Is OLED worth the extra money?

OLED TVs can look dramatically better than ordinary LCD LED TVs, but they can also cost dramatically more.

And once you move up the OLED range, the price difference becomes even harder to ignore.

So, is OLED worth the extra money?

OLED pricing

A basic OLED such as the LG B5 can cost around $800–$1,000 for 55 inches, while a mid-range LG C5 can be closer to $1,000–$1,200 depending on the sale.

Move up to something like the Samsung S95F or LG G5 and you can easily be looking at $1,500–$2,000 or more.

But here’s the catch: you can spend the same money on a very good QLED or mini-LED LCD TV and get a brighter and larger screen in many cases.

So, is OLED really worth the price tag it carries?

The answer depends on which OLED you are buying, what LCD you are comparing it with and very importantly, how you use your TV.

With that being said, let’s compare OLEDs within different price ranges with similarly priced LCDs and see whether do they prove their worth.

Top end OLEDs vs LCDs

At the top end of the OLED market, there are TVs such as the Samsung S95F and LG G5.

These OLED TVs are not simply expensive versions of cheaper OLEDs.

They are designed to address some of the traditional weaknesses of OLED, particularly brightness.

The Samsung S95F is a QD-OLED, which gives it an advantage in colour volume and brightness compared with conventional WOLED models.

Its anti-glare screen is also a major benefit if you watch TV in a room with lots of windows or ambient light.

Depending on the size and current discount, a 55-inch S95F can be around $1,500, while larger sizes can push well beyond $2,000.

The LG G5 sits in a similar premium category.

Its advanced MLA (Micro-Lens Array) technology based OLED panel is substantially brighter than the company’s more affordable B5, and it is designed to deliver a more impressive HDR image in both dark and moderately bright rooms.

The G5 also has the sort of gaming specifications enthusiasts expect from a flagship TV, including four HDMI 2.1 ports and support for high refresh rates.

But now comes the difficult question: what else can you buy for $1,500?

Well, quite a lot.

For roughly the same money as a premium 55-inch OLED, you can move into a high-end mini-LED LCD such as the Samsung QN90F, which can be found at around $1,300–$1,500 for 65 inches depending on sales.

You can also look at models such as the Sony Bravia 7, which can cost around $1,400–$1,600 for 65 inches, or TCL’s higher-end QM8K, which can be around $1,000–$1,300 for 65 inches.

These mini-LED TVs, due to the presence of enormous number of LEDs in their backlights, can produce significantly more brightness than OLED.

Moreover, they don’t suffer from the risk of burn-in or pixel degradation when hitting high brightnesses or displaying static objects for long.

And remember that you may likely be getting a 65-inch mini-LED for roughly the same money as a 55-inch premium OLED.

That makes the comparison surprisingly close.

So, what special does OLED offer?

An OLED like S95F or G5 will still give you perfect blacks, pixel-level contrast and essentially no blooming, particularly when watched in a dark room.

A bright object against a completely black background looks exactly the way it should.

With a mini-LED LCD TV, thousands of tiny LEDs and local-dimming zones are working behind the LCD panel to approximate that effect.

The result is indeed very good, but it isn’t quite the same.

You can still see some blooming around subtitles, stars or bright objects on a dark background.

So, if you watch movies in a dark room, the OLED advantage becomes much more obvious.

Otherwise, if you watch sports at 2 p.m. with sunlight pouring through the windows, the brighter mini-LED can actually be the more practical television.

So at the premium end, OLED is worth the extra money if you are buying for picture quality rather than simply brightness.

If a 55 inch S95F or G5 costs $1,500 and a 65-inch Samsung QN90F or Sony Bravia 7 costs around $1,400–$1,600, I would happily pay the extra for the OLED if I were primarily watching films and gaming in the evening.

But if I were buying a TV for a bright family room, I would think twice.

The LG C5: Where OLED starts making more sense

The LG C5 or a similar OLED model is a much more interesting proposition.

Unlike the G5, it doesn’t try to be the absolute brightest or most luxurious OLED on the market.

Instead, it gives you most of what people actually want from OLED without pushing the price into premium-TV territory.

A 55-inch LG C5 can often be found around $1,000–$1,200, depending on the timing of the sale.

Now compare that with a mini-LED LCD in the same general price range.

A 55-inch TCL QM7K can be found for around $700–$900, while a 55-inch Hisense U8QG can be around $800–$1,000.

Samsung’s top-notch mini-LED TV, 55-inch QN90F can cost closer to $1,000–$1,200.

This is where the OLED-versus-LCD decision becomes much more difficult.

Imagine you have $1,000 to spend. You could buy a discounted LG C5 OLED, or you could buy a very good mini-LED LCD such as the TCL QM7K or Hisense U8QG for roughly $800–$1,000.

The mini-LED will likely be brighter and may be better suited to a room with lots of natural light.

The Hisense U8QG and TCL QM7K, for instance, can deliver very high HDR brightness, while the Samsung QN90F combines high brightness with excellent local dimming and a strong anti-reflection screen.

But the C5 gives you the fundamental OLED advantage: every pixel can switch itself off.

That means there is no backlight behind the picture trying to illuminate dark areas. Black is simply black.

This difference is much more noticeable than specifications on a box might suggest.

Watch a dark scene from a good movie and the OLED can look almost three-dimensional.

Stars appear against an incredibly deep background, subtitles don’t produce a glowing halo and shadows remain clean and controlled.

The mini-LED can get remarkably close, but it is still an LCD display using a backlight.

This is why the LG C5 is arguably where the OLED premium becomes easiest to justify.

You aren’t paying an enormous amount for a flagship panel.

You are paying a moderate premium for a fundamentally different display technology.

If the C5 is $1,050 and a comparable TCL QM7K or Hisense U8QG is $850, I would consider the additional $200 well spent for a movie enthusiast.

