When buying a TV during the 618 Shopping Festival, should you choose LCD, OLED or Mini LED? Learn their advantages and disadvantages in one article!

Are OLED TVs still okay?

In early May this year, LG announced the recall of a batch of OLED TVs in Australia. This is not the first time LG has recalled OLED TVs.

In July 2020, LG announced a recall plan for OLED TVs in South Korea; in September 2020, LG announced a plan to recall OLED TVs in the Chinese market, involving 13 models of OLED TVs and a total of 9,434 units. The reasons for the three recalls were basically the same, all due to overheating of the power board.

As the leader in the OLED TV field and the world's only large-size OLED panel manufacturer (almost all brands of OLED TV panels on the market come from LGD), LG recalls its products so frequently. While we applaud its responsible behavior, we can't help but question the prospects of OLED TVs - can it still work?

The advantages of OLED TV are obvious

When talking about OLED TVs, it is natural to compare them with traditional LCD TVs (also commonly known as liquid crystal TVs).

The images we see on various screens are made up of countless small pixels, and each pixel has three sub-pixels: red, green, and blue. Each pixel forms different colors by adjusting the ratio of these three sub-pixels. Finally, all the pixels are pieced together to form the picture we see.

Traditional LCD screens form images through the collaboration of a backlight layer, a liquid crystal layer, and a color filter: the backlight layer emits white light, the liquid crystal layer is responsible for controlling the amount of white light emitted, and the color filter completes the task of "coloring" the white light, adjusting the ratio of red, green, and blue by controlling the amount of white light emitted.

OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode, which is usually composed of a series of organic thin films sandwiched between two thin film conductive electrodes. OLED emits light through these organic thin films. OLED is like a small light bulb, each of which can independently control the light emission of pixels to form various colors. Therefore, OLED screens do not need a backlight layer and liquid crystal layer like LCD screens, and can emit light when powered on.

The color display principle of LCD screens causes it to have a major flaw: LCD screens usually use a whole white backlight panel, so if you want to display black, you can only close the liquid crystal layer as much as possible, but the liquid crystal layer cannot be completely closed. Therefore, even with the most advanced LCD screens, the displayed black cannot be pure black, but white with a layer of black filter added.

In contrast, it is very simple for OLED screens to display black: just turn off the pixels in the black area, so the displayed "black" is closer to pure black. The contrast we often talk about refers to the contrast value between black and white, and OLED screens can display higher contrast than LCD screens by virtue of the purer black characteristics.

The disadvantage of "screen burn-in" makes people shudder

OLED screens are not perfect either, and the most commonly criticized issue is "screen burn-in".

Since each pixel of OLED is self-luminous, each pixel has different working time, which leads to different wear and tear. If some pixels work for a long time, they will age more than other pixels, leaving dark spots that cannot be removed, which is what we call "screen burn-in".

Although manufacturers are willing to promote Dolby Vision, it is definitely not in the form of "screen burn-in".

Although screen burn-in is the most commonly mentioned problem with OLED screens, it is not common on TVs.

First of all, screen burn-in is more likely to occur when the same image is played for a long time in a certain area of ​​the screen (a typical example is a TV station logo), but it is less likely to occur in scenes such as movies and games where the images change rapidly.

Secondly, with the advancement of technology, the lifespan of organic materials used in OLED is also increasing, and TV systems are also beginning to use methods such as pixel shifting and pixel refresh at the software level to avoid displaying the same picture in one area for a long time.

Although LG's recall of OLED TVs in China, South Korea and Australia was not related to screen burn-in, the large-scale problems still raise some doubts about this category that has not yet been widely popularized - if the problem is due to the immaturity of technology, then is it too early to promote OLED TVs now? If it is due to LG's quality control problems, then who can guarantee that the products they buy will not be affected when LG almost monopolizes OLED TV panels?

Of course, concerns about quality are not entirely the main reason affecting the popularity of OLED.

