Oled reviews: The 4 Best OLED TVs – Summer 2023: Reviews

Aug 6, 2023 alexxlab

The 4 Best OLED TVs – Summer 2023: Reviews

Table of Contents
Intro

Best TV

Best Living Room

Best Mid-Range

Best Budget

Notable Mentions
Recent Updates
All Reviews
Discussions

Updated Jun 29, 2023 at 10:30 am

By Pierre-Olivier Jourdenais

By the very nature of the technology, all TVs on this list have much in common, regardless of price point. Even entry-level OLED TVs deliver fantastic dark room performance, with deep inky blacks and no distracting blooming around bright objects in dark scenes. New technologies like QD-OLED and MLA (Micro Lens Array) are starting to set the high-end models apart, with more vibrant colors and brighter highlights.

Note: Remember that we only buy and test products available in the United States. While this list is relevant regardless of your region, a few popular models from Panasonic and Philips aren’t available in the US, so we haven’t tested them.

We’ve bought and tested more than 45 TVs that use an OLED panel, and below are our recommendations for the best OLED 4k TVs you can buy in the US that we’ve tested. See our picks for the best TVs, the best TVs for Xbox One Series X, and the best TVs for PS5. Brands have started releasing their 2023 lineups, so vote on which ones you want us to buy and test. To learn more about the 2023 models, check out our 2023 TV lineup page.

Best OLED TV

LG G3 OLED

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Mixed Usage

9.1

TV Shows

8.8

Sports

9.0

Video Games

9. 4

HDR Movies

9.1

HDR Gaming

9.1

PC Monitor

9.5

Type

OLED

Sub-Type

WOLED

Resolution

4k

Sizes
55″ 65″ 77″ 83″

See all our test results

The LG G3 OLED is the best OLED TV we’ve tested, especially if you want to upgrade your home theater experience. It stands out from the other OLED TVs on this list thanks to its Micro Lens Array (MLA) layer, which acts as a focusing lens to enhance the brightness of the TV’s WOLED panel, making it very bright indeed. It has many additional features, like support for every variable refresh rate (VRR) technology, full HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all its HDMI ports, and very low input lag for super responsive gaming.

What makes this a home theater standout is its support of Dolby Vision HDR, allowing it to deliver an incredibly immersive movie-watching experience that perfectly recreates the content creator’s intention. It also supports a wider range of advanced audio codecs, including DTS:X, one of the most widely used audio formats on UHD Blu-ray discs, ensuring you’ll get the best audio experience possible when connected to a compatible A/V receiver or soundbar.

See our review
Best Living Room OLED TV

Samsung S95B OLED

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Mixed Usage

9.1

Movies

9.4

TV Shows

8. 8

Sports

9.0

Video Games

9.3

HDR Movies

9.0

HDR Gaming

9.3

PC Monitor

9.7

Type

OLED

Sub-Type

QD-OLED

Resolution

4k

Sizes
55″ 65″

See all our test results

If you’re looking for a new TV for a bright living room and don’t care about advanced home theater features, check out the Samsung S95B OLED. It’s very similar to the Sony A95K OLED and very close in performance to the LG G3 OLED. Still, you’re losing out on a few advanced features like Dolby Vision HDR support, so some movies don’t look quite as good, as well as advanced audio features like DTS:X, so it’s a bit more complicated if you want to take full advantage of a home theater receiver and surround sound. What you lose in features, you gain in price: the S95B is significantly cheaper than the A95K or the G3.

Like all OLED TVs on this list, it delivers fantastic picture quality, with deep, inky blacks and no distracting haloing or blooming around bright areas in otherwise dark scenes. What stands out most, however, is its color performance. It displays a wider color gamut than WOLED displays like LG’s OLEDs and some of Sony’s. The colors are much brighter and more vibrant, delivering a more realistic viewing experience. It’s been replaced in 2023 by the Samsung S95C OLED, which is almost as bright as the G3, and while the S95C is certainly one of the best OLED 4k TVs you can get, it isn’t currently worth the price difference over its predecessor. As the price decreases, it’ll eventually become the better buy, but for now, get the 2022 model.

