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OLED

If Gaming Is in Your DNA, This Samsung G9 49″ OLED Curved Monitor Is $700+ Off on Amazon

by admin October 3, 2025

Dual monitors are yesterday’s setup. Triple monitor arrays look impressive but waste desk space and demand GPU resources just to manage bezels. The real power move is one massive ultrawide that replaces everything while delivering an experience no multi-monitor rig can match. Samsung’s 49-inch Odyssey OLED G93SC solves the fundamental problem gamers face: you need maximum screen real estate, perfect image quality, and response times fast enough to matter in competitive play. This isn’t a compromise solution: It’s the endgame display that removes every excuse between you and peak performance. Right now it’s dropped to $879 from its typical $1,599 price on Amazon, a 45 percent discount that brings premium QD-OLED technology within reach of gamers.

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The 49-inch curved display has 5120×1440 resolution which provides the equivalent of two 27-inch QHD monitors side-by-side without bezel interruption. That 32:9 aspect ratio dramatically reimagines the experience of games. Racing simulations wrap around your peripheral vision with opponents on each side of you simultaneously. First-person shooters give you situational awareness that is cheating-like, with flanking enemies in sight earlier than players in ordinary displays.

Gamers Will Love It

Quantum Dot OLED is the current leader in display technology, combining OLED’s perfect blacks and infinite contrast with quantum dot color and brightness. Elder LCD screens have bleeder backlights that bleed through black areas, warping shadows and hiding enemies in the shadows. QD-OLED pixels are emitting and can be completely turned off and produce actual blacks with no light bleed. DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification means you can see into deep, rich darks but still have great highlights, so you’ll notice movement in dark corridors that other players just can’t spot on their lower-end panels.

The 0.03ms gray-to-gray response time is essentially click-by-click. For context, the majority of gaming monitors market 1ms response time, and a lot of LCD panels fail to even get close to actually providing that figure. This OLED screen responds 33 times faster and removes motion blur and ghosting even during high-speed camera pans or acrobatic action scenes. Combined with the 240Hz refresh rate, you get 240 separate frames per second with each frame gliding into the next. HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort inputs provide this bandwidth in full so your GPU can send frames at full speed without disruption.

G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support guarantee the monitor works with both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards, synchronizing the refresh rate of the panel with the output from your GPU in frames. This eliminates screen tearing, stutter and input lag and produces smooth motion even when frame rates are changing during fast motion scenes.

The slim build is just 4.5mm thick at its thinnest, with a premium metal finish that feels expensive sitting on your desk. The height-adjustable stand means you can position the gigantic screen at perfect eye level, and the USB hub makes it simple to plug in peripherals without reaching behind to your PC.

At $879, this is the cheapest way to get into premium ultrawide QD-OLED gaming. This monitor normally retails for $1,599, and other ultrawides with such specs cost even more.

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October 3, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

LCD vs. OLED: Which Is the Best TV Tech?

by admin September 29, 2025

While there are lots of associated marketing terms, nearly every TV today is either LCD or OLED. LCD TVs are also called LEDs, QLED TVs or even mini-LED, but the core technology is LCD — which stands for Liquid Crystal Display. Behind that LCD layer are LEDs; the number and arrangement of the LEDs are the main differences. The best ones use quantum dots and local dimming to create a vibrant, 4K HDR image.

OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, is newer to the mainstream market, although it’s been available for more than a decade. OLED panels are made by LG and Samsung and are also called QD-OLED and WOLED, depending on the specific version of the technology used.

How they work (the oversimplified edition)

The biggest difference between the two technologies is in how they work. Every TV’s picture is composed of millions of tiny “pixels,” or picture elements, that combine to create the image.

With OLED, each pixel provides its own illumination, so there’s no separate backlight. With an LCD TV, all of the pixels are illuminated by a separate LED backlight. This can have a handful of LEDs in the case of smaller, inexpensive TVs, or hundreds and thousands of LEDs for larger, more expensive TVs. This difference in how they create light directly impacts their overall picture quality, some of which favor LCD, but most of which benefit OLED.

Read more: QLED vs. OLED: What’s the difference between these types of TV?
Read more: QLED vs. LED: Which Is Better?

LCD panels are made by several companies across Asia. All current OLED panels are built by either LG Display or Samsung Display, the display panel manufacturing divisions of those companies. Other companies will buy panels from those manufacturers, sometimes even from each other, but if you’re buying an OLED TV, the image-producing panel is made by one of those companies.

OLED is consistently, year over year and test after test, the picture quality king, but LCD TVs usually cost less and can still provide excellent picture quality. A variety of new technologies, which we’ll discuss, help keep LCD from getting too far behind its newer tech competition.

So which one is better? Read on for their strengths and weaknesses. In general, we’ll be comparing OLED to the best (read: most expensive) LCD has to offer, mainly because there’s no such thing as a cheap OLED TV (yet).

Light output (brightness)

Winner: LCD
Loser: OLED

Take this category with a grain of salt. Both TV types are very bright and can look good in even a sunny room, let alone more moderate indoor lighting situations or the dark rooms that make TV images look their best. When it comes down to it, no modern TV could ever be considered “dim.”

LCD gets the nod here specifically because the whole screen can be brighter, which is a function of its backlight. Generally, it’s mini-LED that offers the highest brightness. Both QD-OLED and LG’s new 4-stack OLED still offer impressive brightness though, so the difference here isn’t as big as it once was.

Raúl Vázquez/EyeEm/GettyImages

Black level

Winner: OLED
Loser: LCD

At the other side of light output is black level, or how dark the TV can get. OLED wins here because of its ability to turn off individual pixels completely. It can produce truly perfect black.

The better LCDs have local dimming, where parts of the screen can dim independently of others. This isn’t quite as good as per-pixel control because the black areas still aren’t absolutely black but it’s better than nothing. The best LCDs have full-array local dimming, which provides even finer control over the contrast of what’s onscreen — but even they can suffer from “blooming,” where a bright area spoils the black of an adjacent dark area. Most notably, mini-LED has significantly more LEDs than traditional LED LCDs, so they can look almost as good as OLED in some situations.

Check out this LED LCD backlights explainer and LED local dimming explained for more info.

Contrast ratio

Winner: OLED
Loser: LCD

Here’s where it comes together. Contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest and the darkest a TV can be. OLED is the winner here because it can get extremely bright, plus it can produce absolute black with no blooming. It has the best contrast ratio of any modern display.

Contrast ratio is the most important aspect of picture quality. A high contrast-ratio display will look more realistic than one with a lower contrast ratio. There’s a far greater difference between the best LCD and the worst, with mini-LED once again offering the best performance overall for that tech. The “worst” OLED will still look better than almost all LCDs, however.

For more info, check out the basics of contrast ratio and why it’s important to understand contrast ratio.

ShaoChen Yang/Getty Images

Resolution

Winner: Tie

This one’s easy. Both OLED and LCD are widely available in UltraHD, aka 4K, form, and there are 8K versions of both if you’re particularly well-heeled.

There are also small, inexpensive 1080p and even 720p resolution LCDs. There are no 1080p or lower resolution OLEDs currently on the market.

Refresh rate and motion blur

Winner: Tie

Refresh rate is important in reducing motion blur, or the blurring of anything on screen that moves (including the whole image if the camera pans). Sadly, the current version of OLED has motion blur, just like LCD. OLEDs, and mid- and high-end LCDs, have a 120Hz refresh rate. Cheaper LCDs are 60Hz. Keep in mind, most companies use numbers that are higher than their “true” refresh rate.

OLEDs and many LCD use black-frame insertion, which is a way to improve motion resolution without resorting to the (usually) dreaded Soap Opera Effect.

Don’t stand this close when checking out a TV.

Peter Cade/Getty Images

Viewing angle

Winner: OLED
Loser: LCD

One of the main downsides of LCD TVs is a change in picture quality if you sit away from dead center (as in, off to the sides). How much this matters to you certainly depends on your seating arrangement but also on how much you love your loved ones.

