, no burn in. Gave it up because some of the pixels started not working correctly with red colors. No fun with OLED yet…

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Consumers win nothing, very expensive monitors with paltry 3 year warranty is a contemptible joke. Something this price should last for a minimum of 10 years. Both my 12 year old Dells are doing great as is my 11 year old plasma TV. Imagine paying $2K+ and have to throw it out after 4-5 years.

 

[Burty117]

I’ve had a Samsung S95B since launch, been used a fair amount, at least a few hours everyday. Sometimes more when a good game on PS5 comes out.

Not even a hint of any issues, Samsungs panel refresh system has kicked in a few times over the years but I never noticed burn-in even before it does its own refresh cycle.

Imagine paying $2K+ and have to throw it out after 4-5 years.

Oh! Have the prices been leaked somewhere? Didn’t think they’d been announced yet?

 

[RaXelliX]

*Black desktop background and minimal icons

No need. Windows has a wallpaper slideshow option since Windows 7 I believe that you can set wallpapers to rotate from 1 minute to 24 hours. As long as you're not sitting at desktop constantly then icons should not be a big problem either.

I would also suggest to use dark mode in all apps where possible.

 

[gamerk2]

No need. Windows has a wallpaper slideshow option since Windows 7 I believe that you can set wallpapers to rotate from 1 minute to 24 hours. As long as you're not sitting at desktop constantly then icons should not be a big problem either.

I would also suggest to use dark mode in all apps where possible.

That prevents burn in, but still results in some additional wear. I can't say how *much*, but for obvious reasons a black background is the least demanding on the OLEDs.

 

[ddferrari]

First of all, Dell offered a full 3-year burn-in warranty from the start on the world's first QD-OLED monitor (not a TV) - the AW3423DW (which, as it turns out, CAN be updated and just was in December), so I don't find this news to be all that impressive. Their build quality is excellent and they'll ship a replacement panel (without stand) in 2 days. Then you put the old one in the same box and slap on the free return shipping label. No deposit required. That's as good as it gets - zero downtime unless the monitor can't even power up. Does Asus or MSI offer this level of service?

Been using mine as a daily driver for nearly two years with zero burn-in. It's quite easy to avoid with a few simple, one-time tweaks:

1) Auto hide the taskbar
2) Program an F11 shortcut to one of your mouse buttons and use full screen often to hide your tabs. Toggles on and off instantly. If you don't have a programmable mouse, well... it's 2024 and time for an upgrade.
3) Set your screensaver to 5 minutes or less, with a dark background (I use Windows Mystify and it looks cool against the pure black background).

That's it! Well worth taking a few minutes to set up the best 1440p gaming and media monitor your eyes have ever seen. Now they've released 4K versions, but I'm not ready to give up all that FPS just yet. And IMHO, this hype over the subpixel layout and hence, text clarity, (looking your way, Tim S.) is wayyy overblown. Not a pixel peeper and it looks just fine to these (perhaps) untrained eyes.