An update on my OLED Steam Deck and OLED Nintendo Switch...

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A quick update on the OLED Nintendo Switch and OLED Steam Deck Burn-In tests. Should probably check those batteries too...
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[@Hambs]

Thanks for running these tests. It helped me enjoy my devices without babying them too much.

[@locust76]

I babied my LG C8 OLED and health bars and Estus Flasks still burnt in, despite all the protection features being turned on

[@langos7946]

​@@locust76Try warranty, also I'd personally not recommended buying LG TVs, for many reasons

[@locust76]

@@langos7946 warranty is up and I’ve already replaced it with a Mini-LED. OLED looks great but it’s too risky to bet thousands on “oh maybe _this_ year they’re making panels that don’t roast themselves and pixels that don’t die.” LG makes the panels in many different brands of TV so it’s almost impossible to avoid

[@Hambs]

@@locust76 That sucks. I heard some stories about burn on the 8 series LG tvs. I have a CX currently and have been using it like crazy for the past 4 years with no burn but I haven't put a substantial amount of hours into any single game.

[@CookinBeatloaf]

It's a handheld Nintendo not a $3300 TV lol

[@darkkrimsonTV]

New Test: Invert the image and see if it balances out.

[@pandorin2348]

🤯

[@ymahtab]

My guess is it would balance out but the overall brightness would be lower. After all, you've now (theoretically) partially burned out all micro LEDs equally

[@ミニシュ]

Blue burns out faster. And it's not a perfect line.

[@samueldraws]

Takeaway 1: unrealistic circumstances. You got nothing to worry about from normal use. Takeaway 2: Take it off the charger once in a while, and don't play at full brightness. Go have fun! Thanks for doing the research 😃

[@HUYI1]

Yep, my steam deck OLED does not stay on charge once I'm done charging it, I think most devices with battery should use this caution

[@nolankanski9116]

I'm a little concerned now 😅 I tend to keep my deck on the charger most of the time because I like to use it as a console that I sometimes use portably. I guess I'll unplug it when I'm not using it

[@sgtcaboos118]

@@nolankanski9116 If you have it plugged into the dock most of the time, you can just plug the dock into a lamp timer and set it so it is off for the hours of the day you are not likely to be playing your steam deck. This works for pretty much everything with a battery that you don't want to leave charging all the time, but don't want the battery to be dead.

[@leonardomatheus1888]

The deck doesn't charge the battery after it's fully charged, it uses energy directly from the wall, and it won't charge until the battery is at 94%. My deck have hundreds of hours and my battery is still at 100%. I play connected about 80% of the time.

[@xenn4985]

​@@sgtcaboos118 this is misinformation, you dont have to do this with any device made in the last 10-15 years. They all have active battery controllers that dont allow the battery to overcharge.

[@MrLinkDay]

Nintendo has some dark magic with batteries that is for sure. I have a 20yo GBA SP that I used so much, the original battery still goes on for 5 to 6h.

[@marksapollo]

I have a DS Lite I got second hand a while ago as an Easter gift lol, was very cheap. Never changed the battery and I leave it turned off as it is now, and I know if I go and turn it on it'll have some battery life?

[@fluffybunnybadass]

fr tho, you could misplace or not use a device for years and then out of nowhere, find it, turn it on out of curiosity, and it will have a green light no problem (for a minute at worst anyways xD)

[@erwark]

I think they run everything well under its limit so it's never strained, even if it's "misused". Toyota is generally the same.

[@glubgawd7393]

Same, day 1 GBA SP, OG battery, lasts hours

[@myrolas1822]

​@fluffybunnybadass 100% i lost my gameboy sp for years, found it and it turns on. I lost the charger a looong time ago but I still turn it on here and there just to see if it still works and it's fiy down to red after maybe 10 years of not charging

[@LP_86239]

11:09 the switch is made to be used docked, so my guess is they have something like a battery bypass to prevent wear

[@DantesGrill]

Technically so is the steam deck though. If it wasn't they wouldn't have the accessibility to hook it up to a monitor and use it as a desktop

[@Kodufan]

When it is fully charged, they just run off the wall power instead of constantly discharging and recharging it so that’s why the battery health is ok

[@MrAmadeus1998]

A lot of new electronics do have this feature. Knowing how reliable Nintendo tends to be, I assume it has this feature as well.

[@camberwellcarrot420]

Nintendo really does make great, if underpowered, hardware.

[@ardentdrops]

Battery bypass is standard for basically all consumer electronics over 40 bucks. If the battery died this quickly from being plugged in Valve doesn't have an excuse, although my guess is that the battery is faulty for some other reason

[@pavichokche]

This HAS been a wonderful experiment! Great job keeping it going

[@THE_GIN_MASTER_]

*jorrrrrb

[@DaRoblin]

Experment: Invert the screenshot colors, reverse colors burn for up to 3 years. Hypothesis: You can invert colors on a device lacking burn-in protection to alleviate the artifacts some amount.

[@blarghblargh]

That is a way some early LCD displays dealt with static pictures to mitigate burn in

[@ryan20028]

Burn in isnt it actually burning in. It's more that bits of the display burn out.

[@TeeBeeDee]

This would work in a highly controlled situation like this wherein the image is completely static but it would be functionally worthless for any real use, you'd have to effectively screen record and play back the entire use session which would wear out the entire panel significantly faster.

[@ixamraxi]

@@ryan20028 Yes, and by inverting the image, the bright areas become dark and the dark areas become bright, meaning that by displaying an inverted image you can 'burn out' the pixels by an equal but opposite amount if you leave an inverted image on the same amount of time you left the normal image on. The goal is so that the sum total of burn out is equal for each pixel. Its the same as doing a pixel refresh.

