The new QD-OLED technology is presented as the new great innovation in image of recent years. Samsung is the promoter of this new technology and is already on sale their new S95B QD-OLED TV, but Sony is also releasing its new A95K which uses the same technology.
These new QD-OLED panels, represent a significant improvement in image and mix the advantages of a conventional OLED panel and the color and brightness achieved by Quantum Dot nanoparticle technology.
We have made this article, in order to help you understand how this QD-OLED system works and what advantages it offers over conventional OLED TVs.
That said, let’s start by looking at what the new QD-OLED technology is all about.
What is OLED?
Before we look at how QD-OLED works and what makes it so exciting let’s start by looking at how what would be a standard OLED TV works.
The OLED TV screen so far featured a panel manufactured by LG and are referred to as WOLED or White OLED. The W refers to white and has a lot to do with the way the conventional OLED system works. WOLED panels use blue organic LED diodes that are coated with a yellow phosphor to produce white light and from there color filters are placed for red, green and blue, which are the three primary colors.
With these filters, different wavelengths of light are cut off to maintain a single color. We will now discuss the drawbacks of using these filters, as this is one of the key differences between OLED and QD-OLED technology.
LG’s OLED display adds a white subpixel to the red, green and blue subpixels to compensate for the brightness lost using these filters. But even with this solution, OLED displays have never been as bright as LED TVs. A current WOLED TV can reach a maximum brightness of between 800 nits at a ratio of 2% of the screen. The latest WOLED models with ‘Evo’ panel and heatsink, can reach that figure of 1000 nits and even a little more, but as we say in portions of 2% and only for a few seconds.
LG OLED evo panel vs conventional OLED panel brightness comparison
As is known, this brightness is achieved when there is little of the screen that is white, as soon as the screen surface is mostly white, the brightness drops to 150 nits in a 100% window.
This is produced by the ABL (Auto Brightness Limiter) system, which limits brightness to avoid premature panel wear and reduce burn-in.
OLED TVs have perfect black tones, resulting in excellent contrast and are amazing overall, which is why they generally get such great reviews. With an OLED TV, common problems of LED TVs such as blooming or clouding are avoided and they are most recommended for movie viewing especially in dark rooms.
In 2021, LG launched a new version of OLED panels called ‘Evo’, which introduced changes that have served to increase the brightness level by up to 20% compared to 2020 OLED models.
New OLED Evo panel
This year, the range of OLED TVs featuring this panel has been expanded and it can also now be found in models from other brands such as Philips or Panasonic under the name ‘OLED EX’.
Recommended OLED TVs
120Hz Refresh Rate, AI-Powered 4K, Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos
QD-OLED vs WOLED
Now that we know how OLED (WOLED) TVs work, which were the usual ones until now, we can talk about the differences between Samsung Display’s QD-OLED and LG Display’s WOLED or White OLED.
The new QD-OLED TVs also use organic LED panels that can be switched on and off independently, giving pure blacks.
The difference in QD-OLED panels, is that blue OLEDs are likewise used but that yellow phosphor is not applied to create white light. In this case, three layers of blue OLED are used and by not adding that phosphor the light emitted is blue. That blue light is allowed to pass through, on one side which makes us have the blue color directly and to create the red and green, are added Quantum Dot nanoparticles which are responsible for creating red and green.
QD-OLED vs OLED (WOLED) Panel
These Quantum Dots, is placed in front of the blue OLEDs, so that when blue light hits these quantum dots, red and green colors are created, so that the end result is an RGB display with no color filter.
In this way, it produces a higher brightness, since these color filters subtract brightness and also there is no need to add any white subpixels that try to restore the lost brightness. Peak brightness increases to 1500 nits at a 2% window and exceeds 200 nits at a 100% window.
Brightness comparison between LG OLED C2 Evo and Samsung S95B QD-OLED
Color is superior in QD-OLED TVs and they can reproduce colors much better in very bright areas, without washing out. In HDR content is where this is especially noticeable and is that WOLED TVs have a more limited color volume that makes the colors lose saturation at high brightness levels.
The color volume by contrast in the new QD-OLED TVs is exceptional and colors are much more vibrant in peak light. The palette of colors that can be reproduced by the new Samsung S95B and Sony A95K is much wider reaching up to 120% of the DCI-P3 color spectrum, which is one of the industry standards.
120% DCI-P3 Samsung S95B QD-OLED 120% Coverage
As is known, the blue OLED compound is the one that actually wears out the fastest, thus, there are very few true RGB OLED displays. QD-OLED panels employ three layers of blue OLED which makes the durability longer and in turn reduces the possibility of screen burn-in and screen retention. They also implement monitoring systems to control the state of the pixels and minimize the risk of panel marking.
And another plus point of these new QD-OLED displays, is that they use a new Corning Astra Glass coating that improves viewing angles and an anti-glare filter to improve viewing in very bright environments.
Summary of QD-OLED vs OLED (WOLED) advantages.
Recommended QD-OLED TV’s
