Fun With Data – QD/OLED
Recent measurements taken by a reputable source during a demonstration and comparison of Samsung Display’s (pvt) QD/OLED display technology and that of LG Display’s (LPL) WOLED display technology revealed a set of comparisons that showed superior results for SDC’s QD/OLED displays. That said we have to qualify the results somewhat as the tests were not made on the displays themselves but on TV sets using such displays. The QD/OLED set was a Sony (SNE) A95K, a $3,000 set ($2,500 for the 55” model) and the comparative set was an LG (066570.KS) C2, a $1,700 set ($1,300 for the 55” model). Both are 4K UHD sets with 120 Hz refresh rates, with the Sony set boasting a “Pixel Contrast Booster” and “XR Triluminos Max™ XR Smoothing”, systems that process the signal to make it “more pleasant to the human eye at all brightness levels”, while the LG set has EVO, a system that combines an enhanced OLED emitting stack and an AI processor that “…make EVO brighter than similar sized conventional LG OLED models”.
After one wades through the marketing, the sets were tested with a handheld colorimeter, which is a device that measures the color palette of displays, using a sensitivity model that is the same as the human eye, so different than an absolutely technical evaluation, such as might be done by a spectrometer, this device reports the brightness the way we might actually see it. As these sets use a variety of systems to ‘enhance’ the color gamut, the panel itself is not being tested but the set in its entirety, and settings for those enhancements should be at default levels, although that is not always the case at demonstration events and in retail situations. With those caveats, the data is shown in Figure 1, with the Sony (QD/OLED) as the left bar and the LG (WOLED) as the right bar for each primary and CMYK color.
The charts shows that the QD/OLED set produces higher values for each color, with red, yellow, and magenta being the most significant, with white being similar, and likely unnoticeable to the average user. While again, we caution that these measurements are after set enhancements and not the panels themselves, so the readings and comparisons are influenced by both the panels and the associated set electronics, but they represent a bit more incremental information about Samsung Display’s QD/OLED panels and help to validate SDC’s claims of superior color reproduction. Samsung Display is expected to go into mare detail about the improvements they have made to their QD/OLED panels at CES in early January, but the average buyer would likely only care if the sets themselves were visibly different enough to justify the newer technology, or if the price differential were unusually large. We do note that the Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) QD/OLED TV sets, which were not measured here, cost $1,800 for the 65” set and $1,500 for the 55” set, far closer to the prices of the LG WOLED sets than the more expensive Sony models.
After one wades through the marketing, the sets were tested with a handheld colorimeter, which is a device that measures the color palette of displays, using a sensitivity model that is the same as the human eye, so different than an absolutely technical evaluation, such as might be done by a spectrometer, this device reports the brightness the way we might actually see it. As these sets use a variety of systems to ‘enhance’ the color gamut, the panel itself is not being tested but the set in its entirety, and settings for those enhancements should be at default levels, although that is not always the case at demonstration events and in retail situations. With those caveats, the data is shown in Figure 1, with the Sony (QD/OLED) as the left bar and the LG (WOLED) as the right bar for each primary and CMYK color.
The charts shows that the QD/OLED set produces higher values for each color, with red, yellow, and magenta being the most significant, with white being similar, and likely unnoticeable to the average user. While again, we caution that these measurements are after set enhancements and not the panels themselves, so the readings and comparisons are influenced by both the panels and the associated set electronics, but they represent a bit more incremental information about Samsung Display’s QD/OLED panels and help to validate SDC’s claims of superior color reproduction. Samsung Display is expected to go into mare detail about the improvements they have made to their QD/OLED panels at CES in early January, but the average buyer would likely only care if the sets themselves were visibly different enough to justify the newer technology, or if the price differential were unusually large. We do note that the Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) QD/OLED TV sets, which were not measured here, cost $1,800 for the 65” set and $1,500 for the 55” set, far closer to the prices of the LG WOLED sets than the more expensive Sony models.
Colorimeter Comparison - QD/OLED vs. WOLED - Source: SCMR LLC, Chris Cinnock
RSS Feed