I think I can detect signs of burn in on my nexus 6, after less than two months of use.
It is visible at the boundary above my nav-bar (more noticeable) and below my status bar (less noticeable). The good news is:
1 - it is only visible under very limited conditions (I had to work hard to capture it on video).
2 - it is caused by my choice to use perpetually black status bar and nav bar (different than stock where the navbar and status bar are "transparent" and show the color of the app behind them). Edit - actually I think stock status bar is translucent and stock navbar is black.
3 - I can't see any trace of the navbar icons or status bar icons at all. It seems just that large swath of black that created the effect.
usage details
- My screen on time per day is in the range 2-5 hours.
- Brightness is in auto with the slider in the middle.
- I'm reasonably sure that this was not present when I got the device because:
- 1-it was "new" from Amazon in factory sealed box (although at a bargain price $299 for 64gb which makes me wonder slightly);
- 2 - I inspected it pretty careully when I was reading about burn in shortly after I got my device;
- 3 - the burnin pattern showing seems tied to the pattern that I myself setup about 6 weeks ago...Or maybe not.
Video is here (focus on the boundary just above the nav-bar ... it's easier to see than the status bar)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UO84SCeykrD6Ecb9p3yWfoUe4KN2pJs2Eg/view?usp=sharing
It doesn't particularly concern me for reasons discussed above (primarily because I have to work really really hard to even see it - grey launcher background in dark room helped to show it). I'll probably go back to translucent status-bar in the future and be a little more careful in general. Maybe I'll look at pie controls instead of navbar. Since it's not noticeable during normal usage, I'm not inclined to do the high brightness reverse screen burn, but I might invert colors from time to time when it suits me (inverting colors is an easy way to create dark mode in chrome browser..except for the nav bar and status bar which become white).
I post with a tiny bit of trepidation, seeing the previous discussion got a little heated. I hope you guys can see the line above the status bar area in the video (trust me I'm not making this up). And I'm not saying this is expected for anyone else. I just thought it would be a useful data point to share.
Another datapoint is xda thread on the subject of nexus 6 screen burnin.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/general/burn-t2955765
Poll at top of the page shows 180 respondents have seen signs of screen burnin on their N6 while 618 have not. One might suspect that the small fraction of users who see burnin are more likely to find their way to that thread to cast a vote (so it's probably not representative of the general population of N6 users). On the other hand I'll bet there are a few people who never even notice they have a slight burn in that could only be seen looking very closely under the right conditions.
I see in the linked thread that some people react irrationally as if any detectable burnin after a short time means the phone will become unusable after a year. I know it's not the case. It's minor, it's understood/predictable (other than maybe variability among users/phones) and it's very manageable.
Overall I remain super-satisfied this great device. Big screen. Easy to modify with great dev support (gravitybox is amazing). Fast updates. Fast and reliable phone. If I needed another phone, N6 would still be at the top of my list.
EDIT - I had a thought that elevated screen temperature due to my phone case design might be a reason I'm an outlier. I created a thread to explore that idea here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/help/wondering-burn-caused-elevated-t3316535