Best for: picture quality
Organic Light-Emitting Diode displays take the crown right now as the best premium TV tech around. You get better viewing angles, deeper blacks – and therefore better contrast for HDR – and they consume less power. They’re often a better option for gaming, but can cost more.
Choose one:
The best OLED TVs
For
- Lighter and thinner
- Precise colors
- More convincing blacks
- Higher refresh rate
Against
- Small risk of burn-in
- Limited brightness
- Expensive
Best for: value for money
Quantum dot LED TV displays have a potentially brighter picture than OLED, are mostly cheaper, and there’s no risk of burn-in – a mark that can be left on the screen of OLED TVs. They can be just as well-specced as OLED TVs, and you can get more bang for your buck on a budget with them.
Choose one:
The best Samsung TVs
For
- Stunning colors
- High brightness potential
- Biggest range of screen sizes
- Better if you’re on a budget
Against
- Usually less slim
- Less convincing blacks
- Slower pixel refresh rate
What’s the difference between OLED vs QLED? You’ve likely encountered these tech terms while scouring the web for a new TV, but understanding the key differences between them isn’t always easy.
Neither an OLED TV nor a QLED TV is better than the other. Instead, the one that’s right for you will depend on several factors, including whether the TV tech will work in the space you have at home, if it lines up with your viewing preferences and, of course, if it’s within your budget.
Even when it comes to performance, what makes a premium picture and a top-quality watching experience isn’t the same for everyone. Some people might prefer the deep and detailed shadows of the best OLED TVs. Others would opt for the rich quantum dot color and high brightness of the best QLED TVs. (And if you don’t know what any of those terms mean, read on.)
For an in-depth exploration of each, look at our what is OLED and what is QLED guides. Or, read on, where we’ll simplify the jargon and ensure you have all the information you need to pick between the two technologies.
Whether you’re hoping to find one of the best 85-inch TVs to create a cinema-like experience, one of the best gaming TVs for PS5 and Xbox Series X to make the most of your next-gen console or a smaller screen with one of the best 32-inch TVs for a spare room, we’ll steer you in the right direction.
OLED vs QLED: the current state of TV tech
The biggest and best TV makers, like LG, Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Vizio all make OLED TVs. This is why OLED is the most widely-supported premium display panel tech you’ll find in TVs right now – and it’s getting cheaper.
You can read our thoughts on some of the top OLED TVs available right now in our LG C2 OLED TV review, Sony A90J OLED TV review and Philips OLED+986 4K OLED TV review.
QLED TVs are mostly made by Samsung, although you will find them from other brands too, like Sony, Hisense, TCL and Vizio.
Our Samsung QN95B review and Samsung QN900B review will give you a good idea of what to expect from the best QLEDs on the market right now.
It’s also worth mentioning a newer technology called QD-OLED TVs. This combines the best of both worlds, using a blue OLED panel with a quantum dot filter to create brighter primary colors. The result is a screen that has better color saturation (around 200% of traditional LED-LCD TVs) and better off-axis viewing.
These TVs have only recently been brought to market by Samsung and Sony, with both using display panels made by Samsung. You can read our take on the new OLED tech in our Sony A95K QD-OLED review and Samsung S95B OLED review. (Spoiler alert: both models received an Editor’s Choice designation.)
OLED vs QLED: the case for organic LED
OLED Pros and Cons
Pros:
Lighter and thinner (2.57mm)
Self-emissive pixels
More convincing blacks
Faster refresh rate (0.001ms)
Judder and blur-free
Cons:
Limited screen sizes: 48, 55, 65, 77, 83, 88-inch
Limited brightness (generally up to 1,000 nits)
Expensive
We can summarise the OLED vs QLED battle in one sentence: QLED is a tweak of existing LCD technology, while OLED is a whole new technology altogether.
OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. This type of TV uses a carbon-based film between two conductors that emits its own light when an electric current is passed through.
Since the pixels themselves are producing the light, when they need to be black they get switched off completely. That means no chunky LCD backlight, remarkably realistic blacks, so-called ‘infinite’ contrast, lightning-quick refresh rates and a muted brightness ideal for movies – if dim by LED standards.
