How to check your phone for dead pixels (free 2-minute test)

These get used interchangeably but mean different things, and the difference decides whether it's fixable:

• Dead pixel — stays black on every colour; the pixel gets no power (usually not fixable)
• Stuck pixel — shows one fixed colour (red/green/blue); sometimes recoverable
• Backlight bleed / blotches — uneven light at edges, common on LCD
• Lines or burn-in — a row/column fault or, on OLED, a faint retained image

Clean the screen first so dust isn't mistaken for a defect, then turn brightness to maximum. Our free in-browser screen test cycles through solid full-screen colours — black, white, red, green and blue — which is the fastest way to expose pixel faults, lines and bleed that disappear against a normal busy screen.

Look closely at each colour: a dead pixel shows as a black dot on the white/colour screens, a stuck pixel shows as a coloured dot on the black screen, and lines or bleed jump out on the solid fills.

Note where and what you see — it tells you the cause:

• A black dot on bright screens → likely a dead pixel
• A bright coloured dot on the black screen → a stuck pixel
• Glow or patches at the edges → backlight bleed (LCD)
• A faint persistent image or a vertical/horizontal line → OLED burn-in or a panel fault

Stuck pixels occasionally recover with pixel-cycling software or gentle methods, since the pixel still receives power. A truly dead pixel, visible lines, burn-in or spreading defects mean the panel itself is failing — those are resolved by replacing the display, not by software.

If it's a panel fault, part quality is everything. iTweak fits OEM-grade displays that match the original specification, with up to a 1-year warranty on OEM screens, for Apple and Android. We'll run the same colour diagnostic in front of you after the swap so you can confirm a perfect panel before you pay.