QD OLED vs Micro LED: Which is a better TV?
QD-OLED TVs have been generating a lot of buzz lately, thanks to their innovative fusion of quantum dots with OLED technology, offering enhanced brightness, color accuracy, and contrast.
On the other hand, Micro LED TVs, which use self-emissive inorganic LEDs, are being hailed as the pinnacle of display technology, promising near-perfect performance with unmatched brightness, longevity, and color fidelity.
So, between these two cutting-edge technologies, which truly stands out as the best? Let’s find out in this comparison of QD OLED vs Micro LED.
What is QD OLED?
QD OLED stands for Quantum dot-organic light emitting diodes. This technology makes the use of quantum dots for color reproduction on an OLED panel.
QD OLED TVs use a blue OLED emitter which emits blue light striking the quantum dots, which in turn, emit pure monochromatic hues to form various images on the screen.
What is Micro LED?
Micro LED is an advanced display technology that uses self-emissive inorganic LEDs to produce images.
Each pixel on the screen is made up of individual red, green, and blue micro LEDs.
These LEDs are tiny, micrometer-sized light sources that emit their own light.
Because these displays use pure RGB emitters, they don’t need color filters or quantum dots for image formation.
Which is better: QD OLED vs 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 minimizes the rate of organic material degradation, thus resulting in better longevity of the display panels.
The QD OLED technology has also eliminated the use of color filters which are used in case of the LG’s OLED displays.
These color filters are not very efficient and block a significant amount of light, which limits peak brightness.
Consequently, pushing the organic pixels to achieve higher brightness increases stress on the OLED emitters, and thus accelerates their degradation over time.
QD OLED addresses this issue by eliminating color filters and incorporating quantum dots, which are highly efficient at managing light.
Instead of blocking it, quantum dots absorb the blue light and re-emit pure red and green hues, depending on their size.
This process is far more efficient and doesn’t require the blue OLED emitter to be driven much harder.
As a result, QD-OLED displays deliver brighter, more vibrant, and punchier colors without compromising the lifespan of the panel.
To boost brightness, LG’s WOLED displays use an additional white subpixel. But this can sometimes cause slightly washed-out colors and minor viewing angle distortions, especially at the edges.
While this approach helps increase luminance in the LG’s OLEDs, it can compromise color purity.
In contrast, QD-OLED displays do not rely on a white subpixel.
Instead, they use quantum dots to emit pure red, green, and blue hues, resulting in more accurate and vibrant color reproduction.
This enables them to deliver a wide color gamut, which when combined with a large number of luminance levels, allow it to achieve a high color volume.
These all combined with infinite contrast ratio enable QD-OLED TVs offer outstanding HDR performance, with no color fading or muting, even when viewed from extreme angles.
However, the life of the organic emitter is limited and it may degrade with the aging of pixels, though after a very long time.
In addition to this, prolonged use of organic pixels can lead to screen burn-in. This may occur when a static image, like a sports or news channel logo remains on the screen for extended periods.
Over time, the pixels in those areas may wear out unevenly, leaving a permanent shadow or ghost image, even after you change the channel.
Although modern OLED and QD OLED TVs include built-in protection features like pixel shifting, pixel refresh etc., which significantly reduce the risk of burn-in, it still remains a drawback, especially for users who mostly watch the same channel.
This is where Micro LED technology stands out.
It not only overcomes the limitations of OLEDs but also addresses the shortcomings of traditional LED LCD displays.
By using separate self-emissive red, green, and blue inorganic LEDs for each individual pixel, Micro LED panels deliver extremely accurate colors and cover the widest color gamut.
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 more than a lakh 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 and perfect black levels gives Micro LED displays the highest possible contrast ratio, making them ideal for both bright and dark room viewing.
As the Micro LED TVs can achieve a very wide range of brightness levels and the widest color gamut, they have a large color volume, which when combined with the highest contrast ratio, leads to the best possible HDR performance.
Since Micro LED TVs use inorganic pixels, they are completely immune to degradation and burn-in, issues commonly associated with OLED and QD-OLED panels.
As a result, they would maintain consistent picture quality for years to come.
If we talk about response time, the micro LEDs have the fastest response time. This is because there is almost no delay between for the light to reach from the micro 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.
Anyway, a response time lesser than a millisecond is still ultra fast.
Which one to choose: QD OLED vs Micro LED?
Micro LED is considered the most advanced display technology available today.
Its key advantage over QD-OLED is the use of inorganic pixels, which means no risk of degradation or burn-in over time. This gives Micro LED displays a very long lifespan.
Another major advantage of Micro LED displays is their ability to achieve extremely high peak brightness, thanks to their LED-based design.
This makes them ideal for bright room environments.
While QD-OLEDs also offer impressive brightness levels, thanks to the use of quantum dots, they don’t come close to Micro LEDs in peak brightness.
However, their brightness is still sufficient for viewing in a bright room.
So, should you just go ahead and buy a Micro LED TV?
Well, not so fast.
Here’s where the most decisive factor comes in—price.
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 ‘The Wall’ Micro LED TV is priced at a staggering $219,999 – a budget that could easily buy you two luxury cars.
Another factor to consider is their massive size. Most of the Micro LED TVs currently available are larger than 100 inches.
As a result, it becomes impractical to place them in average living rooms.
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 in its OLED panels.
This advancement debuted in the LG G3 OLED TV, significantly boosting brightness while retaining the signature contrast and picture quality OLED is known for.
You get bright OLED and QD OLED displays with perfect blacks within a fraction of the huge cost of the Micro LED TVs.
Therefore, it’s far more practical to invest in an OLED or a QD-OLED TV today.
And when Micro LED technology becomes more affordable, you can definitely give it a try.
