LG Electronics, the known OLED TV maker, is among other known panel and T manufacturers that are working on adopting the newer display technology, Mini LED. The company is expected to adopt this new breed of panels for its high end LCD 8K and 4K TVs that will launch next year.
According to LG, Mini LED enables “a giant leap forward in LCD TV picture quality.” At the moment, the premium LCD TVs offer “full-array local dimming,” with LEDs serving as the backlighting behind the display panel. These create zones that can be controlled, with each zone being able to be dimmed as per the dark scenes that are displayed on the screen.
says its new backlight “comprises up to almost 30,000 tiny LEDs that produce incredible peak brightness and a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 when paired with up to 2,500 dimming zones and advanced local dimming zones.” The end result is better contrast, more dynamic HDR, and improved color accuracy over the company’s prior LCD sets. Like all of LG’s 2020 flagships, refresh rates of up to 120Hz are supported.
This results in better contrast, higher dynamic HDR, improved color accuracy over regular LCD TVs. Furthermore, these panels also feature a high refresh rate of up to 120Hz, which is common in the South Korean tech giant’s 2020 flagships. LG has branded these new televisions as QNED TVs, which is similar to TCL’s 8 Series that offers up to 25,000 LEDs as well in over 1,000 control zones. LG is expected to launch QNED in sizes up to 86 inches.
As the leading OLED TV brand, LG is being careful to underline that OLED is still where the absolute best picture can be had even with all these advancements on the LCD side. 2020 saw Vizio enter the OLED TV field and try to undercut LG on price, but LG isn’t about to easily give up its position at the top.
Don’t make the mistake of mixing up Mini LED with MicroLED. Think of Mini LED as another evolution of LCD TVs, whereas MicroLED is a more radical upgrade that removes the backlight from the equation altogether and combines millions of self-emissive LEDs that only light up when they’re needed. MicroLED TVs are still outrageously expensive, and while we won’t know pricing for LG’s QNED TVs for a few more months, it should be much less eye-popping.
