The Evolution of Mini-LED Technology: A Game-Changer for High-End Displays

Fundamentally, a mini-LED is just an LED, but smaller. It's a technology that has been gaining attention lately, and for good reason. One of the main advantages of mini-LED over traditional LEDs is its compact size, which makes it ideal for use in high-end displays. However, some people might not be excited about it because they don't see what's so special about a smaller LED.

But hold on, because mini-LED is actually the same technology that enabled Apple to create their upcoming iPad Pro, which everyone is so excited about. This suggests that mini-LED has a lot of potential for use in high-end devices. However, it's worth noting that Samsung's new generation of Neo QLED TVs takes the idea of mini-LED to a whole new level. On these displays, you can have mini-LED technology integrated into a display that's up to 85 inches diagonally.

On paper, the benefits of Quantum Dot and mini-LED are similar. Both technologies offer crazy brightness, accurate and wide gamut color, and resistance to burn-in. Additionally, they both claim to deliver black levels that are competitive with OLED, which is a significant advantage over traditional LCD displays. This is a lot to live up to, especially when it comes to high-end TVs.

As we delve into the world of high-end TV technology, we find ourselves facing two competing technologies: QLED and OLED. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but one stands out as the best option for many users: OLED. The main advantage of OLED is that each individual pixel acts as its own backlight, allowing it to be turned off individually. This means that the color black can actually be just black, without any light bleed or leakage.

However, there are some drawbacks to OLED displays. At least as of 2020 models, they are not bright enough for use in well-lit environments. However, this is changing with LG's second-gen OLED panels, which are supposedly much brighter than their predecessors. It will be interesting to see how these new panels perform in our upcoming review.

In contrast, traditional LCD displays rely on a backlight shining through one or multiple filter layers to achieve blackness. The only way to make the display truly black is to remove or block as much of that light as possible. However, this can result in a washed-out sort of bluish purpley black that makes it virtually impossible for older TVs to display HDR or high-dynamic range content.

To combat this issue, manufacturers came up with the idea of splitting the backlight into zones that could be individually dimmed to reduce the amount of light in dark areas of the scene. This is a clever solution, but it's not without its limitations. When you only have 50 zones on a 75-inch display, they can be quite large and very obvious, resulting in something called the halo effect.

The halo effect is simply a fancy way of saying that the individual dimming zones can create noticeable light leaks around the edges of the screen. This can be distracting and detract from the overall viewing experience. It's not ideal for all users, especially those who value a clean and distraction-free visual experience.

In contrast, mini-LED technology offers a more nuanced solution to this problem. By using multiple zones that can be individually dimmed, mini-LED displays can achieve true blacks without sacrificing image quality. This makes them an attractive option for users who want the best possible picture quality in their TV.

With Samsung's new generation of Neo QLED TVs, we're seeing a display technology that combines the benefits of Quantum Dot and mini-LED. On these displays, you get crazy brightness, accurate and wide gamut color, resistance to burn-in, and black levels that are competitive with OLED. It's a winning combination that sets a new standard for high-end TV displays.

But what about QLED itself? How does it compare to mini-LED? In terms of benefits, both technologies offer similar advantages such as crazy brightness and accurate color. However, QLED also has the advantage of being more widely available than mini-LED, at least in terms of existing displays on the market.

In contrast, Samsung's Neo QLED TVs take the concept of mini-LED to a whole new level. By using this technology in conjunction with Quantum Dot, they've created a display that's both brighter and more color accurate than OLED. It's a bold move that could potentially disrupt the TV industry as we know it.