See our review
Best Mid-Range OLED TV

LG C2 OLED

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Mixed Usage

8. 8

TV Shows

8.4

Sports

8.6

Video Games

9.3

HDR Movies

8.8

HDR Gaming

9.0

PC Monitor

9.3

Type

OLED

Sub-Type

WOLED

Resolution

4k

Sizes
42″ 48″ 55″ 65″ 77″ 83″

See all our test results

The LG C2 OLED is the best mid-range OLED TV we’ve tested. Although all OLEDs deliver similar fantastic picture quality, this one stands out for its value with its many gaming-oriented features. It provides the same stunning picture quality as other OLEDs in dark rooms, with perfect blacks and no blooming around bright objects. However, it uses a different OLED panel than the Samsung S95B OLED or Sony A95K OLED, so it’s not as bright in HDR, and its colors aren’t as vivid. On the other hand, it’s available in a wider range of sizes than the S95B, up to an impressive 83-inch size.

It’s an amazing TV for gaming thanks to its nearly-instantaneous response time, low input lag, and a great selection of gaming features. It supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on all four inputs, meaning you can take full advantage of the PS5 and Xbox Series X’s capabilities with 4k @ 120 fps gaming. It has native FreeSync, HDMI Forum VRR support, and G-SYNC compatibility to reduce screen tearing. It uses LG’s webOS, a user-friendly smart platform with many apps available to download. As with the LG G3 OLED, it’s a very versatile TV, although it doesn’t have that TV’s DTS audio format support. If you want that feature, you can check out the LG C3 OLED, which has DTS and is marginally brighter than the C2 while being more expensive.

See our review
Best Budget OLED TV

LG A2 OLED

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Mixed Usage

8.6

Movies

9.1

TV Shows

8.3

Sports

8.3

Video Games

8.8

HDR Movies

8.4

HDR Gaming

8.8

PC Monitor

8. 8

Type

OLED

Sub-Type

WOLED

Resolution

4k

Sizes
48″ 55″ 65″ 77″

See all our test results

No OLED TVs are available at a budget price point, but the LG A2 OLED is as close as possible. It’s a great choice if you want to experience the impressive picture quality that OLED TVs deliver but don’t care about the gaming features of the LG C2 OLED. It still provides stunning picture quality in a dark room, with deep, inky blacks that look perfect in the dark, with no distracting blooming around bright highlights in dark scenes.

Its incredibly low input lag and nearly instantaneous response time make it excellent for gaming; you’ll enjoy a smooth, responsive experience with little blur behind fast-moving objects. It’s limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, so it can’t take advantage of the high frame rates supported by the new-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles, but it’s a great choice if you prefer the ‘Graphics’ mode of your favorite games.

See our review

Notable Mentions

LG G2 OLED:
The LG G2 OLED is a fantastic TV available in an even wider range of sizes than the LG C2 OLED, up to a massive 97-inch model, and it’s brighter. It’s also a lot more expensive due to its gallery design, which is meant to be wall-mounted with the included mounting bracket. It’s not as versatile, though, and it’s not worth the price difference for most people.
See our review
Sony A95K OLED:
The Sony A95K OLED delivers image quality that’s almost identical to the Samsung S95B OLED, but it also supports advanced home theater features like Dolby Vision HDR and DTS:X. However, it has worse input lag, so it’s worse for gaming, and it’s currently more expensive and harder to find, so we recommend the Samsung TV over it. For home theater fans, it has much better processing than the LG G3 OLED, so if that’s your primary interest, the Sony is a better buy.
See our review
LG B2 OLED:
The LG B2 OLED is a fantastic buy, especially its 55″ and 77″ models, which are much cheaper than the corresponding sizes on the LG C2 OLED. It has most of the C2’s features and is almost as bright, although it has only two HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports and slightly worse processing than its bigger sibling.
See our review
Samsung S90C OLED:
The 55″ and 65″ Samsung S90C OLED is a repackaged Samsung S95B OLED with official 4k @ 144Hz support and the 2023 version of Tizen OS. Its 77″ size has a second-generation QD-OLED panel, which is a bit brighter than the one in the S95B. Overall, the S90C is much more expensive than the S95B and isn’t worth the added cost for most people.
See our review

Recent Updates

Jun 29, 2023:
Added the Samsung S90C OLED and LG B2 OLED to the Notable Mentions and refreshed the text for consistency and accuracy.
May 23, 2023:
Replaced the Sony A95K OLED with the LG G3 OLED as our pick for best OLED TV, added the Sony A95K OLED as a Notable Mention, and refreshed the text.
Mar 27, 2023:
Verified our picks for accuracy and refreshed the text throughout. Added a mention of the Samsung S95C OLED.
Feb 13, 2023:
Moved the Sony A95K OLED to the top position in the article. Refreshed the text throughout for clarity and to better reflect current market conditions.
Jan 12, 2023:
Verified our picks for accuracy and consistency, and refreshed the text.

