Only yesterday Asus updated its warranty T&Cs to include two years of cover for OLED gaming monitor burn-in, having previously not included this sort of cover on its displays. Well, now MSI has seen that move and raised Asus a whole extra year, slapping a three-year burn-in cover warranty on its latest OLED displays.
Despite having some of the characteristics that would make them worthy of listings on our best gaming monitor guide, OLED gaming monitors have long had (and still have) one glaring problem, which is that they can suffer from burn-in. As such, both Asus and MSI joining the likes of LG and Samsung in offering two or three years of cover against this issue is a very welcome development.
Burn-in is where the display can start to develop permanent marks on the screen where it has been showing the same image for a long time. Features such as sportscast overlays, in-game HUDs, or just your Windows taskbar can become permanently burnt-in to the display.
There are various ways to reduce this risk and prolong the life of OLED displays, both in the way you use the screen and via displays having in-built protections, as we’ve seen used with the likes of the LG 27GR95QE and Samsung Odyssey G9 G95SC. However, the burn-in risk remains, although we wouldn’t expect burn-in to occur quite so soon unless the displays are abused.
There are certainly instances of the issue occurring within a year or so, but that’s why the extension from two to three years by MSI is quite so significant. Most of us keep hold of gaming monitors for many years without issue, so a 50% increase in the period of cover for this problem is sure to make these displays more tempting.
As for why you’d risk an expensive OLED screen that could develop burn-in when you could just get an LCD that lasts basically forever and costs half the price, well it’s all about image quality and gaming performance.
As you’ll see in our reviews of those two displays above, OLED is unsurpassed for response time, making a big difference in competitive gaming scenarios. Plus, unlike LCs, you get basically infinite contrast thanks to the display not needing a backlight that can bleed into dark areas of the screen.
We’re expecting to see many more new and more affordable OLED gaming monitors arrive this year, after dozens of new models were announced at CES 2024, so knowing they’ll be coming with longer warranties is one more reason for us to potentially recommend them and add them to our best gaming monitor guide.