Nintendo Switch OLED goes through a 1,800 hour break-in test – here’s what happened

the Nintendo Switch OLED is an excellent portable game console, combining Nintendo’s robust game library with an even larger, more vibrant screen. Of course, OLED displays have a few drawbacks compared to standard LCD models. They are more expensive, on the one hand. They are difficult to manufacture. And, of course, their screens are sometimes prone to burn-in. However, OLED Switch owners can rely on the latest tally, unless you plan to stay on a single screen for more than 11 weeks at a time.

These findings are courtesy of Bob Wulff, a YouTuber who has a tech channel called Wulff den. One of his most recent videos, “I left my Nintendo Switch OLED on for 1,800 hours straightTells an encouraging story. Wanting to test whether Nintendo’s new handheld was susceptible to burn-in, he designed an experiment to test the device firsthand. In short, burn-in is not a problem.

To test the OLED Switch, Wulff took a colorful screenshot from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, then configured his Switch to stay on, at full screen brightness, indefinitely. He accomplished this with a third-party Hori controller that offered automatic button press functionality, as the switch would automatically turn off the screen if a user didn’t push a button every now and then. It also kept the device plugged in, as an OLED Switch battery will last between five and nine hours on a single charge otherwise.

In total, Wulff left the device plugged in for 1,800 hours, or more than 10 weeks. After picking up the Switch, he checked the screen for signs of burning and compared the color accuracy with other Switch consoles. As far as he can tell, the OLED Switch did not experience any ill effects from its extended Zelda display. This should help OLED skeptics rest, he argued.

It’s important to remember that burn-in is even less of a concern if you don’t configure a system to keep your Switch operational indefinitely. The screen will turn off after a few minutes of inactivity, and the battery itself will drain after a few hours of using the screen at full capacity. (We tested the Change OLED battery life largely ourselves, if you want to see how it turned out.) Plus, you don’t have to worry about the potential differences between display manufacturers, as every Switch OLED display is from Samsung.

The OLED Switch isn’t a perfect console, but at least it doesn’t seem to fall prey to a common OLED flaw. However, Wulff plans to run the screen even longer on his next test, just to see how far he can push the system. In the meantime, do not hesitate to consult best Nintendo Switch games to play on the OLED Switch and the normal Switch.