All Reviews

Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best OLED TVs available in the United States for most people. We factor in the price (a cheaper TV wins over a pricier one if the difference isn’t worth it), feedback from our visitors, and availability (no TVs that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere, and we only test those available in the U.S.).

If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here is the list of all our reviews of OLED TVs. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no TV is perfect, most TVs are great enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.

LG G2 OLED (OLED65G2) review

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LG’s top-tier 4K OLED TV turns up the lights

Best in Class

(Image: © Future)

TechRadar Verdict

Having made its high-end G series of OLED TVs relevant again in 2021 by giving them a clear picture advantage over the ever-popular C series, LG has repeated the trick – with knobs on – with 2022’s G2 range. The G2 OLED’s big story is that it takes the latest (WRGB-type) ‘Evo’ OLED panel and adds in a new heat sink element not present in 2021’s G1 series. This might sound like a mere technicality on paper, but it actually allows LG to bring enough extra brightness to the table to take OLED picture quality to places we once never imagined it would be able to go.

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Pros

+
Gorgeously bright, vibrant pictures
+
Beautiful premium design
+
Outstanding gaming support

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One-minute review

The new LG G2 OLED is full of surprises – all of them positive. As soon as you get the G2 out of its box you can see that LG has moved the dial on from previous G-series generations. The old black, chamfered-edge ‘Gallery’ design has been replaced with a much cooler, much more outwardly opulent ‘two layer’ design that finds the main layer clad in a seriously strokable silver metallic finish.

What’s inside this fancy new design is also unexpected. For alongside LG’s latest brightness-enhancing Evo OLED panel is a new heat sink element designed to help the TV reach new brightness heights LG’s OLED standards.

There’s a new processor, too, designed to unlock the full capabilities of this new OLED breed, while LG’s webOS smart platform gets a host of new features instead of the usual small evolutions. Even the G2 OLED’s sound suddenly and unexpectedly fixes a couple of big problems that have plagued previous LG G1 OLED.

The best surprise of all, though, is the way the OLED65G2 uses its extra brightness to make pretty much every frame of any source you care to mention look even more sublime than it has on any LG OLED before.

We’ve been taking a closer look at this new range-topper, which boasts a number of interesting improvements over the less-expensive LG C2 OLED, and can now say that it’s a formidable competitor to incoming QD-OLED (Quantum Dot OLED) models like the Sony A95K QD-OLED TV and Samsung S95B range.

Read on to learn exactly how this year’s G-Series screen differs from last year’s model, and what sets it apart from its red-hot rivals…

LG G2 OLED (55-inch Silver) at Amazon for $1,496.99

LG G2 OLED price and release date

The G2 range of OLEDs represent LGs flagship 4K TVs for 2022. They cost around £600 or so more than their same sized equivalents in the step-down C2 series – though if you want to place them on a stand rather than hang them on a wall you’ll have to add a couple of hundred pounds or so extra for the optional desktop stand.

The G2s do, though, ship with a flush wall mount and installation kit, so if you definitely want to wall hang your TV then the G2 saves you from having to buy an optional wall mounting set up like you would for most other TVs – including LG’s own more affordable C2 range.

The G2 OLED’s pricing makes it very much a premium TV range, sitting in the same ballpark as the mini LED-based Samsung QN95B and OLED-based Sony A90J/A80K series.

The OLED65G2s are available on a global basis, and will all feature the same fundamental features, design and picture quality in every territory. Depending on where you live, the OLED55G2 has a retail of $2,199 / €2,500 (approximately £2,081, AU$3,668).The OLED65G2 comes in at $2,999 / €3,600, (approximately £2,996, AU$5298). Finally, the OLED77G2 sits at $3,999 / €6,000 (around £5,000, AU$9160).

