[Edge rot on LG WOLED TV's manufactured between 2020-2022 are quite common. The defect causes the pixels around the edges of the screen to darken. This is a reliability issue that significantly affects viewing experience for many early adopters of these premium TV's.
Reliability test reveals widespread pixel degradation in LG WOLED sets
It's something that all consumers should be aware of since it will appear as some kind of mold-like shadow that starts at the edges and moves in.] This issue is mainly affecting LG's G Series, Z series and M series. RTings did a test of 16 units that were manufactured in the above time frame. And 14 out of the 16 had evident signs of pixel degradation.
It will show the pixels around the edges to start to darken. However, it will leave the center of the screen unaffected and only the edges will become washed out.
LG claims that this is due to environmental issues. That this could happen in scenarios where it is exposed to high temperature or humidity for a long period of time. However, it is believed by experts in the field that this could be related to contamination during manufacturing or defects in the encapsulation of the panel and not just environmental.
The same test was done on Samsung QDOLED TV's. And no similar symptoms were observed in the panels (although sample size was smaller for samsung. They tested only 3).
It's also likely that the majority of these affected units will be out of warranty. Since the 5-year panel warranty on premium LG models is from 2021 onwards. It's possible the new LG WOLED TV's manufactured in 2024 may have improved manufacturing processes to combat this. However, RTings mentions that they aren't able to say if the newer TV's are protected from this defect since they don't have test data on them.
My G2 from 2021 is starting to show that exact shadow at 100 percent brightness. I thought it was just my room lighting.
Does anyone with engineering knowledge think this is a seal failure or just bad material selection by LG? The humidity claim feels like a cop-out.
The encapsulation failure theory holds water. If the moisture barrier degrades, oxygen gets in and kills the organic layer. LG’s warranty gap is the real issue here since most of these units are out of coverage now.