As we look to the future of high-end displays, it's clear that mini-LED technology is going to play a major role. With its compact size, versatility, and ability to deliver true blacks, it's an attractive option for manufacturers looking to create the best possible picture quality in their TVs. Whether you're a fan of Apple's iPad Pro or Samsung's Neo QLED TVs, one thing is clear: mini-LED technology is the future of high-end displays.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Fundamentally,a mini-LED is just an LED,but smaller.So I can understand why some peoplewouldn't be that excited about it.But hold onbecause mini-LED,that's the same technologythat enabled Apple tocreate their upcoming iPad Prothat everyone is so excited about.Except, that on Samsung's newgeneration of Neo QLED TVs,you can have it in a displaythat's up to 85 inches diagonally.On paper, they've got allthe benefits of Quantum Dot.Like crazy brightness,accurate and wide gamut color,and resistance to burn-in,and they could even deliver black levelsthat are competitive with OLED.That is a lot to live up to.(mysterious electronic music)Just like your expectationsfor my sponsor segues.- Honey is thefree to use shopping toolthat helps search someof the best promo codeson lots of your favorite sites.Get it today and join Honey.com/LTT.(upbeat music)In high-end TV spacetoday you essentially havetwo competing technologies:QLED, which is short forQuantum Dot LED backlit LCDand OLED, which is short for Organic LED.You've probably heard me call OLEDthe best TV technology on themarket, and justifiably so.It's main advantage isthat each individual pixelacts as its own backlightand can be turned off individually;allowing the color blackto be just actually black,as in a complete lack of light.However, it's not for everyone.At least as of the 2020 models,OLED displays just aren't bright enoughthat I would call them a perfect optionfor a well-lit environment like this one.Although LG did just launchtheir second-gen OLED panelswhich are supposedly much brighter.Get subscribed so you don'tmiss our upcoming review,a Sony TV of all things,that has one of those.Getting back to more traditionaldisplay designs though.When you've got abacklight shining throughone or multiple filter layers,the only way to achieve blackis to remove or block as muchof that light as you can.Now, with a single full screen backlight,the best that you can reallydo was a washed out sort ofbluish purpley black,that makes it virtuallyimpossible for older TVsto display HDR or highdynamic range content.To combat this, manufacturerscame up with the ideaof splitting the backlight into zonesthat could be individually dimmedto reduce the amount of lightin dark areas of the scene,making them more black.Or, well, rather less lit.Really cool.But when you only have50 zones, for example,on a 75 inch display,they can be pretty large and very obvious,resulting in somethingcalled the halo effect.Which is just a fancy way of saying,\"Wow, I can really see wherethe backlight zones areand they're super distracting.\"It's especially noticeablewhen a user interface elementcomes up over top of a dark background,like a loading circle or media controls.That's not to say thoughthat there aren't any TVswith lots of backlight zones.Like Vizio's P SeriesQuantum X, for example,which has 480 on the 75-inch model.But even that is not reallycompetitive with the nearly8.3 millionzoneson an equivalent 4K OLED.So either OLEDs need to get brighter,QLEDs need to get enoughback lighting zonesto effectively eliminate the halo effect,or we just need somethingelse all togetherbefore we end up withsomething that I would callthe ideal viewing experience,regardless of the environment.Now, Samsung themselves areworking on micro-LED displayswhich would, similarly to OLED displays,have pixel level control.But they're not (coughs) how you say?Price feasible for theaverage end user just yet.That long history lessonis where Neo QLED comes in.This is Samsung's first forayinto mini-LED technology.Mini-LEDs were developed tohelp shrink the backlight LEDsdown as much as possiblein an effort to add more dimming zones.And this is the sameapproach that Apple takeswith their new iPad Pro,except that it has nearly 10,000 mini-LEDscontributing to 2,500 zoneson just a 12.9 inch display.That is very impressivedensity to say the least.This TV by contrast, pun intended,isn't anywhere near the levelthat Apple is able to achieve.More on that later.But I still wanna give it a shot.So let's... (laughs)Oh God!Well, just finishedthe set up process hereand it's got a nice phonewizard to make the setup easier,like most modern TVs and consoles.But one thing that didstand out that was positivewas that Samsung allows you to chooseyour own voice assistantrather than forcing you to use Bixby.That truly is a pretty nice touch.Now, price-wise the QN85A a we have hereis that nearly the same pricelevel as LG's 2020 model OLEDslike the C10 at each size.So we grabbed a 48-inch C10for our image quality comparison.Don't mind the fact that they'rea little bit different in terms of size.Now, both of them are intheir default filmmaker modesfor the most accurate representationof the original footage.But it is worth noting that these modesare not typically thebrightest that they can do.In a bright room, and thisis a very bright room.We've got direct sunlight coming in,bouncing off the floor overat the other end there.