What is QD QLED? Is it better, the same, or worse than OLED?

It has been recently announced that both Samsung and Sony will be using QD-OLED panels in their range of 2022 TVs, but what does this actually mean? In this blog, we take you through the science of the QD-OLED panel as well as what this means for your viewing experience.

At the moment, many premium TVs will use LGs OLED panels, whilst brands like Samsung use their own QLED display. In order to really understand the QD-OLED, you’ll need to understand the basics of OLEDs and QLEDs.

What is an OLED?

An OLED TV does not require a backlight as it uses self-lit pixels which can individually switch on and off to create true blacks, breathtaking contrast, sharpness and responsiveness with virtually no light bleed, wide viewing angles and a thin overall size due to not having a backlight. 

However, the OLED panel also has some drawbacks such as a higher risk of screen burn-in, lower peak brightness and a higher associated cost.

What is a QLED?

Alternatively, the QLED TV is a variation of the LED LCD, it still relies on a backlight but it adds a quantum dot layer to the mix. Some of the benefits of Samsung QLED TVs include higher brightness levels, less risk of burn-in, lower power consumption and more affordable pricing. 

On the other hand, drawbacks include suffering from light bleed, narrow viewing angle, no true blacks, less saturated blue and a thicker size overall.

What is a QD-OLED TV?

The QD-OLED combines both technologies to really give you the best of both worlds and help to overcome some of the drawbacks of each. 

How does a QD-OLED panel work and what are the benefits?

The QD-OLED works by using a stack of OLED material to illuminate pixels that contain red and green dots. Each OLED pixel is divided into 3 subpixels. These are red pixels which use red quantum dots, green pixels which use green quantum dots and finally a blue subpixel consisting of blue OLED material.

What’s more, QD-OLEDs are said to be brighter than traditional OLEDs. Traditionally, OLEDs use RGB subpixels that filter the white pixel, meaning you can lose up to 80% of the brightness. However with QD-OLEDs, as the transformation performed by the quantum dots you can enjoy improved brightness because instead of just using white light they use a blue pixel base, and rather than subpixels they use a quantum dot layer. This shifts the frequency of the light to convert its colour, rather than filtering it, resulting in higher brightness. This also means that the intensity of the colours is improved, providing more vivid and vibrant colours.

There are set to be 8.3 million light sources in a QD-OLED 4K TV that can be individually controlled, enabling a seriously impressive contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 and an astonishing 0.0005 nits blacks and 1000 nits whites. You can also enjoy enhanced details, HDR and more. 

We also have fast response times and wide viewing angles that you’d get from an OLED, as well as a 50% decrease in harmful blue light - ensuring you are more comfortable when enjoying movie marathons or a long gaming session you don’t have to worry about suffering from headaches, eye strain or the fatigue usually associated with overexposure to blue light.

So far we can understand how this technology takes all the best bits of the OLED and QLED and combined them to make a promising panel.

Who will be using the QD-OLED panel?

Typically, Samsung have been huge critiques of OLEDs, so the fact that they have developed this technology may have come as a bit of a surprise. However, Samsung claim that stacking 3 layers of OLED material is supposed to prolong the life of the TV when compared with traditional OLEDs, overcoming one of the main critiques of a shorter lifespan. 

Whilst Samsung intend to use this technology in the 2022 Samsung TVs, we have also heard that the uses of the QD-OLED will extend further than just TVs with potential use for gaming monitors and more.

The popularity of the QD-OLED is already beginning to present itself as Sony have unveiled the use of this panel in their Bravia TVs with the flagship XR A95TV, and It’s even rumoured that TCL will start producing their own QD-OLEDs under the name ‘H-OLED’. 

Until now, shoppers had to choose between high contrast or a bright TV, or light bleed vs risk of screen burn-in. But we have high hopes for the QD-OLED as it may be able to overcome most of this, making it a potentially great choice for most.

How much will the QD-OLED cost? 

Whilst there is no solid information on the cost, we understand that the QD-OLED is set to be more expensive than a traditional OLED. This was expected really as it is a relatively new technology and has been built to overcome many of the drawbacks of an OLED.

That concludes our article on everything we know about QD-OLEDs so far, we hope you have found this helpful. For more similar articles such as ‘What is LGs OLED.EX technology and is it better than traditional OLEDs?’ as well as ‘The best TVs for 2022’.