[@FreshChriss]

I managed to make it work outside of a controlled environment. My Samsung note 9 got burn in because i was using it to display live stats of a device i was testing (for a long time) at that time. The screen was sectioned into 12 parts divided by small white lines. And you guessed it, they burned out the pixels. So i inverted the colours in the android dev Optionen and continued using it as i did bevore (but with increased brightness to make it "heal" faster). Sure enough it worked perfectly. Thats because only the static parts burned in, it was only important to have a screen where they are on but inverted to cure it back. Im just saying, you cure the burned in parts, if the rest hasn't burned in, it won't ether with inverted colours (depending on time of cause)

[@Madblaster6]

This is why I download games in desktop mode in the Steam Deck. It lets the screen turn off without interrupting the download.

[@ericbaker8781]

I had no idea about that, thank you

[@Madblaster6]

@@ericbaker8781 no problem. Just set it to not turn off the device and set the screen to turn off after a few mins.

[@Star.6739]

@@Madblaster6 Thanks for the pro-tip, I'll try to remember that if I ever get an OLED Steam Deck

[@snowzZzZz]

same, but valve really really should fix this, it should not be hard to make the screen black after x number of seconds even if it's still powered on behind the scenes due to some sort of software limitation.

[@Star.6739]

@@snowzZzZz Or heck, even just let you install stuff in the background

[@TheSixthSLoT]

Wulffden playing with fire showing BotW playing on a Steam Deck. Look at what happened to Russ from Retro Game Corps.

[@SpyderGuy799]

Technically it’s not running. It’s just a picture

[@beezlebubisfly3211]

Retro game corps just showed the title screen. Nintendo is on a warpath. Glad I'm watching it before Nintendo takes it down

[@lorddeecee]

He doesn’t know 💀

[@livinlicious]

He got 2 copyright strikes, because Nintendo didnt like the general content of the video. But they needed a specific frame/image where he "violates their copyright". So they copyright striked him for showing on an original switch, an original game playing, because technically, Nintendo owns ANY publication rights for their IPs. Its like having a VLOG about you going to a casino, and Toyota copyright strikes you because their car is shown in the video (which you bought from Toyota). Thats the level of abuse of copyright system currently happening. Nintendo is criminal and should be punished.

[@troyX]

​@@livinlicious Doesn't fair use (at least in the US) protect content creators from this type of copyright abuse?

[@freescape08]

6:05 You missed the worst one of all: TV OLED tvs were a huge problem for anyone who was accustomed to the background noise of news, or the Yule log channel as it ruined your day when a year later, you wanted to watch a movie and the bottom row was dim, or there was a dark patch right where the person's face sits in the close-up. Also, phones were the reason OLEDs got popular and even had the chance to improve. Nobody needs a phone screen on for more than a couple hours a day, and most didn't last more than a couple years without being dropped anyway.

[@andremalerba5281]

My Galaxy Note 9 had the white G circle from the old Gboard burned in the screen + a squared box right above the keyboard which I believe might be some text box or whatever, couldn't figure it out and it was only after 2 years of use. Also, if you use a lanyard all the time you'll never drop your phone EVER so the screen won't ever crack

[@ThisisCitrus]

My Galaxy S20 of 3+ years, on 24/7, has zero burn in. My C3 OLED tv has a bit of burn in after a single year. :(

[@Ignacio.Romero]

It's next to impossible to burn in a modern phone of youre using it like you're supposed to, with auto brightness on. I used my old OnePlus 7 Pro for 5 years and it has no burn, except for a bit in the cellular/wifi icon thats only visible on a grey background

[@danielerognini]

For the battery thing: my steam deck started doing the same after an update, turned out it was just an option in the bootloader that caused the issue for me. I got my steam deck in november 2022 and by checking the battery health I still get 100% even if I play it almost every day. I play with a charger plugged in almost always and the deck has power pass through via usb c btw. Excellent job valve, never been this happy with any other electronic product I've ever purchased

[@Mati-kun]

Thank you for the update and a Happy Anniversary of the experiment!

[@Dipper1459]

At least Valve made it easier to replace the OLED screen if it did get too bad and need replacing, which I doubt will happen for 99% of people.

[@tubguinace]

Unfortunately the battery is still very risky to replace on the Steam Deck though if I'm not mistaken.

[@LARVideos]

@@tubguinace They made it easier with the OLED. I think they used less glue.

[@CMFOT]

If the screens on my handhelds need replacing I’m paying someone to fix it. Screw that job bro

[@jaydenphilbertmunipals9089]

Dang so my launch day switch oled is 3 years old.. Time moves way too fast

[@marco24117]

It should be 4 if its lunch day OLED because It was released One 2020 something like thay

[@ducksfolif977]

I love these typos lol

[@ghostsandwich1867]

Mine is almost 5 years old

[@AndrewPRoberts]

@@ghostsandwich1867Yeah I got my OLED switch way back in 1995 you guys are all late to the party

[@Mr.Chimpazee]

@@marco24117 *that

[@calebbritannia6283]

As a super valve glazer and someone who spends a lot of time being dissapointed in Nintendo. This series is a huge eye opener, the switch is absolutely designed to last. I know people who treat their switches super poorly and they will just survive anything.

[@guestc142]

They've come a long way since they moved manufacturing to china in 2004 (Nintendo ds)

[@Unexpectedstuff]

Tbh I was lucky enough not to get any joycon drift on any switch device, but most of my stick caps are dying - and they’re fine on any other game pad. That would be fine if there were at least some good stick cap replacements, most of this are crap and you can’t even find some color options, like basic light grey switch lite caps.

[@richardhobson7724]

My kids have "Murdered" 2 switches now, and let's not talk about how many joycon's at 80 Canadian peso's I've had to buy over the years. Some last, some don't that goes for any device!

