OLED Edge Rot Hits 14 of 16 WOLED TVs After 18,000 Hours
RTINGS said on November 5 that an 18,000 hour test, about ten years of typical U.S. use, found edge rot on most older WOLED panels. Is that the same as burn-in?
Hakkı ALKANPublished 3 min read
OLED edge rot appeared on 14 of 16 tested WOLED televisions after 18,000 hours of use, according to an RTINGS investigation published on November 5, 2026. The lab said that runtime equals about ten years in a typical U.S. household, and it stressed that the defect is not the same as OLED burn-in.
RTINGS describes OLED edge rot as dead pixels or small clusters of dead pixels along the edges of the panel. The testers said it is not caused by leaving static images on screen, and watching varied content did not prevent it. Possible explanations include manufacturing contamination or damage to the protective layers that keep moisture away from the OLED materials.
What is OLED edge rot, and who was affected?
Among older WBC WOLED panels from LG Display, nine of ten sets released from 2020 to 2022 developed edge rot. RTINGS classified five of those as severe, three as significant, and one as mild. The 2022 LG A2 OLED was the only WBC unit with no edge rot.
Newer WBE WOLED panels, which use deuterium in the emissive layer, were not immune: five of six showed some edge rot. The Sony A90J was classified as severe, while the 2023 LG G3 OLED had none aside from CNN burn-in. Three QD-OLED TVs, the Samsung S95B, Samsung S95C, and Sony A95K, showed no edge rot and no dead pixels, though RTINGS said three units are too few to prove immunity.
What did manufacturers say about OLED edge rot?
LG Electronics and LG Display told RTINGS they are aware of the phenomenon and have found that it may occur in a very small number of OLED products under prolonged high temperature, high humidity, or other harsh conditions. They said the issue is not expected under normal everyday viewing conditions and that LG continues to improve panel design and manufacturing.
Samsung Display attributed QD-OLED durability to Thin Film Encapsulation that it said blocks moisture at the panel edge. RTINGS also checked three OLED monitors, including one WOLED model, and found no edge rot in that tiny sample. The lab did not test any TV from 2024 onward. It said later panels, including tandem RGB WOLED, may be better protected, but it still prefers caution.
Two RTINGS employees also photographed significant edge rot on a 2020 LG GX OLED and a 2021 LG C1 OLED used at home. The testers still called WOLED TVs a strong reliability pick overall, noting that OLED sets had the fewest complete failures compared with LCD TVs aside from burn-in. Display questions also come up in our MacBook Pro PROLED review, though that panel is a different design.
If the same living room setup includes a cheap streaming stick, that is a separate risk we covered in our report on Android TV box malware. Edge rot itself, RTINGS said, does not appear preventable by how you use the TV.
| Panel type | Edge rot in the RTINGS test |
|---|---|
| WBC WOLED (LG Display) | 9 of 10, including 5 severe |
| WBE WOLED (LG Display) | 5 of 6; the 2023 LG G3 had none |
| QD-OLED (Samsung Display) | 0 of 3 (S95B, S95C, Sony A95K) |
| OLED monitors (tiny sample) | 0 of 3, including one WOLED |