- We've got all the lights on.- They look kind of similar.- If you lied to me and said,\"That's an OLED and that's anOLED,\" I'd be like, \"Okay.\"- It looks totally fine.I don't notice any bloom.- Nope.- It's hard to tellin these scenes though.But, no, it looks good.If it's hard to tell thatmeans they're doing a good job.- Yeah.- So what I've read isthat Samsung's algorithmfor doing this sort ofstuff is very passive.Like they really try to not have bloom.- As opposed to seeking theblackest possible black levels.- So, if you,notice in certain scenes,if you have very dark andjust a small amount of light,that light will not look very bright.- Is LG in like a warm presetfor its filmmaker mode?Because, honestly, the Samsung looksway more true to life to me.There's your problem, \"Warm2.\"- Try \"Warm1.\"- Thanks for that.- That looks prettymuch the same. Warm1.- That's pretty close, try cool.Or medium, medium.I think that's it.- Okay.- You know what?There is a little bit of greenin the Samsung, just a touch.Now I kind of want to playaround with this one too.There we go.That isdamn close.Holy crap. (laughs)- So off axis over here, itstill looks pretty green to me.- Oh, Okay. Well here, letme, let me move for a sec.- Okay.Holy crap.Okay. So sitting straight on.Wow. They are very similar.Now this one looks too green,at least in this scene.- I think we're at the pointnow where we're splittinghairs finely enough, thatit's pretty clear that eitherof these TVs with 15 seconds in the menuyou could get to whatever look you want.- But it'sLike, what I'm trying tolook at is the contrast.And like in this scene, you can see thatthat sort of metal structure in the back,and you can see more inthe darks in this TV.And I think that's justthe additional brightnessthat this TV has.But in terms of like blacks,like even the bottom bar.- Yep.- Looks totally blackbecause I have an older QLEDthat doesn't have very many dimming zonesand when I'm watching a movielike this, you will see theblack bars at the bottom.- It's awful.It's awful.Honestly, it's one of thereasons that regardlessof everything else I made the switchto OLED as soon as I could,because sitting, especiallyin a dark room and seeingthat bloom around the imageon ultra wide contentit's very distracting.- Okay, so this room is very brightlike more bright thanyour living room would be.But I think this TV is acceptableand this one is just like maybe 10% darkerthan I want it to be.So maybe the nextgeneration would be enough.- I might actually, it might be enough.- Wow. Look at this.Look at that, that's insane.- Yeah. And, but you don't loseany of the detail in the darks toolike I've seen in the past.- Like look at his face,you see more of his face for sure.- Yep.- What does it feel like off-axis though- It's fine.- It's fine?- Yeah. I mean, onething I noticed when it,when it was on the test bench beforewhen we just had it on the floor.Was that standing above it is not as good,but if Samsungs smartthey would have tuned this thing to watchfrom either level or below.And the reason for thatis a lot of people mountthese on their fireplaces.- Oh, for sure.- They're monsters, but they do it.So Samsung's gotta be ready for it.- I'm like actually shocked.- I'm, I'm pretty surprised too,because I was not expecting themto perform this similarly side by side.- I was like beatin' on it before,when we had it set up that it was below usbecause the bloom bad offaxis but now it looks.- It looks great.- Yeah.-- Wow.- For PC useI would still go OLED regardless becausewhen you've got a mouse cursormoving around or whateverthere's no amount of dimmingzones that you can havethat's going to deliver aperfect experience there.- Okay. But should wetry them in a dark room?- We definitely should.Now it's time for the real test.Ittstore.com by the way.We're in a dark room now.All we've got is the bare minimum amountof light we need for filming.And- This is whereyou would see more bloom.- Yeah.- There's noambient light to hide it.- Yeah.I am really impressed.I was kind of expectingthis to just be kind ofa blowout; pun intended.- Yeah.- Not only can Istill see a ton of detailand extremely dark partsof the scene on the QLEDwhich means that they haven'tjust turned the backlightoff basically in those areas.Like we're, we're stillgetting light throughbut I can see the differencebetween the black barand almost black.- Like bottom left- Like theblack a camera captured,you know what I mean?Which is not quite black.- Look at the bottom left.- Yeah. I can totally see it.I can see the line- And I'm off axis,- All the way across.like I'm very far off angleand it looks pretty damn good.This is good for an IPS display,like there's not much backlight bleed.