OLED vs LED

It’s an age old question that’s up there with some of the greats, such as; what came first – the chicken or the egg? String theory? What is the meaning of life? The team here at Videotree takes a look at both technologies in an attempt to decipher which is best…  

To gauge a winner, we need to take a look at the individual technologies and understand how they operate: 

LED

LED stands for light-emitting diode. These are little solid-state devices that make light due to the movement of electrons through a semiconductor. LEDs are the preferred choice as a backlight for LCD displays. They can be created at a much smaller size than compact light bulbs, yet they can generate a high level of brightness. But LEDs aren’t small enough to be used as individual pixels of a television – they’re too big. That’s part of the reason why LEDs are used only as the backlight for LCD televisions, with each LED illuminating a small cluster of pixels. 

OLED

OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode. Basically, OLEDs are made with organic compounds that light up when electricity is added. That doesn’t sound too dissimilar to LEDs, but the main difference it that OLEDs can be made extremely thin, flexible, and remarkably small. OLEDS can be used as individual pixels, millions of which combine to provide the picture on your TV screen, lighting up and shutting off totally independently. This flexibility means when an OLED pixel is turned off, it is completely off - allowing for complete blackness. The depth of the blacks on the screen improves the quality of the surrounding colours, creating a richer all-round picture for the viewer. 

In terms of picture quality, quality of blacks and motion clarity, OLED beats LED/LCD, even though LED technology has seen many improvements over the past couple of years. OLED is also lighter, thinner, more energy efficient and offers the best viewing angle of the two. However, LED screens still trump OLED when it comes to brightness and price! Although OLEDs have come down in price significantly of late, LEDs still remain the most cost effective. 

So, what used to be a relatively difficult decision has recently become a much easier one: OLED is the superior TV technology today. OLED has come a long way in a short time and deserves the crown for its achievements.  

Well done, OLED!