I was surprised but noticed a burn-in on my iPhone screen today.
My iPhone is a 13 with the latest OS. That means it came out in Sept 2021. So roughly 3ish years old if we round up. It might have been because lately, I haven’t had it go to sleep automatically after a short time. I changed that when I needed it as a hotspot plus it was kind of annoying to always go to sleep. However, I didn’t expect to see burn-in so quickly.

This Apple article talks about burn-in and why it can happen on iPhones. It is called About the Super Retina display and Super Retina XDR display on your iPhone
If you look at an OLED display off-angle, you might notice slight shifts in color and hue. At reduced display brightness levels against black backgrounds, you might notice a slight blur or color change while scrolling. These are characteristics of OLED and are normal behavior. With extended long-term use, OLED displays can also show slight visual changes. This is also expected behavior and can include “image persistence” or “burn-in,” where the display shows a faint remnant of an image even after a new image appears on the screen. Image persistence is temporary and disappears after a few minutes of normal use. Burn-in can occur in more extreme cases such as when the same high-contrast image is continuously displayed at high brightness for prolonged periods of time.
One of the reasons I have never bought an OLED screen is this burn-in issue. From what I have read burn-in rarely happens to modern laser-based projectors. Older LED projectors seem to have this issue more commonly. My projector is laser-based and those only seem to burn in when left on for days at a time. I don’t use my projector for over 12 hours a day and then turn it off. Plus even if it does have burn-in, that is a good excuse to buy a better one. I have never had a TV with burn-in generally because I don’t leave them on for long, or only use them to use as a work monitor or to play a video game.
Returning to my iPhone burn-in I turned the display off and will probably change the energy-saving settings. I don’t want to buy a new iPhone if I can avoid it. I am tired of buying iPhones every few years. It is ridiculous and wasteful. I keep phones as long as possible. I don’t know if that is noble or cheap. Maybe a little bit of both. Still, OLED has a ways to go in being reliable, and it isn’t for me.