If you want to strike fear into the heart of any OLED monitor owner , just bring up “ burn - in . ” Although OLED displays have quickly infiltrated the social rank of thebest gaming monitors , burn - in remains the key fear for take over the presentation tech . A newfangled app , calledOLED Guard Pro , order it can prevent burn - in , resulting in “ longer blind life , reduced power bills , and a viewing experience that feel fresh every solar day . ”
I use an OLED admonisher day by day , mytrusty KTC G42P5 , so I download OLED Guard Pro to see if it would finally put myadmittedly modest burn - in fearsto sleep . And although the app go mostly as advertised , I ’m skeptical that it will actually keep image retention in the means the app claim .
Meet OLED Guard Pro
OLED Guard Pro is a unproblematic app , and it will go you $ 10 ( it ’s been on sale for around $ 5 since it launch ) . you’re able to download a weeklong free trial , but if you want to decently foreclose burn - in , you ’ll demand to pay up . At its core , OLED Guard on focuses whatever your active window is . By dimming or applying a normal to country of the screen that are n’t dynamic , the idea is that you ’ll put less strain on them and “ prevent ” burn - in . I ’ll get to the idea of prevent burning - in and why it ’s baffling a bit later .
By default , the app uses its Shadow mode , which dim inactive areas of the screen . The Pattern mood use horizontal or vertical lines instead , while the two Vignette modes focus on the edges of the screen . Those last two style are almost always combat-ready , and they target the burn - in that ’s potential around the margin of the silver screen when using an OLED show as a monitor .
There are a few preferences for each way — you’re able to adjust the opaqueness in Shadow manner , and the line thickness and density in Pattern mode , for case . The most useful stage setting is for the Pattern mode , however . Automatically , OLED Guard Pro shifts the telephone line pattern down every 10 seconds , but you could conform how quick the pattern adjusts itself from every 2nd up to every 10 instant . You ca n’t turn the shifting off , however .
Behind the scene , OLED Guard Pro can do a few extra thing . First , it can lurch the pixels on still windows , which is a setting that ’s turned off by default . you may also trip a full screen door newsflash to refreshen the full display so one area ( wherever your most actively coarse windowpane is ) is n’t wearing down faster than another domain of the CRT screen . Finally , if you have a multi - monitor setup , you may choose which supervise to apply the overlay to .
Beyond clunky
All of these features body of work as advertised , but they ’re pretty clunky . The master dot of contention is image out what windowpane is in focus . As you mouse over passive areas of the screen , OLED Guard Pro will slowly evanesce out the phantom or pattern that you have applied , but it does n’t mechanically focus the window you ’ve moused over . You have to clack on it , sometimes numerous time , to get the window to issue forth into focus . And as opposed to the smooth fade you see when mousing over inactive windows , selecting a novel window to be alive immediately applies the shadow or pattern to the rest of the screen .
It ’s not only jarring , but it can also be frustrative . I usually work with two web browser windows loose , for example , with each occupying half of my display . I can mouse over and see the inactive window , but I have to click into it for do anything . If I need to , for example , go over to the inactive windowpane and open up a Modern yellow journalism , I have to click legion times for the window to be responsive to any of my stimulus . It sounds small , but those superfluous clicks really add up when you ’re invariably moving back and away between window .
That ’s not nearly the bad of the job . The scope to shift static windows vocalise like some form of pixel shift , and it is , but only in one direction . As I work out , I follow my inactive windowpane slowly front crawl to my second monitor . I never saw it in motion , but as the solar day go on , the gap between the two window got larger and great until my motionless windowpane was occupying one-half of my 2d exhibit .
Once again , what started as an annoyance turned into an hindrance . As the window shift , so too did the boundary surrounding what was considered the active windowpane . So , when I plump to snap the windows back into place , the “ alive ” area of the filmdom remained in the same spot . That ’s only one example of the problems here , too . Whenever I encountered a notice or some sort of overlay , it was up in the line as to what the app would choose as the participating field .
In a world where you have a few windows onscreen , OLED Guard Pro works decent well . A portion of problem bulge out up whenever you lead off using features like Snap Layouts in Windows , notifications , or overlays , however . Those problems rank from a little janky to completely unusable , which is not a range I ’m comfortable with for an app that costs $ 10 .
Does this even work?
Let ’s say you ’re unforced to work through the jank . You just need something that will keep your OLED proctor looking fresh perpetually . OLED Guard Procouldgive your OLED exhibit a longer shelf life , but it ’s very difficult to say that itwill . The app wo n’t forestall OLED burning - in , though — that is n’t unmanageable to say .
With current OLED tech , you ca n’t prevent sunburn - in — you may just delay it . The organic commands that make up an OLED video display will , over time , deteriorate and start up to show lasting picture retentiveness . Call it a semantics argument , but when a paid app exact it can directly - out prevent OLED suntan - in , it ’s worth call into enquiry what words is used . This is n’t exactly a high - technical school form of get around the burn - in issue , either . It ’s a brute force method acting for trying to keep your panel fresh when the tech packed in your monitor is much smarter .
OLED proctor today are packed with features that go beyond what OLED Guard Pro is offering . Asus has pixel shifting , taskbar tribute , and even a “ target modal value ” that does something interchangeable to OLED Guard Pro onits PG27AQDP . likewise , MSI ’s MPG 321URXhas not only taskbar detection , but also border protection if you often have multiple windows up . And cash in one’s chips back to theAlienware 34 QD - OLED , you ’ll find features that adjust potential difference to the diodes and check uniformity across the display after a sure amount of clip .
It ’s possible that OLED Guard Pro could extend the lifetime of your monitor further , but the features built into your display are already doing most of the heavy lifting . And , as I ’ve written about antecedently , experts saythat the real risk of OLED sunburn - in is much humiliated than it ’s made out to be .
It look OLED Guard Pro is made by a solo developer , and it ’s admirable to work on something that tries to solve a legitimate job . Still , this is a paid app that would have problem even if it were free . It actively get in the way of working on a PC , and it needs some serious updates before it can be a useful utility .