A few LCDs use in-plane switching panels, which have better off-axis picture quality than other kinds of LCDs but don’t look as good as other LCDs straight on (primarily because of a lower contrast ratio).

OLED doesn’t have the off-axis issue LCDs have; its image looks basically the same, even from extreme angles. So if you have a wide seating area, OLED is the better option.

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

Winner: OLED (with caveats)

Watching High Dynamic Range content lets your TV really expand its potential. Sort of like driving on the highway vs a two-lane dirt road. It lets your TV produce more colorful bright highlights and typically a wider color gamut.

Nearly all current TVs are HDR compatible, but that’s not the entire story. Just because a TV claims HDR compatibility doesn’t mean it can accurately display HDR content. All OLED TVs have the dynamic range to take advantage of HDR, but lower-priced LCDs, especially those without local-dimming backlights, do not. So if you want to see HDR content in all its dynamic, vibrant beauty, go for OLED or an LCD with local dimming, for example mini-LED.

In our tests comparing the best new OLED and LCD TVs with HDR games and movies, OLED usually looks better. Its superior contrast and lack of blooming win the day despite LCD’s brightness advantage. In other words, LCD TVs can get brighter, especially in full-screen bright scenes and HDR highlights, but none of them can control that illumination as precisely as an OLED TV.

It’s also worth learning about the differences between HDR for photography and HDR for TVs.

The smallest triangle (circles at corners) is what your current HDTV can do. The next largest (squares) is P3 color. The largest (triangle edges) is Rec 2020.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET (triangles); Sakurambo (base chart)

Expanded Color Gamut

Winner: Tie

Wide Color Gamut, or WCG, is related to HDR, although you can technically have one without the other. It’s an expansion of the colors possible on “standard” TVs. Think richer, deeper and more vibrant colors.

Most mid- and high-end LCDs and all new OLED models are capable of WCG. In some models of both that capability is caused by the use of quantum dots.

Read more about how TVs make color, how they will make color and how Wide Color Gamut works.

Uniformity

Winner: OLED
Loser: LCD

Uniformity refers to the consistency of brightness across the screen. Many inexpensive LCDs are pretty terrible with this, “leaking” light from their edges. This can be distracting, especially during darker movies. On mid- and higher-end models this is usually less of an issue.

Energy consumption

Winner: Basically a tie

OLED’s energy consumption is directly related to screen brightness. The brighter the screen, the more power it draws. It even varies with content. A dark movie will require less power than a hockey game or ski competition.

The energy consumption of LCD varies depending on the backlight setting. The lower the backlight, the lower the power consumption. A basic LED LCD with its backlight set low will draw less power than OLED.

Overall, though, all new TVs are fairly energy efficient, and even the least energy efficient modern TV would only cost you a few dollars more per year to use. That said, larger, brighter TVs will use a lot more energy than smaller, dimmer ones.

shaunl/Getty Images

Lifespan

Winner: Tie (sort of)

LG has said their OLED TVs have a lifespan of 100,000 hours to half brightness, a figure that’s similar to LED LCDs. Generally speaking, all modern TVs are quite reliable and should last many years.

Does that mean your new LCD or OLED will last for several decades like your parent’s last CRT (like the one pictured). Probably not, but then, why would you want it to? A 42-inch flat panel cost $14,000 in the late 90’s, and now a 55-inch TV with more than 16x the resolution and a million times better contrast ratio costs $250. Which is to say, by the time you’ll want/need to replace it, there will be something even better than what’s available now, for less money.

Because they are quite reliable on the whole, you won’t have to replace them anytime soon.

Burn-in

Winner: LCD
Loser: OLED

All TVs can “burn in” or develop what’s called “image persistence,” where the ghost of an image remains onscreen. It’s really hard to do this with most LCDs. It’s easier with OLED, so LCD wins this category.

Even with OLED TVs, however, most people don’t have to worry about burn-in. Some edge-lit LED LCD, typically cheaper models, can have their own version of burn in where the LEDs age poorly and the plastic layers that help create the image warp and discolor. Which is to say, both technologies have issues but how those issues manifest is different.

If you want a REALLY big TV, neither OLED nor LCD will do.

Screen size

Winner: LCD
Loser: OLED

OLED TVs are available in sizes from 48 to 97 inches but LCD TVs come in smaller and even larger sizes than that — with many more choices in between — so LCD wins. At the high end of the size scale, however, the biggest “TVs” don’t use either technology.

The easiest, and cheapest, way to get a truly massive image in your home is with a projector. For about $1,000 you can get an excellent 100-inch-plus image.

If you want something even brighter, and don’t mind spending a literal fortune to get it, Samsung, Sony, LG and some other companies sell direct-view LED displays. In most cases these are microLED.

Price

Winner: LCD
Loser: OLED

You can get 4K resolution, 50-inch LCDs for less than $200. It’s going to be a long time before OLEDs are that price, but they have come down considerably.

So if your goal is to get the cheapest TV possible, that’s LCD. If you want something with great picture quality, the prices are fairly comparable. The most expensive OLED TVs are more expensive than the best similarly sized LCD TVs, but that difference shrinks every year.

And the picture-quality winner is … OLED

LCD dominates the market because it’s cheap to manufacture and delivers good enough picture quality for just about everybody. But according to reviews at CNET and elsewhere, OLED wins for overall picture quality, largely because of the incredible contrast ratio. The price difference isn’t as severe as it used to be, and in the mid- to high-end of the market, there are a lot of options.

LCDs continue to improve, though, and many models offer excellent picture quality for far less money than OLED, especially in larger sizes.

Which is to say, there are a lot of great TVs out there.

In addition to covering cameras and display tech, Geoff does photo essays about cool museums and other stuff, including nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers and 10,000-mile road trips.

Also, check out Budget Travel for Dummies, his travel book and his bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines. You can follow him on Instagram and YouTube.

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September 29, 2025 0 comments

The MSI MAG 271QPX QD-OLED E2 gaming monitor deals post

Gaming Gear

MSI’s 27-inch 240 Hz OLED QHD gaming monitor drops to its lowest price of $499

by admin September 21, 2025

QD-OLED monitors offer excellent visuals with deep blacks and vibrant colors, making them one of the best display upgrades for your gaming setup. One such recommended monitor comes from MSI, specifically the MAG 271QPX QD-OLED E2, which is currently available at a discounted price at Newegg.

The 27-inch gaming monitor, originally launched at $699, is currently available for $549 during Newegg’s ongoing Shell Shocker sale. For a limited time, you can avail an extra $50 off by applying the promo code GH8P23, bringing the final price down to $499.

The MSI MAG 271QPX QD-OLED E2 features a third-generation QD-OLED panel, which, according to the company, has been factory pre-calibrated to achieve a delta-E ≤ 2 and an expanded RGB color range of 10-bit. With a resolution of 2560×1440, the monitor provides a refresh rate of up to 240 Hz, paired with a 0.03 ms (GtG) response time, for a sharp and responsive visual experience.

MSI also notes that the monitor is VESA certified for ClearMR 13000 for reduced motion blur and DisplayHDR True Black 400, which ensures high contrast and deep blacks. The panel also supports up to 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, making it suitable for creative tasks.

In terms of connectivity, the MSI MAG 271QPX QD-OLED E2 features a DisplayPort (1.4a), two HDMI 2.1 ports, a USB 2.0 Type-C port with support for DisplayPort Alt Mode and 15W power delivery, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Other notable features include a specialized Graphene film for improved thermal conductivity and a customized heatsink that enables the monitor to operate without an active cooling fan. To prevent OLED burn-in, MSI’s OLED Care 2.0 offers a range of screen protection optimization mechanisms, in addition to features such as Multi-Logo Detection, Taskbar Detection, and Boundary Detection. The monitor also comes with a three-year burn-in warranty, offering additional peace of mind for consumers.

