QLED

QLED, short for quantum-dot LED, is a marketing label used primarily for Samsung’s range of LCD televisions that incorporate a quantum dot enhancement film in combination with a backlight. The system uses a blue LED backlight; quantum dots are excited by the blue light and emit precise red and green wavelengths, which are then combined with light from the backlight through color filters to produce an expanded color gamut and higher color brightness.

Some QLED TVs also employ full-array local dimming or mini-LED backlights to improve contrast and black levels. The quantum-dot layer helps achieve higher color accuracy and brightness, contributing to improved color volume across different luminance levels.

QLED is distinct from OLED, which uses self-emitting organic pixels. Because QLED remains LCD-based and relies on a backlight, blacks are achieved mainly through dimming rather than pixel-level emission. This architecture can deliver very high peak brightness and strong color at various light levels, but blacks and viewing angles have historically been less ideal than OLED. Modern sets aim to mitigate these issues through panel refinements and advanced processing.

Models span 4K and 8K resolutions and a range of sizes. Samsung popularized the term, but other manufacturers offer quantum-dot LCD TVs under different branding. A related, separate technology is QD-OLED, which combines OLED emitters with a quantum dot layer to improve color performance.

In practice, QLED products seek to provide bright, vibrant images with accurate color under varied lighting, often at competitive prices relative to OLED. Longevity and resistance to burn-in are commonly cited advantages of LCD-based QLED designs.