No one doubts that the future of color quality and image definition goes through OLED panels, but manufacturers do not always indicate what type of OLED panel they are using on their televisions… and believe me when I tell you that there is a lot of difference between the different types of OLEDs.
Your brother-in-law will have already told you, and in this case I am not going to contradict him, no matter how loud he is: the future of televisions goes through an OLED screen and if you want quality, an OLED television is the answer.
That being said, which OLED is the right one? I am not referring to what brand or model of television to choose, but to what type of OLED panel to choose. In the same way that not all the mountains are oregano, not all OLEDs are the same. Let’s go in parts.
The OLED panels that mount all so-called OLED televisions are based on self-emitting diode display technology, which means that each pixel on the screen emits its own light, rather than relying on an external light source such as a strip. of rear LEDs. Oh no change.
However, OLED technology is evolving and manufacturers have managed to improve features such as the durability of the panels, their color representation capacity or their brightness delivery by adding different variants such as W-OLED, OLED EX and QD-OLED. They are all OLED, but they are not the same.
W-OLED, the most common of the OLEDs
One of the most common types of OLED panel is the W-OLED or White OLED, which uses a layer of organic material in which, in addition to the primary RGB subpixels to form the color images, a fourth white subpixel is included to enhance the brightness of the colors.
This white sub-pixel makes HDR more impactful, but it also has its limitations and the more you use it, the less color accurate you get. I explain.
Imagine that you have three buckets of paint, one red, one green and one blue (RGB) that you use to create the rest of the colors you need. However, you have very little paint and you need more, but the store was out of paint and you only have a can of white paint.
By mixing the colors and adding white to them, the color vibrancy is lowered and the colors are washed out. Well, explained so that even your brother-in-law can understand, that’s what happens to the W-OLED.
Also, W-OLED panels are based on hydrogen isotopes that tend to degrade over time. But do not panic, the useful life of an OLED television is about 40,000 hours, which is equivalent to about 13 years of intensive use.
We are going to find this type of OLED screens in the mid-range or low-end models since its manufacturing process is the most standardized and massive. It is mounted by televisions as prominent as the LG OLED C1, the Panasonic JZ2000 or the Sony Bravia XR A80J.
All of them models launched in 2021, but there are also many others such as the 2022 Sony Bravia XR A75K that mount these panels.
2023 is going to be the year of the OLED EX
In 2023 we are going to experience a change in trend since LG Display, the main manufacturer of OLED panels that the vast majority of brands mount, has made a strong commitment to OLED EX technology, leaving W-OLEDs for input OLED televisions.
These new panels are actually an update of the W-OLED with which it shares 90% of its structure, including the white subpixel.
However, the main novelty is that they use a double-layer structure based on deuterium, which, far from being the uncle of some engineer’s village, is a stable isotope of hydrogen that improves the efficiency of the screen and reduces color distortion. increasing the useful life of the diodes and their efficiency.
With the arrival of deuterium, the new OLED EX panels achieve an estimated useful life of 100,000 hours and a substantial improvement in brightness, although at this point it must be taken into account whether or not they include a heat dissipation system, something that increases the Final price, but it represents a considerable improvement in brightness.
Perhaps you will find these panels with the name OLED EVO or OLED EX, and we can find them in the mid-range and high-end OLED televisions presented in 2022 such as the Philips OLED 807, Sony Bravia XR A80K or LG OLED C2.
The future is called QD-OLED
One of the main novelties that OLED technology has left us in 2022 is the variant of OLED screens with quantum dots or QD-OLED.
These panels, unlike the W-OLED and OLED EX, do not include the white sub-pixel, so the volume of color is much higher throughout the brightness range. That is to say, it does not skimp and if it needs more brightness , it does not mix the color with white.
The QD-OLED is a development by Samsung, which has managed to optimize an RGB OLED panel to which they have integrated a nanocrystal filter (Quantum dots) that filter light by changing its frequency length to achieve purer and more intense colors.
At the moment we only find this OLED technology in high-end models such as the Sony Bravia XR A95K Master Series and the Samsung S95B OLED, but I have no doubt that this type of screen will be with us for a long time thanks to the Spectacular rendering of color that it delivers.