[@erikmacaluso]

I've left mine completely uncharged for a year in a car through hot and cold seasons, left it on the dock with image up on a TV screen for days, thing just keeps trucking

[@KiraSlith]

The screen is built to last, the battery is just average for what we used to have in most devices in the 2010s, the rest of it... Not so much. There have been tons of problems with drop deaths, the cheap frame melting and spreading in the dock over time, the infamous Joycons (The only controllers in my household that still work properly is a pair of Hori v1s and some cheap generic pro controller clones, with 4 joycons and two Lites that ALL drift miserably), and older Switch models have thermal issues you just won't know about without modding until it causes hardware faults and lag.

[@Cynim]

It’s really cool you went through with this for three years! I’ve been using my OLED Switch since its launch fairly often in handheld mode, and I have absolutely zero burn-in.

[@lilrockstar77]

Yo is that a replica Sonic Ice-cream in the background LMAO 😅🤣🤣

[@SerenaDeerGirl]

yeah!!!! it’s a super sick plushie version of it that comes in a comically large ice cream wrapper LOL

[@rhyno6264]

So much has happened in the 3 years since your original video. Thanks for giving me a reminder to reflect on all of that and making great videos in all of that time too!

[@TheBlueArcher]

For the battery thing, The two extremes (100% and 0%) are the worst for lithium ion batteries. That's why operating systems that have battery protection stop charging devices at somewhere between 70-80%. Another thing is that software/firmware is almost always programmed to recognize something less than 100% charge as 100% charge. Again, as a battery protection measure. Because fully charging to "actual" 100% would cause batteries to die WAAAAY too soon for regular consumers on nearly any product. So If your software doesn't have battery protection, and you can't keep an eye on / forget to monitor the charge, It's better to have it on full charge rather than 0%. Also, check the battery level of new devices. they are often charged to exactly 50%. This is what nearly every manufacturer recommends for long term storage for batteries. If I were to guess, I would guess that the steam deck tried to push the upper limit of their full charge to get good reviews / advertise longer battery life, but went too far and that's why the steam deck won't stay on anymore.

[@WyvernDotRed]

The Steam Deck disables charging at 100%, until the battery dips below 95%. Otherwise, only an emergency shutdown and refusal to start if the battery is empty. But it's battery management is quite poor, charging it with a 5W port actually drains the battery. It can slowly charge at 10W, so anything but a PC port will charge the Deck fine.

[@TheBlueArcher]

@@WyvernDotRed I was talking about something completely unrelated to that. What I meant by the 100% thing is that the software/firmware will undercharge based off the manufacturer's recommendation/specification. eg. manufacturer says 4.25v is max recommendation, but 100% will often be something like 4.1 or even 4.0v. Just to give more headroom to preserve battery life. That number is a bit arbitrary. and my (admittedly, relatively uneducated) guess. is that to advertise more hours per charge, they stretched it by recognizing something much closer to the recommendation (4.25 in that example) as 100%. I guess if they were really risky they might even overcharge and recognize something like 4.3 as 100%. My point was "100%" is a bit of an arbitrary point, and the higher that point is, the worse it is for battery life. We don't know -- unless published or reverse engineered, at what point they set that mark. So even if everything appears equal technically, there's still that "hidden" stat that can have a pretty drastic effect on the useful life of a battery.

[@leonardomatheus1888]

​@@TheBlueArcherBut it's much better for the battery to play while connected. Playing games at 20w will only last 2:30 hours and will take a full cycle, while you could play at dozens of hours while connected without using the battery. Sure, being at 100-95% isn't ideal, but it's much better than going from 0 to 100%.

[@budthecyborg4575]

I've been using my Steamdeck OLED on the dock almost exclusively for the last year and the battery is great. Various people online are saying Steamdeck uses passthrough power when the battery is above 90%, so using the Steamdeck constantly docked has the same effect on the battery as leaving it on sleep mode and only topping up the battery when it reaches 90%.

[@batmabel]

I have the original Steam Deck and honestly, the battery is ass. I don't even know if mine's fucked or if it was always bad, but it loses some bizarre amounts of battery while just idling on the games list screen. I'm talking like, noticeable loss of battery in two or three minutes. I don't think I can play like, a PSP game for more than two hours, if I'm being completely honest. I expect the OLED model to be better, but honestly not by much, but it's still surprising that his battery completely died in less than a year of intense use. Shouldn't the device just avoid using the battery if it's fully charged and plugged in? I'm clearly no expert, but I've always heard that that's what these things (as in, cellphones, notebooks, portable consoles, etc) do, if they're plugged in and don't need to charge they just ignore the battery and use the power directly from the wall.

[@hatguyfan22]

Man that Switch is a beast for not shutting off. What did Nintendo do to make it last like that??

[@ge2719]

It's running on a refresh of a very old chip that uses way less power than the steamdeck. It's more like a phone/tablet while the steamdeck is like a pc powered by battery.

[@tubguinace]

If I remember correctly, back in 2017 before the launch of the Switch Nintendo told some gaming outlets that they did many battery tests to come up with just the right parts and settings to make the battery as durable as possible since the Switch is meant to live in the dock where it will constantly charge, normally that's terrible for battery health.

[@Mr_Flopp-c8j]

The switch, while undocked, uses around 30% ~ 40% of its GPU. This way, the battery won't really be stressed and will not generate too much heat, so the battery and hardware degradation are kept to a minimum.

