Neo QLED Technology Explained: Better Than QLED or Just Hype?

If you want the colors on your TV to pop, check out the amazing Samsung Neo QLED TVs.

Neo QLED technology has been making waves in the TV market, touted as a significant leap over traditional QLEDs and a strong rival to the OLED displays.

But does it truly live up to the hype? Let’s check out in this article.

What is a QLED TV?

“QLED” stands for Quantum Dot Light Emitting Diode, and refers to a type of LCD TV that uses a quantum dot layer along with a traditional LED backlight.

When the backlight shines through the layer of quantum dots, they emit pure, monochromatic colors, resulting in brighter, more vivid images with improved color accuracy.

What is a Neo QLED TV?

A Neo QLED TV is a type of QLED TV developed by Samsung that uses a mini-LED backlight instead of the traditional LED backlighting.

According to Samsung, Neo QLED essentially refers to a “new” version of quantum light-emitting diode technology.

In TV, it means that the thousands of small LED backlights used in traditional QLED screens are replaced with much smaller, more refined, sand-like LED elements.

This method extends the scope of contrast, colors and brightness of a normal QLED TV.

Is Neo QLED same as mini-LED?

A Neo QLED TV is a type of mini-LED TV developed by Samsung. That said, a mini-LED TV need not be called Neo QLED.

LG uses the term “QNED“, and other brands like Sony and TCL use the term “mini-LED” directly for their mini-LED TVs.

We know that the mini-LED TVs come among the premium category displays of any brand, and so are the Neo QLEDs.

Therefore, Neo QLED TVs compete directly with the best of OLEDs and the best QLEDs of other brands too.

Neo QLED vs QLED: which is better?

A QLED TV is an improvement over a regular LED TV as it uses a quantum dot layer instead of traditional color filters for color production.

However, one common issue associated with a QLED TV or any other LCD LED TV is blooming.

This occurs when light from a bright object on the screen bleeds into surrounding dark areas, leading to a reduced contrast ratio.

As a result, the blacks don’t appear truly black, but rather greyish.

This happens because, in an LED LCD TV, the backlight is always on, no matter whether the screen requires brightness or not.

A Neo QLED TV addresses this issue in QLED by making the use of a mini-LED backlight.

These mini-LEDs provide Neo QLED much improved contrast, brightness and color accuracy over a normal QLED, making it a clearly better choice.

Does Neo QLED have true blacks?

The individual LED light sources used in a Neo QLED TV are just 1/40 th the height of a regular LED and thus, a number of them can be fitted in the backlight.

These numerous “mini” or tiny LEDs are divided into several hundreds of local dimming zones as compared to a just a few dozens of them present in a normal LED TV.

Since Neo QLED TVs have a large number of dimming zones, they can control smaller, more specific areas of the screen individually.

Therefore, depending on how much light a group of pixels requires, each zone can adjust the intensity of the backlight accordingly.

The dimming zones can dim themselves almost completely where light isn’t required, thus, they produce very deep blacks.

This results in significantly improved contrast and black levels in a Neo QLED TV compared to a traditional LED TV.

The issue of blooming is reduced very much, the color accuracy is much improved and thus, you get to experience even the minute details on the screen.

In fact, on some high-end Neo QLED TVs, the black levels are so deep that they come slightly close to those of OLEDs.

That said, while the Neo QLED can produce very deep blacks, it can’t produce true, inky blacks found on OLED which can completely shut off its pixels whenever required.

Here, the Neo QLED is limited by its very LCD nature, and can exhibit a slight, though negligible amount of blooming.

Is Neo QLED better than OLED?

A Neo QLED TV has much better contrast ratio than a normal LED TV, due to which it achieves very deep blacks.

However, being still an LCD, its blacks aren’t as deep as those on OLEDs.

That said, the peak brightness of an OLED TV in general, is somewhat limited due to the risk of pixel degradation.

So, if you sit in a very bright room with lots of ambient light, an OLED screen might not feel that much contrasty, despite of producing absolutely dark blacks.

On the other hand, a Neo QLED TV, even if it lags behind OLEDs in blacks, its stunning peak brightness makes the scenes look very much contrasty and vibrant.

Moreover, many Neo QLEDs come with matte finish which fights the reflections much more effectively compared to OLEDs with typical glossy finish.

