A foreign media report said defects in which pixels along the screen edges gradually turn off are being repeatedly confirmed in some LG OLED TVs.
According to a report on the 8th (local time) by U.S. IT outlet Tom's Hardware, 14 of the 16 LG TVs (87.5%) that TV review site RTINGS was running in a long-term burn-in (image retention) test showed "edge rot." Edge rot is a phenomenon in which pixels darken starting from the screen edges, spreading like mold. All the affected TVs are LG products with WOLED panels made in 2020-2022. The outlet said similar cases are also turning up among RTINGS employees' personal TVs and among ordinary users.
Samsung QD-OLED panel TVs used in the same test did not show the symptom. However, only three units were tested. RTINGS said it cannot make a judgment on LG's newer panels produced since 2023, as they were not part of the test. LG's manufacturing process for its new panels is known to have been improved in 2024.
LG told RTINGS that "it can occur in a very small number of products after long exposure to harsh environments such as high heat and humidity." Tom's Hardware, however, pointed out that, given the test environment and ordinary households' usage cases, it is hard to blame humidity. Samsung explained that its own thin-film encapsulation (TFE) technology, which prevents moisture from seeping into the panel edges, has eliminated the cause of this problem.
Citing industry experts, RTINGS said the cause could be contamination during manufacturing, a panel encapsulation defect or aging. Most of the products concerned are already out of warranty. LG's five-year panel warranty applies only to premium lineups such as the G, Z and M series from 2021 onward.
* This article was written based on a Tom's Hardware report in the United States dated November 8 (local time).