Black Screen

How to use the black screen

1. Dim the room and set your screen brightness to the level you normally use.
2. Press Open full black screen. The whole screen turns black and the pointer hides.
3. Look at the edges and corners for glowing patches, and across the panel for bright dots. The near-black shades make faint faults easier to see.
4. Press Esc, or tap the screen on a phone, to come back.

What the results mean

On an OLED screen, black means the pixels are off: the screen should be indistinguishable from the bezel in a dark room. On an LCD the backlight is still on behind the black, so some faint glow is normal. What to look for:

• Bright patches at the edges or corners are backlight bleed. A little is normal on budget IPS and VA panels; large patches on a new monitor are worth a return.
• Uneven cloudy blotches across the panel are "clouding" or "mura", most visible at the 4% and 10% shades.
• A single bright red, green, blue or white dot is a stuck or hot pixel. Try the stuck pixel fixer.
• A faint ghost of an earlier image on an OLED is image retention or burn-in. Our burn-in test looks at this in more detail.

A black dot that stays black on the white screen too is a dead pixel, not a stuck one.

What a black screen is used for

Display checks. Black is the most revealing test for backlight bleed, IPS glow (a silvery sheen when you look from an angle), clouding and stuck pixels. Reviewers photograph monitors on a black screen in a dark room for exactly this reason. For a fair test, compare at your normal brightness, because bleed grows with backlight power.

Blank the screen. Play music or a podcast and open the black screen to turn the monitor into a dark surface without switching it off, so audio and downloads continue. On OLED laptops and phones it also saves battery, because black pixels draw almost nothing.

Cleaning. Oily fingerprints and streaks show best on black, while dust shows best on white. Use both for a thorough clean.

Eyes and sleep. A black page is restful at night. Pair it with the auto close timer if you fall asleep to audio.

Common problems and fixes

The whole screen glows gray instead of black

That is normal for LCD monitors: the backlight never switches fully off. Lower the brightness and check that the monitor is not in a bright "vivid" picture mode. Only OLED and mini-LED local dimming get close to true black.

The corners glow

Backlight bleed. Gently loosening a tight bezel sometimes helps, but usually it is a panel property. Compare with the manufacturer's return policy if the monitor is new.

I can see the previous page faintly on black

Image retention on an OLED or VA panel. Leave the black screen on for 10-20 minutes; temporary retention fades. If it never fades, it is burn-in.

The screen turns off after a minute

Your operating system's screen saver or sleep timer kicked in. Move the mouse, or raise the sleep timer in your power settings while you test.