MSI and Asus are providing consumers who purchase their OLED monitors with some additional peace of mind, having now revised their warranty coverage on certain models to cover the dreaded issue of panel burn-in. On Monday, TFTCentral spotted that the warranties offered across Asus OLED displays have been quietly updated to include burn-in coverage of either two or three years. MSI then countered this less than 24 hours later, announcing a new three-year burn-in warranty for some of its own OLED displays.
OLED panels are becoming more common in gaming-focused monitors thanks to the improved image quality and responsiveness they provide over IPS and LCD displays, but burn-in is still a concern for many consumers. Static elements — like on-screen maps and player icons — can exacerbate the issue, especially during lengthier gaming sessions. Many gamers also automatically hide the Windows taskbar to work around burn-in fears. With OLED monitors typically costing far more than comparably spec’d alternatives, warranties that don’t cover burn-in can feel like an expensive gamble.
MSI’s warranty page for gaming monitors has been updated with the criteria required to claim against burn-in damage, measured as a visible brightness difference of over 3.5 percent across 50 percent gray coverage. The same page also notes that the warranty will be voided if MSI’s OLED Care function — a collection of features designed to reduce the risk of panel burn-in, which is enabled by default on supported displays — is disabled or otherwise tampered with.
Asus has yet to officially announce the expansion to its OLED panel warranty, or update its main warranty page to explain what criteria needs to be met in order to claim. However, the product specifications section for every OLED monitor we’ve checked on its global and US websites now explicitly states that panel burn-in is included under a two- or three-year warranty, with newer models apparently getting the longer coverage.
With these updates, Asus and MSI’s OLED coverage is more in line with other PC hardware companies like LG, which rolled out its own two-year warranty for panel burn-in last August. Corsair and Dell’s Alienware sub-brand offer burn-in warranties of three years on their OLED monitors. While that’s a start, most people will use these products for far longer — but it’s better than nothing.
