Unless you are living under a rock, you have heard many people claiming that MicroLEDs will be the future of TV. The reason for this viewpoint is that this tech has all the best qualities of OLEDs and LCDs without being susceptible to burn-ins or blooming. Basically, they are inorganic versions of OLED. However, MicroLED is just another tech that will be a part of the journey to QDEL (Quantum Electroluminescent) tech.
Current Tech
Quantum Dots have already been deployed in LCDs (you know about QLED Samsung TVs). However, beginning next year, they will be used to enhance OLED tech through “QD-OLED” fusion. Unlike in the LCD version, Quantum Dots will increase energy efficiency by over 95%, and provide better picture quality than current WOLEDS (from LG, the only manufacturer).
Visual Representation: Current OLEDs vs QD-OLEDs
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Why QD-OLED
You’ve probably wondered why Samsung never makes OLED TVs. The main reason for this is that their current OLEDs are based on RGB instead of white LEDs, which is commercially unviable for large screens like TV. Nonetheless, through a partnership with Nanosys, Samsung is committed to QD-OLED as from next year and is shutting down all LCD plants by the end of 2020. QD-OLED is just a temporary solution, after which they will shift to QD-LED (with MicroLED), or just jump directly to QDEL. You can watch the video below by Nanosys that explains the quantum dots journey beginning with current LCD implementation.
Problem is OLED is getting cheaper by the day. And btw tests have been done to demonstrate that OLED tvs can run for a full year non-stop with very minimal burn-ins. Lg is already claiming that new OLEDs might never have burn-ins. The first generation of OLEDs were notorious for burn-ins but right now this has really gone down.
The main winner will be price. Remember microLED was demonstrated in 2018 by samsung at CES na mpaka sahii we don’t have a retail unit. This tech might be available in 2025. I will take you back to plasma TVs. I had a Panasonic plasma TV back in 2009 and that TV had better picture than current LEDs and btw the viewing angles were better than any TV in the market today.
I think all manufacturers stopped manufacturing Plasma TVs in 2013 because they were too expensive to manufacture or improve. I am afraid the same might befall microLEDs. Especially with miniLEDs on the horizon. When manufacturers abandoned plasma it wasn’t because the tech was poor. It was because it wasn’t commercially viable and were willingto bet on other techs . Plasma was actually better than the first generation OLEDs.
The main commercial advantage of MicroLED TVs is that they have the potential of being sold in modules. In short you can buy a few small panels of like 12" and make a 32 inch TV then later buy more panels and make it a 48" TV. Then if you get more money buy a few more modules and make a 72" TV. Of course the sound will not be on the panel. Just display and chipsets.
Unfortunately miniLEDs are commercially viable unlike microLEDs. Although microLED tech is better than miniLEDs the industry might just adopt the commercially viable tech and try to improve it over time.
Another problem is that these technologies are offering marginal improvements with big jumps in price. For example, the TCL miniLED 8 series TV is very close to OLED but way cheaper. As a consumer you might not even notice the difference.
I really see microLEDs following the plasma route. It will be an awesome TV for viewing in the house but with marginal gains over cheaper rival tech
By the way Nanosys are Samsung’s partners in developing microLEDs that video is reputable. Btw it was rumoured that the Samsung’s huge microLED TV at CES would cost 700 thousand dollars.
Sony has one available which is sold in modules each module costs $10,000 to make something close to a 55" TV you’d need 3 or 4 panels/modules/tiles which would cost you $30 000 to $40 000. Those figues are staggering. In Kenya that would be Ksh 4M for a 55" 4K TV. For a marginal display improvement over OLED. Don’t forget the LG C9 55" costs about Ksh 300K and the samsung QLED 8K 65" TV costs Ksh 450K locally.
If you check the news and politics and sex/relationships sections you will notice that I haven’t had a thread since 2018. That’s 2 years. That hardly qualifies me as a know-it-all. I hardly contribute to threads in those sections.
Not really. LEDs are also repackaged LCDs. So one might argue we have only LCDs and OLEDs in the market. But we all know that this repackaging means alot when it comes to display. The difference is like day and night between a traditional LCD and a Samsung 8K QLED. Yet both are liquid crystal displays (LCDs).
There is a very high possibility we will never have MicroLED on consumer level (at least not this decade). In my opinion, Quantum Dots (on their own without reliance on Blue OLED) might be easier to commercialize (into QDEL) than MicroLEDs. We might get MicroLEDs in 2030s as smartphone variants (just like RGB OLEDs have been commercialized into smaller screens by Sammy).
I read somewhere of LG + Nanosys collaboration on QDEL but didn’t it’s something closer to commercial production. Actually I am genuinely surprised. Time to watch how this tech evolves over the next few years.