What is an OLED TV?
OLED TVs use a display technology called OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) that enables displays that are brighter, more efficient, thinner, flexible and with higher contrast and faster refresh rates than either LCD. Simply put, OLED TVs deliver the best picture quality ever!
OLED TV technology
Each pixel in an OLED TV emits light on its own (in fact each pixel is made from 3 different OLEDs, red, green and blue). OLEDs are truly emissive devices with a simple design which gives them many advantages over current LCD technology:
- High contrast: in OLEDs we have true blacks as when a pixel is off it does not emit any light. In LCDs, the backlighting is always on and so true blacks are impossible to achieve. Even when compared to the latest high-end mini-LED backlit LCDs, the contrast of OLEDs is superior.
- High refresh rates: OLEDs can switch on and off much faster than LCDs.
- Better power consumption: OLEDs only consume light on lit pixels - as opposed to LCDs who always need to use the backlighting. The power consumption of OLEDs depends on the image shown, but in most cases OLEDs will be more efficient than LCDS.
- Flexibility: the simple design of OLEDs enables next-generation flexible, bendable, foldable and even rollable displays. LG is now shipping the world's first rollable TV, the 65" 65RX.
Click here for a more in-depth comparison between LCDs and OLEDs.
OLED TVs on the market - what can you buy today?
As of 2022, the leading company that produces OLED TV panels is LG Display - making panels ranging from 42-inch to 97-inch. These OLEDs offer the best image quality of all TVs on the market today. LGD is offering its OLED panels to many companies, including LG Electronics, Sony, Vizio and Panasonic.
In 2022 Samsung joined LGD and started to produce its own OLED TV variant, called QD-OLED (which is based on blue OLED emitters and quantum dots color conversion technology). Samsung is producing 55-inch and 65-inch QD-OLED TV panels.
There are dozens of models available today, ranging from entry-level OLED TVs to high-end rollable, bendable and even transparent ones. Click here for the latest OLED TVs on the market.
Reviews of OLED TVs are terrific, and most experts and consumers agree that these OLED TVs are the best TVs ever produced - with virtually perfect image quality and beautiful form factors.
Direct Emission vs WRGB / QD-OLED
The most straightforward OLED architecture uses 3 color OLED sub-pixels (Red, Green and Blue) to create each 'pixel'. This is referred to as a direct emission OLED, and is the design used in mobile OLED displays (for example those used in Apple's latest iPhones and Watches).
For its OLED TVs, however, LG Display is using a different architecture, called WRGB (or WOLED-CF) which uses four white OLED subpixels (each created by using both blue and yellow OLED emitters) with color filters on top (RBG and W). The WRGB technology (developed by Kodak and now owned by LG Display) was found to be easier to scale-up for large-area OLED production, although it suffers from lower efficiency and more complicated design.
As we stated, Samsung's OLED TV architecture is based on blue OLED emitters and quantum-dots color conversion layers.
Further reading
The latest OLED TV news:
Samsung unveils its 2024 OLED TV lineup
Samsung Electronics announced its 2024 OLED TV lineup, with 3 series. The company's flagship OLED TV for 2024, the S95D, offers 55-, 65-, or 77-inch 4K 144hz QD-OLED panels, offering high brightness (up to 3000 nits peak brightness), a new anti-glare coating to minimize reflections, Tizen 8.0 OS, and an external One Connect box for a sleek design. The S95D offers AI-Enhanced color accuracy - validated by Pantone.
Samsung also announced two more series - S90D and S85D. Interestingly, it did not detail whether these TVs use QD-OLED (produced by SDC) or WOLED panels (produced by LGD) - or a mix as it did last year within the same series.
LGD announces its 2nd-Gen MLA META technology, achieving 3000 nits peak brightness
LG Display announced that it has developed its 2nd generation Multi-Lens Array (MLA) technology, branded as META Technology 2.0. The company demonstrated a 83" META 2.0 OLED TV panel, during CES 2023. The company will apply this technology to several of its 2024 OLED TVs, ranging in size from 55-inch to 88".
META 2.0 WOLED panels achieve a peak brightness of 3,000 nits - a 42% improvement over the company's conventional panels. LGD explains that META 2.0 includes a pattern of optimized micrometer-scale lenses with an optimized lens angle, an upgraded "brightness enhancing algorithm" called META Multi Booster, and a full-range brightness detail enhancing algorithm called Detail Enhancer. All of these new technologies, combined, makes for a META 2.0 panel. In a 77-inch 4K panel, there are 42.4 billion micro lenses (!).
LG Electronics announces its 2024 OLED TV range
LG Electronics formally announced it latest OLED TV, its 2024 range. The company introduced several new features: 144Hz refresh rate on most of the models, a new image processor and Chromecast support. LG did not yet disclose the pricing or shipping dates for the 2024 OLED TVs.