Consumers' core concern: price

According to Omdia statistics, the market share of OLED TVs was 5.9% in 2019 and 7.4% in 2020, and is expected to reach 10% in 2020. Although the market share of OLED TVs has increased year by year and the growth rate is also accelerating, it can be seen that they are still not the mainstream of the market.

In fact, the most important reason is: expensive.

Take JD.com as an example. Searching for "TV" and limiting the search scope to 65-inch 4K OLED TVs, we can see that the top-ranked products are generally priced around 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, which is really unaffordable for ordinary families. However, if we remove the OLED filter, we can see that there are many good options in the price range from 3,000 yuan to 7,000 yuan.

Many people often say this when evaluating high-end digital products: "You don't notice it when you don't use it, but once you use it, you can't go back." But for most people, if the experience of existing products is good enough, there is no need to spend a lot of money to buy a product that "you won't know until you use it."

The theory of "spending money on an expensive product that can last for several years" does not seem to apply when buying a TV: a mobile phone from five years ago may have obvious lags, and a computer from five years ago may not be able to play the latest games, but a TV from five years ago should be able to play today's movies. This makes people not have as much demand for replacing TVs as they do for replacing mobile phones and computers.

In addition to LCD TVs, which still occupy a large market share, the emerging Mini LED technology is also competing with OLED for the market.

LCD strikes back: Mini LED

The first thing to make clear is that Mini LED is a display technology, not a screen panel.

Mini LED is mainly used with LCD panels. As mentioned above, LCD screens require a large backlight panel, and its light source is mostly LED. Mini LED is a miniaturized LED. Using this technology, more LED beads can be packed into the same area of ​​the panel, which makes the backlight control more precise and detailed, improves the brightness and contrast of the screen, and thus achieves a better display effect.

Since Mini LED evolved from LED technology, the development threshold for manufacturers is relatively low, which has led many manufacturers to begin to develop Mini LED products on a large scale.

Data shows that the global sales of Mini LED backlit TVs in 2020 were only 200,000 units, but it is expected that the sales of Mini LED backlit TVs will soar to 4.4 million units in 2021, and this number will exceed 35.5 million in 2025. The forecast of Minsheng Securities Research Institute also shows that the global Mini LED backlight and Mini LED display market will maintain steady growth in 2021.

But Mini LED has the same problem as OLED: price.

The characteristics of Mini LED determine that in order to achieve a more delicate display effect, more lamp beads are needed, which means an increase in cost.

Common Mini LED display devices on the market currently include: Xiaomi Master TV Supreme Commemorative Edition priced at 49,999 yuan, Apple Pro Display XDR priced at 39,999 yuan, and TCL OD Zero Mini LED X12 Smart Screen priced at 99,999 yuan. The only one with a relatively affordable price is the R645C series launched by TCL's brand Thunderbird, with prices ranging from 4,999 to 7,999, but this series of products uses relatively few LED lamp beads and light control zones.

OLED still has a bright future

In general, although there are wolves in front and tigers behind, the prospects for OLED TVs are still promising.

No matter how good Mini LED is, it is still a backlight technology and has inherent shortcomings compared to self-luminous OLED. Although Micro LED, the "ultimate form" of Mini LED, is a self-luminous technology, it has not yet entered the consumer market.

The price of OLED, which is the most troublesome thing, is also expected to continue to fall. According to media reports, LG is expected to produce 7 million to 8 million OLED panels this year, and will also add two new panel sizes, 43 inches and 85 inches, to expand its product line. The increase in production capacity has brought about a reduction in costs. Statistics agency Omdia said that in the first quarter of 2021, the price of OLED TV panels fell by 8% year-on-year. In contrast, the price of 55-inch LCD TV panels rose by a full 74% year-on-year.

In the field of mid-to-high-end TVs, the proportion of OLED TVs has also been steadily increasing. Last year, OLED TVs accounted for 33.5% of TVs priced above US$2,000 (approximately RMB 12,900), and this year it is expected to grow to 40.3%.

It is foreseeable that in the next two to three years, LCD will still occupy the majority market share, but as OLED technology matures and prices fall, it will surely attract more consumers' attention.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.