QD-OLED vs Micro-LED: One Is Better—Here’s Why!
A micro-LED display is much better than a QD-OLED in all areas, except the cost.
QD-OLED TVs with colorful display panels and dazzling brightness have been generating a lot of buzz lately, thanks to their innovative fusion of quantum dots with the existing OLED tech.
On the other side, micro-LED TVs, which use self-emissive inorganic LEDs, are being hailed as the pinnacle of display technology.
Mind you, micro-LED is entirely different from micro RGB, which is basically an LCD display.
Both QD-OLED and micro-LED are self emissive displays but their foundation is entirely different.
While QD-OLED is an advanced form of OLED, micro-LED has a league of its own.
Micro-LED can neither be called an OLED nor an LED display, as it uses inorganic LEDs but not in the backlight, rather directly as pixels.
Okay! No need to disclose the full story here. Let’s go into the details step by step.
What is QD-OLED?
QD-OLED stands for Quantum dot-organic light emitting diode. It uses quantum dots for accurate color reproduction on the screen.
QD-OLED uses a blue OLED emitter which emits blue light. This blue light then strikes the quantum dots, which in turn, emit pure monochromatic hues of red and green.
Due to this, a QD-OLED display is able to achieve a very pure and wide color gamut.
Adding to that, the use of quantum dots instead of color filters greatly enhanced the efficiency of color conversion.
This results in QD-OLED achieve very high brightness and thus, large color volume.
In fact, QD-OLEDs are probably the most colorful mainstram OLED displays.
The scenes appear much vibrant and visually striking on them, making the highlights pop. You will rarely see such pure colors on an OLED TV.
That said, there are advanced mini-LED LCD TVs like Neo-QLEDs and QNEDs which also use quantum dots.
Thus, they also attain a high color volume too. However, as the colors appear on a completely dark background on a QD-OLED TV, the purity of colors on it is just as unmatched as its contrast.
What is micro-LED?
Micro-LED is currently the most advanced display technology which uses self-emissive inorganic LEDs as pixels.
Each pixel on the screen is made up of individual red, green, and blue tiny, microscopic LEDs.
Because it uses pure RGB emitters, it doesn’t need any additional layer of color filters or quantum dots for color reproduction.
The colors are thus, extremely beautiful and vivid on a micro-LED display. Highlights are extremely detailed and appear like painted on the screen.
I have told previously that QD-OLED is the most colorful mainstram display.
But which is the actual best one we will see shortly when we will compare the color gamuts of both the types of displays.
We will also focus on many more interesting parameters like peak brightness and longevity in the upcoming sections.
Which one lasts longer: QD-OLED or micro-LED?
Samsung introduced QD-OLED technology as a competitor to LG’s OLED panels, the WOLEDs (white-organic light emitting diodes).
The QD-OLED panels use only a single blue OLED emitter, unlike the WOLEDs which rely on a combination of blue and yellow emitters to produce white light before passing it through color filters.
By reducing the number of organic emitters, QD-OLED is expected to minimize the rate of organic material degradation, resulting in better longevity of the display panels.
However, practical panel longevity tests don’t confirm the same.
Therefore, a little potential risk of pixel degradation or burn-in remains on QD-OLEDs as well, especially for users who mostly watch the same channel.
This is where the micro-LED tech truly stands out. It overcomes this problem of OLEDs without compromising a bit on the picture quality.
The inorganic LEDs used in micro-LED are highly stable and thus, its pixels have a very long lifespan of 100k hours, at least theoretically, which means more than 50 years with 5 hours of regular use.
Which display is more colorful: QD-OLED or micro-LED?
The QD-OLED technology has eliminated the use of color filters which are used in LG’s traditional OLED displays.
The quantum dots present in QD-OLED absorb the blue light and re-emit pure red and green hues.
This process is very efficient and doesn’t require the blue OLED emitter to be driven much harder for boosting brightness.
As a result, QD-OLED delivers brighter, more vibrant, and punchier colors without compromising the lifespan of the panel.
