Burn-in Test (Screen Image Retention)
Check your display for burn-in and image retention. Step through full-screen solid colors to look for faint ghosts of static content like a taskbar, logo, or game HUD, then run the pixel refresher to help even out temporary retention. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Step through solid full-screen fields and look for a faint ghost of static content.
← → to change field
Run a pixel refresher that cycles colors and rolling bars to help clear temporary retention.
Photosensitivity warning
The pixel refresher flashes rapidly changing colors and moving bars. Do not use it if you or anyone nearby has photosensitive epilepsy or is sensitive to flashing light.
Runs full screen. Press Space to pause, Esc or Done to stop.
A temporary ghost that fades on its own once the screen shows varied content.
Permanent, uneven pixel wear — most common on OLED, AMOLED, and plasma.
Screensavers, pixel shift, lower brightness, and hiding static taskbars and HUDs.
Related tools: Dead Pixel Test · Dead Pixel Fixer
Image retention vs. permanent burn-in
The two look alike but are not the same. Image retention is a temporary ghost left after a static image sits on screen for a while; it usually fades on its own within minutes to hours once the panel shows varied content. Burn-in is permanent, uneven wear of the pixels themselves — most often on OLED and AMOLED panels, where sub-pixels that were driven hard age and dim faster than their neighbours. A retained image that clears after some mixed use was retention; a ghost that never fully goes away is true burn-in.
Which screens are prone to burn-in
Emissive panels are the vulnerable ones because every pixel makes its own light and ages with use. OLED and AMOLED displays — on phones, high-end TVs, and some laptops — are the most affected, and older plasma TVs were notorious for it. LCD and LED-backlit LCD screens work differently: a shared backlight shines through a liquid-crystal layer, so they rarely suffer true burn-in, though they can show temporary image retention and, over years, backlight aging. If your screen is LCD, a lingering ghost is almost always retention that will clear.
How to test for burn-in
- Dim the room and turn screen brightness up so faint ghosting is easier to see.
- Open the detector and step through each solid field. A 50% grey field is often the most revealing for OLED wear.
- Look for a static shape that stays put as the field changes — a taskbar, status bar, channel logo, or game HUD outline.
- Solid red, green, and blue fields can expose uneven wear in a single color channel.
- A ghost that fades after a few minutes of normal, varied use is retention, not permanent burn-in.
Preventing and reducing burn-in
- Use a screensaver or blank-screen timeout so static images do not sit for hours.
- Enable pixel shift / screen shift if your TV or phone offers it — it nudges the image by a pixel over time.
- Lower overall brightness; hard-driven pixels age fastest.
- Hide the taskbar, dock, and on-screen HUDs when you can, or auto-hide them.
- Vary your content and avoid leaving a single channel, logo, or menu on screen for long stretches.
- For temporary retention, run the pixel refresher below or simply play varied full-screen video for a while.