If you’re looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

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September 21, 2025 0 comments

panasonci z95b showing image of leaf onscreen

Product Reviews

Panasonic Z95B review: a flagship OLED TV that combines refined pictures with powerful sound

by admin August 25, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Panasonic Z95B: Two-minute review

The Panasonic Z95B is the latest flagship TV to enter what is turning out to be a very competitive OLED TV market in 2025. Whereas some of those models – specifically those from Samsung and LG – are making a bet on high brightness to distinguish themselves among the best TVs, Panasonic is pushing accuracy with the Z95B, and the effort can be seen in its refined, natural, and finely detailed picture.

For the Panasonic Z95B, the company opted to use the same Primary RGB Tandem panel OLED display found in the LG G5. This new panel tech has a ‘four-stack’ structure, with separate red and green OLED layers sandwiched between two blue layers, and it accounts for the Z95B’s rich color display and high brightness capability – I recorded brightness measurements as high as 2,107 nits, though brightness is considerably more limited in several of the TV’s picture presets such as Filmmaker Mode, which is a quirk I’ll dig into later in the review.

The Z95B’s predecessor, the Panasonic Z95A, distinguished itself as one of the best TVs for sound with its powerful 5.1.2-channel built-in speaker array. This same ‘360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics’ system carries over to the Z95B, though Panasonic has made improvements to the speaker drivers, speaker layout, and woofer output. The result is one of the best built-in TV speaker systems you can buy, with sound that’s clear, powerful, and immersive enough that you could easily get away with not using an external soundbar.

Those speakers on the Z95B are concealed behind a gray mesh fabric that runs along the TV’s top, bottom, and sides, and gives it a solid, dignified appearance. A pedestal stand that swivels in either direction to accommodate a range of seating positions is a bonus, though the included, basic remote control seems at odds with the TV’s premium design.

Panasonic uses Amazon Fire TV as its smart TV system, and it’s a serviceable, but ad-driven platform that really would like you to be a Prime Video subscriber and devotee of other Amazon services and products. Fire TV’s Live TV portal is particularly friendly to users of the best indoor antennas, though, and the Z95B supports ATSC 3.0 broadcasts for viewers in the US.

Gaming is well supported on the Z95B, with 4K at 144Hz, Dolby Vision gaming, and variable refresh rate, including AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync, all accounted for. HDMI 2.1 ports supporting those features are limited to two, rather than the four HDMI 2.1 ports we look for on the best gaming TVs, but the Z95B’s powerful built-in speaker system makes that less of an issue than it normally would be.

Panasonic OLED TVs are typically priced higher than their Samsung and LG counterparts, particularly in the UK, but the Z95B was priced around the same as its competition at launch, and has already seen discounts. Given its impressive picture and sound quality, it’s one of 2025’s best OLED TVs, and a very good overall value among premium TVs.

Panasonic Z95B 4K OLED TV at Amazon for $2,399.99

Panasonic Z95B review: Price and release date

The Fire TV Ambient Experience lets you choose images and artworks to display when the TV is in standby mode (Image credit: Future)

Release date: June 2025
55-inch: $2,599 / £2,499
65-inch: $3,399 / £2,999
77-inch: $4,699 / £3,999

The Panasonic Z95B is available in 55-, 65-, and 77-inch screen sizes, with that last option an expansion on last year’s Z95A series, which was only available in 55- and 65-inch sizes. Prices for all Z95B series TVs have dropped since launch, with all screen sizes now selling for several hundred less in both the US and the UK.

At the reduced price, the Z95B series is now priced in line with its premium OLED competition from LG, Samsung, and Sony. For example, the 65-inch Panasonic is now selling for around $3,000 in the US. In that same screen size, you’ll find both the LG G5 and the Sony Bravia 8 II priced around $3,000, and the Samsung S95F at $3,299.

Panasonic Z95B review: Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Screen type:

Primary Tandem RGB OLED

Refresh rate:

144Hz

HDR support:

Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HLG

Audio support:

Dolby Atmos

Smart TV:

Fire TV

HDMI ports:

4 (2x HDMI 2.1)

Built-in tuner:

ATSC 3.0 (US)

Panasonic Z95B review: Benchmark results

Panasonic Z95B review: Features

The Z95B’s four HDMI ports, including two inputs with 4K 144Hz support (Image credit: Future)

Primary RGB Tandem panel OLED display
Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support
360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics speaker array

The Panasonic Z95B uses a new Primary RGB Tandem panel OLED display with a notably higher brightness capability than the Master OLED Ultimate panel with micro lens array tech used in its Panasonic Z95A predecessor. Panasonic additionally uses a ThermalFlow aerodynamic cooling system that helps to maximize peak brightness by improving airflow through the TV.

Panasonic has carried over the same HCX Pro AI Processor MK II from the Z95A to the Z95B. This advanced picture processor uses dynamic 3D LUTs (Look-Up Tables) to ensure accurate colors across a range of picture brightness levels and provides 4K Fine Remaster and Smooth Motion Drive Pro features to improve detail and motion handling.

Panasonic models continue to be the only OLED TVs in the US to support both the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ high dynamic range formats (Philips OLEDs in the UK have the same capability), and in the Z95B, that’s supplemented by Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive for automatic picture brightness adjustments across a range of lighting conditions. Picture presets include Filmmaker Mode and Panasonic’s True Cinema and True Game modes, along with Netflix and Prime Video Calibrated modes for automatic picture optimization when streaming from those services.

The Panasonic Z95A quickly earned a spot as the best option for built-in sound quality in multiple TechRadar best TVs lists, and the new Z95B also features a ‘360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics’ built-in 5.1.2-channel 160W speaker system – this time with redesigned speaker drivers and speaker layout, and higher bass output. This differs from the built-in speaker arrays found on most other TVs in providing a dedicated center channel speaker, along with side-firing and upfiring speaker drivers for enhanced immersion.

As with picture settings, the Z95B features a wide range of sound settings. Key among these is Space Tune, for automatically tuning the TV’s sound output using the remote control’s built-in mic, and Sound Focus, which lets you adjust the directionality of the TV’s sound using beam-forming to accommodate off-center seating positions.

Panasonic switched to the Amazon Fire TV smart TV interface back in 2024, and Fire TV on the Z95B features optimized voice control features for content discovery and navigation, a hands-free control option, and an interface that can be personalized for multiple users. Live TV channels, including ones pulled in by the TV’s ATSC 3.0 tuner, can be integrated into the smart interface for browsing and also customized for a ‘personalized Live-TV Experience.’

Gaming features on the Z95B include a True Game mode with latency reduction, a Game sound mode, and a Game Board onscreen menu for making quick adjustments while gaming. Two of the TV’s four HDMI ports also support HDMI 2.1 features such as 4K 144Hz and VRR, including AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync.

Panasonic Z95B review: Picture quality

Ambient Experience options include full-motion and AI-generated images plus information widgets (Image credit: Future)

High brightness capability for an OLED TV
Brightness is limited in Filmmaker and other picture modes
Rich color and excellent detail

The first thing to say about the Panasonic Z95B’s picture is that, while the TV is capable of high brightness, it’s not as bright as its premium OLED TV competition when its most accurate picture presets – Filmmaker Mode, True Cinema, and Cinema – are used and left at their default settings.

That’s because Panasonic is prioritizing picture accuracy over brightness here, and those modes limit peak brightness based on the maximum mastered brightness level of the source – typically 1,000 nits for most content.

Correspondingly, I measured Z95B’s peak HDR brightness in Filmmaker Mode at 992 nits, while its fullscreen brightness in that mode was 347 nits. After bumping up the luminance level of my test pattern source, peak HDR brightness in Filmmaker Mode jumped to 2,107 nits, and the TV’s EOTF (the equivalent gamma for HDR) also remained accurate at that brightness level.

Viewers not wanting to deal with any brightness limitations could instead opt for the Standard picture preset, which had a measured peak HDR brightness of 1,835 nits, and 327 nits fullscreen brightness. Panasonic also provides settings in the TV’s HDR submenu that let you manually set HDR tonemapping and luminance clipping levels, and these can be used to help optimize brightness. Needless to say, this is great news for tweakers, but a potential source of annoyance for others who don’t like to sift through menu settings.