[@SmashyPlays]

​@@Mr_Flopp-c8jplus the switch was made to be constantly charging in a dock, so in a way it constantly being on charging shouldn't be that big of a deal

[@blarghblargh]

Engineering

[@Duszkek]

Worth to remember - burn in in OLEDs is not like CRT where it would literally burn the phosphorous layer, in OLEDs its WEAR meaning that even if (theoretically) you would play 1 game only, (lets say BotW) 2 hours a day for a 1000 days, 2000 hours is still 2000 hours for those poor diodes. The point is that essentially continuous 2000 hours of displaying heart containers is the same as 2000 hours of displaying them with a breaks - because its wear, so i wouldn't call it "unrealistic" tests, i would say "speedrun". Usually we think that the picture will change - be random meaning that the burning would be spread out evenly -> we would lose peak brightness overall without noticable "shapes" but since especially in games we have static UI elements the wear is focused on the same pixels. Yes, you can play with dynamic HUD elements but that doesnt prevent the burning, only prevents noticable shapes of whatever HUD element we're talking about. Also what's worth to mention - big TVs and monitors can counteracts this by "dimming" all subpixels to lowest common dominator - meaning that if like, 20 % blue sub-pixels are "burned out" it would dim others to compensate - meaning you lose your 1000-10000 nits peak to some lower values

[@GoldPunch]

Wulff Den: Every iPhone since X, has an OLED sceen. iPhone 11: Hold my beer!

[@ratykat]

It's amazing how far OLED has come. My old b6 OLED TV suffered horrific screen burn. I played Botw on it for about 100 hours over a couple months. I had the hearts burned into the screen permenently. The worst offender though was the yellow piano image found on Yamaha AVR amps. This accidentally got left on over night, and permently damaged the screen. Simpson characters look green in the middle. That being said, the TV had thousands of hours of general use. I tried my best to avoid static images but didn't let it stop me enjoying things like games. No matter how many refresh cycles and pixel shifting being enabled it never prevented it from happening. My new g2 oled? Totally different animal, no retention at all.

[@Marsk1tty]

I was looking at LG's new C4 or B4 for use as a monitor. I plan to run black themes and hide the taskbar, as well as have a short timer for turning off the display. I also don't normally use my displays on very bright settings, so I'm hoping to get at least 5 years without any substantial burn in

[@cwba1rd372]

I’ve been following this journey since day one, and when I see you post these update videos, it fills me with so much joy knowing that you are still going with this! I thought after a year you’d be done with it, but you kept going! Im excited for next year’s update!

[@picklejeff5461]

I was feeling bad about clocking 1000 hours in a MMO, after seeing your thumb nail I just realized I gotta get my numbers up

[@picklejeff5461]

awe man

[@somethingsomethingveryclever]

13:56 well you don't know my weekend plans

[@godminnette2]

Android has a mode you can enable to aid in battery health even when the device is plugged in 100% of the time. I have it on for my kitchen tablet. These dockable handhelds should have similar settings.

[@SnakeEaterGaming]

Imagine the patience and dedication it takes to make a video THREE YEARS IN THE MAKING. good on ya Bob.

[@drewbedoobi]

i have the 512 GB LCD Steam Deck. i leave it docked well over 99% of the time. after watching this video, i decided to let it do a full discharge because i dont remember the last time it died naturally. i appreciate the heads up because im not the best at battery management for all of my devices because of this and previous episodes i definitely feel a lot more trusting of OLED screens than i used to, my only previous experience was a phone from 2019 that has all of the UI and the entire keyboard pretty severely burned out at this point also i loved the little Sonic popsicle with fucked up gumball eyes thing you had in the background lol

[@sparky6757]

5 hours battery life is crazy. Have my launch Switch still, it probably tops out at 2 hours max anymore, and realistically that's fine for any situation where I'm not at home with the dock and also want to play a game

[@carloduarte9870]

This is the only channel on KZbin where I find ads fun to watch 😂

[@AmoraScripting]

The funnier part is that I quite literally just bought the exact powerbank in the ad yesterday. Still waiting for Amazon to deliver it in a few hours 😂

[@bart2865]

Me too, his ads is really cool

[@signa8]

Internet Historian blows all of this out of the water though. I'm always laughing as hard at the ads as the rest of the content

[@awesomeferret]

Have you never heard of Aging Wheels?

[@fireswarmdragonp]

I wonder if the reason the switch has retained battery life better is some sort of optimization to do with the dock, like Nintendo probably designed it to work with extended dock use

[@leonardomatheus1888]

It's just pass-through. The deck also have it, his deck battery is defective.

[@DanielFerreira-ez8qd]

​@@leonardomatheus1888 According to other comments, it's absolutely optimizations on battery life, while the deck isn't optimized for that at all.

[@leonardomatheus1888]

@@DanielFerreira-ez8qd It is, it stops charging after 100% and uses power from the wall until the battery decreases to 94%. The deck also uses power drom the wall and charges the battery at the same time.

[@Xbob42]

Kinda just seems like he got a defective battery. I run my Steam Deck 24/7 like him, also have an OLED and leave it plugged in all day. Battery life seems no different than the day I got it.

[@fluffybunnybadass]

Thank you again for running these tests. I'm actually surprised that the steam deck's burn-in happened that drastically, considering how the switch has lasted for a few years with minimal amounts. I expected something similar for the deck! But as you mentioned, the deck has much higher brightness levels, so that probably did play a part

[@labman472011]

Update time! Been switch waiting for this

[@CoolProgramer123]

I have followed this since the beginning! Great series

[@lego_minifig]

For the Steam Deck I heard that it is best to keep the console plugged in when not in use. There is some sort of bug or defect can prevent Decks from turning back on if the battery fully dies. I don’t think its too common, but its common enough to have had multiple users report the issue.

[@hotchoclateguy]

Great experiment. Lot of patience, perseverance and hard work. I don’t think any KZbin even thought of something like this. Thanks Wulff

[@3up3rn0va]

These kind of experiments are so cool! I hope you continue doing them. I wonder if the new switch will have an OLED screen maybe you could have a third device doing it. 😂

[@BladeEXE67]

It's crazy that we still don't have intelligent power and charging management. I am always worried about my Switch chilling in its dock getting murdered or consoles that I don't use that much and forget to charge every once in a while like a PSP. The Switch actually handles this pretty well, I had a Switch lite turned off for months and it turned on with 99% battery left and played for the expected amount of time.

