LG extends the panel warranty on its G1 TVs to five years | Engadget

If you’ve been eyeing one of LG’s pricey G1 OLED TVs for a while, the company hopes to give you another reason to buy one. In the US, LG has introduced a new five-year limited panel warranty that covers every 2021 G1 OLED TV it sells in the country. In the first year, the warranty covers both parts and labor. Afterward, you’ll need to pay for any associated labor costs. That said, you won’t have to worry about paying for any shipping costs related to sending out your TV for repairs throughout the life of its warranty. What’s more, if you recently bought a G1 set, it’s included in this extension.

“Should your LG OLED TV fail due to a defect in materials or workmanship under normal and proper use, during the warranty period set forth below, LG Electronics will, at its option, repair or replace the product,” the company states on the G1 warranty card. It then outlines a list of things the warranty doesn’t cover, and it’s all the usual stuff. So, for instance, if your G1 suffers water damage from a flood or an electrical short, you’ll need to repair or replace your TV on your own. We’ll note here the company doesn’t specifically call out burn-in or image retention in the document. Here’s what LG had to say on the topic when we reached out.

“LG’s five-year limited warranty program is in line with the company’s consistent communication regarding the low risk of image retention on LG OLED TVs, when used in normal viewing conditions,” a spokesperson for the company told Engadget. “As with any self-emitting display, OLED TVs may experience temporary image retention under certain conditions, but permanent image retention, or burn-in, is rare under normal viewing conditions. Image retention is not a product defect.”

To LG’s point, OLED burn-in isn’t as much of an issue as some people on the internet would have you believe. As long as you’re watching a variety of different content and ensure to use features like logo luminance reduction, you’ll get years of use out of your OLED TV. More than anything, LG likely decided to extend the warranty of its G1 sets to address any doubts about the longevity of its new and brighter OLED evo panels.  

Possibility of burn-in aside, LG’s new warranty compares favorably to most of its competitors, even if it’s limited to the company’s G1 sets. Vizio, for instance, offers a three-year warranty on its TVs that includes both parts and labor for the entire duration. You could say Samsung outdoes LG with its 10-year screen burn-in warranty, but that’s more of a marketing ploy than anything else since LED displays are far less prone to image retention than OLEDs.