As for other numbers, the Z95B’s coverage of the UHDA-P3 and BT.2020 color spaces in Filmmaker Mode measured 99.9% and 79.1%, respectively – both impressive results. The average Delta-E value (the margin of error between the test pattern source and what’s shown on-screen, with a result lower than 3 being undetectable by the human eye) for color point accuracy was 2.6, and it was 3.2 for grayscale accuracy.

The Z95B has high peak brightness capability, but brightness is limited by default in specific picture modes, such as Filmmaker Mode (Image credit: Future)

For most of my Z95B evaluation, I viewed it in dimmed lighting, and such conditions allowed the Panasonic’s picture to fully shine. The set does use an anti-reflection screen, and while this works to a degree, I could still see mirror-like reflections from lamps and overhead lights, and picture contrast was also lessened with my room lights on.

After watching the recent movie Weapons in the theater, I was motivated to stream the director’s earlier movie, Barbarian (on Netflix in 4K), and the Z95B did an excellent job of displaying the deep black of the house’s basement and fleshing out shadows in the corridors of the creepy, dungeon-like space. For this movie, I used Netflix Calibrated Mode, which by default made it too dark, but the TV’s multiple black level adjustments allowed me to tweak the picture for a more balanced look.

Wild Robot was up next, and I streamed it in 4K with Dolby Vision using the TV’s Dolby Vision Dark preset – one that I’m happy to report turned off motion smoothing by default. The jungle and creatures in this animated movie were displayed with rich, vivid color. The picture also looked fantastically detailed and clean, with the textures in the computer-generated images giving the picture a near-3D quality.

I like to use the Netflix series Ripley in TV evaluations because of its sumptuous cinematography (by frequent Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator Robert Elswit). The Z95B certainly did not disappoint here, displaying the wide range of fine gray tones in the black and white images of Italian villages and villas with an impressive level of subtlety.

Dolby Vision Dark mode proved to be a good match for Ripley, but in this case, when I switched to Netflix Calibrated mode, the picture retained both its subtle grayscale and contrast punch.

No Time to Die is one of my go-to reference 4K Blu-rays, and when I watched the scene where James Bond walks across a craggy hillside cemetery, the Z95B’s picture looked impressively solid, with only a minimal level of judder. I often find myself applying some level of motion adjustment to TVs after checking this scene, but the Z95B’s motion handling was good enough that I didn’t feel any need to.

Picture quality score: 5 / 5

Panasonic Z95B review: Sound quality

The Z95B features a rear-mounted subwoofer with dual passive radiators (Image credit: Future)

5.1.2-channel, 160W speaker array
360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics
Sound Focus feature adjusts for off-center seating

The Z95B features a built-in 5.1.2-channel, 160W speaker array, with the front-facing left, center, and right-channel speakers contained in a soundbar-like enclosure at the screen’s bottom. Along with these, there are newly designed line-array speakers positioned at the sides and top surface of the TV, along with a subwoofer and dual passive bass radiators located around the back.

This ‘360 Soundscape Pro tuned by Technics’ Dolby Atmos sound system is more elaborate than what you’ll find on most TVs, and its performance is good enough that you can easily use it in place of one of the best soundbars. Panasonic has also introduced enhanced two-channel and 5.1-channel upmixing on the Z95B which it says can “deliver immersive rear sound without rear speakers,” though the TV’s virtual processing comes short of delivering on that claim.

As with the picture, there are extensive sound presets on the Z95B, along with settings for customizing the sound. After using Space Tune, a feature that uses the remote control’s built-in mic to calibrate the TV’s sound output for your viewing environment, I found that many of the presets sounded too bright for my taste and opted for the User preset, which provides Sound Field and Bass Boost settings to customize the sound, along with an eight-band EQ adjustment.

Once adjusted, dialogue projected clearly and sounded natural, and even music sounded good, as I confirmed when watching Queens of the Stone Age Alive in the Catacombs, an acoustic performance by the band recorded in the catacombs beneath Paris. The sound effects in action movies like Mad Max: Fury Road had a high level of spatial precision, and the TV’s powerful speaker array delivered a strong impact on engine roars and crashes during the movie’s many vehicle chase scenes.

Another key Z95B feature is Sound Focus, which uses beam-forming processing to change the direction of the speaker output to accommodate off-center seating positions. You can choose Pinpoint, Area, Spot, or Ambient settings, each of which provides a different level of soundfield width. Testing this, I used the Pinpoint setting to aim the sound at the far end of my sofa, and the TV’s soundstage clearly shifted 30 degrees off from center.

Sound quality score: 5 / 5

Panasonic Z95B review: Design

Image 1 of 2

The Z95B’s swiveling pedestal stand(Image credit: Future)The mesh fabric grille covering the TV’s top- and side-mounted speakers(Image credit: Future)

Swiveling stand
Wide range of input and control ports
Flimsy remote control

With its two-inch depth, the Z95B, while slimmer than its Z95A predecessor, is still on the bulky side for an OLED TV. That girth is a necessity given the TV’s substantial built-in speakers, however, and the Z95B still manages to maintain a sleek look when viewed straight on.

An attractive dark gray fabric mesh covers both the front-facing and side- and top-firing speakers, and the TV’s sturdy aluminum pedestal stand can be swiveled – a useful feature to accommodate a range of viewing positions.

The Z95B’s extensive connections include four HDMI ports (with two HDMI 2.1) and both optical digital audio and a 3.5mm headphone output that can also be configured for connecting an external subwoofer. An ATSC 3.0 tuner connection can be used for viewing ‘NextGen’ digital TV broadcasts in the US, and there are also powered USB and Ethernet ports, and an IR blaster output.

Panasonic hasn’t changed the flimsy remote control that previously shipped with the Z95A for the Z95B. And while that’s disappointing given this TV’s premium price, it mostly does the job and features a built-in mic for Alexa voice commands.

There’s no input select button on the US remote for changing inputs – one of my pet peeves with TV remotes – but you can configure one of the controls to switch to a specific input on the TV, along with a range of other options such as selecting a specific streaming app.

Panasonic Z95B review: Smart TV and menus

Image 1 of 2

The main Fire TV home screen(Image credit: Future)The Live TV guide screen on Fire TV(Image credit: Future)

Amazon Fire TV smart TV platform
Live program grid with broadcast channels customization
Extensive array of picture and sound adjustments

Panasonic TVs use Amazon Fire TV for a smart TV system, and the version you’ll see on the Z95B is essentially the same as what’s found on Amazon’s own Fire TV lineup. The top half is occupied by ads, many for Amazon streaming and VOD offerings, while a horizontal bar cutting across the center contains input selection, My Stuff, search, and Live TV tabs, along with a customizable row of streaming apps and a gear icon for advanced menus.

The bottom section contains a grid of recommended program options culled from free TV and subscription apps, and if you scroll down, you’ll see a seemingly endless range of these, with everything from political news to the latest cooking videos.

Fire TV’s Live TV portal features a grid guide option that lets you browse channels grouped in a range of categories such as Antenna Channels, Sports, News by Fire TV, and more. Digital broadcast stations can be arranged into lists, with the option to favorite your regularly watched channels, and to hide ones like home shopping networks that you’d prefer to shut out.

Fire TV provides a greater range of customization for browsing both free broadcast and streamed TV channels than most other smart interfaces, so it’s a good option for antenna users.

The Fire TV Ambient Experience provides a wide assortment of still and motion images that can be displayed when the TV is in standby mode. (It can also be accessed at any time by pressing and holding the power on/off button on the remote.) Along with the supplied content library, you can access personal photos (you’ll first need to upload these using the Amazon Photos app on your phone).

You can also use Alexa voice commands to create AI-generated images for your Ambient Experience library, though, as I found when experimenting with this feature, political content is not permitted.

Panasonic provides a much wider range of picture and sound adjustment options in the setup menus than most other TVs. I hit the high points for sound in the Sound Quality section above, but the Z95B’s picture menus include an almost over-the-top array of advanced adjustments.

