The advantages of an OLED laptop are readily apparent as soon as you power it on. With individual pixels that are able to be turned completely off, an OLED display is able to produce perfect black levels for an infinite contrast ratio. Text appears with great clarity on an OLED display, with the incredible contrast ratio producing inky black letters against a bright white background (or vice versa). And the individual control of each pixel results in accurate and vivid colors. So, when you aren’t sending emails and reading documents, you’ll be able to experience rich colors when looking at photos or watching videos.
While you get better overall image quality with an OLED laptop than with an LCD panel, there are a few downsides. Based on years of testing laptops, I can state with authority that OLED laptops generally offer shorter battery life than LCD models. An OLED display is also more susceptible to burn-in, which is when part of an image, such as a persistent icon, remains visible as a ghostly background no matter what else appears onscreen.
Keep reading for a quick primer on how an OLED display differs from an LCD panel before getting to my tips on how to get longer battery life and prevent burn-in with an OLED laptop.
OLED versus LCD
The biggest difference between OLED and LCD displays is the backlight or lack thereof. LCDs use a backlight to produce light. In contrast, an OLED doesn’t need a backlight because its pixels emit light themselves. With the ability to turn individual pixels completely off, OLEDs can produce perfect black levels. In an LCD, the backlight is never completely off, which creates more washed-out, gray-looking black levels.
Along with better black levels comes greater color performance. An OLED’s individual control of each pixel offers more precise control than an LCD’s color filters, resulting in richer, more vivid colors. Colors really pop on an OLED display. An OLED also offers better screen uniformity and wider viewing angles.
Another item in favor of OLED laptops: their designs are generally thinner. Without the need for a backlight, an OLED has fewer display layers and can be skinnier than an LCD. And with a thinner display, you get a thinner laptop.
LCDs are generally brighter than OLEDs, but OLEDs’ deeper black levels and superior contrast mean they don’t need to get as bright to produce a great-looking picture. Plus, when you dial up an LCD’s brightness, you’re likely to see some blooming in the brighter areas of the screen with the backlight bleeding through.
Powering the display is the single greatest demand on a laptop’s battery, so the difference in display technology can have a large impact on a laptop’s battery life. Even though they must power a backlight, LCD laptops generally run longer than OLED laptops, according to my years of laptop testing.
OLEDs don’t need to power a backlight, but illuminating individual pixels is also taxing. Because an OLED can completely power off individual pixels as opposed to an always-on backlight, an OLED’s battery life is more greatly affected by what’s on the screen. The more pixels it can turn off for a darker image or background, the less power an OLED consumes. And the brighter the image or background on your laptop’s screen, the faster it will drain the battery.
Thankfully, there are a few moves you can make to extend the battery life of your OLED laptop without affecting its performance.
Three tips for longer OLED laptop battery life
There are two easy ways on a Windows laptop to create consistently darker images with fewer bright pixels. Neither involves turning the display brightness down to the point where you have a hard time seeing anything on the screen or limiting yourself to entertainment pursuits primarily made up of dark scenes, like playing Doom: The Dark Ages or watching Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight or the Safdie brothers’ Good Time.
1. Choose a dark Windows background
The first setting to change is your Windows background. Choose a mainly black background by going into Settings and choosing Personalization from the left nav. (You can also get there by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing Personalize from the right-click menu.) Windows 11 offers a few dark backgrounds, and if you don’t like any of them, you can go to Background from the Personalization menu and pick a solid color (black is the recommendation) or a photo from your library (perhaps one of your favorite photos taken at night).
2. Give in to the dark side
While you’re in Settings > Personalization, you can also enable the second setting for longer battery life: Dark mode. Click on Colors, and you’ll see a setting for Choose your mode. Dark mode is usually selected on most OLED laptops I test because manufacturers know it helps extend battery life — while also reducing eye strain. But if Light mode is selected, change it to Dark. (There’s also a Custom option that lets you mix and match light and dark, where you can have the taskbar and start menu in dark mode, but your apps in light mode or vice versa.)
3. Check your timeouts
This third tip isn’t specific to OLED laptops, but must be mentioned: Set your screen to turn off on battery power after a set period of time. In Settings > System > Power & battery, take a look at the Screen, sleep & hibernate timeouts. For battery power, set your screen to turn off after 15 minutes or so. And while you’re at it, make your device sleep after 30 minutes or so. You can set each timeout for as short as 5 minutes, but I find that it gets distracting with anything shorter than 15 minutes.
Bonus battery-saving tips for all laptop users
Also, on the Power & battery page in Settings, there are two other settings that any laptop owner should know about: Power Mode and Energy Saver.
Power Mode lets you choose between Best Power Efficiency and Best Performance — or the Balanced compromise. I suggest choosing Best Power Efficiency when you’re running on battery and Best Performance when you’re plugged in.
Energy Saver reduces screen brightness and blocks apps from running in the background. It also stops some apps from syncing and non-critical Windows updates from downloading. Energy Saver is usually set to turn on when the battery hits 30% capacity, but you can increase that number or set it to run at all times if you are unhappy with your laptop’s battery life.
Two tips to prevent burn-in
Burn-in can occur on an OLED display when a static image remains on the screen for too long, leaving behind a ghostly image that won’t go away. It’s something to be aware of, but not lose sleep over, because we are talking about leaving a static image on the screen for weeks and months, not minutes and hours. Still, there are two easy steps to take to decrease the odds even further of your OLED laptop suffering from burn-in.
1. Hide the static taskbar
What’s the most static part of your Windows desktop? If you answered the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, then stand up and claim your prize. If you worry about the taskbar remaining constantly on the screen, then you can auto-hide it so it appears only when you move your cursor to the bottom edge of the screen.
Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar (or just right-click on the taskbar and choose Personalize). From here, choose Taskbar behaviors and check the box for Automatically hide the taskbar.
2. Use a screen saver
Using a Windows screen saver can also help prevent burn-in, especially if you ignored my previous advice about setting your screen timeouts for 15 minutes or so. You can set the Windows screen saver to spring into action after a period of inactivity. On the Personalization page in Settings, go to Lock screen > Screen saver. It’ll open a window where you can choose a style and wait time for your screen saver. Each one is animated, so you don’t need to worry about a static image burning into the screen.
A screen saver can be a more convenient timeout than the sleep timeout because it doesn’t necessarily log you out. If you want a more secure screen saver, you can check the box for On resume, display logon screen — the same action as when Windows wakes from sleep mode.
For more, check out the best OLED laptop deals and my recent review of Lenovo’s affordable OLED laptop, the ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition. And if you are confused about the variety of laptop CPUs in 2025, then you need to read CNET’s laptop CPU explainer, where we break down the differences between Intel and AMD, Qualcomm and Apple.
