Samsung On The Verge Of Buying Millions Of OLED Panels From LG

In the battle between QLED and OLED, Samsung has traditionally backed the former, with its range of both 4K and 8K televisions boasting the quantum-dot LED technology.

Numerous South Korean tech publications are now reporting that Samsung is on the verge of doing a major backflip, as it moves to buy “millions” of OLED panels from rivals LG.

This is an interesting move, as Samsung has been touting the benefits of QLED over OLED for years, claiming that OLED has muted brightness, and that the self-emissive pixels can cause images to be permanently burned into the screen.

Conversely, QLED makes use of an LCD backlight and a quantum-dot colour filter, which, according to Samsung, gives more vibrant colours and improved contrast.

The company’s 2021 range is branded as Neo QLED, which adds a MiniLED backlight, multiplying the total LED number to widen viewing angles and further increase brightness.

Considering that Samsung is the sole manufacturer of QLED panels, and LG is the sole manufacturers of OLED panels, this is a huge concession from Samsung, who flirted with making OLED technology in 2014, before dismissing it as too expensive.

Rumours abound that Samsung has been working towards an OLED-QLED hybrid; perhaps this contract with LG is a step further along this path.