Smartphone Screen Burn-In: Causes, Precautions And Fixes

Ghost image may well sound like the title of the latest art house horror film – but it’s not. Also known as screen burn-in or image burn-in, it refers to an unwelcome condition of your smartphone’s screen, that manifests itself as discoloration of certain areas of your display.

Why Would I Get It?

In technical terms, this happens as a result of “non-uniform usage of pixels”.

Put simply, it will create a permanent image of some objects on the display –hence the term “ghost image”. It will also decrease the overall quality of the display and make it less operational.

Screen burn-in is particularly common in AMOLED displays. AMOLED – active-matrix organic light-emitting diode is a screen technology, used in most high-end phones, as well as TV displays. Thus, the problem of screen burn-in can equally affect televisions and some other devices.

Ah, yes – why can it happen?

Basically, leaving your screen active and idle for long periods of time can do the trick – that is when you don’t set for your screen to time-out when it’s not in use. Your screen produces images thanks to the phosphorous compounds which emit light. When used unevenly, the light output will also become uneven and cause what we have referred to as “burn-in”. In extreme cases, you may even see the shadow of previous content on the screen, no matter where you are on the phone.

Screen burn-in can develop over various lengths of time, which mostly depend on the quality of your display and, of course, the way you treat it.

How To Avoid Screen Burn-In

The basic and most important thing you can do to save your smartphone screen from “ghost image” or “burn-in” is to not leave it displaying static image over long periods of time. For instance, if you are driving and want to use your phone’s music player – you may simply let the music play with the same image “stuck” on your smartphone’s screen. This “idleness”, if it happens for several hours straight and frequently, especially with your brightness turned all the way up, can cause screen burn-in.

So what you have to do is pretty straight-forward: try to avoid leaving a static image on your screen for long periods of time. Actually, it would be best if you could keep it under 5 minutes. This may be annoying at first and you will probably not be able to keep it in mind every time you use your smartphone, but try to incorporate into your “phone-caring” routine.

How To Fix Screen Burn-In?

The easiest and most user-friendly way of fixing screen burn-in is getting an app designed to solve the problem. Screen Burn-In Tool for Android is an application just like that. Screen Burn-In Tool for Android uses a sequence of primary colours to help restore burned-out pixels. All you have to do is download the application from Google Play Store, press start and wait for a period of time, which may be from ten minutes to an hour. A lot of users notice improvement in screen performance and some testify that the burn-in issue has disappeared altogether. Surely, the success of the process will depend on the amount of damage already caused to your phone. So try to avoid the problem completely by following simple precautions.

If you have not experienced screen burn-in yet, but want to stay on top of the issue, you can download an Android app, like Screen Test, which will find dead or “stuck-on” pixels and give you a general overview of your screen’s performance.

For more on how to take care of your touch screen, take a look at our post on 7 Simple Tips To Keep Your Touchscreen Safe.