The Steam Deck OLED showed minor burn-in after a 1,500-hour stress test conducted by YouTuber Wulff Den. OLED displays are inherently susceptible to burn-in, and the Steam Deck OLED is no exception. While 1,500 hours or 63 days is a long time, the OLED model of the Deck experienced burn-in much quicker than the Switch OLED, which Wulff Den demonstrated experiencing burn-in at around 3,500 hours.
Since their inception, image retention, known colloquially as burn-in, has been a critical issue with OLED displays. After all, static images or static portions of moving content (like UI elements or TV channel logos) are common. The latest OLED panels, however, come with newer designs that are supposed to mitigate the risk of burn-in.
Wulff Den decided to test the Steam Deck OLED and compare it to a Switch OLED that he had previously tested. The comparison wasn't made purely because they're similar products, as the two devices on the sub-pixel level are almost identical and may even come from the same manufacturer.
For the test, an in-game screenshot of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was put on the screen (same as he did for the Switch OLED) with some color testing bars at the top since there was extra room on the Deck's larger display. Additionally, he set the brightness to 100%, and since the screenshot and color bar were in SDR, the brightness was roughly 600 nits, though the Deck can do 1,000 nits in HDR.
The test was stopped at the 1,500-hour mark, and there were faint but certainly noticeable signs of burn-in. The black-white bar pattern was the most visible due to the high contrast, which isn't surprising. The colors quickest to burn in on the sub-pixel level were red and blue, leaving green as the most resilient color. Size is an important factor in burn-in risk, and since the red sub-pixels are the smallest on the Deck's OLED display, that they burned in isn't surprising. However, the blue sub-pixels are the largest, yet they burned in the most, according to Wulff Den.
As for the UI elements in the Zelda screenshot, the only one that seemed to stick were the hearts at the top-left corner. Since the hearts are pure red, it makes sense that they would be the one part of the UI that caused burn-in. That being said, the burn-in was pretty minor and much harder to discern than the burn-in caused by the color bars.
It's unclear why the Steam Deck OLED experienced burn-in much quicker than the Switch OLED, but Wulff Den speculates that brightness could be the cause. The Switch OLED caps out at 400 nits, and while the OLED Deck is technically only 50% brighter, more brightness requires exponentially more power. Wulff Den also cites a test conducted by fellow YouTuber The Phawx, who tested burn-in with HDR content at 1,000 nits and saw clear burn-in after 750 hours; only 67% brighter to achieve worse burn-in within half the time.
Wulff Den reached out to Valve for comment on whether the OLED Deck employed any anti-burn-in technologies, such as adjusting the UI incrementally over time, and Valve said it did not. However, Valve said it wasn't aware of any burn-in issues experienced by users "under normal use" and that the one-year warranty would cover burn-in.
Although burn-in can be concerning, Wulff Den concludes that the risk can easily be mitigated by reducing brightness and disabling HDR, saying users should "be careful blasting your brightness, this thing can get bright. 600 nits is no joke, 1,000 nits in HDR is just ridiculous." Playing on an external monitor is another option, especially for users who are sinking hundreds of hours into the same game.