[@langos7946]

And if anyone is still worried about Your favourite game having a high contrast HUD, there's a good chance these days that this game has some HUD effects, like shaking during impact etc. that'll also reduce the chance of it burning in

[@AssassinsFear]

There is a setting in the steak deck to disable the battery if you're going to keep it docked for a long time to prevent battery degrading

[@blarghblargh]

You and I eat very different steak

[@VagrantValmar]

Should you use that if you turn it off every once in a while but always use it docked? Same question for laptops.

[@MegaManNeo]

Where is that option supposed to be?

[@DeathlyPrice]

It's funny how you've shown that OLEDs can be good now, but I'm using a 2023 LG C3 OLED, and I've got a case of Burn In (Out?), from watching a ton of CinemaScope Movies on it over the course of 4 months., the top and bottom borders from the films resulted in the top and bottom of the screen not being Lit, so they are way brighter than the space the Movies were shown in, meaning now when I play games I can notice where the borders were. I Got the TV in April, and it's now Burned in as of September (When I noticed it)

[@kev1nno]

Linus Tech Tips had a similar issue with using an LG C1 as a computer monitor after just a few months too IIRC. Definitely seems like not all OLED screens are made equal when it comes to burn-in

[@MGMan37]

TVs probably get fucked harder because they have way higher HDR brightness

[@blarghblargh]

Yeah it's definitely not all OLED screens

[@DeathlyPrice]

@@MGMan37 the worst part here is, I don't use HDR, but the borders are SUPER Noticeable when my PS5 enables HDR :D

[@Nova2127U]

@@MGMan37 Yeah, HDR Brightness makes the LEDs run harder, and thus, quicker burn out. SDR-only panels like the Switch OLED, that don't get very bright, are not going to be easily susceptible to the burn out, atleast, under normal circumstances. the LG C3 OLED is doing about 800 nits HDR which is a significant jump and almost the Steam Deck OLED's HDR brightness, which you can see from the Phawx, it burned out quickly at that high brightness. If they're using their TV in only SDR, then it shouldn't burn out as quickly, similar to the Switch.

[@HH-dv5gr]

The first ad I actually enjoyed watching.😂

[@zsjdddfw]

It was that exact video you made that helped me get over the fear and make the decision to get a Switch OLED and a Deck OLED. I enjoyed the beautiful colors of Super Mario Wonders, Mario and Rabbids, Afterimage, and many other games. Thank you.

[@SireDragonChester]

Hate that these devices are Always charging the battery. They should have way turn that off so battery isn’t alway being charged.

[@nicholasweiss4662]

One thing to note is that OLED wear (pretty much what causes burn in and also affects traditional LEDs) is also temperature dependent. In devices like the seam deck or the switch, where the SOC is activeley cooled this is no issue, but on phones this makes them burn way faster under certain conditions. Firstly, in direct Sunlight tphone screens often boost their brightness beyond the maximum value that can be set manually, but in direct sunlight the phone gets heat from the environment, the boosted brightness causes more stress and produces additional heat in the screen itself. Secondly, when playing games phones thend to get hot, too. This is of course because they get rid of heat produced by the SOC by dissipating it on their surface to the surrounding air and the users hands. This heats the screen up a lot, and sometimes for extended durations multiple times every day. The fact that oftentimes the screen is the main heat dissipation surface adds to this. I nsaw this first hand, when my 6 year old Note 8 I used to use every day still had little to no burn in, while a friend of mine had severe burn in on their two year old S20 from playing genshin impact every day.

[@Ziondood]

That barista doesn’t know what they’re missing out on with Aero!

[@lego_minifig]

?

[@pressfinchat]

Please note that max brightness on the Switch is 400 nits, while max brightness on Steam Deck is 1000 nits. If the Switch can last 3600 hours on 400 nits constantly 24/7 before burn in, so can the Steam Deck. Your Steam Deck will be fine for the next 5 years for the Steam Deck 2.

[@MrNineties]

I remember a lot of hubbub about leaving SteamDeck connected to power. Something to do with the power delivery implementation I believe.

[@bigload6]

3 years is wild! My switch OLED is still going strong, traded my steam deck out for a legion go and having such a better experience. Normally just have my legion go set up on my table side plugged in, going to have to take it off every now and then 😂

[@budthecyborg4575]

I would have bought the Legion Go if it were OLED but Valve did such an amazing job I love my Steamdeck. It's still tempting to get a Legion Go anyway but with all the new AMD chips coming out right now the Legion Go2 can't be far off.

[@bigload6]

@@budthecyborg4575 the QHD screen on the Legion go is by far the best of the lot, but it's speakers are some of the worst I've ever heard. Would definitely wait for the 2nd to come out and see if they fix the speakers

[@marksapollo]

Legion Go but only with the Steam Deck OS. IMO. IMO it's only a choice between the Steam Deck and Legion Go, I'll get roasted for that...

[@bigload6]

@@marksapollo steam deck OS on the Legion go would be awesome! Imagine if it had the standby mode the steam deck has :o

[@marksapollo]

@@bigload6 Yeap. I have a Steam Deck OLED cause of the integration of it all, but the OS is king, Windows sucks on these handhelds. Hopefully Valve will soon release a Steam OS version for third party devices.

[@PlantMan5823]

Can't wait to see them in 5 years

[@ThyKing25]

Just got my Deck back for the same power issue (owned new less than 1 year). They replaced the battery and audioboard. Works like normal now.

[@johny1220]

3:22 Mmmm Apex. Also damn good job man, videos that take years for results are always intriguing! I could never have that type of patience lol.

