According to the DigitalTrends website, a new TV set called QLED has emerged on the market. Samsung created the term “QLEDâ€, applied for a trademark, and announced the first QLED TV at the 2017 International Consumer Electronics Show, but it did not “dominate†the term itself. Samsung sources told Digital Trends that they hope other companies will also refer to their quantum dot LED TVs as QLEDs. To this end, Samsung and China's TV makers Hisense and TCL reached a cooperation agreement to announce the formation of the QLED alliance at the end of April 2017. We have seen at the International Consumer Electronics Show in 2018 that TCL has launched a QLED TV. As readers speculate, a coalition means that member companies have a common opponent. For the QLED Alliance, the member company's opponent is OLED. It sounds like QLED and OLED will battle the TV market. OLED TVs are highly valued by technology media and reviewers including Digital Trends. For example, LG's C7 OLED TV was praised by DigitalTrends as the best TV in 2017. However, until 2017, LG was the only company to launch OLED TVs. The high price of OLEDs made OLED TVs unattainable for most consumers. Therefore, it is not a threat to QLED TVs. Now, Sony has introduced OLED TV products to bring new competition to the market. LG's OLED TV line has also been expanded to include more affordable models. QLED technology feels pressure. However, Samsung seems to be ready to meet the challenge, upgrading the technology in the follow-up product line, and trying to narrow the gap with OLED TVs. Although the terms “QLED†and “OLED†sound and look similar, they are two completely different technologies. Therefore, it is very important to compare the advantages and disadvantages of these two competing technologies. of. Tencent Digital continues to answer questions for readers. First, DigitalTrends will discuss what kind of technology and what kind of technology QLED is not, and then compare the two indicators of the two technologies to find out which one is better. Spoiler: This is an even contest. When Samsung plans to announce the new QLED product line in March, the gap between the two will further shrink. What is the ghost of QLED? QLED TV is a type of LED TV, but it uses quantum dot technology to improve several key image quality indicators. Samsung, for example, claims that its QLED TVs can provide comparable, even more than the brightness of any competing TV technology, providing a purer black color than other LED TVs, and being able to reproduce more than LED TVs without quantum dot technology. Multi-colored. How does it do it? Quantum dot technology is like a filter. The purity of the generated light is higher than the light generated by the LED alone. This technique is quite complicated, so this article will not explain the scientific principles behind QLED technology. In order to comply with the UltraHD Alliance's Ultra HDTV standard, most LED TVs must use quantum dot technology in some way. Since quantum dot technology is now widely used on high-end televisions, Samsung believes that if every manufacturer starts to call them QLED TVs, it will reduce confusion. The goal is to distinguish it from pure LED TVs and compete with OLED TVs because Samsung does not currently have plans to produce OLED TVs. However, Samsung has its own technology competing with OLED: microLED. This is a separate technology from QLED TVs, so it will not be covered in this article. But according to what we saw at the 2018 International Consumer Electronics Show, microLEDs may pose a serious competitive threat to OLEDs, especially in terms of brightness and black purity. What is QLED? Unlike plasmas, OLEDs, MicroLEDs, and even old CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) televisions that eat ash in the basement, QLEDs are not a self-illuminating display technology. Quantum dots don't directly emit the color the user sees. They are distributed on a thin film—approximately the equivalent of a filter in a LED TV. The LED backlight passes through the film, the light is adjusted to the desired color temperature, and the brightness and color are greatly enhanced. However, television enthusiasts have been hoping to have a different type of QLED TV. Each quantum dot can turn on or off the current. As with the OLED display technology, there is no need for a backlight system or an LCD panel. If the quantum dots emit light, then we can call QLEDs self-illumination display technology, but this is not the case. What kind of ghost is OLED? OLED means organic light emitting diodes. In short, organic light-emitting diodes are made of organic compounds that emit light when they are energized. This is the so-called self-luminous display technology. An organic light-emitting diode is the same size as a pixel, and therefore, a television screen needs millions of organic light-emitting diodes that are independently turned on and off. Due to this flexibility, when the pixels of an OLED TV are turned off, they do not emit light at all, and are displayed as pure black. Although QLED TVs can be made very thin, OLED TVs can be made thinner and even have some flexibility. Now DigitalTrends will compare the key indicators of these two technologies one by one to see their differences in contrast, viewing angle, brightness and other performance indicators. Black purity The ability of the display to generate pure black is arguably the most important factor in achieving excellent image quality. Deeper blacks provide higher contrast and richer colors, etc., resulting in more realistic and more beautiful images. In terms of black purity, OLED seems to be the undisputed king. QLED TVs improve the black purity of the LED display, but still rely on the backlight behind the LCD panel. Even with advanced dimming technology, LEDs that do not need to be fully illuminated can be selectively dimmed, but QLED TVs are still subject to the so-called “light transmission†effect, and the backlight is transmitted to the screen which should be black. section. This effect is evident in scenes with bright stars in the night sky. The result is a slight bleary or halo around a bright object that blurs the line that should be clear. Even in the most advanced QLED TV models, this is an inevitable problem, although it will become less and less obvious over time. If you buy Samsung's latest model of QLED TV, this problem may not be too serious, but by comparison, this problem is still evident. What about the QLED TV that was launched in 2018? As we expected, it will be a considerable improvement. OLED TVs are not affected by these problems. If an OLED pixel is not powered, it will not emit any light, so its color is pure black. For us, this seems to be an obvious multiple choice answer. Winner: OLED brightness In terms of brightness, QLED TVs have considerable advantages. The brightness of LED TVs is already very high, but quantum dot technology can further enhance brightness. Because of this, QLED TVs have outstanding "color capacity", which means they can