To list just a few, the Brightness menu has multiple advanced settings for configuring black levels, and there’s an HDR submenu that lets you set EOTF type, HDR tonemapping, and luminance clipping levels. For color, you can switch between Rec. 2020, DCI-P3, Adobe, and Rec. 709 color gamuts.

The reason for all these adjustments is that Panasonic’s OLED TVs are used in post-production facilities as reference monitors, but in the majority of instances, you’ll want to leave things set to Auto.

Smart TV & menus score: 4 / 5

Panasonic Z95B review: Gaming

The Z95B’s Game Bar menu overlay (Image credit: Future)

Two HDMI 2.1 ports with 4K 144Hz support
FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync VRR
12.7ms input lag is average

The Z95B’s gaming features include two HDMI ports with 4K at 144Hz, FreeSync Premium, and Nvidia G-Sync VRR support, and Dolby Vision gaming. There’s a True Game picture and a Game sound mode, and Panasonic’s Game Board onscreen menu can be called up to make quick and easy adjustments to parameters like dark visibility, sound mode, and variable refresh rate.

Input lag measured with a Bodnar 4K meter was 12.7ms, which is an average level for a TV. The best gaming TVs can hit the 9ms range, but the Z95B’s input lag is minimal enough that the vast majority of gamers will find it more than acceptable.

Panasonic Z95B review: Value

The Z95B’s remote control is flimsy and lacks backlighting and an input select button (Image credit: Future)

Priced the same as top OLED competition
Built-in sound enhances value
Less extensive gaming features than competition

The Panasonic Z95B is currently priced on par with, or even less than, its premium OLED competition from LG, Samsung, and Sony. Choosing between this year’s top OLED TVs is tougher than ever, but I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed with the Z95B’s picture, though the Samsung S95F and LG G5 may be better options for those wanting to view in bright rooms.

One thing that enhances the Z95B’s value is its powerful sound. For that reason, you could consider using this TV without a soundbar, though the built-in speakers aren’t necessarily a match for the best Dolby Atmos soundbar systems with separate rear-channel speakers and a subwoofer.

An argument could be made that the Z95B is a lesser gaming TV than the Samsung S95F and LG G5, both of which feature four HDMI 2.1 ports, lower input lag, and cloud-based gaming from apps including Xbox. But the Z95B’s lower HDMI 2.1 port count won’t be an issue if you’re using its built-in speakers, and as a Fire TV, there is Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming app, which features popular games like Fortnite.

Should I buy the Panasonic Z95B?

(Image credit: Future)Swipe to scroll horizontallyPanasonic Z95B

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

A fine selection of features led by sound processing modes for room tuning and off-center seating accommodation

4.5 / 5

Picture quality

Capable of high brightness for an OLED, but many of the TV’s preset picture modes favor a more subtle, balanced, and accurate images

5 / 5

Sound quality

Powerful built-in 5.1.2-channel speakers distinguish the Z95B from other TVs and is good enough that a soundbar isn’t exactly needed

5 / 5

Design

A slightly bulky form factor due to its built-in speakers, but otherwise a sleek design with a swiveling pedestal stand. Remote control could use work

4 / 5

Smart TV and menus

Amazon Fire TV isn’t the best smart TV platform, but it does the job for streaming and Amazon subscribers and Alexa users will find it useful

4 / 5

Gaming

A good set of gaming features and solid overall gaming performance

4 / 5

Value

A very good value compared to other premium OLED TVs, and its value is enhanced by its excellent built-in sound

4.5 / 5

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Panasonic Z95B: Also consider…

Swipe to scroll horizontallyHeader Cell – Column 0

Panasonic Z95B

LG G5

Samsung S95F

Sony Bravia 8 II

List price (65-inch)

$3,399 / £2,999

$3,399 / £3,299 / AU$5,299

$2,699 / £2,699 / AU$4,299

$3,499 / £2,999 / AU$4,999

Screen type

Primary Tandem RGB OLED

QD-OLED

Refresh rate

144Hz

165Hz

120Hz

HDR support

Dolby Vision/HDR10+/HLG

Dolby Vision/HDR10/HLG

HDR10+/HDR10/HLG

DolbyVision/HDR10/HLG

Smart TV

Fire TV

webOS

Tizen

Google TV

HDMI ports

4 (2 x HDMI 2.1)

4x HDMI 2.1

4 x HDMI 2.1

4 (2x HDMI 2.1)

How I tested the Panasonic Z95B

Measuring a 10% HDR white window pattern during testing (Image credit: Future)

I spent about 15 viewing hours in total, measuring and evaluating
Measurements were made using Calman color calibration software
A full calibration was made before proceeding with subjective tests

When I test TVs, I first spend a few days or even weeks using it for casual viewing to assess the out-of-the-box picture presets and get familiar with its smart TV menu and picture adjustments. I next select the most accurate preset (usually Filmmaker Mode, Movie or Cinema) and measure grayscale and color accuracy using Portrait Displays’ Calman color calibration software. The resulting measurements provide Delta-E values (the margin of error between the test pattern source and what’s shown on-screen) for each category, and allow for an assessment of the TV’s overall accuracy.

Along with those tests, I make measurements of peak and fullscreen light output (recorded in nits) for both standard high-definition and 4K high dynamic range using 10% and 100% white window patterns. Coverage of UHDA-P3 and BT.2020 color space is also measured, with the results providing a sense of how faithfully the TV can render the extended color range in ultra high-definition sources.

For the Panasonic Z95B, I used the Calman ISF workflow, along with the TV’s advanced picture menu settings, to calibrate the image for best accuracy. I also watched a range of reference scenes on 4K Blu-ray discs to assess the TV’s performance, along with 4K HDR shows streamed from HBO Max, Netflix, Apple TV+, and other services.

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August 25, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

OLED Burn-In: What You Need to Know for TVs, Phones and More

by admin August 24, 2025

The best TVs, the best phones and one of the best game consoles — the Nintendo Switch OLED — have one thing in common: They have OLED screens. Organic light-emitting diode screens offer performance that a traditional LCD screen just can’t match. They have incredible contrast ratios that make the image look much more lifelike. It’s why companies like LG, Sony, and now Samsung have OLED at the top of their TV model lines. The same is true for Apple, Samsung, Google and others on the phone side. OLED screens offer the best picture quality currently available. Unfortunately, there is one, big potential downside: burn-in.

Burn-in is when part of an image — such as navigation buttons, persistent icons on a phone, a channel logo, news ticker or a scoreboard on a TV — remains visible as a ghostly background no matter what else appears onscreen. Apple’s support page for the OLED screen iPhones touts that they’ve been designed to reduce the effects of OLED burn-in, even as it acknowledges that burn-in can occur in “extreme cases.” Google’s Pixel phone support page says burn-in can happen “when the same image stays on your screen for a long time at a high brightness” and recommends steps to reduce it.

Brett Pearce/CNET

In the TV world, LG has a page that says “It is rare for an average TV consumer to create an environment that could result in burn-in.” Nonetheless, stories of OLED burn-in don’t seem rare online, with owners on YouTube, forums and social media reporting the issue. Reviews site RTings has also demonstrated burn-in with long-term tests (more on that below).

The fact is that all organic light-emitting diode screens can experience burn-in, and from everything we know, they’re more susceptible than standard liquid crystal displays (LCDs), which at the moment is every mainstream TV that’s not OLED.

If the mere possibility of burn-in is your primary concern, the decision is simple: Buy an LCD-based display instead. Know that you’re sacrificing the best picture quality that money can buy. Here are some points to keep in mind:

Burn-in is possible with OLED, but not likely with normal use.
Most “burn-in” is image retention, which goes away after a few minutes.
You’ll almost certainly see image retention long before it becomes permanent burn-in.
Generally speaking, burn-in is something to be aware of, but not worry about.

Burn-in can be caused by leaving a single image onscreen for a very long time.

Is screen burn-in still a problem? Not for most people

All things considered, burn-in shouldn’t be a problem for most people. That’s why we at CNET continue to recommend OLED-based TVs, phones and other devices in our reviews. From all of the evidence we’ve seen, burn-in is typically caused by leaving a single, static image element, like a channel logo or “chyron”, onscreen for a very long time, repeatedly.

