Despite what Samsung’s marketing team says, QLED (quantum dot light-emitting diode) technology doesn’t hold a candle to OLED, but that could be changing. A research duo at the South Korean giant has figured out how to produce diodes that self-illuminate, which would allow for contrast and black levels comparable to LG’s displays. The discovery also brings QLED efficiency up by 21 percent, extending lifetime beyond one million hours.
The production of the first iteration of this will begin in 2021, but will be QD-enabled OLED, which uses organic material as the light source and QD material as a film. It will be more similar to Samsung’s own AMOLED used for mobile phones and LG’s OLED TVs. If Samsung’s eventual goal is to launch a self-emissive QLED display, at minimum, the industry will have to wait until 2025 to see if it is indeed viable.