OLED vs LED: What’s the difference and which is better than the other?

There are many variables to consider when buy a television or screen. From resolution to refresh rate, you can feel like you’re drowning in math when trying to choose a new monitor or device.

Before you look at such specific variables, it’s important to understand the underlying technology behind those numbers.

Although OLED screens and LED screens are often marketed side by side, they have very different methods of providing video and backlighting.

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This variance plays a huge role not only in the quality of your image, but also in the size or heaviness of the screen. Read on to find out which of these technologies is best for what purpose and to discover whether OLED or LED is better for your needs.

Main difference

The biggest difference between these two technologies is the work or jobs they do and how they do them. LED (Light Emitting Diode) does not produce the displayed image. That is actually handled by a transparent LCD (Liquid Crystal Display). However, since LCD screens do not emit light on their own, the panel would look almost black without the backlighting provided by the LEDs placed behind or around them.

On basic, older displays, the backlight may include at least 10 LED “light zones” or less. This often makes the dark parts of the image look too bright or gray due to incorrect lighting placement. More modern screens provide more illumination, farther, sometimes into the thousands. Now, each small part of the screen can get the exact light it needs for ideal image brightness and black levels.

OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) completely solve this backlight conundrum by creating images and emitting their own light. You can think of each individual pixel of an OLED display like a tiny light bulb that changes color. This makes it possible to turn it off completely to provide perfect black levels or shine in any color or pure white. We’ll cover more about the benefits and limitations of this capability in the next section.

You should buy an OLED display or device if…

1. You want the thinnest, sleekest display possible

One of the biggest benefits of OLED’s self-lighting is the fact that there’s no need for any additional hardware behind them. This allows for the creation of wafer-thin displays that almost disappear when viewed from the side (as seen above). For TVs, this means thinner, lighter, and, frankly, more eye-catching devices that look like something from the future. For mobile devices, this saves space and weight, allowing for thinner, lighter smartphones and tablets.

2. Reducing power consumption is very important

While OLED TVs and screens can help reduce our electricity bills by using less electricity than comparable sized LED-lit screens, reducing the power consumption of OLED technology that really makes a difference is in mobile devices. OLED screens can basically turn off black pixels. This allows your display to use part of the power of an LED-lit display as any completely black part of the screen consumes almost no power, significantly reducing power consumption. tell.

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3. You want the best black level

As mentioned above, OLED screens can completely turn off individual pixels to deliver perfect black levels. Most LED-lit displays let a little light hit the pixels that are said to be completely black. This results in that perfect black that resembles a gradation of a slightly darker gray. LED-based displays can improve this by using smaller illumination zones or opting for newer technologies like mini LEDs (more on this in the FAQs below) to reduce flicker, but OLED eliminates this entirely through its ability to deliver both color and intrinsic color. light on a per-pixel basis.

You should buy an LED display or device if…

1. You are on a tight budget

OLED screens and smartphones can deliver some of the best images you’ll ever see. But those gorgeous black levels and super-saturated colors come at a financial cost. For example, you might have to pay $1,500 north for a good 4K OLED TV in class 65 inches. Meanwhile, at the time of writing, you can get a 65-inch LED Backlight TV for $550. Will the image quality be exactly the same? No. However, you can only buy three of those LED displays for the same price as an OLED model.

2. You need the fastest refresh rate

This one is for the gamers out there. Competitive gaming is all about the pursuit of the highest refresh rates. This specification defines the number of frames per second that a monitor can display. The higher it is, the smoother your game will be and the faster you can react to on-screen action. This is an area where LED-lit display technologies such as VA (Vertical Alignment) or TN (Twisted Nematic) still lead. Monitors from companies like Alienware with refresh rates as high as 360Hz or 360 frames per second, has been available for a while. Meanwhile, the First 240Hz OLED display from LG only recently.

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3. You need maximum brightness

OLED-based displays typically cannot be as bright as their LED-based displays. Light output, usually measured in nits, typically peaks around 1,000 for OLED displays. Meanwhile, LED models can go up to 5,000 to 8,000 nits. It is debatable whether such extreme lighting even provides a usable image in most cases, but the point is that LEDs can be very, very bright when needed. This is important for things like outdoor TVs, smartphones and smartwatches that you’ll use outside frequently, and other screens that mostly live in brightly lit rooms.

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