Search results
samsung.com
- OLED TVs offer incredible color and perfect black levels, but aren't as bright as QLED panels. VS QLED TVs Our Take QLED TVs are brighter and usually more affordable than OLED models, but have imperfect shadow detail.
People also ask
Are OLED TVs brighter than QLED?
Why are QLED TVs so bright?
Who makes a QLED TV?
Should I buy a QLED TV?
Sep 16, 2024 · The brightest QLED and LCD TVs can get brighter than any OLED model, which is a particular advantage in bright rooms and with HDR content. In my tests, however, OLED TVs can still get...
- Overview
- OLED vs QLED: the current state of TV tech
- OLED vs QLED: the case for organic LED
- QLED vs OLED: the case for quantum dots
- OLED vs QLED: which brands support this TV tech?
- OLED vs QLED: what's the best choice for gamers?
- OLED vs QLED: which is right for you?
- OLED vs QLED: what does the future look like?
- Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox
Versus
By Henry St Leger
Contributions from
Nick Pino, Jamie Carter
last updated 5 December 2022
Here's everything you need to know about OLED and QLED TVs
The biggest and best TV makers, like LG, Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Vizio all make OLED TVs. This is why OLED is the most widely-supported premium display panel tech you’ll find in TVs right now – and it's getting cheaper.
You can read our thoughts on some of the top OLED TVs available right now in our LG C2 OLED TV review, Sony A90J OLED TV review and Philips OLED+986 4K OLED TV review.
QLED TVs are mostly made by Samsung, although you will find them from other brands too, like Sony, Hisense, TCL and Vizio.
Our Samsung QN95B review and Samsung QN900B review will give you a good idea of what to expect from the best QLEDs on the market right now.
It's also worth mentioning a newer technology called QD-OLED TVs. This combines the best of both worlds, using a blue OLED panel with a quantum dot filter to create brighter primary colors. The result is a screen that has better color saturation (around 200% of traditional LED-LCD TVs) and better off-axis viewing.
These TVs have only recently been brought to market by Samsung and Sony, with both using display panels made by Samsung. You can read our take on the new OLED tech in our Sony A95K QD-OLED review and Samsung S95B OLED review. (Spoiler alert: both models received an Editor's Choice designation.)
OLED Pros and Cons
Pros:
Lighter and thinner (2.57mm)
Self-emissive pixels
More convincing blacks
Faster refresh rate (0.001ms)
QLED Pros and Cons
Pros:
Rich colors
Ultra-bright (up to 2,000 nits)
Variety of screen sizes between 32- and 98-inch
Cons:
The battle between OLED and QLED is more of a story about branding than tech. That's because the OLED panels found inside every OLED TV, save the QD-OLED ones sold by Samsung and Sony, are made made by LG Displays. And QLED TVs have an equally generic display panel origin story.
Team OLED:
Most TV brands have lined up behind OLED over the past few years, believing it to be the superior technology for picture quality.
It's hard to disagree, but despite LG, Sony, Panasonic, TP-Vision (under the Philips brand in the UK), Loewe, Bang & Olufsen, Skyworth, and ChangHong all now selling OLED TVs, they do tend to be very expensive – despite the fact prices are improving a little.
The maker, LG Display, hasn't been able to produce enough OLED panels fast enough to bring them in at a lower cost, which is making OLED TVs seem like a top-tier premium TV technology.
This has been changing, with new and smaller sizes. Brands like LG now have 48-inch and 42-inch sized OLED TVs on offer (as well as a 97-inch TV at the other end of the spectrum).
If you're mainly interested in a television that's good for gaming, we'd encourage you to focus on different criteria than OLED vs QLED.
Now that the next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles are here – and, for the most part, more readily available to buy – you'll want to find a TV with HDMI 2.1 ports that can carry 8K video from consoles (at 60Hz), as well as 4K video at 120Hz.
Low input lag isn't always specified on TV product pages, but we recommend keeping an eye out for it nonetheless. Or reading our best gaming TVs guide, which runs through the top specs and points of interest you need to know about.
OLED sets will be best for achieving natural contrast, and will help make cinematic games look truly breathtaking. LG's OLED TVs also come with Nvidia G-Sync to help smooth out gameplay onscreen, too.
However, QLEDs go a lot brighter, and may be better for practical visibility in the games you're playing, drawing out environments and in-game objects clearly.
It may depend on what you're playing – but getting a set with low input lag, VRR (variable refresh rate), and an HMDI 2.1 port will be more important than the underlying panel technology.
Both of these technologies are impressive – but for different reasons.
In many ways, QLED is the best choice. You'll get a brighter picture, the TVs tend to last longer, they're cheaper and there's no risk of burn-in – a mark that's left on the screen of OLED TVs when displaying images with static graphics like a news network logo.
However, if we had to choose one, right now we'd go with OLED. For the majority of people, the benefits of OLED will, at least for the time being, outshine the benefits of QLED. This includes better viewing angles, deeper blacks and, therefore, better contrast, and less power consumption, They're probably also a better option for gaming. This is especially the case if you're looking for one of the best 55-inch TVs since both technologies are roughly the same price at that size.
But QLED also makes more sense if you're looking for a smaller size or have a smaller budget. OLEDs are still more expensive. You can get the older Samsung Q60R QLED, for example, for only a few hundred dollars / pounds at its smallest 43-inch size.
Regardless of our buying advice for you today, it remains the case that things may shake up a lot in the coming years. Even this year as more new sets for 2022 are released.
There are plans afoot to develop QLED sets that ditch the LCD backlight to become self-emissive, in a move that could blend the advantages of both OLED and QLED technologies and spell trouble for OLED panel manufacturers like LG Display.
"True QLED sets are self-emissive, as with OLED sets, and are not yet in the market, but are anticipated to be so in the coming years," says David Tett, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. "When it is released it is expected to provide the strongest challenge to OLED yet, as it brings many of the same benefits as OLED, with few potential drawbacks."
There were initially rumors for Samsung to release these so-called 'true' QLED sets a few years ago, but they’re not here yet.
If the future is bright for QLED, those behind OLED panels are hoping that one of the technology's native characteristics, flexibility, wins the day. "OLED sets can offer new audio solutions that see the panel vibrate to create sound and could also offer new form factors, both due to their flexible nature of the panel," says Tett. This is nowhere clearer than with LG's rollable OLED, the LG Signature Series OLED R, which is able to curl up into the television's base.
For now it's OLED that takes the crown for the best – and most expensive – TV tech around, but unless LG Display can up its production rate and create more screen sizes – as it's beginning to do – the immediate future of the mainstream TV could still belong to QLED.
Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team.
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors
- Henry St Leger
Oct 3, 2023 · Until recent advancements in OLED technology, QLED TVs were easily the brightest TVs on the market — barring some really expensive MicroLED TVs, but that’s a subject for a different article....
Feb 19, 2021 · OLED TVs are different from QLED and LED TVs because they can individually turn on and off pixels, resulting in perfect blacks and wide viewing angles. However, LED and QLED TVs tend to get brighter, and the latter also displays a wider color gamut for HDR content.
Jul 28, 2024 · Today, we’re going to put QLEDs and OLEDs side by side to compare important criteria, including brightness, motion clarity, price, and the bane of every TV owner’s existence: image burn-in. The...
6 days ago · Based on the OLED TVs we've tested, they offer better picture quality, including higher contrast, truer color accuracy, and deeper blacks than QLEDs. However, what works best for you might...
VS. QLED TVs. Our Take. QLED TVs are brighter and usually more affordable than OLED models, but have imperfect shadow detail. The term LED (an abbreviation for light-emitting diodes)...