This enables it deliver a wide color gamut, upto 90% of Rec.2020 which when combined with a large number of luminance levels, allow it to achieve a high color volume.
These all combined with the signature infinite contrast ratio of the OLED enable it offer outstanding HDR performance, with no color fading or muting, even when viewed from extreme angles.
Micro-LED uses separate self-emissive red, green, and blue inorganic LEDs for each individual pixel. As a result, it delivers extremely accurate colors and at least 100% of the widest possible color gamut, Rec.2020.
Moreover, because the RGB emitters in a micro LED TV are inorganic in nature, they do not degrade over time, even when driven at very high brightness levels.
As a result, Micro LED displays can reach extraordinary peak brightness levels, from 10,000 nits to even 100,000 nits, far beyond what OLED or QD-OLED can currently achieve.
Additionally, being self-emissive, micro-LEDs can switch off individual pixels completely, producing true, deep blacks.
The combination of ultra-high brightness with zero nits blacks results in micro-LED display achieve the highest possible perceived contrast ratio.
Now, as the micro-LED displays can achieve a very wide range of brightness levels with the widest possible color gamut, they also achieve highest color volume which makes them future-ready TVs for displaying any type of content.
These displays having the best contrast and colors, deliver the best possible HDR performance, in all types of viewing environments.
So, if you buy a micro-LED TV today, you probably don’t need any replacement for decade to come, no matter how much the color technology used by creators advances.
Moreover, since micro-LED TVs use inorganic pixels, they are completely immune to pixel degradation or burn-in issues, which may be commonly associated with OLED and QD-OLED panels. As a result, they would maintain consistent picture quality for years to come.
Which one has better motion handling, QD-OLED or micro-LED?
The micro LEDs have the fastest response time. This is because there is almost no delay between for the light to reach from the direct RGB emitters LEDs to the display.
This is due to the absence of any layer like quantum dot layer in case of QD OLED and color filters in case of OLED displays.
Thus, the micro LEDs are ultra fast with a response time of about 0.2 ns, followed by QD OLED with a response time of 0.03 ms and OLED having that around 0.1 ms.
This, the response time of a micro-LED is hundreds of thousands times shorter than any OLED or QD-OLED, let alone LCD!
It means that your TV is able to handle almost any type of ultra fast paced content which can be filmed in the upcoming future.
Anyways, a response time lesser than a millisecond is still very fast and more than sufficient for today’s gaming content.
That said, with all due respect to micro-LED, here’s where the most decisive factor comes in—price.
Which TV offers the best value for money: QD-OLED or micro-LED?
Micro-LED is considered the most advanced display technology available today and better than QD-OLED in all areas.
So, does that mean you should just go ahead and buy a micro-LED TV? Well, not so fast!
The reason is, while QD-OLED TVs are quite affordable, falling within the price range of premium OLEDs or high-end mini-LED TVs, micro-LED displays are on a completely different level in terms of cost.
For example, Samsung’s 146-inch 4K ‘The Wall’ micro-LED TV is priced at a staggering $219,999 – a budget that could easily buy you two luxury cars!
Furthermore, most of the Micro LED TVs are currently available in massive sizes, generally larger than 100 inches, which becomes impractical to place them in your living room, assuming you don’t live in a palace. 🙂
On the other hand, OLED and QD-OLED TVs continue to offer an exceptional viewing experience at a much more accessible price point.
With perfect blacks, wide color gamut, ultra-fast response time for gaming, and impressive HDR performance, they already deliver a cinematic experience right at home.
Furthermore, LG has recently introduced MLA (Micro Lens Array) technology to enhance brightness of its conventional WOLED panels.
The MLA enhancement debuted in the LG G3 OLED TV, which significantly boosts OLED brightness while still retains the signature contrast and picture quality OLED is known for.
Thus, you get bright OLED and QD-OLED displays with perfect blacks within a fraction of the huge cost of the micro-LED TVs.
Therefore, at present, it’s far more practical to invest in an OLED or a QD-OLED than a micro-LED. And when the micro-LEDs become more affordable, you can definitely give them a try.