If you want anything bigger, you’ll need the OLED83G2 that’s priced at $6,499 / €9,000 (around £7,500, AU$13,740). There’s been no pricing details yet for the giant 97-inch G2, but let’s assume it’ll not be heading for the bargain aisles anytime soon.

All models were released in late March or April 2022.

(Image credit: Future)

65-inch WRGB OLED screen
New Gallery design
Optimized for wall hanging

Although the OLED65G2 shares the same ‘Gallery’ design name as its GX and G1 predecessors, it actually looks completely different: gone is the dark frame and chamfered edges, in is a nifty two-layer effect where a thin black rear ‘slab’ sits proud of and slightly narrower than a chunkier front tier housing the screen that’s encased in a very fetching and opulent-looking silver metal coat.

The results look sleeker, cleaner, and – crucially! – like they cost a lot of money. Suddenly the previously attractive G1 series looks rather ordinary.

If you’re thinking of plonking – or rather, very carefully placing – the G2 on a piece of furniture, it’s worth noting that LG’s robust, centrally mounted stand option costs extra. Though, it’s nice to find that LG has at least done a proper design job on it this year – no more are you expected to make do with a couple of spindly legs like you had to with 2021’s G1s.

The minimalist elegance and wall-hanging preference of the OLED65G2 had us thinking that it might not be a bad idea if LG shipped future generations with an external connections box. Having cables hanging out of a TV this pristine feels almost criminal. Though I guess decent DIYers could always channel all their cables into a wall with some help of an installer.

The quality of the G2 OLED’s connections is beyond reproach. In particular, all four of its HDMI ports are capable of handling the maximum 48Gbps of data supported by the HDMI 2. 1 standard. This means that hardcore video gamers could simultaneously attach an Xbox Series X, PS5 and cutting-edge PC graphics rig to enjoy full-fat 4K at 120Hz, variable refresh rates and automatic low latency mode switching from all of them. That, plus you’ll still have one HDMI left for adding a 4K Blu-ray player or streaming box.

The G2 OLED’s seriously distinctive design package is rounded out by one of LG’s Magic remote control handsets. These are nicely weighted and balanced, but their biggest innovations by far are its spinning wheel control for making it easier to whizz up and down long submenus, and the way they let you select onscreen options just by pointing the handset at the right part of the screen and hitting ‘Select’.

The point and click feature can be a little fiddly to use with some menus, but you get better at it the more you use it.

LG G2 OLED review: smart TV (webOS 22)

Carries most major streaming services
Introduces profiles and family settings
Now named after its year of introduction

The G2 OLED’s smart system is called webOS 22. .. which comes as a bit of a shock considering last year’s was called webOS 6.0. Has LG somehow brought back a webOS version from 16 years in the future? Sadly not. Rather more prosaically the brand has decided to start numbering webOS iterations in line with the year they first appeared.

WebOS 22 doesn’t radically re-invent the whole webOS interface again. It does, though, introduce some useful new features. The best one is support for profiles, so that different family members can set up their own home screen preferences and have the TV recommend content based on just their viewing history.

Also handy, though, especially now LG is encouraging more family engagement with webOS, are new Family Settings that let you monitor and limit screen time, as well as call in volume limit and eye care settings.

Another new feature that took a bit of getting used to but which we ultimately ended up using pretty much all the time was Always Ready. This lets you keep the set running in a number of ‘laid back’ scenarios rather than just turning it off when you’re not actually watching it. So, for instance, you can leave digital artworks playing on the screen, or have the screen show weather and news reports, while leaving the TV’s voice recognition features active so that you can talk to it and get it to deliver features – even streaming music – much like you would a regular Alexa device.

(Image credit: Future)

LG G2 OLED review: picture quality

Extra brightness boost
Brilliant color and contrast
Improved motion, clarity and upscaling

While ‘adding a heat sink’ might not sound particularly exciting on paper, in the flesh it turns out to be pretty much revolutionary.

To anyone familiar with LG’s OLED TVs over the years, the impact made by the extra brightness the heat sink unlocks is instantly obvious in at least four different ways. Perhaps the most impressive of which is how much extra brightness the G2 OLED finds for HDR images that fill the screen with bright content. This helps them look more lifelike, more intense, and more three-dimensional.