On the other hand, OLEDs typically come with glossy finish which acts as a mirror to the direct reflections, making the point of true blacks somewhat useless in bright rooms.

That said, some modern advanced OLEDs, for instance, S95F comes with a QD-OLED panel and a matte finish, fighting the reflections very very effectively.

However, you will still see significantly raised black levels, though better than any LCD, on it in bright viewing environments.

On the contrary, a Neo QLED performs very well with bright HDR content, handles reflections in an excellent manner too and comes much cheaper than the high end OLEDs.

So, if you are a bright room viewer, you can prefer a Neo QLED more than OLED due to its overall advantages.

However, if you have to setup a home theatre in dark, there is no rival to OLED which absolutely brings the life out of a scene by displaying stunning details on a pitch black background.

That being said, as a quick word of advice, if you are an avid gamer or have a wide sitting arrangement, OLED is undoubtedly the better choice due to its extremely well motion handling capabilities and extremely wide viewing angles.

Do the Samsung Neo QLED TVs support Dolby Vision?

No. Being a Samsung TV, a Neo QLED doesn’t support Dolby Vision. However, this is not a deal breaker as it supports HDR10+, which also does a fantastic job of dynamic tone mapping on frame by frame basis.

You can still watch the DV content on its backward compatible base HDR format which is HDR10.

Mind you, mini-LED TVs from other brands like LG and Sony support the widely available format, Dolby Vision, but they need not be superior than the Neo QLEDs if we talk about overall features.

The Neo QLEDs, in general, have much better contrast and peak brightness, which are the two very essential base requirements for displaying HDR content accurately, than the LG QNEDs, which mostly use IPS panels resulting in poor native contrast.

That said, the Sony mini-LED TVs offer good contrast, DV support and more natural picture quality, however, the Samsung Neo QLEDs provide a better value for money.

Is Neo QLED good for bright rooms?

The mini-LEDs used in a Neo QLED TV are inorganic in nature, which allows them to achieve very high brightness levels and not suffer burn-in.

This makes these TVs extremely bright when needed, and with their excellent reflection handling property, they can very effectively fight glare in brightly lit rooms.

The presence of quantum dots helps them achieve a wide color gamut, and combined with a large number of luminance levels, they achieve a high color volume.

Moreover, Samsung mostly uses VA panels in its QLED TVs, which naturally offer a good native contrast ratio. In the Neo QLED TVs, this contrast is further much more enhanced by the use of mini-LED backlighting.

With wide color gamut, high peak brightness, and high contrast ratio, Neo QLED TVs deliver outstanding HDR performance with rich and vibrant details.

Is Neo QLED worth it?

Neo QLED TVs perform very well in both dark and well-lit rooms, delivering deep blacks alongside extraordinary brightness and excellent glare control.

Most models support a 120Hz variable refresh rate and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, making the gaming experience feel smooth and highly responsive.

Overall, if you’re looking for near-OLED picture quality without the risk of burn-in, plus superior reflection handling and rich color volume, Neo QLED TVs stand out as the top choice.

In fact, they are currently among the best LCD displays on the market.

FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions about the Samsung Neo QLED TVs.

1. Does Neo QLED burn-in?

Neo QLED, being a type of LCD TV, is immune from the risk of pixel degradation or burn-in. This property makes it highly durable and allows it to go highly bright.

2. Does the Samsung Neo QLED TVs have Art Mode?

Samsung The Frame QLED TV supports the Art Mode. However, it doesn’t come with a mini-LED backlight and thus, can’t be called a Neo QLED TV. In fact, The Frame TV is more about aesthetics rather than raw performance.

3. Are Neo QLED displays glare free?

Premium Neo QLED TVs like QN90F use a matte coating and thus, fight the glare and reflections very effectively. Additionally, they can reach high brightness levels and thus, perform extremely well in bright rooms.

4. Is there any 8K Neo QLEDs?

Yes. There are many 8K Neo QLED TVs available, like the Samsung QN900F. These are among the best 8K TVs overall considering their price and performance.

5. Do the Samsung Neo QLED TVs come with a One Connect box?

Some of the 8K Neo QLED TVs like QN990F come with a one connect box. Other than them, Samsung The Frame QLED and Samsung S95F OLED TVs also feature the One Connect box.