The Switch OLED has an absolutely gorgeous screen, making every game pop in handheld mode. Such a lovely screen has to come at a cost, though…right? Some fans were worried that depending on the game and settings, their OLED would be sullied by burn-in and ghosting issues. Well, worry no more, OLED fans. We finally have a definitive answer.

YouTube channel Wulff Den has sacrificed a brand-new Switch OLED Model for the purposes of burn-in testing. The channel’s goal was to see just how long it took for some screen burn-in to appear. Would there be issues after a few hours of steady use, or was it a worry that wouldn’t rear its ugly head until years from now?

As seen in the video above, it’s going to take some serious abuse to cause ghosting issues on the Switch OLED. In the Wulff Den video, the test Switch OLED ran for over 3,600 hours straight before it showed the first faint signs of ghosting. That’s over 5 months straight of the Switch OLED running 24 hours a day, at the highest brightness settings, and with a single image on the screen. You can’t get a test more strenuous than that, and the Switch OLED still managed to come through like a champ.

If you want to see full details on the testing process, you can watch the first video in this series from Wulff Den via the embed below.

Add Comment

Comments (7)

kolma

2y ago

Good to know that leaving a single image on for 3600 hours at Max brightness nearly did nothing to the screen. Also as a bonus point leaving it plugged in all the time also did nothing to the battery life.


socar

2y ago

If the burn in was really the issue here, the OLED version would have flopped so hard.

I guess the technology Sony tried with the Vita's OLED isn't as powerful as Samsung's OLED hence why burn in for the Vita is more of a concern.

..still OLED is simply amazing.


elfteiroh

2y ago

@socar

That’s the thing with Nintendo. They wait for a technology to mature before using it.
Vita used OLED right when it was new. The Switch screen got almost a decade more of testing and refinement under their belt. (Vita first released in 2012, the same year OLED tv started releasing… it was pretty much untested as a video game screen. Before that, it was mostly used as simple screens for camera, cell phones (many of those were still flip phones), and other “simple” uses.)
That’s basically the “pioneer” tax. You get it early, but there’s still bugs to be found.

Edited 1 time

camhalen

2y ago

Interesting how so many people were saying this was an issue without actually knowing for sure.


blythe86

2y ago

@elfteiroh

I totally agree. This is why I'm not to angry about nintendo using old hardware for the switch.


artistic_anarchy

2y ago

This should give people ease of mind when they worry about burn in on the OLED model.


tsukideity

2y ago

Wasn't thinking about burn-in too much, but this is definitely good to know. Less to worry about in the end.