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00:00Okay, hear me out, because while I think OLED TVs are fantastic and arguably the benchmark
00:06for watching movies and playing games, with the big news from CES being LG's new OLED
00:11EVO panels which promise to boost brightness by a modest 20% and even then only for the
00:16flagship super expensive models with most just getting a new processor and not much
00:21else.
00:22I'm kind of thinking that a lack of innovation over the last couple of years, paired with
00:26limited brightness and still relatively high prices for OLED TVs means new technologies
00:31like mini LED could actually change the whole industry.
00:34Brighter, much improved contrast that's closer than ever to OLED, no risk of burn-in
00:39and crucially they should be cheaper.
00:42So with mini LED coming in from below offering possibly a better value proposition to OLED
00:47and also micro LED coming in from above as the fancy new ultra high-end tech that may
00:52soon trickle down to consumer TVs, could OLED become a bit redundant?
00:56Hey guys, I'm Tom from TechJap and first of all I want to apologize for all the upcoming
01:01acronyms or the LED, LCD, QLED, QNED, micro LED, mini LED, there's so many by the end
01:09of it you'll hate me and also TVs generally but hopefully you will find this useful and
01:13also be as excited as I am for all the new technologies coming in the TV world and if
01:17you do want to see more from me don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
01:21So this guy on the wall behind me is the LG G10, it's the 77-inch model which costs
01:26about five and a half thousand pounds and I absolutely love this thing.
01:30The incredible contrast you get with OLED means you get those inky blacks, rich colors
01:34and we even get great gaming performance with this thanks to low response times, 120Hz,
01:39G-Sync, HDMI 2.1, plus the whole thing is just ridiculously thin.
01:44So it's pretty good as you would expect for five and a half grand.
01:47And of course OLED's biggest advantage comes from having each pixel being able to self-illuminate
01:52with no backlight unlike a traditional LED LCD TV.
01:57So if you're watching a movie and an area of the picture is meant to be black, it will
02:00be as each pixel can be turned off individually.
02:03So don't get me wrong, OLED TVs are great but there are a few issues.
02:07Firstly, while they are a lot better than they were say five years ago, especially when
02:12it comes to brightness which is the traditional weakness of OLED, they've only improved
02:16incrementally over the last couple of years.
02:19I think it's either five or six years now in a row that I've been going to CES in Vegas
02:23where they show off all the new TVs, although of course this year with COVID it was all
02:27online only.
02:28But for the last couple of years or so the big upgrades, particularly with say LG's TVs,
02:32have just been new processors which promise slightly better image processing and a bit
02:36better AI upscaling which is very important when it comes to 4K and particularly 8K.
02:41But I don't think we've really seen anything that's made people want to rush out and upgrade
02:44their TV.
02:46But aside from some modest AI image and processor upgrades, at this year's CES, LG and Sony
02:51introduced slightly brighter OLED models for 2021.
02:55Which is exactly what OLED needs right now but frustratingly they're limited to the higher
02:59end models like LG's new G1 and Sony's master series A90J.
03:04With more affordable OLEDs like the popular LG C and B series just basically getting a
03:09new chip inside.
03:11So arguably there's a bit of a lack of innovation but as well as that, OLED TVs are still really
03:16really expensive.
03:17LG's entry-level 2020 OLED, the 55-inch B10, is not an unreasonable £1,100 or $1,200 but
03:25the pick of the range would be the LG C10 65-inch which launched at about £2,600 or
03:31so and even after 7 months is still over £2,000.
03:34Vizio's new range of OLEDs is a little easier to swallow, though it doesn't get quite as
03:38bright as the more expensive rival OLEDs but it's a step in the right direction at least.
03:43Then there's the small risk of burn-in although to be honest I don't think for most people
03:47it's ever going to be a problem unless you turned off all the safety features like the
03:50pixel refreshes and the standby time and then just left a static screen or had the same
03:55HUD elements on for hours and hours and days at a time then yes maybe you do risk it but
04:00I think for most normal people you're never going to really experience burn-in with a
04:03modern OLED.
04:05On the other hand, mini-LED being an evolution of traditional LED LCD tech doesn't suffer
04:11from any burn-in issues and it can also go a long way to solve one of the biggest problems
04:15with traditional LCD tech if the processing behind them is implemented correctly.
04:21The fact is most people don't have an OLED TV.
