OLED TVs Look Amazing, But the Competition Could Have Them Beat

For the last several years, all the most rave-worthy TVs have been OLEDs. These unique displays utilize a different type of backlighting technology to that of mainstream LED TVs, lighting each pixel individually, allowing for greater contrast, deeper blacks and a better picture. Unfortunately, the picture quality historically comes with a high price tag, but OLED TVs have become more affordable of late — you can buy new 55-inch models, like the LG A2 OLED, for around $1,200.

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When it comes to OLED TVs is that there’s really only one manufacturer — and it’s LG. This has allowed LG to make many different lines OLED TVs, including its affordable A-Series, its flagship C-Series and its high-end G-Series. It also means that any company making OLED TVs that isn’t LG probably sources their displays from LG, which both Sony and Vizio do. So if you have an OLED TV from either Sony, for example, the business end is still from LG. You’re just paying for Sony’s design, picture processing and audio technologies and smart operating system.

Naturally, this has spurred a lot of TV manufacturers to make competitors to OLED. The most obvious example is Samsung’s QLED, which is type of LED display technology that adds an addition layer of quantum dot technology, which is filters the screen’s backlight so that colors appear more vibrant and saturated than traditional LED displays, where the backlight that lights the entire picture can bleed through blacks, turning them into grays. They end result is a picture that’s incredibly bright and beautiful and really “pops”, but it’s still not on par with OLEDs in terms of contrast, detail and overall picture quality they obtain by controlling pixels’ backlighting individually.

Of course, TV technologies aren’t bowing down to OLED completely. Manufacturers like Samsung, LG and Sony continue to innovate, creating the next-generation of OLED that promises to be even better; they’re also working on new display technologies that seemingly are even superior to OLED — although you might not be able to affordable it any time soon.

Below, we’ve rounded up the most popular new-age display technologies. Some are already integrated into TVs you can buy. Others are more future-facing. that are already integrated into high-end TVs that you can already buy.

Here’s what you need to know.

The New Technologies

Mini LED TVs

Samsung

In 2022, Sony, Samsung and Hisense all announced that they would be coming out with new Mini LED TVs. These are a type of LED TV (not OLED) that are built with new Mini LED backlight technology. This extra backlight layer is made up of thousands of miniature LED lights (hence the name “Mini LED”), which gives the TV better control of its dimming zones. The result is a brighter and more colorful picture, with better contrast than traditionally LED TVs. They still can’t compete with OLEDs in terms of overall picture quality, but they do beat them on price.

There are quite a few TVs that utilize this Mini LED technology. The most popular model is probably the Samsung QN90C (2023), which is a Neo QLED and goes for less than $2K for a 65-inch model.

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MicroLED TVs

Samsung

MicroLED is probably the display technology with the most buzz around it — it’s also probably the one that’s the furthest away from being widely available. Developed by Samsung, these new displays work similarly to OLED displays in that don’t have a backlight and the brightness of each individual pixel can be controlled (rather than blocks of pixels — called dimming zones — that LED TVs control), which allows MicroLED TVs to achieve superb contrast and detail. The difference MicroLED TVs can actually get brighter and produce more saturated color (thanks to being made of flexible non-organic material) than OLEDs, but since it’s a new technology, these MicroLED TVs are huge (none smaller than 76-inches), rare and wildly expensive right now.

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Other Terms to Know

QD OLED TVs

Samsung

In 2022, Samsung announced its first QD OLED TV. These were the company’s first OLED TVs and they were able to distinguish themselves by being integrated with the company’s Quantum Dot technology. Essentially, they promised to combine the best of both OLED (great contrast, detail and viewing angles) and QLED (color and brightness) display technologies into one ultimate TV.

As of 2023, the Samsung S95C and Samsung S90C are the company’s newest QD OLED TVs. A 65-inch model costs you around $3,000 and $1,900, respectively.

OLED Evo

LG

LG introduced its OLED Evo panel in early 2022 and it’s been integrated in the company’s most recent flagship lines ever since. This is simply the company’s next-generation of OLED technology, with the Evo promising improved brightness — up to a 20-percent improvement over its previous OLED panels — and color. The new Evo panel has been integrated in the company’s flagship C-Series and G-Series, as well as its mid-range B-Series of OLED TVs.

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Rollable OLED TV

OLED Space

LG introduced its rollable OLED TV — the LG Signature OLED R — back in 2019 and it’s still very much available in 2023. The 65-inch TV has the same picture quality as its flagship line of OLED TVs, but the screen is incredibly thin and rolls up into a media console-looking box. When you want to watch TV, the screen emerges and when you’re done it rolls back in its box. The idea is that when you’re not watching TV, you don’t have a big black screen in your line of sight. This super luxurious TV is going to run you around $100,000.

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