5 reasons to buy an OLED TV over a QLED TV

Key Takeaways

OLED and QLED screens prioritize contrast and brightness, respectively, offering unique viewing benefits in the TV industry.
OLED excels in contrast, creating true blacks, while QLED focuses on boosting color range and brightness with a quantum-dot filter.
OLED screens are ideal for cinematic content in dark rooms, offer better response rates than QLED, consume less power, and provide wider viewing angles.

TV screen display technology can be quite confusing, and manufacturers don’t make it any easier to understand. However, among the many acronyms and abbreviations in the often confusing and sometimes overwhelming TV industry, the two screen types that lead the way are OLED and QLED. These opposing technologies each put a different aspect of screen visuals as its priority, with OLED, in general, emphasizing contrast and QLED favoring brightness.

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OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode, and it’s screen technology that employs individual pixels that can each turn on and off. QLED, meanwhile, stands for quantum light-emitting diode, and is more a marketing term than an actual type of technology. QLED is an LCD screen that utilizes a quantum-dot filter in order to boost the range and brightness of colors. QLED screens use a backlight, while OLED do not; the pixels are self-emissive.

So which is better? From my testing and experience, OLED screens triumph in a few key areas that shouldn’t be overlooked.

1 You enjoy cinematic content

And action films and live sports

Smart TV displaying a New York and Philadelphia baseball game.

Where OLED screens excel is contrast. Because each individual pixel can be turned off, these tiny areas of the TV can achieve true black. This is in stark contrast, pun intended, to QLED TVs, which use local dimming zones in order to make the screen darker. As close as such screens can get to true black — which is increasingly close — it’s not the same as a light completely turning off as there tends to be some shadow or blurring, however faint.

If you don’t have a TV that’s up to task, content might not look as good at home as it would in a cinema or as the filmmaker intended.

OLED screens come in handy when watching a lot of new content, particularly those made by streaming services or networks with a focus on so-called prestige content. That’s because many studios and filmmakers create content with a cinematic flair, with technologies and techniques that allow filming in low light. That’s why if you don’t have a TV that’s up to task, content might not look as good at home as it would in a cinema or as the filmmaker intended.

These pixels are also quite fast, so much so that OLED screens possess a better response rate than QLED screens. The difference comes down to fractions of milliseconds, but for those who enjoy high-octane action movies where directors insist on excessive amounts of edits, or live sports, the difference can be noticeable.

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2 You’re watching in a dark room

OLED thrives in a theater environment

LG C3 OLED TV showing a man and a woman on a tundra.

While OLED TVs are better than QLED at achieving contrast, they often struggle to hit the same peak brightness. Just as companies that make QLED screens are seeking out methods to get as close to true black as possible and improve contrast, LG and others that manufacture OLED TVs look to boost brightness as much as possible.

The best OLED screens work to reduce glare, but the easiest way around this is to simply not have any glare to begin with.

Still, you can help out with your OLED screen by using it in a room with little to no sunlight, or at least ways to keep the light out. The best OLED screens work to reduce glare, but the easiest way around this is to simply not have any glare to begin with.

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Similarly, because of the relatively low brightness levels and the TV being optimized for use in a dark room, OLED TVs tend to consume less power. They are also typically better for viewers who may have any visual sensitives as they often produce less irritating blue light.

3 You need a wide-viewing angle

More are welcome with OLED TVs

lg OLED tv from first impressions 2023 CES

Newer TVs are all striving to offer image fidelity from wide viewing angles, but OLED screens are the best at accomplishing the task. While you should always try to sit at an appropriate distance from the TV, positioned in the center of the screen, that’s not always viable, especially when multiple people are gathering around to watch the screen.

With OLED screens, you can welcome a large group of people to gather around and watch the TV, with worthy seats from a variety of angles.

QLED screens are not up to this task, as the further you move from the center, the more you’ll notice a loss in quality of brightness and contrast.

With OLED screens, however, you can welcome a large group of people to gather around and watch the TV, with worthy seats from a variety of angles. Even if you’re in a household of just a couple of people who will regularly watch TV together, it might be difficult for you both to sit right in the center. OLED is the best option so that everyone can watch without sensing distortion or feeling like they are missing out.

All of these edges and advantages require a bit of perspective, as manufacturers of both screen types regularly innovate to make up for their respective deficiencies. Both OLED and QLED technologies continue to improve each year, and the gap between the two is narrowing.

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4 You have a loose budget

OLED TVs are pricey

LG G3 OLED TV displaying a rendering of a pastel painting.

If you’re looking to invest in a home theater system, and a budget does not factor into the equation, then OLED TVs are worth the purchase. OLED TVs generally come at a much higher cost than comparable QLED TVs of similar sizes, but the image quality and fidelity prove it’s often worth the cost. The screen technology is simply more expensive than that of the QLED screen, so the upfront cost is much higher.

OLED TVs generally come at a much higher cost than comparable QLED TVs of similar sizes, but the image quality and fidelity prove it’s often worth the cost.

That price tag can sway a lot of buyers, or force consumers to consider a smaller-sized OLED TV, since the cost becomes prohibitive as size increases. If money is not a concern, then OLED is the better choice. It’s still possible to find a relatively well-priced OLED screen, but for those who want the latest technology and the biggest screen to fit a particular room, then you’ll have to pay a lot for the OLED TV.

If money is not a concern, then OLED is the better choice.

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An illustrated picture of a person in a yellow raincoat with a red umbrella and a dog walking across what seems to be a beach.

As LG championed OLED TVs over the years, competitors, notably Samsung, were hesitant to buy in. The quantum-dot LED screen was pushed by Samsung and viewed as a direct competitor to LG’s emissive, self-lighting screens. Samsung eventually gave in, however, and starting selling its own OLED TVs because they were so popular and successful at achieving incredible, stark contrast. Samsung’s Neo QLED TVs are getting better at getting to such a standard, but OLED is still the champion in this arena (another TV manufacturing leader in Sony also sells OLED TVs).

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All of that is to say, this technology isn’t going anywhere. Maybe microLED screens will someday compete and supplant OLED screens, but such TVs are rare and prohibitively expensive, so they are still many, many years away. If you’re buying an OLED TV today, the technology will not be obsolete tomorrow, or even in three to five years, when it might be time to buy a new one. Under the conditions, in a dim or completely dark room, the best OLED TVs will provide the most faithful and stunning image quality available. They are the standard now and into the foreseeable future.

With companies looking to boost what each screen lacks, it is worth noting that the quality gap between OLED and QLED screens has narrowed over the past few years. Still, if price isn’t a restrictive force, however, the best OLED TVs are the better choice when seeking out image fidelity and a theater-like experience.