Watching an OLED TV for the first time will give you that rare feeling of having just witnessed something really very special.
OLED was only available in a few sizes until recently. But in 2022, many major brands have extended their ranges. For example, read our LG C2 OLED TV review for a display that comes in 42-, 48-, 55-, 65-, 77-, and 83-inch sizes. Or our review of the LG G2 OLED TV, which is available in 55-, 65-, 77-, 83-, and 97-inch sizes.
QLED vs OLED: the case for quantum dots
QLED Pros and Cons
Pros:
Rich colors
Ultra-bright (up to 2,000 nits (opens in new tab))
Variety of screen sizes between 32- and 98-inch
Cons:
Not as slim (25.4mm)
Less convincing blacks
Slower refresh rate
QLED isn’t a new TV technology as much as it’s a rebrand. Until 2017, Samsung called its flagship TVs SUHD, but that wasn’t working as well as it hoped, so it’s now called them QLED – which stands for Quantum-dot Light Emitting Diode. Yep, that’s it.
Of course, it sounds very, very similar to OLED, which is confusing – especially when you throw in LG’s new QNED range. What’s the deal with these names, tech brands?
Regardless, QLED is very distinct from OLED in that it isn’t self-emissive, which means it doesn’t produce its own light and still makes use of a backlight.
What makes it ‘quantum’, according to Samsung, is that it uses a quantum dot colour filter in front of its LCD backlight, which improves brightness, contrast, and color vibrancy. (Technically, they should be called QLCD-LEDs, so we can’t complain too much about its existing name.)
So, really, it’s not a next-gen display technology at all, but just a tweak to LCD TV tech. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not impressive – it really is very good.
Over the past few years, Samsung has revamped its QLED range calling it Neo QLED. This refers to the implementation of a mini-LED backlight, which greatly multiplies the number of LEDs used for more precise brightness control – and with the side effect of widening viewing angles and upping potential brightness, as well as reducing blooming.
You can read our Samsung QN95B Neo QLED 4K TV review to see what this new type of tech has to offer when implemented in a flagship TV. Or to see what it can do at the lower end of the price range, check out our Hisense U8H TV review.
OLED vs QLED: which brands support this TV tech?
The battle between OLED and QLED is more of a story about branding than tech. That’s because the OLED panels found inside every OLED TV, save the QD-OLED ones sold by Samsung and Sony, are made made by LG Displays. And QLED TVs have an equally generic display panel origin story.
Team OLED:
Most TV brands have lined up behind OLED over the past few years, believing it to be the superior technology for picture quality.
It’s hard to disagree, but despite LG, Sony, Panasonic, TP-Vision (under the Philips brand in the UK), Loewe, Bang & Olufsen, Skyworth, and ChangHong all now selling OLED TVs, they do tend to be very expensive – despite the fact prices are improving a little.
The maker, LG Display, hasn’t been able to produce enough OLED panels fast enough to bring them in at a lower cost, which is making OLED TVs seem like a top-tier premium TV technology.
This has been changing, with new and smaller sizes. Brands like LG now have 48-inch and 42-inch sized OLED TVs on offer (as well as a 97-inch TV at the other end of the spectrum).
Increased production should help to drop prices too. Though Hisense has already ditched the technology after launching a poorly-performing Hisense O8B OLED that didn’t quite make the best case for the technology.
Team QLED:
Samsung abandoned its first efforts to make OLED TVs in 2014 due to low production yields, and only started talking about QLED back in 2017. It’s now trying to popularize the technology by getting other companies involved.
Though the brands behind QLED are fewer, they’re quickly getting unionised. Samsung, Hisense and TCL banded together under the QLED Alliance back in 2017 in order to advance QLED development – and sell more QLED sets in the world’s biggest TV market, China.
OLED vs QLED: what’s the best choice for gamers?
If you’re mainly interested in a television that’s good for gaming, we’d encourage you to focus on different criteria than OLED vs QLED.
