YouTube channel Wulff Den carried out the experiment by leaving a screenshot of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on his screen at full brightness 24/7. The original idea was to keep the screen running for up to seven days, but it ended up lasting 11 weeks, totaling over 1,800 hours straight. To keep the Switch from turning the screen off, Wulff attached a third-party Hori Split Pad Pro Controller that continuously performed automatic button presses. He also kept the device plugged in at all times; the Switch OLED’s battery lasts between five and nine hours on a single charge.
The results should alleviate any concerns Switch OLED owners, or potential owners, might have over image retention. Wulff said that not only was there no visible indication of burn-in, but he also found no significant differences in any of the color tests he ran. “The only difference you can kind of see is the white in the shrine ceiling, it’s ever so slightly dimmer, and the blueish-white has a slight green tint,” Wulff said. “If you’re worried about OLED burn-in on your Switch because you have like 2000 hours in a game, I think you can relax a little bit,” he added. “I don’t think it’s a practical concern for anybody.” Some OLED screens still experience image retention—check out Linus Tech Tips’ video above—but TV companies have introduced features designed to limit the problem. LG’s Screen Shift moves the screen slightly at regular intervals to preserve image quality, and its Logo Luminance Adjustment detects static logos on the screen and reduces brightness in that location. Thankfully for Switch OLED owners, it seems burn-in isn’t going to be an issue - the bigger problem might be finding one of the machines.