This clearly noticeable increase in a light image’s median brightness holds good for all sorts of bright content too, be it a naturally lit desert scene or an internal or external scene lit using the gaudiest of artificial lights.

The G2’s heat sink-inspired punch makes a difference, too, in the brightest peaks of HDR pictures. These highlights of an HDR image – candles fluttering on a background window ledge, direct sunlight reflecting off a car windscreen, pure white text on a dark backdrop and so on – might be much smaller and less consistently visible than the full screen brightness increase we’ve just talked about, but they are no less important to a convincing HDR experience. And the extra intensity the G2 gets out of them with the heat sink on hand to dissipate what might otherwise be panel-damaging brightness in such punchy areas is spectacular.

Despite the new intensity extremes the OLED65G2 hits by LG OLED standards, the newly ramped up HDR highlights typically avoid clipping – that is, the loss of subtle shading details. In fact, it suffers less with clipping than any other LG OLED TV to date.

An early UK demo of the TV in action had suggested that its extra brightness might come at the expense of some color richness and vibrancy. Happily, though, the finished OLED65G2s show no such color issues. On the contrary, the extra brightness gives colors more volume and punch, regardless of whether you’re talking about a very vibrant, rich tone, or a subtle, mild one.

As if all these benefits of the OLED65G2’s new brightness kick weren’t already tempting enough, its pictures also look slightly more detailed, especially with native 4K HDR sources, than those of any previous LG OLED. Or this year’s new C2 series. This must be a result, we assume, of the way the extra light range of the new premium TV in combination with OLED’s natural pixel-level light controls enables it to add more emphasis to small light and contrast changes.

(Image credit: John Archer)

In fact, if anything the OLED65G2 handles dark scenes and dark picture areas even better than previous LG OLED generations. They look less noisy, they typically contain slightly more shadow detail, and they almost completely avoid the flickering instability during very dark scenes that very occasionally crops up with older LG OLEDs.

The quality of the OLED65G2’s black tone reproduction merely enhances the impact of its extra brightness, making OLED’s peerless local contrast capabilities all the more starkly beautiful.

LG’s new Alpha 9 Gen 5 process delivers a few extra improvements to LG’s picture quality for good measure. Upscaling of sub-4K sources is much better, for one thing. LG has actually removed a step from its upscaling system after finding that it could add noise to upscaled pictures, and the results really do look remarkably more polished and sharp.

Motion handling is also much more sophisticated, with both LG’s Cinematic Movement and default Natural motion settings now able to gently massage away excess judder while generating far fewer distracting unwanted processing ‘glitches’.

The G2’s stunning picture talents apply at least as obviously when you’re gaming, too, as they do with TVs and movies. The set also takes just 9.4ms to produce received image data on its screen.

Problems with the OLED65G2’s pictures are as rare as hen’s teeth. Oddly our sample showed signs of mild shadow detail loss and brightness fluctuations in Dolby Atmos mode that didn’t show up in regular HDR10 mode.

There’s no support for the HDR10+ mode developed as a rival for Dolby Vision, either, and as always when we’re talking about OLED technology, we’re duty bound to point out that some top-price LCD TVs – including a few of LG’s own models – can reach brightness levels much higher than that achieved by even the G2. For instance, while the OLED65G2 manages to hit around 1000 nits in its Vivid mode (up around 15% on LG’s previous LG OLEDs), Samsung’s mini LED 65QN95B gets up close to 3000 nits in its Dynamic preset.

For many home cinema fans, though, the OLED65G2’s immaculate black levels and the precision you get from being able to put a picture’s brightest and darkest pixels side by side without compromise will still be enormously persuasive.

(Image credit: Future)

LG G2 OLED review: audio performance

Although it’s still not up there with the best TV sound performers, the G2 OLED is a handy improvement sonically over the past few LG TV generations.

For one thing, its 60W, 4.2 speaker system manages to project sound over a wider area while also delivering more well-positioned detailing than its predecessor. It can go louder without distorting, too, and holds on to a more dynamic sound stage, with greater range between its highest treble and deepest bass sounds. The new speakers are much less likely to generate buzzing or crackling than those of its predecessor, too.

Maybe the single best improvement, though, is how much powerful and dynamic Dolby Atmos movie soundtracks get than they have for the past few LG OLED generations. Particularly welcome is a new resistance to the sound slipping down a gear in density and power, as happened on the OLED65G1, just when a Dolby Atmos track most wants a sound system to shift up.