- I was kind of expecting adifferent conclusion today.You were, you were a bigger downer.I told them, I was like,I want to try this TV.And he's like, ah.- I was so sure this was going toend up as the (beep) manufacturers say,and we were so wrong.(Linus laughs)- It's almost like Samsungwent and bought some LG TVs.And when they were workingon the pricing for thisthey were like, \"we know whatthis is competitive with.\"- Should I buy one of these? (laughs)If we did a blind tastetest of this, pick the OLED.I don't think people couldfigure it out accurately.Do you think you could?I don't think I could- Not without getting really close- Yeah- If I, okay, you know what?-(indistinct)Let's try it.Yeah. If I get in here reallyclose I can see the bloombut that's only if I use my handto block the brighter parts of the image,cause what you got to understand isthe way your eye works.You've got a fixed amount ofdynamic range that is the brightestor darkest things youcan perceive at a time.But just like a camera, youcan actually close the irisso that, that range movesup to perceive differencesin brighter objects or openit up, your pupil, remember?And you can see a greater rangeof things that are dimmer.So bottom line, as longas there's enough contrastalmost black will look black.We just hadn't gotten there yet.So long answer.Yes. I could tell.Short answer.No, not from an actualreasonable viewing distance.Well, we had a scripted kind of outrowhere we summarized everythingbut I'm probably going to have tokind of wing it at this point.(Linus and Jake laughing)Before we concludeI want to come back to questionof dimming zones though.Samsung hasn't officiallyreleased informationon how many zones the 75 inch QN85A has.Samsung; supreme is not a number.Just release proper spec sheets.But other reviewers havepainstakingly counted 1,320on the 85 inch variantand just under 800 on the 65 inch.That puts us at arounda thousand for the 75which sounds a lot lessimpressive when you compare itto the iPad, especiallywhen you consider the size.But it's about doublewhat Vizio was able to dowith normal LEDs last year.And so while it might not bean earth shattering increasein zones, you have to considerthat this is their firstmass market displaymaking use of this technology.And that, see this iswhere I got to ad-lib,the result is actually really really good.Enough about video though.I want to talk about audio for a bit.As a soundbar pleb,another feature I wanted to checkout is Samsung's, \"Q symphony,\"and it's basically a way for your TVand your soundbar to worktogether using the speakersfrom both to enhance the audio experience.It actually launched withSamsung's last year QLEDs,but I haven't gottena chance to try it yetso I figured what the hey,we're all set up anyway.Actually they didn't send asoundbar so I had to go buy one,but other than that itwas very little effort.(TV audio plays in background)Hmm.Well.That's really unfortunate.I was really hoping to compare just the TVto just the soundbar, to thetwo of them working together.And I just don't think I'mgoing to be able to do it.Our teams did say thatthe soundbar has troublein environments with a lot of interferencelike (coughs) our office.Andthere's like constant hiccups.It'skind of unusable actuallySoundbar aside my expectationswere subverted todayand having seen the 85I'm now pretty curious about the 90,which uses a VA rather than an IPS paneland is rated for even higher brightness,though it does have thesame number of zones.With that said, there's a lotof competition on the market.LG has their, basicallymonopoly on OLED panels.At least high-end ones.Samsung is pushing towardsmicro LED themselvesand there's other playerslike Hisense with those sweet,like dual cell displays.They have a second 10ADP monochrome LCD layerthat does almost pixellevel lighting control.So again, subscribeso you don't miss ourreview of that as well.And if you're looking forsomething else to watchwhy not check out theIntel extreme rig upgradethat we did for our camera guy, David.He actually used this same C10 48 inchas a gaming monitor becausehe's a mad lad like that.Just like I'm a mad lad.I'm going to tell youall about micro center.Get the best prices and bestselection on computer hardwareand everything else technologyat any one of micro centers25 locations in the U.S.You can check out microcenter's custom PC builderto spec out the best PC for your budget.It'll ensure all yourparts are compatible,find stock available at yournearest micro center location,add it to your cart,and then you can arrangesame day in-store pickup.For a fee you can check the boxmarked same day pro assemblyand Micro Center's expert technicianswill assemble the PC for you.If you want help decidingwhat parts to put inyour custom gaming PC.Join the new onlineMicro Center community.It's a great place to discusstech with other enthusiasts.So check out the link below tolearn more about micro centerand find details on getting a free pairof wireless Bluetooth headphones.Valid in store only,no purchase necessary.Okay. If you're still here,go watch Davidson telestreamTech Upgrade; it was fun.- Yeah. Best one.(camera slams into monitor)(groaning)\n"