QD OLED vs OLED TVs: how they work
QD-OLED is basically a combination of the high points of both OLED and QLED technology. Traditional OLED panels have been revolutionary in TV land during the last decade because of their self-emissive pixel structure; each pixel glows of its own accord when an electric current is passed through.
While LCD and
LED TVs struggle with contrast because of their always-on backlights or clusters of LEDs to illuminate images, an OLED TV can produce an image that simultaneously contains both ice-white pixels and true black pixels. Cue claims of ‘infinite’ contrast from the only manufacturer of OLED panels, LG Display.
To increase their peak brightness – the tech’s slight disadvantage – LG Display created the WOLED technique; a white sub-pixel is added to the usual red-green-blue mix. It makes the image brighter, but it lacks maximum color volume in the very brightest areas of images. Crucially, it’s not something a viewer would ever notice.
QLED TVS – manufactured solely by Samsung – don’t create deep blacks like OLED does, but they are brighter thanks to their use of quantum dots. Cue brighter, and therefore more accurate, color reproduction that is ideal for HDR content.
So why not combine the two? QD-OLED displays are basically OLED displays that use a blue (because blue has the strongest light energy) self-luminescent layer that has a new film of quantum dots overlaid (in place of LG’s white sub-pixel). QD-OLED TVs are being manufactured by Samsung Display, which it describes as the world’s first RGB self-emitting quantum dot OLED display (there’s actually no official name for tech as yet).