If you, like most people, watch a variety of content on your TV, phone, or other device with an OLED screen, you’re not going to need to worry about burn-in.

How to avoid burn-in on an OLED screen

What can you do to prevent burn-in on that new TV? As I mentioned, vary what you watch a bit. In particular, don’t watch something that has the same static areas displayed onscreen, nonstop for days on end.

Both Sony and LG told CNET that the best way to prevent burn-in or image retention on their TVs is to avoid static images.

“To avoid the possibility of burn-in, consumers should avoid leaving static images on an OLED screen for long periods of time. For example, leaving a video game paused onscreen for several hours or days,” a Sony spokesperson said.

The logos and news tickers on cable news channels are examples of those static areas — they have elements that never move, and they remain on screen the entire time you’re watching. That means if you leave your TV running Fox News, CNN, MSNBC or ESPN all day long and don’t watch enough other programming, you’re more likely to get burn-in. Or at least, image retention, which we’ll discuss in a moment. If you play the same game for 8 hours a day, every day, the onscreen status display or HUD is also a likely culprit for burn-in.

To repeat, you can watch those channels, play games or whatever else to use your TV as a TV, your phone as a phone, etc. You just shouldn’t watch only those channels, all day every day. And if that sounds extreme, know that emails I’ve gotten from readers about burn-in always have some variation on “well I only watched that channel for 5 hours a day.” If that sounds like you, get an LCD.

As long as you vary what’s displayed, chances are you’ll never experience burn-in. That varied content will age your screen evenly. In 24-hours, you could watch a movie, play some games or binge some TV shows, and they’re all varied enough that you should be fine.

The RTings torture test I mentioned above lasted the equivalent of 5 years of use and it still says “Our stance remains the same, we don’t expect most people who watch varied content without static areas to experience burn-in issues with an OLED TV.” It has updated its testing with some of the new QD-OLED models. More on that in its own section below.

Nintendo Switch OLED: What to know about burn-in on your gaming console’s screen

Dan Ackerman/CNET

Nintendo updated its beloved Switch handheld gaming console with a few improvements, including an OLED screen. This offers a far better image than the fairly unimpressive screen on the original Switch. As you’ve read above, games are one of the potential issues that could lead to image retention or, worst case, burn-in. Here’s what Nintendo had to say when CNET asked about burn-in:

We’ve designed the OLED screen to aim for longevity as much as possible, but OLED displays can experience image retention if subjected to static visuals over a long period of time. However, users can take preventative measures to preserve the screen [by] utilizing features included in the Nintendo Switch systems by default, such as auto-brightness function to prevent the screen from getting too bright, and the auto-sleep function to go into ‘auto sleep’ mode after short periods of time.

Which is to say, Nintendo is fully aware of this potential issue and has taken steps to minimize the risk. Despite many games having static HUDs, you’d need to play just that one game, for hours upon hours, every day without ever using the screen for anything else, at the highest brightness settings.

If that’s you and you regularly play only one game all day, every day, for weeks with brightness set to maximum, get the non-OLED version of the Switch, which is cheaper anyway. For everyone else, the better image quality of the OLED version might be worth the upgrade.

Read more: Nintendo Switch OLED screen burn-in: Why you shouldn’t be worried

Image retention vs. burn-in: What’s the difference?

Let’s get the descriptions right. Though often used interchangeably, “image retention” and “burn-in” are not the same thing.

Image retention is temporary: It goes away in time.
Burn-in is permanent: It does not go away.

Image retention occurs when parts of an image temporarily “stick” on the screen after that image is gone. Let’s say for an hour you’re looking at a still picture of a white puppy (hey, you do you, I won’t judge). Then you decide to watch a movie. Let’s say Best in Show, because you’re keeping with your theme. As you’re watching you can still see the white puppy image, as if it’s a ghost on the screen, staring at your soul.

You’re not crazy, probably. That’s just an extreme case of image retention. Chances are it will go away on its own as you watch stuff that isn’t the same still image of the puppy.

Enlarge Image

Here’s a section of a 2018 LG C8 OLED TV screen displaying a gray test pattern after 5 hours of watching CNN in the brightest (Vivid) mode. They’re the same image, but we’ve circled the section with the logo on the right to highlight it. To see it better, turn up the brightness. In person, it’s more visible in a dark room, but much less visible with moving images as opposed to a test pattern. Since it disappeared after running LG’s Pixel Refresher (see below), this is an example of image retention and not burn-in.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Now imagine you leave your TV on for days or weeks instead of hours, showing the same image the whole time. Then you might be in trouble. With image retention, usually just watching something else for a while will make the ghost image disappear. With burn-in, it’s going to remain there for a while. Maybe not forever, but perhaps longer than you’d want. Anything that stays on screen for a long time and doesn’t change can cause image retention and perhaps, eventually, burn-in.

With your phone, the operating system itself is one of the most likely candidates to cause the issue. My 2015
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
started to get burn-in after about a year. It started showing up very subtly, but after 18 months I bet most people would have noticed it. The top info bar where the notifications appear, and the lower third where the keyboard would show, didn’t age as much as the remaining middle area. Since it was brighter, the middle area aged faster, so it “burned in” more. I noticed the difference if I was watching something full screen, a video say, and the image went to a solid color. After 2+ years with a Pixel 2 (not the XL), which also has an OLED screen, no burn-in was apparent. Six years on with the S6 Edge, now in the not-so-careful hands of a friend, the burn-in doesn’t seem to have gotten any worse compared to mid-2017.

Apple, for one, flags users of OLED-screened iPhones, like the X, 11 and 12, that burn-in is a possibility. Here’s the quote from its support page for the products:

With extended long-term use, OLED displays can also show slight visual changes. This is also expected behavior and can include “image persistence” or “burn-in,” where the display shows a faint remnant of an image even after a new image appears on the screen. This can occur in more extreme cases such as when the same high contrast image is continuously displayed for prolonged periods of time. We’ve engineered the Super Retina and Super Retina XDR displays to be the best in the industry in reducing the effects of OLED “burn-in.”

What’s colloquially called “burn-in” is actually, with OLED, uneven aging. OLEDs don’t “burn in” as much as they “burn down.” The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long, right? OLED pixels very, very slowly get dimmer as they’re used. In most cases this isn’t an issue since you’re watching varied content and all the pixels, on average, get used the same amount. But if you’re only watching one thing, that one thing could cause uneven wear. Visually, and in the vernacular, this wear is called “burn-in.” “Uneven wear” is more accurate, but it also has a lot more syllables.

Also, OLED technology has gotten better. Billions of dollars have been spent on OLED manufacturing and R&D, and that’s ongoing. Stories you may have heard about “burn-in” likely entered the zeitgeist years ago about older OLED displays. You just don’t hear about newer OLEDs having these issues, except in extreme situations like those discussed above. You’d likely hear a LOT more stories about OLED now that the two largest phone manufacturers, and many smaller ones, use OLEDs in millions of phones and have for years.

Testing found burn-in is more likely for OLED screens than LCD

CNET has not conducted any long-term real-world tests of OLED burn-in. In our experience reviewing TVs, CNET has seen image retention on OLEDs that disappeared quickly, for example after running a series of static test patterns, but nothing permanent.

The most comprehensive independent tests for burn-in on TVs were run by the review site RTings. In August 2017 they began their burn-in torture test with LCD and OLED TVs, followed by a “real life” torture test in 2018. They stopped regularly updating the test in 2020, but that was after the equivalent of 5 years of normal use on multiple TVs, and still, they felt that most people would never have an issue with burn-in.

Before you check it out, keep in mind what they’re doing is not normal use. You’d have to be trying to wreck a TV to make it look that bad, which is literally what they’re trying to do. That said, the information is still valuable, and the main takeaway is that OLED is indeed more susceptible to burn-in than LCD.