Again, if the Samsung QN90F is only $100–$200 more than the C5, the decision again becomes more complicated because you are getting a premium mini-LED with exceptional brightness and strong reflection handling.

The LG B5: The OLED Bargain

The B5 is essentially the answer for someone who wants OLED without spending C5 or G5 money.

A 55-inch B5 can often be found around $800–$1,000, particularly when retailers start clearing inventory.

At that price, you are no longer comparing OLED with $1,500 LCD televisions.

You are comparing it with some of the best-value mini-LED and QLED TVs available.

For around $800, you could buy a 55-inch TCL QM7K for roughly $700–$800, a Hisense U7QG for around $700–$900, or potentially step up to a 65-inch TCL QM8K for around $1,000–$1,200.

And this is where I would be much more careful about saying that OLED is automatically the better choice.

The B5’s picture quality is excellent, but it isn’t as bright as the G5 or S95F.

But, in a dark room, that isn’t a big problem.

Imagine watching a movie at night. The B5 is going to look fantastic.

The blacks will be deep, contrast will be exceptional and there will rarely be any blooming around bright objects.

Now imagine watching the same TV at mid-day with sunlight hitting the room.

Suddenly, the $800 mini-LED starts making a lot more sense.

A TCL QM7K or Hisense U7QG can produce much higher brightness, punch through ambient light more effectively and make HDR highlights look spectacular.

On top of that, if you can get a 65-inch mini-LED for around $1,000, you may also have to decide whether you prefer a smaller OLED with better blacks or a larger LCD with much greater brightness.

That being said, not every alternative to OLED has to be mini-LED.

Sony’s X90L, for example, which uses a conventional full-array local-dimming LCD rather than mini-LED, is also a very good alternative to OLED.

Its 65 inch model can sometimes be found around $800–$1,000.

Sure, X90L won’t deliver OLED’s perfect blacks, and its local dimming can produce some blooming.

But Sony’s image processing, motion handling and upscaling are excellent, and the larger 65-inch screen can be a compelling alternative if you sit farther away.

If you have $1,000 and your choices are a 55-inch OLED or a 65-inch Sony X90L, the OLED has the superior picture, but the 65-inch Sony may provide a more immersive viewing experience with a bigger screen.

OLED’s direct competitors

Mini-LED has become a serious competitor to OLED.

A modern mini-LED TV can combine thousands of tiny backlight LEDs with local dimming feature to create much better contrast than normal LCD TVs.

Add quantum-dot colour, high refresh rates and high peak brightness, and you get a TV that can compete with OLED in several important areas.

A $700–$900 TCL QM7K, Hisense U7QG or similar mini-LED can therefore be a smarter purchase than a $1,000 OLED for many consumers.

Move up to something like the Hisense U8QG, TCL QM8K or Samsung QN90F, and the LCD alternative becomes even more impressive.

These TVs can deliver extremely bright HDR images that can look spectacular in a brightly lit room.

They are especially attractive for sports fans.

Sports broadcasts contain a lot of bright, full-screen content — football fields, cricket grounds, ice rinks, stadiums and daytime scenes.

A bright mini-LED can make these images look spectacular.

Moreover, OLED’s perfect blacks aren’t nearly as important when most of the screen is bright.

Trade-off again

For movies, however, the balance shifts back toward OLED.

Moreover, gamers have a big reason to consider OLED.

All OLED TVs like the LG B5 and C5 offer very fast response times and excellent motion clarity.

OLED’s near-instantaneous pixel response can make fast-moving games look exceptionally clean.

But mini-LED TVs have caught up in other areas.

Many gaming-focused LCD models now offer 144Hz or higher refresh rates, VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and multiple HDMI 2.1 ports.

But again, the decision isn’t as simple as OLED equals gaming and LCD equals everything else.

For console gaming at 4K and 120Hz, either technology can be excellent, while OLED’s advantage is the image quality while you’re playing.

Dark games look particularly impressive because the black areas of the screen can be completely black, while explosions, lights and other bright objects can appear dramatically against them.

So, is OLED really worth the extra bucks?

If you’re looking at a top-notch OLED TV like Samsung S95F or LG G5 for $1,500–$2,000, I would only recommend paying the premium if you genuinely care about having one of the best possible TV pictures.

A high-end mini-LED such as the Samsung QN90F, Sony Bravia 7 or TCL QM8K can deliver tremendous brightness and excellent HDR for less money, and in some cases you can even get a larger screen for the same budget.

The OLEDs in the mid-price range like LG C5 are easier to recommend.

Around $1,000–$1,200, they sit in a sweet spot where OLED’s picture-quality advantages are substantial without the enormous premium attached to flagship models.

Against models like a $800–$1,000 TCL QM7K, Hisense U8QG or Sony X90L, they can justify their premium if picture quality is your priority.

Finally, OLEDs like LG B5 are value OLEDs.

At around $800–$1,000, they become a very feasible choice for anyone who watches a lot of movies or plays games in a relatively controlled-light environment.

If an OLED costs only $150–$250 more than a comparable mini-LED, I would seriously consider paying the premium.

But, if the difference is $500, the decision becomes complicated.

And if you’re looking at a $1,500 OLED next to a $700 mini-LED, you should be very certain that OLED’s advantages matter to you before spending the extra $800.

For movie lovers, serious gamers and people who watch primarily at night, OLED is absolutely be worth the extra money.

For bright living rooms and buyers who simply want the biggest, brightest TV for their budget, a good mini-LED QLED TV should be the smarter purchase.

Now please don’t ask whether OLED is better. It is indeed.

Ask how much better it is for you, and how much you are being asked to pay for that improvement.

OLED remains the picture-quality winner. It just isn’t always the value winner.