[@desupernoodle]

It's probably possible to go into the Steam Deck BIOS and disable the battery. That way you can leave it plugged up forever without killing the battery.

[@rpgfan8650]

Now I'm really interested in result of a battery life stress test~ Seems they are more of a problem than OLED burn in under normal circumstances.

[@TheLuckster]

everytime Bob uploads one of these it reminds me how fast time flies

[@KrystalFairyFriend]

You're really entertaining. I've been considering getting a steam deck but I don't feel like I have a reason to besides just having one

[@jacobhardell899]

Steam decks have an issue with the battery calibration drifting over time so it probably just needs to be re-calibrated in the bios.

[@mashy712]

About the batteries. If they are always plugged in, the software may sometimes drop the batteries to 90s % and charge back up. but it'll still show 100% software wise. It helps with the prolonged life

[@copingflower1909]

considering I don't think I'll ever have this many hours at one time on my Switch OLED, this test is just something fun to watch out of curiosity

[@ten10_ten10]

It'd be awesome to see you do a similar prolonged test between multiple controllers for stick drift. You could have regular vs "pro" controllers to see if there's an actual difference in the quality when you're paying extra, a hall effect controller to see if they're actually resistant to stick drift like they're advertised, and for all of them have one joystick unused for comparison between the heavily used stick.

[@origrammar]

I honestly cannot believe how well made the screen and battery are on the Switch, considering their joy con problems on the initial models. Also, nobody asked, but I got my Switch OLED in December of 2022, and I still haven’t experienced any drift. My left joycon stick’s rubber has started blending together a bit (like a well-worn tire, the grooves are barely visible now), but there’s surprisingly still no drift. I’ve also been very careful not to let dirt and stuff get under the flap of the sticks so far, so that might be a factor.

[@shyonae]

Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom is a fantastic game dude, was there for a sec but I saw it!!

[@dehasim]

He even told the name of the game xD

[@shyonae]

@@dehasim must've missed it but that's great!

[@kurtcreusen]

You are the sole reason I confidently got the OLED Switch. Thank you for testing!

[@ToyKeeper]

I love seeing this kind of real-world stress testing. I feel sad for the devices themselves, but your sacrifice gives the world useful info! About batteries though... if you're going to keep a device plugged in for a long time, try to make sure it stops charging at like 60%. Linux has some kernel controls for this on many devices, but I'm not sure if the Steamdeck kernel supports it. Needs to be way more common, to encourage long-term battery health.

[@M_CFV]

it supports it

[@R1pper85]

This isn’t real world testing as that would be showing a variety of games over the same period. I’ve seen loads of these tests and they are so unrealistic of real world use.

[@ToyKeeper]

@@R1pper85 In the real world, he's testing the worst case. Like using crash test dummies in a real car slamming into a solid stone wall at full speed, it's meant to measure the limit of how bad things could get if absolutely everything goes wrong.

[@R1pper85]

@@ToyKeeper I get your point but i don’t see the point of the test then? Was it to see if you can break something if you abuse it? Because I think everyone knows the answer to that. I guess I would like someone to do an actual “real world” test that would actually give us some good conclusions, one way or the other. I’ve seen these sort of tests on tv’s as well like the rtings one, and whilst interesting they don’t give a fair assessment. I’ve got an old LG oled b7, i think it’s about 7-8 years old and I’ve played loads of long 50-60 hour games with static images and still have no signs of burn in/image retention. I think like he does point out that the main issue with these tests may be the length of time these products are used for but also not having the variety of content.

[@ToyKeeper]

@@R1pper85 It's the same purpose as any stress test. It's a pretty standard practice.

[@pip5528]

I suspect mobile OLED technology is somehow better than that of TVs and monitors because it doesn't change brightness based on what's on-screen or seem particularly susceptible to burn in. I've never gotten burn-in on my Pixel 4a of 3 years with heavy use and certainly not my Switch OLED of 2 years with light use. Currently I mainly watch a lot of things on my S22 Ultra with an AMOLED at half brightness. I didn't even know the brightness fluctuations of desktop OLEDs were even a thing until I researched OLED monitors a few months ago. I mainly use IPS and CRT at home. The CRTs don't have burn-in either.

[@Nova2127U]

CRTs kind of do have burn out, but in a different way, the maximum brightness gets lower as they age since the electron guns/heated cathode get less effective at producing light, so it's the entire panel instead of certain pixels like OLED.

[@DrakonR]

Pixel 2 XL user here. Burn in across my entire OLED screen. Very distracting.

[@Breeze926]

Screen size is also a factor. One TV has the same amount of display as a bunch of Switches. Its harder to make those larger displays at the same quality.

[@kevinvanneste2500]

My S9 had Burn in after only 14months really bad but my S20 S22 and pixel 8pro never had the problem luckily

[@TheGc13psj]

The stram deck has a setting in the bios to only run on wired power not battery I beleive. I think it automatically turns on when the Steam Delc is plugged into battery for looong periods of time to protect the battery...

[@zini4GRUNT]

So, you thought, you've been testing screen burns, but actually it was battery. Neat.

[@ItsaB3AR]

Good to know they are pretty resilient. Also with a Steam deck you can swap that display and battery yourself to make it like new.

[@sowsow6677]

I like how you still have it on

[@nick-leffler]

Thank you for this. AFAIK burn in is directly tied to brightness.

[@chadwolf3840]

dude this is great content. thanks for doing this. serious questions about the durability of the steam deck, which is the most surprising thing to me.

[@lonewolfgirl20]

To this day the only burn in I’ve ever had on any of my oled screens is the battery and service/wifi signal on my iPhone after using it for 2 years on the iPhone 10 and then I had a little bit of the same burn in on my iPhone 12 after 4 years. But due to where it was at it didn’t matter and I only noticed it because I was watching a video like this and looked for it! So checks out to just don’t worry about it, especially with the current lifetime use of these devices.