RTings started a new test of 100 TVs in early 2023, hoping to get a sense of longevity between brands and models. This test doesn’t focus specifically on burn-in, but burn-in and image retention will be measured and high rates of either will certainly dock longevity points.

What about QD-OLED?

Samsung

Samsung and Sony also have a version of OLED that includes quantum dots. All the panels are made by Samsung at a new factory in South Korea. These QD-OLEDs have the potential to outperform LG’s version of OLED, referred to as “WOLED” due to its use of a white sub-pixel. Theoretically, QD-OLED shouldn’t be any more susceptible to burn-in, but some recent tests by RTings have found some interesting results in some early accelerated testing.

After three months of constant use running images likely to burn in (i.e. not mixed content like most people would watch on a display), QD-OLED TVs from Samsung and Sony are showing signs of burn-in, while the LGs in the same test are not. Their current working theory is that, because the white sub-pixel allows for brighter white parts of an image, aka the most likely to burn in, it doesn’t degrade the colored subpixels, which all have to run at maximum in a QD-OLED to create white. On a WOLED TV, there’s less of a chance for these burn-in-prone areas to do so.

Does this change our opinion about OLED? No, and it doesn’t change RTings’ opinion either. Its test is an extreme use case. Essentially watching CNN, and only CNN, for 4 hours a day for 8 months. I don’t recommend anyone watch any news channel that much for myriad reasons, not least because the scrolling ticker at the bottom could burn in. It might give computer users pause, at least those considering QD-OLED computer monitors, which are starting to appear on the market.

Screen burn-in is (usually) not covered under warranty

In their warranties, LG and Sony explicitly state that image retention and burn-in are not covered on their OLED TVs. When CNET reached out to LG a couple to ask why, a representative replied:

“There is generally no warranty coverage for image retention by TV companies and display manufacturers. Image retention may result when consumers are out of normal viewing conditions, and most manufacturers do not support warranty for such usage regardless of the type of display,” said Tim Alessi, former director of new products at LG.

Sony’s reply was similar: “Our warranty covers product and manufacturing defects. Burn-in is not covered as it is caused by consumer usage and is not a product defect.”

Neither the iPhone warranty nor AppleCare explicitly mention burn-in, but neither apply to “normal wear and tear,” and Apple’s support page above makes clear that it considers burn-in “expected.”

It’s also worth mentioning that most LCD TV warranties don’t cover burn-in either and most don’t mention it at all. The closest Samsung’s warranty comes on its QLED TVs, for example, is to specifically exclude coverage of “brightness related to normal aging or any other issues if the TV is used for commercial or non-normal consumer use. Samsung does not warrant uninterrupted or error-free operation of the product.”

When CNET reached out to Samsung for details, the representative defined “normal consumer use” as “use of the product by consumers in a home environment for viewing content and/or gaming in a typical manner. It doesn’t cover business use.” In other words, those ESPN logos you see burned into the screens at your local sports bar would not be covered.

Extended warranties don’t typically cover burn-in either. One of the most common, SquareTrade, is available from Amazon,
Walmart
, and others. They explicitly don’t cover burn-in. Best Buy’s Geek Squad Protection Plan might, depending on when you bought it. The latest version only explicitly covers burn-in on phones.

How to use a TV’s image refresh technologies

The unfortunate fact is that if you do get burn-in on your OLED display, you’re pretty much stuck with it. So your best bet is to avoid it altogether. How? Apart from avoiding static images, here’s what else you can do.

Firstly, turning down the brightness (controlled by “OLED Light” on LG’s sets, and Brightness on Sonys) will help, especially when you’re watching the content that causes the image retention. Choosing a dimmer picture mode, like Cinema instead of Vivid, has the same effect. You’d only need to do this when watching something that causes image retention, like a video game for six hours every night, or 24-hour cable news for 24 hours straight.

OLED TVs, like the 2018 LG shown here, have a few different ways to avoid and try to fix image retention.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Pretty much all OLED TVs also have user settings to minimize the chance of uneven wear or burn-in. One is called something like “Screen Shift” (on LGs) or “Pixel Shift” (on Sony’s), which moves the image slightly around the screen. They also have built-in screensavers that pop up after extended idle time. You should also enable screen savers on connected devices like game consoles and streamers.

To remove image retention, the TVs can also perform “refreshers” on a daily or longer-term basis. On Sony TVs the feature is called “Panel Refresh,” and LG calls it “Pixel Refresher.” It can be run manually if you notice image retention or, in the case of LG, you’ll get a reminder to run it after 2,000 hours.

LG also has a Daily Pixel Refresher, which it says “automatically operates when users turn off the TV after watching it for more than four hours in total. For example, if a user watched TV for two hours yesterday and three hours today (more than four hours in total), when powered off the Daily Pixel Refresher will automatically run, deal with potential image retention issues, and reset the operation time. This process will occur when the TV is powered off after every four hours of cumulative use, even if it’s in one sitting.”

In all cases, the pixel refresher looks like a horizontal line that runs down the screen, for an hour or more. It’s designed to even the wear on pixels.

Here’s the Panel Refresh screen on Sony’s A1E OLED TV. Just like on LG’s OLEDs, it’s designed to remove image retention by scrolling a horizontal bar down the screen for an hour or so.

David Katzmaier/CNET

When it comes to phones I wouldn’t be too concerned, since it’s likely you’ll replace the phone far sooner than any image retention/burn-in issues become bothersome. Regarding my aforementioned S6 Edge, even though I noticed it, I wouldn’t say the burn-in reduced my enjoyment of the phone. I was never watching a video and thinking, “Wow, I can’t enjoy this video because of the burn-in.” Since the phone was in use by its second owner twice as long as I had it, and was only let down by its battery, burn-in clearly wasn’t a dealbreaker. My friend replaced it with a Pixel 4a, which also has an OLED screen. Even after 4 years with that screen, he still preferred to get a phone with OLED.

With TVs, beyond the methods outlined above, there’s not much you can do to reverse burn-in. In theory, I suppose, you could create an inverse image using Photoshop and run that on your screen for a while. This could age the rest of the panel to more evenly match the “burned in” area. Figuring out how to do this is well beyond the scope of this article, and you’d need to be pretty well-versed in Photoshop to even attempt it.

The recap: Most people shouldn’t worry about OLED burn-in

You’ve noticed a ghostly image on your TV or phone screen. If it goes away after a few minutes of watching something else, it’s image retention and it’s probably nothing to worry about. If it “sticks” longer, or you’re repeatedly seeing that same residual image, it’s burn-in. With phones, you’ll likely replace it before the screen becomes an issue.

With OLED TVs, it’s something to keep in mind if you’re a TV news junkie, or only ever play one video game. Keep an eye out for image retention or uneven wear. If you spot it, perhaps switch up your viewing habits, adjust the TV’s settings, or run the pixel refresher a few times. If you watch content with hours of the same static image each day, or just keep CNN, Fox or CNBC on in the background all day, you should probably get an LCD TV.

If you vary your TV viewing habits like most people, however, it won’t be an issue. Even so, caveat emptor. Or as Caesar himself once said, “Conscientiam autem ardeat sed non anxius” (be aware of burn-in, but not concerned). He was, we hear, a big iPhone fan.

As well as covering TV and other display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarines, massive aircraft carriers, medieval castles, epic 10,000-mile road trips, and more. Check out Tech Treks for all his tours and adventures.

He wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines and a sequel. You can follow his adventures on Instagram and his YouTube channel.

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August 24, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

LG’s massive 77-inch C5 OLED TV is more than $1,000 off

by admin August 21, 2025

If you want to spend the rest of the year catching up on the movies, TV shows, and video games you missed over the summer, you should enjoy them on a really nice screen. Thankfully, you can get a 77-inch LG C5 OLED TV for around $2,496.99 ($1,203 off), its lowest price ever at Amazon, B&H Photo, and Best Buy.

The C5 has a 120Hz panel, four HDMI 2.1 ports and support for both AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync, so gamers can play PC and current-generation console titles in 4K at up to 120 frames per second. LG says its custom-designed processor can upscale lower quality video to look cleaner on a large, 4K set. The processor also enables AI Picture Pro, a feature that analyzes what you’re watching and adjusts the TV’s settings — including brightness, resolution, and clarity — in real time to present the best picture.