brighten all the colors in the supporting chromatogram without reducing the saturation. QLED TV makers also claim that they are more suitable for HDR (High Dynamic Range) content because bright spots in the image - such as the reflection of light on a lake or a sparkling car - are brighter and easier to see. When it comes to the problem of HDR content, the perfect black display capability of OLED TVs will not provide too much contrast. In brightly lit rooms, the brightness advantages of QLED TVs are very helpful in providing the visual effects that HDR content should provide. Winner: QLED Color space In the past, OLED has an absolute advantage in this indicator. However, by improving the purity of the backlight line, QD TV technology has greatly improved the color accuracy, color brightness, and color capacity of QLED TV sets, regardless of OLED TV sets. Victory. Similarly, QLED TV makers claim that their better saturated colors at extreme brightness levels are a big advantage, but we have yet to witness the real advantage that this statement can bring under normal viewing conditions. Winner: Draw Response time The response time refers to the time required for each individual diode to change from "on" to "off." The shorter the response time, the less the motion blur and the less the artifacts. Due to the smaller diode as a single pixel, the OLED outperforms the QLED in response time. In contrast, diodes in QLED TVs are not only slower but also behind LCD panels, illuminating multiple rather than individual pixels. This leads to an overall slower switching between the "on" and "off" states. In fact, in the TV technology used today, the response time of OLED is the fastest and becomes the obvious winner of this indicator. Winner: OLED Input delay LG's OLED TVs have made considerable improvements in input delay, making their OLED TVs suitable for playing fast-paced first-person shooters, but Digital Trends has not yet been able to test OLED TVs from other manufacturers. We know that OLED display technology is not inherently unsuitable for playing games, but it remains to be seen which models have the least input delay. Since different types of QLED TVs have a large gap in input delay, it is difficult to compare OLED TVs with QLED TVs. As long as we think that OLED technology is suitable for playing games, we are interested in how it will perform in 2018. Winner: Draw Viewing angle In this indicator, OLED has once again become a winner. When using a QLED display, the best viewing angle is right. As the viewer's location is closer to the four sides, image quality indicators such as color and contrast will be reduced. Although the image quality of different types of TV sets has been reduced in various degrees, it is always quite obvious. A type of LCD panel called IPS manufactured by LG has a better viewing angle than VA type LCD panel, but it is still not competitive for OLED technology. Samsung's highest-end QLED TV also uses an improved panel design and a different anti-reflective coating, which makes viewing angle no longer a problem. Although OLED TVs still outperform QLED TVs in terms of viewing angle, the gap between the two is rapidly shrinking. In fact, Digital Trends expects the viewing angle of Samsung's 2018 QLED TVs to increase further. Even if the viewing angle reaches 84 degrees, the brightness of the OLED TV will not be significantly reduced when viewed. Some QLED TVs have improved in terms of viewing angle, but OLEDs still maintain a considerable advantage. Winner: OLED size OLED TVs have made great strides in size. In the early days of OLED technology, the display size was a maximum of 55 inches. There are already 88-inch OLED TVs on the market. LCD display size is less limited, QLED display size can be increased to 100 inches, or even higher. For most people, this is not a major advantage, but technically QLED TVs have an advantage in size. Winner: QLED Service life LG said that if you watch 5 hours a day, the brightness of the OLED TV will drop to the original 50% after 54 years of use. Whether this statement is true remains to be seen, because OLED TVs were introduced in 2013. For this reason — and the only reason — Digital Trends believes that QLED TVs have an advantage in terms of lifetime. Reliable past performance is important. Winner (current): QLED Burn screen DigitalTrends reluctantly joined this section because burn screens are misused and for most people this is not a problem either. We learned that burning came from a clunky CRT TV era. At that time, displaying a static image for a long time would make the image appear to be “burned†on the screen. The actual situation is that the phosphor coated on the back of the TV screen will emit light for a long time, resulting in the loss of the phosphor and the appearance of a scorching image. Digital Trends thinks this phenomenon should be called "burnout." But ... you can just call it anything. The same problem occurs on OLED TVs because the luminescent compounds degrade over time. If you lit a pixel for a long time, and the brightness is high enough, it will cause the pixel to be premature — darkening before other pixels, causing the pixel to darken. But in fact, this is unlikely to be a problem for anyone, because in order to achieve this goal, the user must intentionally use the television destructively. Even if the station logos used by some channels disappear, the purpose is obviously to avoid causing burn-in problems. The user must watch the ESPN program at full brightness every day (on many days) at the highest brightness, which may cause burn-in problems, but even this is unlikely. Even so, the possibility of burning screens still exists. This point needs to be pointed out. Since the QLED TV has no burning problem, it technically wins on this indicator. Winner: QLED Energy consumption The OLED panel is very thin and does not require a backlight. Therefore, OLED TVs are lighter in weight than QLED TVs. They require less electricity and are therefore more efficient. Winner: OLED price Once upon a time, QLED TVs had an absolute advantage in terms of price, but OLED TV prices have fallen, and since Digital Trends is talking about high-end models here, the price of similar QLED TVs is roughly the same. The price is not a factor in the QLED versus OLED TV battle. Winner: Draw overall DigitalTrends has already determined the winner. In terms of image quality, OLEDs outperform QLEDs, although QLEDs have shown significant improvements over older LED TVs. OLED TVs are lighter, thinner, and more energy-efficient, providing the best viewing angle available so far, and while prices are still slightly higher, they have already fallen considerably. QLED has its unique advantages in terms of brightness, and with the recent improvements, the purity of black has also increased. For many people, a QLED TV is more meaningful because it provides a more vivid picture when viewed during the day. But when the background light is dimmed, OLED TVs are a more attractive option. Winner: OLED