[@hotdogcandy]

I am surprised the Steam Deck's battery got messed up. I thought the Steam Deck stops charging the battery once it hits like 95%.

[@smidlee7747]

It could be the part that regulates the battery. He would have to replace the battery to see.

[@fighterguard]

The power cycling matter is likely to be the same for most people, including me: The Switch OLED mostly played docked, so the display gets almost no use, but the battery remains fully charged almost all the time. Whereas the Steam Deck OLED is the opposite, used exclusively in handheld mode, so the display gets a lot of use, and the battery gets fully cycled constantly, since that stupid thing doesn't have a hibernation mode, so when you press the power button, it's only sleeping, but still on and using power, and it will last for about 3 days before dying. It happens to me all the time, because I have many gaming machines, and can only use one at a time. And even when I'm using it a lot, I don't keep it hooked to the charger, so the battery still gets power-cycled.

[@klxboy9994]

That battery situation with the Steam Deck is concerning as hell to me.

[@tpf92]

1:59 I've had my Steam Deck for a bit over 2 years, its been plugged in basically 99% of that time and it the "battery bloat", was rather disappointed to see it, haven't replaced it yet but probably should sooner rather than later but I'm not liking the prices of replacement batteries (ifixit wants $95!).

[@Chickenbreadlp]

Yepp. Been using an Alienware QD-OLED for almost 2 and a half years now, mostly between 15% and 30% brightness, only occasionally in HDR mode in it's Peak 1000nits mode. The only type of burn in I notice is on a solid mid to dark gray slide at the edges of a 16:9 video. Funnily it's more noticable on the right then on the left. The Monitor is 21:9 and I do watch a lot of KZbin, so that explains really everything, the right edge just basically didn't get used much and as such it's still brighter then the rest of the panel. It's basically invisible in any type of content however, so to me it's a total non-problem, and since OLEDs tend to have a lot of burn it at the start and then kinda plateau for while I don't think this is going to be a problem for the lifetime of this monitor :D

[@ALph4cro]

So in a realistic scenario, where it doesn't run 24/7 with full brightness in one scene, it's safe to say that we don't have to worry about it.

[@bufordmaddogtannen]

3:15 absolutely. I gave my father a smartphone to use in his workshop as a mobile router and the battery died in less than two years from being constantly connected to the charger.

[@jat9926]

God you always have so many cool tech gadgets to buy whether it’s power banks or what. On my wish list now.

[@progste]

Considering the amount of hours and light setting I've used my switch since I've bought it on release, the oled version would have been completely fine as well. Good to know! I won't have issues buying an oled device in the future.

[@hikkamorii]

My first OLED phone that I've got was an iPhone 12 Pro, still rocking it. After 4 or so years, I've noticed slight burn-in in the top area (where you see clock, battery status, etc.). I didn't expect OLEDs to be so robust, especially when I've seen people in my school with Samsung S3s and S4s that were so burned, they would show magenta instead of white sometimes.

[@KeatonKid]

I’d love to see a test of what is the best weight to response time ratio on different controllers, could be fun!

[@InfiniteBoredom100]

the ad was actually great haha

[@ScrubburcS]

Right around 2:54 you mentioned that the deck randomly turns off. I also have that issue but I think I know what is causing it to happen. For context, I have a 3rd party SD dock and it only works if I also have the deck charger plugged into it, so the deck is constantly on charge while using the dock. My steam deck will randomly restart itself every now and then while it’s plugged in and at full battery. It doesn’t do this when it doesn’t have full battery as far as I can see/tell with my experience. I’ve had my Deck OLED since last November, so almost a year.

[@Magusguile]

Back at the height of Pokemon Go when I would play it outside in the sun while walking at very high brightness it burned in my Galaxy S8+ pretty quick...that's the only experience I've had with burn in for quite a long time!

[@weebsquit347]

I think the main concern for OLED burn-in comes from people living in usually hot areas. I lived in a tropical city around 6 years ago, and that's when i got my second ever OLED screen phone. Like an idiot because i didn't know anything about tech, i used it outdoors in the harsh sunlight, and the thing got burn-in like a week or 2 later. I wonder if people had similar OLED screen incidents that made them paranoid about them. On the bright side though, i do agree that OLED Screens have gotten much better, especially with preventative measures, so it's probably nothing worth worrying about much anymore for, including these consoles. OLED Burn-in seems extremely rare now compared to a few years ago.

[@Apocrypha303]

Thanks for doing the hard part. The only electronics I don't turn off are my monitor, and my dac.

[@Sirinxbella]

2:00 I had my og switch in it's dock for most of it's life. While not playing anything most days. The resulting battery bloat was insane.

[@PloopChute]

Damn, that Switch is pretty impressive. I've had my phone for around as long (base Galaxy S21) and its got some pretty obvious burn in. Not a distracting amount, but it is obvious on brighter images. Specifically things like the keyboard and status bar. Granted, i use my phone probably more than most people, but still surprising how fast it burned in. But I've been pretty careless with it in terms of cranking the brightness to 100% almost all the time, and compared to the Steamdeck, and especially the Switch, its a lot brighter. Regardless, OLED has come a long way. It's not quite at the "burn in isn't an issue" stage many people like to claim, but its pretty dang close, especially with a little bit of awareness and effort to mitigiate specific risks (always cranked brightness, static icons, logos, etc). At the end of the day though, OLED really just seems like a stopgap until micro LED. Things will REALLY start popping off then. I cannot wait. It's literally the perfect display tech. Until then, burn in will always be somewhat of a risk if you want the best of the best. Not to mention just how much brighter MLED will be.