LG says the C5’s Perfect Black and Perfect Color features allow the TV’s picture to look great in bright rooms, which OLED TVs have struggled with in the past. It also supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision, so games and videos encoded in those formats will have better color and contrast. A benefit of picking up an OLED TV is that each pixel is illuminated individually, so you completely avoid blooming, which is what happens when a TV has to increase the brightness of a larger section of the set to accommodate a bright object. Blooming can be distracting once you notice it, but that’s a non-issue with the C5.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

With a new tandem OLED monitor that can hit 720Hz, the 1000Hz dream is almost here

by admin August 21, 2025

Asus just revealed two new tandem OLED monitors at an event adjacent to Gamescom 2025, including a flagship model that’s able to hit a blistering 720Hz (!) – at a reduced resolution of 720p – or a still-scintillating 540Hz at its normal resolution of 1440p. A 1000Hz OLED has long been the goal for display enthusiasts, and by that metric we’re now the majority of the way there.

The tandem W-OLED screens used on both the flagship PG27AQWP-W and lesser XG27AQWMG are also remarkable, with the new panels promising 15 percent higher brightness – a longtime OLED weak point – plus a 25 percent wider range of colours and even a 60 percent longer lifespan than earlier W-OLED panels, thanks to lower power requirements.

I went hands-on – or should it be “eyes-on”? – with both screens and came away impressed. The colour gamut and brightness improvements are hard to distinguish in the glaring lights of an event space – that’s why we do reviews with a colourimeter after the fact! – but the motion clarity that refresh rates this high on an OLED monitor can provide is immmediately obvious in fast-paced games like Counter-Strike 2, where you’re often trying to track (and aim at) fast-moving targets.

This monitor looks incredible from behind – which is a shame, as most people will probably put it on a desk with a wall behind. | Image credit: Eurogamer

It’s a bit hard to describe exactly how this looks in person, but the main thing is that the trails that often accompany fast-moving objects – artefacts that are called overshoot and undershoot – are basically nonexistent at this kind of speed. Everything looks smooth, with many more intermediate steps in a given chunk of time. There are even faster 750Hz TN panel monitors, to be fair, but these LCD-based panels don’t have anywhere near the raw pixel response times of an OLED – let alone the colour reproduction, contrast or viewing angles.

Of course, you will need a beastly PC to hit anything near 720fps even in older esports titles, but for a lucky few this is quite an achievement. Asus has also included a full 80Gbps DisplayPort, so you’ll be able to access that full spec without the need for Display Stream Compression (DSC). The cheaper XG27AQWMG ought to confer those tandem OLED improvements without needing an eye-wateringly powerful PC, with a 1440p 280Hz spec sheet that is a good fit for most enthusiasts, and it consequently makes do with standard HDMI 2.1 with DSC.

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Both monitors also come with a new panel coating that Asus is calling “trueblack glossy”, and it aims to combine the rich look of glossy panels without losing black depth in varying levels of ambient light. Eyes-on testing at the event with a phone torch showed concentrated reflections, unlike the diffuse reflections of matte coatings, but with a deeper black look on dark content – definitely far from the dark purple that you get on QD-OLEDs that are turned off, for instance.

The design of the higher-end PG27AQWP-W is also remarkable, with a semi-transparent rear shell that shows off some of the interesting circuitry inside. As someone that grew up with G3 iMacs and a purple see-through Game Boy Colour, I absolutely dig this. Asus has also skeletonised the monitor’s stand, presumably for aesthetic reasons, but also to reportedly reduce the amount of metal used. The XG27AQWMG is a little ordinary-looking by comparison, but does come with a more compact rectangular desk stand that allows more keyboard and mousing space.

This OLED coating demo was convincing, with the new trueblack glossy coating obviously providing better black levels and less diffuse reflections than regular glossy and regular matte coatings respectively. | Image credit: Eurogamer

There are a few feature additions too. Alongside the usual raft of burn-in countermeasures, Asus is adding a presence sensor that will automatically turn off the screen when you’re not there. “Did I leave my OLED on?” has almost become the new “did I leave the stove on?” for OLED monitor owners, so having this as a tunable option makes some sense, as long as it dims rather than turning off so that it doesn’t mess up window placements or confuse running programs.

Pricing wasn’t announced alongside the other details, but I’d guess that the flagship PG27AQWP-W to cost at least £1300, while the XG27AQWMG is likely to cost the better part of £1000, despite the less powerful panel and lower-bandwidth ports. OLED monitors are getting increasingly affordable, but tandem OLED isn’t going to come cheap – at least for a while.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a nice place to spend time checking out a new monitor like the XG27AQWMG, and at a native 1440p 280Hz, you actually have a chance of maxing it out with a high-end GPU capable of frame generation. | Image credit: Eurogamer

On that note, Asus claimed during their event that they are the number one producer of OLED gaming monitors, but they’re largely reliant on LG and Samsung for producing the actual displays – and therefore there’s no doubt that we’ll see (potentially cheaper) options based on these same fourth-generation W-OLED panels from other brands in the near future.

Based on this early look though, tandem OLED looks just as compelling in the desktop monitor space as it does for high-end TVs – even if it comes at the same staggeringly high prices.

Disclosure: Asus paid for flights and accommodation to Cologne for Gamescom so that we could see their new products in person.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Asus heard you like screens, so it put a curved ‘3D effect’ OLED screen on your CPU water cooler

by admin August 20, 2025

ROG Ryuo IV Series ASUS InfoHub Control Guide – YouTube

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We’ve seen CPU coolers with screens before. We’ve seen CPU coolers with OLED screens before. We’ve seen CPU coolers with curved OLED screens before. We’ve even seen CPU coolers with curved, motorised OLED screens before. But have we seen a CPU cooler with a curved, movable 3D-effect OLED screen before? No, sir, we have not. Until today.

Give it up for the ROG Ryuo IV 360 ARGB water cooler, the ultimate checkbox exercise in CPU cooling, announced today at Gamescom. Its finely triangulated USP is a movable curved 6.67-inch AMOLED display that supports “3D-effect videos or customized system information”.

Asus says, “a powerful pump delivers robust cooling performance, higher flow, and lower impedance, while the pre-mounted, daisy-chained ARGB fans provide high airflow and static pressure. Its fans have a low-noise design and feature front and side lighting.”

The cooler supports LGA 1851, 1700, AMD AM5, and AM4 CPU sockets, and features 400mm tubing for better chassis compatibility. There’s also software with support for hardware monitoring and screen content management. Oh, and there’s a white version, too, that’s otherwise identical.

Getting back to that “3D effect” thing, our understanding is that is doesn’t mean some kind of lenticular 3D, as per the Acer Predator SpatialLabs View 27 we recently reviewed. Instead, we’re talking 3D effect as in those videos that use borders and lines to frame movement, plus extreme perspective and a bit of blur. Like this demo video.

Asus doesn’t provide a specific resolution for the display, only describing it at “2K”. But that probably means 1,920 by 1,080, or something very close to that. By default, it can either display one of a number of preloaded 3D effect visuals or a user-configurable suite of hard info, such as CPU temps, fan speeds, voltages, clockspeeds and all that good stuff.

You can also splitscreen the display, so that part of it is showing hardware info, the other trick visuals. And as you can see above, the “3Dness” does actually kinda work.

As for the “movable” bit, the OLED screen is on a slider. So now you know. For the record, the radiator measures 394 by 140 by 32 mm and sports three front-and-side lit 120 mm fans. That setup delivers a rated airflow of 71.44 CFM at a noise level of 39.6 dB(A). The cooler module has a six year warranty, while the screen is covered for two years.

Finally and on the sordid matter of money, this was never gonna be cheap. US pricing hasn’t emerged, but it’s available in the UK for £322, which implies something in the region of $350. Ouch. But then if you want screens on everything, it’s going to cost you.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments