How does OLED burn-in truly happen and why doesn't my phone show any signs of it?
Title almost says it all. OLED monitors are getting more and more affordable, but it's almost out of the picture when buying a monitor because of toolbars and HUD elements. I don't understand why monitors "burn-in", when I shine my LED flashlight or some LED xmas lights they won't simply start emitting the same light even when I turn them off. I know it's a dumb comparison, but still, what happens?
The other thing that I don't understand is the fact that I've never seen any signs of burn-in on anyone's phone. Alright, technically that's a lie, I did see some on a work phone (or two), that only had some chat app open, seemingly since ages, and the namebar was a bit burned-in, or something like that, as you'd guess I also didn't interact with that phone a lot. As as said above "but still," I've had my phone for a while now, so does my family and friends, some of us even doomscroll, and I've never seen any signs of burn-in on any (actually used) phone.
so, I can watch my background all day, but I should open my browser every like 3 hours press f11 twice and I'm safe? Ff I'm away just let the screensaver save my screen? In that case why would anyone ever worry about burn it, you almost have to do it intentionally. But if it's really dangerous, like I immerse myself into a youtube video, but it has the youtuber's pfp on the bottom right (does youtube still do that?), and it was hbomberguy's, am I just done, toasted, burnt-in?
You'd have to have those pixels showing the same color for quite a long time, like months to years. We don't typically have our phones on that long, and with more modern OS versions, there aren't really that many things that stay on the screen anyway. What used to be burned in on phones were the navigation bar at the bottom. Gestures are default now. The icons at the top aren't actually static for long. And phone screens turn off after a few minutes. Dark mode being popular is a big help because the brightness of the screen is a factor.
All OLEDs can get burn in, we just don't have as many of the things that lead to burn in as before, plus a few things here and there meant to help alleviate it.
I'm away just let the screensaver save my screen?
Yup.
In that case why would anyone ever worry about burn it
Ignorance and the fact that you mostly hear about the people with problems not the ones who just bought their monitors and carried along with their lives.
Consider that almost everyone worrying about burn in has a phone with an OLED screen, that they're not worried about. What happened with phones will happen with TVs if they ever get cheap enough to really compete with LCD.
The caveat is that it actually doesn't matter unless you're only ever in that one app with the screen on. In reality, the majority of phone screens getting brun in are show models in stores and defective panels. But regardless, apps lead you more into fullscreen so you don't even have those at the bottom.