Now that the next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles are here – and, for the most part, more readily available to buy – you’ll want to find a TV with HDMI 2.1 ports that can carry 8K video from consoles (at 60Hz), as well as 4K video at 120Hz.
Low input lag isn’t always specified on TV product pages, but we recommend keeping an eye out for it nonetheless. Or reading our best gaming TVs guide, which runs through the top specs and points of interest you need to know about.
OLED sets will be best for achieving natural contrast, and will help make cinematic games look truly breathtaking. LG’s OLED TVs also come with Nvidia G-Sync to help smooth out gameplay onscreen, too.
However, QLEDs go a lot brighter, and may be better for practical visibility in the games you’re playing, drawing out environments and in-game objects clearly.
It may depend on what you’re playing – but getting a set with low input lag, VRR (variable refresh rate), and an HMDI 2.1 port will be more important than the underlying panel technology.
OLED vs QLED: which is right for you?
Both of these technologies are impressive – but for different reasons.
In many ways, QLED is the best choice. You’ll get a brighter picture, the TVs tend to last longer, they’re cheaper and there’s no risk of burn-in – a mark that’s left on the screen of OLED TVs when displaying images with static graphics like a news network logo.
However, if we had to choose one, right now we’d go with OLED. For the majority of people, the benefits of OLED will, at least for the time being, outshine the benefits of QLED. This includes better viewing angles, deeper blacks and, therefore, better contrast, and less power consumption, They’re probably also a better option for gaming. This is especially the case if you’re looking for one of the best 55-inch TVs since both technologies are roughly the same price at that size.
But QLED also makes more sense if you’re looking for a smaller size or have a smaller budget. OLEDs are still more expensive. You can get the older Samsung Q60R QLED, for example, for only a few hundred dollars / pounds at its smallest 43-inch size.
OLED vs QLED: what does the future look like?
Regardless of our buying advice for you today, it remains the case that things may shake up a lot in the coming years. Even this year as more new sets for 2022 are released.
There are plans afoot to develop QLED sets that ditch the LCD backlight to become self-emissive, in a move that could blend the advantages of both OLED and QLED technologies and spell trouble for OLED panel manufacturers like LG Display.
“True QLED sets are self-emissive, as with OLED sets, and are not yet in the market, but are anticipated to be so in the coming years,” says David Tett, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting (opens in new tab). “When it is released it is expected to provide the strongest challenge to OLED yet, as it brings many of the same benefits as OLED, with few potential drawbacks.”
There were initially rumors for Samsung to release these so-called ‘true’ QLED sets a few years ago, but they’re not here yet.
If the future is bright for QLED, those behind OLED panels are hoping that one of the technology’s native characteristics, flexibility, wins the day. “OLED sets can offer new audio solutions that see the panel vibrate to create sound and could also offer new form factors, both due to their flexible nature of the panel,” says Tett. This is nowhere clearer than with LG’s rollable OLED, the LG Signature Series OLED R, which is able to curl up into the television’s base.
For now it’s OLED that takes the crown for the best – and most expensive – TV tech around, but unless LG Display can up its production rate and create more screen sizes – as it’s beginning to do – the immediate future of the mainstream TV could still belong to QLED.
Best for: picture quality
Organic Light-Emitting Diode displays take the crown right now as the best premium TV tech around. You get better viewing angles, deeper blacks – and therefore better contrast for HDR – and they consume less power. They’re often a better option for gaming, but can cost more.
Choose one:
The best OLED TVs
For
- Lighter and thinner
- Precise colors
- More convincing blacks
- Higher refresh rate
Against
- Small risk of burn-in
- Limited brightness
- Expensive
Best for: value for money
Quantum dot LED TV displays have a potentially brighter picture than OLED, are mostly cheaper, and there’s no risk of burn-in – a mark that can be left on the screen of OLED TVs. They can be just as well-specced as OLED TVs, and you can get more bang for your buck on a budget with them.
Choose one:
The best Samsung TVs
For
- Stunning colors
- High brightness potential
- Biggest range of screen sizes
- Better if you’re on a budget
Against
- Usually less slim
- Less convincing blacks
- Slower pixel refresh rate