The 2024 OLED TV range starts with the OLED B4 series (no 60Hz A series this year), that offers 48-, 55-, 65-, and 77-inch options, 120Hz 4K resolution, an Alpha 8 image processor, webOS 24 and built-in Chromecast. The OLED C4 improves over the B4 with 144Hz refresh rates an Alpha 9 Gen-7 image processor. The C4 is available in 42-, 48-, 55-, 65-, 77- and 83-inch options.
Rtings.com posts the results of its 10-month OLED and LCD display longevity tests
RTINGS.com posted an interesting article, detailing the results of their long-term (10-months) longevity tests on several OLED and LCD TVs and monitors. The test is simple - display a CNN feed constantly, and checking what happens. Note that CNN changed their logo a bit a few months into the test, but the team did not make any changes to the test itself.
As is expected, OLED monitors and TVs suffer from image retention problems, and the CNN logo is visible in some of these panels, when showing a gray screen. Some TVs suffer more than others.
UBI: Samsung to order only a limited number of WOLED TV panels from LGD in 2024
In July 2023, Samsung officially launched the 83" 83S90C, the company's first TV to use LG's WOLED panels, following several years of negotiations and hesitation by the Korean rivals.
It was assumed that Samsung's total orders from LGD will be limited (as the 83-inch are expensive and not highly popular), and according to UBI, the total number of panels that LGD actually shipped to Samsung is only 'several thousands'.
DSCC: OLED panel shipments increased in Q3, with strong shipments from Visionox, LGD and CSoT
DSCC reports that according to its information, OLED panel shipments in Q3 2023 increased 14% from last year (and 18% from the previous quarter) to reach 205 million units. There are positive signs that inventory has started to rebalance for some categories.
OLED smartphone shipments increased 12% over last quarter (and 25% from last year), while OLED TV shipments continue to be soft, and dropped 14% from last quarter and 40% (!) from last year.
LGD's 3rd-gen META OLED TV panels earned UL Solution's platinum eye safety rating
LG Display announced that its third-generation WOLED META TV panels have earned UL Solutions' Platinum eye safety rating and the UL Mark for low blue light. LGD's panels earned a score of 36%, the lowest among all existing TV panels (conventional LCDs range from 70-80%, and lower scores are better).
This year, UL Solutions has implemented more stringent criteria for measuring blue light emissions in an effort to give consumers more reliable information, with program ratings now classified as Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The top rating, Platinum, is awarded to display products with blue light wavelength emissions that sit below 40% of the total blue light wavelength emissions.
Omdia: the large area FPD market will soften in early 2024
Omdia says that the large-area FPD TV market (OLED and LCD) suffered from low demand in early 2023, but improved in Q3 2023. LCD TV prices increased, and companies were profitable again. However Omdia estimates that demand will soften again, and the market will suffer from over supply in Q4 2023 and the first half of 2024.
Omdia says that a supply/demand ratio of 10% represents a balanced market. This won't be achieved in the near future. Since the pandemic supply shortages, there's currently enough factory capacity to meet demand, and then some. The growth in demand enabled display makers to increase fab utilization from around 60% in early 2023 to around 85% in July 2023. However, fab utilization is expected to decline to around 75% in Q4 2023.
QD-OLED TVs win the 2023 4K Value Electronics TV display shootout
Value Electronics hosted their annual TV shootout, checking several high-end TVs to see which model provides the best images. The TVs were professionally calibrated, and tested one next to the other. In total, Value Electronics' shootout featured 6 65" 4K TVs - 3 OLEDs and 3 MiniLED LCD. IN the 8K shootout, there were 3 TVs, from Samsung, Sony and LG. As in previous years, OLED TVs were crowned the "King of TVs", in both the 4K and 8K categories.
For the 4K TV shootout, the best TV in the shootout was Sony's A95L QD-OLED TV. The runner-ups were Samsung's S95C (another QD-OLED TV) and LG's G3 OLED (with an LGD WOLED Panel). The 8K shootout's winner was LG's Z2 WOLED TV.
Rosen Aviation to introduce 97-inch OLED displays in its VIP aircraft interior design
Aviation display technology specialist Rosen Aviation is increasing its line of high-end OLED displays, and is set to introduce a 97-inch WOLED panel, the biggest ever display in an aircraft cabin.
Rosen Aviation - future VIP cabin design concept
Rosen Aviation's 97" OLED is set to receive the supplemental type certificate for a VIP aircraft by the end of 2023. Rosen has already signed up its first customer. Rosen says that beyond the exception OLED display quality, this display is very lightweight compared to a comparable LED LCD solution.
