Asus and MSI compete over OLED monitor burn-in warranty lengths – up to 3 years of coverage

MSI OLED monitor burn-in warranty
(Image credit: MSI)

It came to light that Asus extended its OLED monitor warranties yesterday, offering a 2-year burn-in cover (h/t TFT Central) for the first time. We don’t know whether it is a coincidence or if MSI has found an opportunity to one-up its rival, but today, it was announced that MSI OLED monitors are set to benefit from a new 3-year burn-in warranty. Now it’s your move: Asus, Gigabyte, LG, Samsung, etc.

MSI OLED monitor burn-in warranty

MSI is now offering 3-year OLED burn-in warranties (Image credit: MSI)

MSI describes the plight of OLED monitor buyers clearly and succinctly. “While OLED panels have become the preferred choice for high-end gaming, the OLED burn-in issue has consistently been a major concern for all users,” it says on its new blog. Indeed, we know Tom’s Hardware readers are concerned by this issue.

The solution MSI talks about above isn’t just about having greater confidence in the newest OLED panels and thus extending OLED burn-in warranties for three years. MSI is also applying some behind-the-scenes technology dubbed ‘MSI OLED Care 2.0’. Therefore, the new extended warranties apply to monitors which work with MSI OLED Care 2.0, and which are listed below:

  • MAG 271QPX QD-OLED
  • MAG 321UPX QD-OLED
  • MAG 341CQP QD-OLED
  • MPG 271QRX QD-OLED
  • MPG 321URX QD-OLED
  • MPG 491CQP QD-OLED
  • MEG 342C QD-OLED

Interestingly, MSI first detailed its OLED care technology last March. Perhaps it has had enough time to truly ascertain how well the tech protects OLED monitors from burn-in. It may have been running a bunch of the above monitors 24-7 since a year ago, much like the good folks over at RTINGS.com. We last wrote about RTINGS OLED burn-in research findings in December when it revealed that all the monitors it torture-tested over ten months suffered some degree of burn-in. However, that accelerated testing was said to be roughly equivalent to roughly four years and two months of real-world use.

MSI OLED monitor burn-in warranty

(Image credit: MSI)

MSI OLED Care 2.0 works a lot like the technologies applied by other monitor and TV makers. In essence, the tech mixes techniques such as pixel shift and pixel luminance adjustments (when the monitor is on) and pixel refresh (when the monitor is on standby). Quite a lot of smarts are required to apply pixel luminance adjustment technology. MSI says its OLED Care 2.0 can detect potential burn-in-inducing display elements like on-screen logos, UI taskbars, and media playback boundaries – reducing the luminance in these areas to lower the burn-in potential. Also, a static screen detection function can dim the whole display if it thinks the user has wandered off (settings in the OSD).

We welcome extended warranties to cover OLED burn-in, as this type of display panel is featured in some of the best gaming monitors. We also hope the warranty cover lives up to the expectations of monitor users. Sadly, we need to check for longer-term user experiences to see if companies are fully honoring such warranties and not hiding behind obscure T&Cs when things go wrong.

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Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

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  • vanadiel007
    It does not help that game interfaces for many titles are static and cannot be altered. It would help a lot if some of the UI elements could be moved.

    Burn-in is a real thing with OLED panels, so it's a welcome change to see manufacturer warranty for 2 or 3 years against burn-in.

    Question of course is how well will they honor warranty claims? Usually they have small letters that put some limitations in place. It would be nice if review sites would do some testing and try to make a warranty claim, to see how well the experience ranks among manufacturers.
    Reply
  • dmitche3
    Wait. Didn't Tom's just run a story claiming that burn in is history? There was no need to worry about burn in. No. Not at all. Typical.
    Reply
  • husker
    dmitche3 said:
    Wait. Didn't Tom's just run a story claiming that burn in is history? There was no need to worry about burn in. No. Not at all. Typical.
    I would like to read that story. Can you provide any additional information? If not.... typical.
    Reply
  • The Historical Fidelity
    Does anyone know how well actively cooling the organic LED’s helps protect against burn-in? If the organic LED’s never rise above a certain temperature, they can last much longer and now the only other burn-in mode is electron driven. I have been thinking about designing a horizontal fan shroud to force filtered cold air into my Samsung ultra wide QD-OLED’s bottom cooling ports along the entire bottom of the monitor.
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    Warranty it for 10 years parts and labor and THEN I'll consider getting an OLED monitor. OLED monitors are the most expensive, or second only behind the GPU, computer component and can easily surpass $1000, and one of the worst things to resell, with that value being basically zero if it has burn in.

    I don't know about you, but even at 3 years if the monitor is $1500, effectively renting it for $500 a year just doesn't make sense to me, not when IPS monitors, even 4K ones, come with 144hz+ refresh rates (with 2560x1440 pulling 165hz+), very wide color gamuts covering 100% or more of AdobeRGB, DCI-P3, and 80%+ of Rec.2020, and have effectively zero burn in risk.

    I own one such monitor, the Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144, which is now $750 (or less), and would recommend it every day over an OLED even if it were priced exactly the same.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    I've seen several stories talking about the Asus and now MSI warranties, but none of the articles point out that Dell's first Alienware QD-OLEDs carried a 3 year warranty. Samsung also has a 3 year warranty on the 34" G8 QD-OLED screen they sell which is interesting since pretty much every other screen they sell (including the 49"/59" OLED) carry a 1 year warranty.

    This still isn't much solace because you're still paying a ton of money for something that will get burn in eventually. I came really close to getting one of the Alienware screens during sales time, but at the end of the day I don't have a simple way to swap away from it when not gaming so I just don't trust myself to be mindful of the screen type when I do browsing/office type stuff.
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    LG will warranty their OLED TVs that have an EVO panel for 5 years, but even then it's parts only, not labor or the potential cost of shipping or transport to a service center. If you have a 60"+ TV, that's not cheap itself.
    Reply
  • fireaza
    Seems to me like OLED burn-in is a bit over-blown. I've had an LG OLED TV for around 6 years that I game on, and it's burn-in free. In comparison, my previous LCD had major issues with temporary burn-in.
    Reply
  • NeonHD
    fireaza said:
    Seems to me like OLED burn-in is a bit over-blown. I've had an LG OLED TV for around 6 years that I game on, and it's burn-in free. In comparison, my previous LCD had major issues with temporary burn-in.
    I've had similar experiences as well. I own some LCD phones with screen retention issues that were technically supposed to fade away but never did. I also own OLED phones and interestingly had the opposite experience: I did notice faint burn-in but it's always temporary.
    Reply
  • NeonHD
    I wonder if PWM flickering is an issue with these OLED monitors, especially for those who are sensitive to it. I know most phones now have a very high PWM frequency, just don't know if these OLED monitors are the same.
    Reply