[@DrakonR]

Miniled is already beginning to offer the same benefits of OLED with more headroom to develop. I love my OLEDs, but everyone loves the HDR on my miniLED.

[@PloopChute]

@DrakonR For sure, MiniLED is fantastic. Especially for the price,you can get some absurdly great displays. TCL and especially Hisense both offer some fantastic options for shockingly cheap with HDMI 2.1, VRR, and 120Hz with some seriously impressive picture quality. Still, MiniLED does feel like a stepping stone towards the inevitable per pixel lighting using LEDs. Even with hundreds of local dimming zones in MiniLED,, there are still issues with blooming and requirements for color filters that add to the bulk of a set. Granted, MicroLED are likely still quite a long way off for average buyers. Unless a seriously massive leap in the manufacturing process occurs because of some unexpected breakthrough. There's a reason Samsung's only MicroLED is 89" and almost $100k, they are clearly struggling to make small enough LEDs for consumer sets. When the snallest they've managed so far can only support an 89" display and costs that much, you know they're struggling.

[@40Sec]

I wouldn't call it a stopgap, as OLED is the technology of choice right now and will likely remain so for the next decade (at least for regular consumers). It's absolutely wild how long MicroLED has been in development, and how far it still is away from being used in any mainstream consumer products. It will be a dream when it does drop though. I'm less concerned about burn-in at this point on my OLED screens, but I'd love to have the option of higher brightness, and most of all would love to never see auto-brightness leveling kick in ever again.

[@PloopChute]

@@40Sec Yeah, good point. I guess "stopgap" might not be the best word. I just don't think it is the end of the line like some others seem to believe. I do think once MLED does manage to compete in price with OLED, whenever that may be, it'll quickly make OLED obsolete. Who knows, maybe by that time OLED manufacturing will have gotten so cheap that everything will just get knocked down a peg in product tiers. It'd be pretty insane to see a time where OLED overtake standard LED panels in low-midrange market while MLED replace them in the mid-high end space. Heck, even if we never quite get to that per-pixel micro-LED solution, advancements in mini-LED will continue to close the gap. There are some higher end mini-LED sets today that can produce some genuinely incredible image quality, and there is still a LOT of room in-between current mini-LED density and per-pixel LEDs. I was looking at a new Hisense U8 recently and could not believe how insane it was for the price. Not even just in HDR performance and color quality (which were extremely impressive), but features as well. It almost feels like we'll soon be at the point where even most basic, budget focused sets will come standard with good full array local dimming and QD. I wouldnt be surprised to see 60hz as standard also fall by the wayside with 120-144hz VRR becoming an expectation with the way consoles are also evolving. Even more casual console users have very suddenly developed an expectation of performance this generation. Manufacturers may respond with higher refresh rates and VRR in some low end sets. It only takes one before they all have to do it. I could easily see a brand like TCL offering a "4-Series Plus" or something, just to offer those two features at a relatively low markup compared to the standard 60hz 4S. Whatever happens, the future will be interesting.

[@40Sec]

@@PloopChute - Agreed! It's an exciting time in general for display technology. I couldn't give up my OLED due to really loving the per-pixel lighting and true black, but now Mini LED is giving people experiences that cost over $2,000 a few years ago at a quarter of that price. I'm glad good HDR is finally becoming something that more people can have access to. I think if Mini LED tech can come out with more dimming zones, and if OLED tandem displays actually become affordable, we'll be in for a treat, and that would allow current tech to become accessible to folks on tighter budgets.

[@itsagabe]

I just got a Deck dock for Christmas and while I always planned to be careful with how long I keep it plugged in, I'll be doubly careful now to drain the battery often. I've had battery problems with laptops and phones before, which led me to being extra careful with batteries.

[@mutexS4]

lol man, wulff den's ads are HILARIOUS. this is how you do ads if you have to have them in a video

[@NomadBal]

4:54 amazing that you met Saul Goodman in that coffee shop!

[@alaya_shiki_1]

This test will always be my answer to people who are scared to buy OLED. We are very very far away from the initial OLED concerns that there's no realistic way someone is going to burn in their content. Even if it's a game that you play often, the content around the UI elements will move around enough to mitigate the burn-in. I use an OLED TV as a computer monitor for three years now and there is no burn in at all (make sure to hide the taskbar and open things in windows rather than full screen).

[@Cr1me-wavE]

i recently start playing osrs on my OLED steam deck, which is the exact use case that probably has the highest likely hood of causing burn in 😅 still, im not too worried though, ive been changing up the ui every few hours to be extra cautious. this video came out at a perfect time lmao i was gonna rewatch your original from 7 months ago and saw this!

[@dejct]

Super informative video. The Steam deck battery dying would have worried me, but my laptop battery did the exact same thing like a few months ago and then I learned its pretty normal if you leave shit charging/plugged in all the time. I am very surprised the switch's battery is still going lol

[@leonardomatheus1888]

That's definitely a faulty battery. The deck have pass-trough, so it won't use the battery while connected to a charger.

[@dejct]

@@leonardomatheus1888 good to know!!

[@Bacender]

My iPhone 13 Pro Max experienced visible burn in after 3 years (got it on release) to the extent that it was annoying me at night. I can't wait for micro LED to take over and for OLED to be phased out. Regardless of its longevity, OLED goes bad, and there's nothing you can do about it -- it's just a matter of time. Something about technology which is designed to go rotten after a few years just doesn't feel good.

[@CMDRunematti]

I had the numbers burned in on my note 8 back in the day. That was because I used it over the summer as a speedometer on my bike. Even then you could see it, but you could easily disregard it too, like scratches. It is a problem but not at all a huge one

[@colyerah]

I got burn in on my note 8 too! Maybe that phone was susceptible

[@Zowayix93]

Has Disney ever contacted you about voicing Timon from The Lion King? I would actually throw money at that idea.