LG’s AI Sound Pro processor still delivers more aggression and room-filling power even with Dolby Atmos sources than the G2’s Dolby Atmos mode does. Now, though, the Dolby Atmos mode does at least have a few sound placement strengths of its own, giving you a genuine choice over which sound mode you prefer.

The last feature worth mentioning here is the new 7.1.2 upmixing of lower-channel sources – even basic stereo – made possible by the TV’s new Alpha 9 Generation 5 processor. While we struggled to make out every one of those 7.1.2 channels, we had no trouble appreciating how intelligently the processing remixes the source audio for more channels, and how much more immersive, large and detailed the resulting sound stage becomes.

(Image credit: Future)

Should you buy the LG G2 OLED 4K TV?

Buy it if…

You want the best picture quality, and don’t mind paying for it
If you simply have to have the very best picture quality LG OLED – maybe any OLED TV, period – has ever produced, your buck needs to stop with the the G2 range.

You love gaming as well as movies
As well as its brighter pictures being well suited to video game sources, the G2 handles all the very latest gaming features brilliantly – across all four HDMI ports.

You want to wall hang your TV
The G2 OLED’s ultra-slim design and supplied flush-fit mount make it unusually well-suited to wall mounting.

Don’t buy it if…

You think the OLEDC2 range might be good enough
While the G2 OLED delivers consistently better picture quality than the improved midrange LG OLEDC2s, if money’s tight you may feel the extent of the difference isn’t enough to justify the price difference – we certainly wouldn’t blame you.

You don’t want to wall mount your TV
Just be careful: the G2 only ships with a wall mount, with the optional desktop mount adding hundreds more to the asking price.

You want HDR10+ support
While some rival TVs these days support both of the premium HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats, LG still only supports Dolby Vision.

LG G2 OLED: Price Comparison

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AV Technology Contributor

John has been writing about home entertainment technology for more than two decades – an especially impressive feat considering he still claims to only be 35 years old (yeah, right). In that time he’s reviewed hundreds if not thousands of TVs, projectors and speakers, and spent frankly far too long sitting by himself in a dark room.

Kaluga International Airport

Heroes and daredevils will lay the first air paths of routes: the Earth – the orbit of the Moon, the Earth – the orbit of Mars, and even further: Moscow – the Moon, Kaluga – Mars.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky

Departure
Arrival

Time	Direction	flight number	Airline	Aircraft	Status
14:15 07/04/23	St. Petersburg LED	flight number A4503	Azimuth	Airplane SSJ-100	Status Departed at 14:15
19:10 07/04/23	Mineralnye Vody MRV	flight number A4504	Azimuth	Airplane SSJ-100	Status Departed at 19:13
13:30 07/05/23	Minsk MSQ	flight number D2104	Severstal	Airplane CR2	Status Scheduled
14:15 07/06/23	St. Petersburg LED	flight number A4503	Azimuth	Airplane SSJ-100	Status Scheduled
19:10 07/06/23	Mineralnye Vody MRV	flight number A4504	Azimuth	Airplane SSJ-100	Status Scheduled

Time	Direction	flight number	Airline	Aircraft	Status
13:15 07/04/23	Mineralnye Vody MRV	flight number A4503	Azimuth	Airplane SSJ-100	Status Arrived at 12:52
18:10 07/04/23	St. Petersburg LED	flight number A4504	Azimuth	Airplane SSJ-100	Status Arrived at 17:57
12:30 07/05/23	Minsk MSQ	flight number D2103	Severstal	Airplane CR2	Status Scheduled
13:15 07/06/23	Mineralnye Vody MRV	flight number A4503	Azimuth	Airplane SSJ-100	Status Scheduled
18:10 07/06/23	St. Petersburg LED	flight number A4504	Azimuth	Airplane SSJ-100	Status Scheduled

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Changes in the schedule of flights Mineralnye Vody – Kaluga – Pulkovo and Pulkovo – Kaluga – Mineralnye Vody

04. 07.2023

Information about flight schedule adjustments as of June 30

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An international youth contest of social advertising “Together against corruption” is being held

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Disadvantages of OLED TVs – 7 most important

The pace of development of modern OLED technologies for large screens cannot but rejoice. Despite the fact that plasma is still a recognized quality standard among videophiles, the future still belongs to OLED, although there are also disadvantages of OLED.

