Samsung’s QD-OLED TVs spell trouble for LG

The world’s biggest TV manufacturer, Samsung, revealed details about its much-hyped QD-OLED panel technology during CES 2022 on Wednesday.

The new panel type effectively combines the best of Samsung’s current QLED panels with OLED, the display technology used in LG’s high-end TVs, to offer high brightness and excellent colour reproduction.

Sony has also opted to use the new technology in its upcoming premium TV line-up.

While OLED is reputed for its vibrant colours and deep blacks, the technology struggles to hit the high brightness levels of conventional LCD displays or QLED TVs.

That is primarily because LG uses a technique in which the emitter material is printed directly onto the three primary colours of red, green, and blue (RGB). Combined, these colours make white.

LG then uses filters in the sub-pixels to block colours that don’t form part of the mix presented in the pixel.

The major drawback to this is that the amount of red and green they can let through is low using this technique.

To help counteract this, LG uses an additional clear sub-pixel to increase the brightness. But this can result in an excessive gain in bright scenes.

Samsung’s new QD-OLED panels only use blue organic light-emitting diodes.

Because blue is a high-frequency wave on the light spectrum, it can be tuned down to red or green with high efficiency, meaning only 10% of the source light is lost.

Samsung has claimed this results in several improvements over OLED, including:

• Higher peak and overall brightness than OLED
• Better colour in bright areas that might wash out on OLED
• Better colour in dark areas
• Better viewing angles
• Deeper blacks with pixels able to switch over
• Minimal ghosting for fast-paced imagery, ideal for gaming.

While it remains to be seen if Samsung will live up to its bold claims, some early reviews of the technology are promising.

Well-known YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips (LTT) was invited by Samsung for a hands-on with the new technology before CES 2022.

With the entire screen in white, their own tests measured 20% greater luminance on a QD-OLED TV than on LG’s G1 OLED Evo TV. The latter is currently the company’s best in terms of peak brightness.

Over a 10% patch of the screen, LTT recorded 1,000 nits, while a 3% section produced 1,500 nits.

LTT also found that the colour reproduction was much better on the QD-QLED, with red and gold standing out in particular.

Samsung’s panel was also much more accurate than LG’s, being capable of hitting 90% of the BT2020  colour gamut compared to 75% on the LG display.

Lastly, because the emitters don’t have to output at higher voltages to get the desired brightness, it is expected that the QD-OLED panel won’t be as susceptible to burn-in as OLEDs.

Samsung is also planning to use the technology in its gaming monitors, while the likes of Alienware have already launched their own that uses the company’s panels.

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