Though only one letter separates OLED and QLED, these two types of TVs approach producing an image on the screen very differently. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, though the differences have narrowed in recent years.
The right type of TV depends on your budget, room conditions and how picky you are about picture quality. We’ll walk you through OLED and QLED to help you decide which best fits your viewing life.
What is OLED?
OLED is short for organic light-emitting diode. In an OLED panel, each pixel provides its own light source. The pixels also have thin layers of organic material in them, which light up when electricity is applied. The pixels include a red, green or blue color filter. These pixels allow OLEDs to produce accurate and consistent colors across a screen.
LG used to be the only company that made OLED panels, but now you’ll find TVs with the display technology from Sony, Samsung and Vizio.
What is QLED?
Quantum-dot light-emitting diode (QLED) sounds a lot like OLED, but that’s all they share in common.
QLEDs are actually a type of liquid crystal display (LCD) with an extra layer that improves the color of the display. They use an LED backlight (and sometimes several backlights) to light up pixels on the screen. The quantum-dot layer sits between the backlight and the pixels. The dots are different sizes, with each size corresponding to a color. The result is more saturated color than a traditional LED LCD TV — closer to what an OLED produces.
OLED panels also often deliver higher refresh rates (frequently up to 120Hz, from 60Hz), which is a huge deal for gamers. The refresh rate is the frequency with which the the TV updates what’s on the screen. This is one area where QLED panels have begun to catch up on OLED, though the latter is still seen as the king of this spec.
Samsung was the first to produce QLED TVs, but now several companies use the technology, including Sony, LG, TCL, Hisense and others.
What does OLED do well?
Since they arrived on the scene, OLED TVs have been the choice for home theater aficionados because of the picture quality they deliver.
Chief among these qualities is that an OLED can achieve true black. Because each pixel produces its own light, a perfect black is possible by just turning off the pixel — something that’s not possible with any backlit panel. Those deep blacks improve contrast and produce a more film-like viewing experience. Those individual pixels also can produce amazingly accurate colors.
OLEDs tend to be much thinner and lighter than QLEDs because no backlight is needed. And because there’s no backlight, there’s no blooming — a halo effect that appears around bright objects on the screen — on OLED TV screens. Image quality on OLEDs also usually looks better when you’re viewing the screen away from the center. QLED displays, inversely, often look best when viewed from the center, which may feel limiting to larger groups.
Why pick QLED over an OLED?
While most OLEDs beat QLEDs when it comes to picture quality, a QLED has strengths of its own.
Perhaps most important, QLEDs tend to be less expensive than OLEDs. You can find a very good QLED TV for under $1,000 for a 65-inch model, while most OLEDs of that size run around $2,000. However, QLEDs will be more expensive than plain old LCD TVs.
Prior years have seen manufacturers work to solve OLED TVs most glaring problem: image burn-in and retention. As someone who accidentally burned a podcast logo into his OLED TV from watching too much YouTube, I am hyper-sensitive and very aware of this problem. QLED TVs have never had this issue. Fortunately, it seems as if burn-in may be a solved problem, or at least that’s what many manufacturers are claiming.
QLEDs can usually produce a much brighter picture than an OLED, which is important if you’re watching in a sunny room. OLEDs have closed the brightness gap in recent years, but in general, if you need a very bright picture, you’ve always wanted a QLED.
OLED owners on staff have mentioned how they have to position their light sources in well-lit rooms so as to avoid bouncing light off the monitor. Hopefully that sort of micro-managing won’t as necessary with the latest batch of TVs, as the upcoming LG C4 is rated for 50% higher peak brightness rates than before.
Samsung, however, is trying something else to stave off reflections, as it boasts the upcoming S95D OLED TVs offer a glare-free technology for reducing reflection and glare. When we saw the S95D on the show floor, we noticed it picked up some light, but much less than an unnamed competitor. We look forward to testing it out for ourselves.
What about Mini-LED QLEDs and QD-OLEDs?
Just to confuse things further, there are variations on each type of screen.
Mini-LED QLEDs have a lot more backlights than a standard QLED — to the tune of thousands of LED backlights. More backlights mean better contrast and less blooming, resulting in a picture quality that gets darn close to an OLED.
QD-OLEDs add a quantum-dot layer to an OLED panel. The result is a brighter OLED TV with more vibrant colors while maintaining the contrast and wide viewing angles that separate OLEDs from QLEDs.
OLED and QLED TVs we recommend
Samsung raises the bar for TVs with the S95C, delivering impressive colors and contrast with more than enough brightness for any setting, thanks to its QD-OLED tech. But it costs a lot.
With sharp, detailed images and impressive color and contrast, the Sony Bravia XR X93L rivals OLEDs for overall picture quality, thanks to its mini-LED backlighting and Sony’s image processing.
The latest iteration of LG’s most popular OLED builds on its strengths: excellent color and contrast with plenty of brightness for most rooms. Although the price has increased, it’s in line with other sets of this quality.
Thanks to its quantum-dot layer, the Q6 produces good color and handles HDR content well while remaining very affordable.
Bottom line
Until recently, picking the best TV for your needs was easy: If picture quality matters most, get an OLED. If cost and brightness drive you, get a QLED.
But OLEDs have improved in brightness, and mini-LED tech has narrowed the gap in picture quality for QLEDs. With this year’s new OLED and QLED TVs coming to market, expect all sides to boast how they’ve fixed against previous deficiencies — as we see with Samsung fighting the war on glare and reflection.
For now, sticking with the standard advice generally works. And if price is the defining factor, get a QLED. But when it comes to picture quality, in the very near future it may not matter too much which tech you go with — both will look incredible and be plenty bright.