After the release and consumer testing of the Samsung S9C OLED, some industry experts (including David Katzmacer – CNET) noted that its screen is the best they have ever had to deal with.

Judging by the rave reviews of experts, the S9C OLED screen is almost any level of contrast, high light output, no blurring and any image heterogeneity, etc.

But, as usual, in this barrel of honey there was a place for a fly in the ointment, more precisely, 7 spoons at once. The fact is that, like any new and not yet developed technology, OLED also has some problems so far.

While they don’t look completely unsolvable, it’s better to know about them before you buy an OLED TV than after. Some of the disadvantages of current OLED TVs, such as their high price, are obvious, while others are less known to the average consumer, but they do exist.

So, here are 7 main reasons why OLED TVs in the 2013 version should not be considered perfect0379

Even taking into account the somewhat unexpected price reduction announced after the release of the S9 OLED, the price of this TV in the United States is still as much as $8999, which is expensive even for Americans. The LG 55EM9800 is even more expensive at $14,999.

For comparison, the most popular in the US 55-inch Panasonic TC-P55VT60 plasma costs about $2700, and Sony KDL-55W900A, which according to test results is declared the best combination of quality, functionality and price – $2300.

In this regard, OLED LG, although it was the first on the market, but such a huge difference in price did not allow it to somehow identify itself as a sales leader. It is believed that soon LG will reduce prices. At least to the level of Samsung.

In general, manufacturers are still talking about the fact that new developments cannot be cheap right away, but will become cheaper as demand for them increases and production volumes increase.

As an example, Ultra High-Definition TVs are given, which, a year after entering the market, began to quickly become cheaper, firstly, because Chinese manufacturers quickly mastered their production technology, and secondly, because in the struggle companies such as Sony and LG began to drop prices for their buyer.

With OLED, however, one cannot hope for such a quick reduction in price, since they are more difficult and more expensive to manufacture than LED TVs. In addition, leading manufacturers are still complaining about some of the technical problems associated with setting up mass production of OLED TVs. Therefore, when exactly they will fall in price, no one undertakes to predict yet. A year, two, five .., maybe a little longer, but definitely not tomorrow.

2.

disadvantages of OLED TVs – crooked
The fact is that the screens of the first OLED TVs are not flat, they are curved, so the image looks very beautiful, but still slightly distorted. Here is what the same David Katzmayer wrote in his S9 reviewOLED:

“Corners seem wider than it creates a subtle trapezoid effect that I find distracting when compared to a regular flat screen. Horizontal edges also visually expand towards the edges, creating a subtle U along the top edge [of the screen] and the same, but inverted, along the bottom. I can understand that this curvature can take some getting used to, like anything unusual, but if I were a wealthy videophile, I would wait until [OLED] was flat.”

However, both Samsung and LG are not promising OLED flat-panel TVs anytime soon. In addition, LG recognizes that such measures are necessary, including because it was necessary to somehow differentiate OLED models from TVs with a different type of screens. On the other hand, according to the manufacturers, the curvature in this case is a problem that will be solved very soon.

Unofficially, the main reasons for curved OLED TV screens are everything from “it’s cheaper to manufacture” and “it increases profitability” to “this creates the effect of presence” and other marketing rhetoric. One thing is clear so far: not everyone likes OLED curves.

3.

disadvantages of OLED TVs – Burn out
Of course, little is said about this, but the fact remains: OLED TVs also burn out. Like plasmas (and older CRTs), OLED screens can retain an image for a while, and sometimes even forever if left stationary for too long. There are no exact statistics on such cases yet, but it happens.

Perhaps the first to report burn-in of an LG OLED screen installed in one of the department stores of the Harrods department store. According to the witnesses who posted this news on the AVS forum, this trouble happened just two months after the device was installed.

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But in fairness, we note that the same members of the forum write about obvious violations of the rules of operation: the brightness level was set to the maximum and the menu was constantly “hung” on the screen, i.e. the conditions are obviously not those that the developers envisaged.

