LG's WOLED Displays Show Widespread Edge Degradation Problem
A pattern of progressive pixel failure at screen edges has emerged across LG's organic LED televisions from earlier production years, with testing labs and consumers reporting the defect at scale.
Complaints about a previously undocumented display failure are accumulating across multiple sources, spanning testing organizations, their staff members, and individual owners.
While prospective OLED television buyers typically prioritize concerns about burn-in—a condition that has largely been controlled except in extreme use cases involving continuous operation—a different failure mode has surfaced. RTings' extensive durability testing uncovered the issue in LG's WOLED technology, particularly affecting panels manufactured before 2023. The phenomenon, termed edge rot, involves pixels gradually darkening in a pattern resembling fungal growth spreading inward from the screen's perimeter.
Testing conducted by RTings revealed that 14 of 16 LG televisions in its burn-in evaluation exhibited this degradation to varying degrees, representing 87.5% of the sample tested. All affected units were produced between 2020 and 2022. Beyond the lab environment, RTings personnel discovered the same problem on their own personal sets. Internet searches surface numerous user accounts describing identical symptoms, and anecdotal evidence includes reports from a 2019 LG model.