When Asus and MSI battle over OLED monitor burn-in warranties, consumers win
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In brief: Asus and MSI are seemingly locked into a battle over OLED monitor warranties, besting each other with extended coverage. In the end, however, it’s the consumer that ultimately win with more purchasing peace of mind.
Earlier this week, Asus rolled out updated two-year warranties for all of its OLED monitors, including the latest PG32UCDM and PG34WCDM models. As X user TFT Central points out, the changes aren’t yet reflected on Asus’ main warranty page but do show up when looking at specs for individual products.
Not to be outdone, rival MSI has since announced a new three-year warranty on select OLED panels. Like the Asus warrant, MSI’s also covers damage from burn-in.
MSI also introduced a new technology designed to help protect against burn-in, called MSI OLED Care 2.0. The company didn’t elaborate on the feature, but it is likely an advanced version of the original which consisted of three parts: pixel shift tech to move pixels at regular intervals, a dual-option panel protect mode, and a static screen detection setting that can automatically dim the panel when static elements are detected on screen for a set period of time.
MSI’s three-year warranty covers the following models:
- 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
Late last year, RTINGS.com concluded a longevity test involving more than 100 TVs and three OLED monitors running a CNN news feed at maximum brightness for over 6,000 hours, which simulated just over four years of real-world usage. The test revealed that while some form of burn-in is inevitable, severity varies greatly by model.
Have you had any experience with burn-in on OLED displays? I haven’t yet made the switch to an OLED panel but experienced plenty of burn-in issues with my old plasma television. Newer sets like the Samsung LED I’m currently using aren’t nearly as bad when used normally as a television, but the one I am using as my desktop monitor does show some serious burn-in after years of use.
Image credit: Seyed Sina Fazeli