By the way, to understand what burnout looks like, take an old smartphone or an even older mobile phone. If the device has been used for a long time and actively, then various symbols and / or elements of the most frequently pressed icons may appear on its screen. OLED is the same, only on a larger scale. Like this, for example:

Of course, there is no evidence yet that burn-in is a necessary outcome of an OLED TV. Therefore, let’s hope that either OLED, like plasma, will burn out only in exceptional cases and when operating conditions are not observed, or manufacturers will provide convincing evidence that such shortcomings of OLED TV have been eliminated.

So far, it is known that the current Samsung OLEDs are definitely equipped with a burn-in protection system (see example). And where to go? After all, at a cost of $ 9000 apiece, the absence of such protection on the TV would look at least an incomprehensible trick.

4.

disadvantages of OLED TVs – 55 inches – no more, no less was in short supply.

55 inches is, no doubt, a huge step forward, but if you need a larger or smaller screen, then, as they say, there are no options. Yes, there will be other sizes, but not tomorrow either.

5.

disadvantages of OLED TVs – in general, raw
Again, those large-format OLED TVs that you can buy in stores today are considered the first generation with all the ensuing consequences. For example, at present, manufacturing companies are forced to solve two problems at once that they had to face when setting up mass production of OLED TVs. The first is related to the “blue pixel”, and the second is related to the relatively low profitability of OLED production.

The essence of the fable with a blue pixel, or rather a subpixel, is that, compared to red and green, it is much less efficient: it consumes more energy, therefore it serves much less. As a result, the life of the screen directly depends on how long the blue subpixels can “stretch” in it.

In this regard, it will be very useful to recall the test results of the OLED patriarch – Sony XEL-1, where it was found that after 1000 hours of operation, the device’s screen dimmed by 12%. Since then, the technology has certainly advanced a lot, but the problem remains.

On the other hand, manufacturers also continue to look for ways to solve it. Just the other day, an interesting review of the new KN55S9C from Samsung was published. It turns out that in this model, the company’s engineers tried to solve the problem of the blue subpixel by increasing its area, which is approximately twice the area of green and red subpixels.

In addition, with an increase in area, the specific brightness of the blue subpixel obviously decreases, and as a result, its service life increases.

As for the low profitability of the production of OLED TVs, then, again, this problem also comes from the imperfection of their production technology. As the manufacturers themselves note, for every finished OLED TV that enters the store, there are several defective OLED panels, the price of which still falls on the cost of the final products.

As a result, as of December 2012, the profitability of OLED TV production was no more than 10% (DisplaySearch data). However, there are improvements here too. According to Samsung, the problem with profitability is gradually being solved, and therefore the company even plans to reduce the price of its first generation OLEDs to $6,000.

However, as we understand it, “being solved” does not mean “resolved” at all, which means that OLED TVs will remain a niche product for the time being. It is also worth considering that so far none of the manufacturers have officially published data on the service life of their OLEDs. Both LG and Samsung offer OLED TVs with a standard 12-month warranty and no indication of how long they’ll be used.

6.

disadvantages of OLED TVs – No ultra-high definition
Yes, despite the amount of money that they ask for, current OLED TVs do not support Ultra High-Definition. But, in fairness, let’s say that Sony and Panasonic demonstrated their first ultra-high-resolution OLEDs (also 55-inch, by the way) back in January at CES-2013, thereby proving that their production is possible.

Now the manufacturers seem to have decided to wait a bit, because even the market prospects of the regular UHD , which have been on sale for quite some time, are still not determined. Simply put, no one knows if the affluent consumer will like modern OLED TVs, or will still prefer modern UHD.

7.

disadvantages of OLED TVs — Competition
The good old war of formats in the world of OLED TVs has not yet been observed, but Samsung and LG have fundamentally different approaches to describing screens, according to which, nevertheless, however, it is impossible to understand which TV is better.

Samsung writes that its OLED screens, like plasma and LED screens, are made up of red, green, and blue subpixels. But if we take into account the above-mentioned problem of the “blue pixel”, then it is not yet possible to imagine how long Samsung’s OLED is able to work.

Against this backdrop, the way LG has chosen to bypass the “blue pixel problem” looks much more efficient, at least from an economic point of view.

LG OLED TVs use a grid of white LEDs (which actually consist of the same red, green and blue packed in layers), on which several color filters are superimposed and as a result four different subpixels are obtained – red, green, blue and white.