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QLED or OLED? This is where the two technologies differ
QLED or OLED? You should be aware of these differences
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QLED and OLED are two screen technologies that offer different advantages and disadvantages. Read here why an OLED TV should deliver more intense colors and a QLED device scores in terms of brightness.
The terms QLED and OLED refer to two screen technologies that could hardly be more different. Both technologies are closely linked to one manufacturer each. For a long time, OLED screens for televisions were produced exclusively by LG, but now other manufacturers such as Sony, Loewe and Philips have also offered OLED televisions. You can find QLED screens at Samsung, Hisense or Tcl. Read here what the technical differences between QLED and OLED are and what advantages and disadvantages the technologies offer.
What is the difference between QLED and OLED?
The difference between QLED and OLED is purely technological. Simple explanation: at OLED the iodes light up by themselves QLED-Televers an LED backlight lets the pixels shine. QLED is the improvement of the already known LCD technology, whereas OLED is an independent technology. In comparison, OLED televisions are thinner and have more contrast.
QLED televisions have several layers on top of each other. These layers include a polarization filter, an RGB filter, a background filter and of course the background lighting. That makes the TVs thicker than OLED devices, which don’t need these layers. A disadvantage of many QLED televisions compared to OLED is that they are a little lower in contrast. The reason for this is the backlighting of the QLED televisions, which also illuminates dark picture areas and “grayed out” the black. Top models like the Samsung Q95T therefore offer dimming zones, i.e. areas in the display that the television illuminates brighter or darker and thus gets the problem under control.
By the way: At Samsung you can recognize the inch size by the identifier after the “GQ”. The 65 stands for 65 inches on the Samsung GQ-65Q950T. It is one of the manufacturer’s current top models and has a resolution of 8K. This is still very much oversized and you will be able to drive safely with a 4K television for the next few years.
An OLED screen does not need any dimming zones. With him, each light diode can decide for itself whether and how strongly it shines. And so get OLED televisions better contrasts and a deeper black as a QLED television. If an Iode does not light up, it is simply black – but the one next to it has no problem shining in bright white. In addition, OLED displays have a better viewing angle than QLED TVs. If you look sideways at the screen, you will see the colors better with OLED. But televisions have one weakness: bright images such as snow-white mountain peaks are usually too dark.
What is QLED?
Let’s take a closer look at QLED technology. They should be the best that LED screens have to offer, because they are considered to be particularly color and high-contrast LCD televisions. It is a further development of LCD screens with so-called “Quantum Dots”, which give the name the Q. LCD stands for “Liquid Crystal Display”: The alignment of the crystals changes through electrical impulses and the amount of light they let through can be varied.
Different colors are created in this way. Since the crystals do not light up themselves, the so-called backlight (background light) is required. The light is generated by LEDs, which give the LCD television the name LED TV. The further development to QLED televisions mainly affects the backlight, because with QLED televisions another layer, the quantum dots, is placed over the already existing LED filter. They ensure that the television can display brighter and more colorful pictures.
- Brightness: Thanks to the Quantum Dots, the image of QLEDs can be even brighter than that of LED screens.
- Contrast: This also increases the contrast, because the diodes do not lose any of their color even with more brightness.
- Power consumption: Since the backlight is permanently on, the energy consumption of QLED screens can be higher than that of OLEDs.
QLED TVs: Samsung Q60R
There are now several manufacturers of QLED TVs, but Samsung is particularly well-known and popular. The manufacturer advertises that the QLED devices from Samsung can upscale the image to an impressive 8K with impressive computing power and artificial intelligence. However, the 8K-capable televisions are expensive to buy. If you are looking for a good QLED entry-level television, you should get it Samsung Q60R look at. The TV has QLED technology and should also convince gamers with a very short latency period. The ambient mode is supposed to adapt the TV pleasantly to the surroundings. The Quantum Processor 4K is said to continuously optimize picture and sound with the help of artificial intelligence. In addition, the smart TV can be controlled via voice command, it is compatible with Alexa and the Google Assistant.
What is OLED?
The most important difference between a QLED and an OLED television is that OLED works without backlight, because it is the pixels themselves that light up. They consist of millions of tiny light-emitting diodes made of organic material – this is how the “O” in the name explains itself, it stands for the English word “organic”. An organic light-emitting diode is a luminous thin-film component made of organic semiconducting materials. The technology is used in TV screens because organic light-emitting diodes can be manufactured cheaply using thin-film technology. In contrast to QLED screens, the black should be particularly intense because it is not brightened by the backlight. Colors should also appear more intense against the deep black background.
- Contrast: OLED screens should deliver a high-contrast image, which is created by the rich black tones. This is due to the self-illuminating OLEDs and the missing backlight.
- Reaction time: OLED TVs are said to have a faster response time than QLED TVs. This means that the diodes take less time to turn on or off. Therefore, a fast response time ensures that the image appears sharper.
- Viewing angle: The image should be easy to see from almost every corner of the room, as the light is emitted directly from the diodes, instead of being blocked by a backlight as is the case with QLED or LED.
- Power consumption: Since no background lighting is used, which has to be permanently lit, the energy consumption for OLED TVs is lower than for QLED screens.
OLED TV: LG OLED55CX9LA
LG has various OLED TVs that differ in terms of features and price. The model OLED55CX9LA is equipped with the powerful α9 Gen3 processor, which is supposed to optimize image, sound and brightness automatically. In addition, the device has Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos as well as HDR technology, so that contrast and colors can be adjusted dynamically. A 4K resolution should enable a sharp picture and the TV is equipped with the Google Assistant and Alexa. Interesting for gamers: The OLED television from LG has a response time of one millisecond. Both AMD Freesync and Nvidia’s G-Snyc are on board the TV. Both technologies reduce distorted images when gaming.
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