LG Electronics, best known in the display market as the global leader for OLED TVs, has announced its new entry in the Mini LED TV segment with its new QNED television, set to arrive next year.
In adopting the Mini LED technology for its upcoming premium LCD - 4K and 8K resolution - TVs, LG claims that this innovation allows "a giant leap forward in LCD TV picture quality." The South Korean electronics giant follows other television manufacturers, most notably the Chinese multinational TCL, which launched the tech in its 8-Series last year.
BARCELONA, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 26: A logo sits illuminated outside the LG booth on day 2 of the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2019 on February 26, 2019, in Barcelona, Spain. The annual Mobile World Congress hosts some of the world's largest communications companies, with many unveiling their latest phones and wearables gadgets like foldable screens and introducing the 5G wireless networks.
Mini LED: Smaller Lights, Higher Contrast, Better Pictures
According to LG, the new liquid crystal display (LCD) TV will be using ultra-small LEDs as its backlight - with the new LEDs reportedly down to a tenth of the size of those used in its existing LCD TVs.
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Top of the line LCD TVs currently uses a technique called "full-array local dimming." In this method, LEDs or groups are used as the backlighting behind the display screen. These LEDs are controlled in zones, dimmed, or brightened as necessary, creating better black level displays and contrast. This results in "richer" displays, especially for darker scenes.
In Mini LED, smaller lights mean manufacturers can fit more of them in a single unit, allowing for more precise controls and more zones that, in return, allows for displaying more contrast.
The technology, which delivers better quality pictures without a significant price increase, is available for as low as $650 with TCL's 55-inch 6-Series LCD TV. It is not to be confused with MicroLED, another technology present in newer TVs. While MicroLED is an entirely new tech that removes the LED backlight altogether, Mini LEDs do not, and is considered an ingenious upgrade to existing technology.
LG's QNED TV
In its announcement for its upcoming TV, LG says that its LED backlight has close to 30,000 "tiny LEDs" capable of producing peak brightness as well as a contrast ratio of one million to one (1,000,000:1), paired with close to 2,500 dimming zones and advanced local dimming zones. In-display systems, contrast ratio refer to the brightest shade (white) compared to the darkest shade (black) that the device can display. For reference, the TCL 6-Series has a native contrast of 4699:1 and a contrast ratio with the local dimming of about 8196:1
LG also announced that it would be using quantum dot and nano cell technologies; thus, the QNED acronym, to take the color accuracy of these TVs to the next level. In quantum dot technology, synthetic nanoparticles emit light of a specific wavelength after being lit up by a light source (mini LED in LG's case).
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On the other hand, LG describes nano cell technology as capable of delivering "more colors at wide viewing angles." The tech uses the titular nano cells as absorbents of "unwanted light wavelengths," enhancing the purity of colors, especially green and red, as they appear on the screen. This allows viewers from varying angles to see improved color accuracy while watching nano cell-enabled TVs.
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