04:24I think it makes up about 3% of the market share so the vast majority of people still
04:28have regular LED LCD TVs which are lit by a backlight made up of a grid of LEDs.
04:34The problem is small groups of LEDs are used to light dozens if not hundreds of pixels
04:39which are called local dimming zones.
04:41But now we have mini-LED which well as it says on the tin is just a smaller LED so you
04:47can cram in thousands and thousands more.
04:50So for example a good LCD TV will have a few hundred LEDs while mini-LED models can have
04:55anywhere from a thousand up to thirty thousand in the case of some top-end models and having
05:00more LEDs means more local dimming zones and better screen uniformity overall as there
05:05are smaller gaps between each LED.
05:07The problem is the biggest unknown when it comes to mini-LED is just how well each TV's
05:13processing implements the use of all these local dimming zones.
05:17Just because a TV is mini-LED isn't a guarantee in itself that it will be automatically better.
05:22If the software algorithms aren't developed to make effective use of those extra zones
05:26then the potential benefits to say contrast in particular could be wasted.
05:30And not just that there's also a serious processing overhead for all these extra zones
05:35So this could potentially be an issue particularly on cheaper TVs with less powerful processors.
05:41And so an advantage of OLEDs is that they don't have dimming zones to be controlled
05:44or processed in the same way.
05:47Instead each pixel is mapped with the display information directly and then is lit accordingly.
05:52So these new mini-LED TVs could offer close to not quite the same but similar performance
05:57to OLED while crucially being a lot cheaper.
06:00For example TCL who are best known for their slightly more value oriented TVs brought home
06:05just how good value mini-LED TVs could be even 8K ones compared to OLED.
06:11And it's not just lesser known or budget brands that are jumping onto this mini-LED bandwagon.
06:16Samsung's newest QLED Neo range uses mini-LED and also LG introduced their new QNED or QNED
06:23range which is definitely not confusing at all which also uses mini-LED.
06:28So I'm thinking if I can buy a mini-LED TV that offers similar contrast and a similar
06:33image quality to an OLED TV while also being brighter for a lot less money that seems like
06:38a pretty good deal.
06:39But that's only half the story because to confuse things even further we also have micro-LED
06:44TVs which are much further from being available and will be very expensive to start out with.
06:49But think of micro-LED as an evolution of OLED and so each pixel on a micro-LED produces
06:54its own light which means you get those perfect blacks but with higher brightness, better
06:59HDR abilities than OLED and also no risk of burning either.
07:02I genuinely think micro-LED is the future but right now it's limited to Samsung's crazy
07:08modular The Wall setup and also billionaires on their fancy yachts can buy some massive
07:13very very expensive ones.
07:15For you and me I don't think micro-LED TVs are going to be really an option until probably
07:19next year at the earliest and even then they will be very expensive.
07:22But my point is, with micro-LED trickling down from above and mini-LED offering better
07:27value from below, it could push out OLED in the middle unless we start to see some bigger
07:31innovations in the OLED world.
07:34And it's not just TVs either.
07:36I think mini-LED based monitors and laptops are just as exciting although it looks like
07:40for now these will be limited to high-end panels to start with.
07:44Although Apple is expected to add mini-LED displays to their upcoming iPad and MacBook
07:48Pros which is pretty exciting.
07:51So I really am genuinely excited to see what mini-LED can do because either we get new
07:55better value TVs that offer similar performance to this but for less money which is great
08:00or it gives brands a kick up the backside to innovate a bit more and actually make worthwhile
08:05upgrades year on year, not just whack in a new processor and maybe add 20% brightness
08:10to the flagship models.
08:11The caveat though and something to look out for in mini-LED TV reviews is how well each
08:16model handles all those extra dimming zones.
08:19If the processing is poor then you'll be paying for all those extra LEDs without getting
08:23the full benefit.
08:24But what about you?
08:25What TV are you using at the moment and what new features would tempt you to upgrade?
08:30Let me know in the comments below.
08:31But make sure you have hit that subscribe button and stay tuned as I'll be bringing
08:34you all the latest OLED reviews and also comparisons with mini-LEDs so it's going to be a really
08:40interesting year in the world of TVs.
08:42Cheers for watching and I'll catch you next time right here on The Tech Chap.
08:49The Tech Chap
08:50www.thetechchap.com