TV’s Leading Brands Conflict
Choosing the latest technology and a reliable television version is a sizzling question to be discussed these days. Light emitting diodes (LED) TV is a backlit LCD TV that mainly consists of two parts; backlight and the panel. The panel is Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) sheet that helps to create images after the current flows through it. LCD produces individual pixels of the TV screen, by blending of green, red, blue sub-pixels to create accurate color for all pixels.
Although LED TVs are still the rage, slowly and gradually a shift in technology is surfacing on the TV industry horizon. LED gives a low standard technique of lightening LCD TV that most of the LCD TVs are now known as LED TVs.
LCDs do not generate light. The picture they form is not easy to see under highlighting states. That’s the reason LCD panels require backlight by splitting light either along or behind edges panel. Early LCD TVs carrying these lights were huge cold cathode fluorescent (CCFLs) but recently lighter, thinner and more efficient LED lightening system contains everything and have better replaced them.
LED backlights light the LCD panel so the displayed picture is enhanced. The advanced version of TVs uses dimmable LEDs to make the TV screen look darker and brighter. The increased number of convenient LEDs in the array will improve the backlight and prevent the shadowy fraction of contrast pictures.
With the rapid evolution of televisions over the past few years, we’ve seen new technologies from Smart content to 4K Ultra HD resolution to HDR all become established features.
More recently though, leading electronics manufacturers Samsung and LG have started labeling their manufactured TVs differently. They have introduced a new technology in the TV arena. Samsung describes its newest technology as QLED whereas LG’s flagship TVs are called OLED. Both Samsung and LG brands use different technologies for manufacturing these TVs yet they look similar apparently.
LG’s OLED
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Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) or OLED TV sounds just similar to LED TVs but OLED displays are unlike LED-backlit LCD TVs. They have an organic element attached to them. Both are responsible for enlightening and creating the screen.
The OLED TV works by placing an organic, carbon-based film between two conductors and an electrical current is passed through, which causes it to emit light. This differs from LCD TVs, which require a backlight to create their brightness. OLED pixels are self-emissive and generate their own light.
Organic self-emitting pixels achieve the deepest levels of black due to their unique ability to completely switch off – no light is emitted or passing through the pixel. This brings a huge range of contrast to your screen, bringing shades and colors to life in a way that LED TV technology cannot match.
There are two types of OLED technology: Passive-Matrix (PMOLED) and Active-Matrix (AMOLED). Active-Matrix requires electronics to switch each pixel on or off individually, which is better for displaying motion and therefore the type used for OLED TVs.
Practically, OLED panels are extremely expensive to produce. OLED technology of LG is preserved for the high-end LG TV models. Other brands like Sony have a small number of OLED models as compared to LG that manufacture new technology OLED TVs. Panasonic and Philips are also producing OLED TVs now so LG isn’t the only brand in the OLED arena.
Samsung’s QLED
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The new technology introduced by Samsung is called QLED which stands for Quantum dot and LED leading to the name QLED. These new TVs use the quantum dot technology on a LED panel. This new technology primarily translates into great picture quality, the obvious and major aim of all TV manufacturers. The QLED sounds similar to the OLED TVs. But in essence, they are not similar and both use different technologies.
Both Samsung and LG are vying for the top slot among TVs by introducing these new technologies. QLED has replaced the SUHD TVs for Samsung. So in essence, this technology is not all that new. It is introduced under a new name in order to rival the OLED TVs in the market, primarily LG’s OLED TV. It comes with a lot of changes though and is not the same as the SUHD TVs.
In order to explain how it differs from the previous technology, we need to understand how the QLED TV works. These TVs work by placing a layer or film of quantum dots in front of a regular LED backlight panel. The layer is made up of tiny particles each of which emits its own individual color depending on its size (anywhere between 2 and 10 nanometers). Basically, the size of the particle dictates the wavelength of light that it emits, hence the different colors. It is believed that the quantum dots enable over a billion colors.
The difference between the previous technology Samsung used and the QLED technology is the different nature of the particles in the layer of quantum dots. These particles now have a new metal alloy core and new metal alloy shell. Due to this change in the nature of the particles, color accuracy has been enhanced. Not just this, higher brightness does not affect this color accuracy.
It is this accuracy even in bright light that is Samsung’s main claim of superiority over LG’s OLED technology. It is able to preserve colors in peak brightness areas that OLED can’t and those peak brightness areas are also higher than OLED can currently achieve. The result is that QLED gives you a lot more visible color, it is better suited for vibrant delivery of HDR content and claims to be able to better give you a great visual experience.
Difference between QLED and OLED
After going through how QLED and OLED works, it is clear what the basic difference between the two technologies is and how this little difference sets them far apart in delivering mind blowing picture quality. It is the lighting that is used differently.
In a quantum dot TV, there is a LED backlight system that works in zones, whereas the OLED TVs each produce their own light, they’re either on or off. The advantage that OLED offers is that you can turn off the pixels that aren’t needed, giving absolute black areas with no light bleed caused by the need for illumination in some parts of a dimming zone.
Samsung’s QLED models all use an edge-lit LED system (some are lit from the sides, some bottom) and this is divided into dimming zones. The flagship model, the Q9, has 32 dimming blocks, whereas other Q models have 12 and these are used to control the light. The more dimming blocks the better for delivering different light levels in different areas on the screen.
The changes Samsung made in its previous TVs to introduce the QLED TV have huge benefits over the OLED TVs by LG. Now QLED TVs also come with lighting control and the new film has been designed to help create deeper blacks, as well as preserve color saturation. No doubt OLED screens can effectively produce better blacks, but the QLED TV can still go much brighter.