The OLED panel has been on the market for years, but it seems to be consolidating itself as an ideal option for those looking for the best image quality. We are going to explain what it consists of, its characteristics and why it is the only one to offer pure blacks.

Since its introduction by LG, manufacturers like Samsung have been working on a real alternative to compete against the organic OLED panel. The main asset that has been used as a marketing tool is the "pure black" that it offers compared to its rivals, and it is no lie. So, we went through it thoroughly to explain it in detail.

Table of contents

What is OLED

Its acronym means Organic Light-Emitting Diode, which translated into Spanish is "Organic Light-Emitting Diode". It is said to be organic because of the carbon film found inside the panel, just behind the glass screen. This flat light emission technology is characterized by placing several organic films between 2 conductors; and is that each pixel lights up individually.

Thanks to that, OLED panels emit their own light when electric current passes through, giving way to a bright light. Unlike LCD-LED panels, it allows you to not need the famous "backlight" to get a decent brightness. In terms of image quality, it shows, and quite a bit too.

The backlight is necessary when an image is black or white, but one of its problems is that, in LCD-LEDs, the entire panel is illuminated with the same brightness. Highly bright areas are called "hotspots" because the light source is uniform.

The OLED panel eliminates the various layers found in an LED panel because each sub-pixel can emit blue light (even though we're told it's white). This light is emitted individually and passes an RGB filter.

While an LED panel has multiple layers, an OLED panel has many fewer:

This reduction in layers is mainly translated into a lower weight in favor of OLEDs; In addition, it must be said that they are more "eco-friendly" (if it can be said) and offer greater flexibility in the panel.

However, it does have one key feature: each pixel can be illuminated individually, allowing for no variation in color or contrast by viewing angle. In other words, it is the only panel that can offer pure blacks.

The manufacturers of the OLED panel are LG and Panasonic and they use the famous term "Infinity Contrast" to mean that the pixels are turned off completely to give rise to that "pure black". Obviously, all this engineering applied to the image has a cost, something that translates into the purchase price: only high-end screens come with OLED.

The problem of LCD-LED panels: the backlight

To put you in context, the lighting source (backlight) of the pixels allowed the LEDs to emit more brightness/light, expanding the spectrum of colors. From here, we find 2 lighting systems:

The Full LEDs led to the FALD (Full Array Local Dimming Led), which introduced the ability to turn on/off in each LED. On the other hand, the Edge LED backlight has a problem: lighting an object that is in the center of the screen. This results in a Blooming effect or in those areas not being illuminated precisely, leading to a loss of detail in the image.

So given the choice, a FALD vs Edge LED is better because it lights evenly across the entire screen; In addition, the LEDs turn on and off intelligently. That said, what does this interest us in the face of the OLED panel? Basically, that the OLED comes without a backlight because each pixel is turned on individually, which gives rise to the famous “pure blacks”.

Advantages of OLED screens

We are going to highlight the virtues of OLED panels, which will sound a lot to you and you have already heard on the radio, TV or anywhere else.

Unique pure blacks on OLED

First of all, the main advantage is pure blacks, the most valuable aspect within video and image reproduction. You will see many brands offering many nits or cd/m² to great fanfare, but: more brightness ≠ better image quality. In fact, a panel must offer balanced values:

It is useless to have 8000 nits, if the minimum value of black is 0.24 or the contrast is not good. OLED panels are not the brightest, but they are the ones that have a balanced and precise configuration.

Color enhancement in OLED

Since we do not have light pollution caused by the backlight system present in LED-LCDs, this makes it possible for the colors to be richer, there is more saturation and we have a perception of the image as "more real".

This is where the color space or spectrum comes into play, which is similar to that of LEDs:

Remember that when it comes to color space, the higher the percentage (100% RGB, for example), the greater the range of colors we will see.

Much smaller screen size

Due to the fact that OLEDs (compared to LEDs) come with fewer layers behind the glass screen, it allows them to offer much thinner and more aesthetically pleasing panels. This can be a very positive point when building a TV or monitor, giving the user a solution to the space problem.

Lower response time

This advantage can be used for gaming purposes, since the response time that is handled in OLEDs is 0.001 ms, while in LEDs we usually see 1 ms as a standard measurement (in monitors). Translated into numbers, we are talking about a 1000 times faster response time.

Good refresh rate and NVIDIA G-SYNC built-in

We consider it an advantage of OLED that many televisions come with 144 Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1 and NVIDIA G-SYNC to take advantage of it with our PC. It's certainly a spec not found on many TVs, but beware:

We know this is a contradiction in itself, but our recommendation is what it is. That said, there are cases of people who play video games on a regular basis and have not suffered burnouts, but others have.

Better viewing angles

This is another of the great virtues of OLEDs compared to other LED panels, since IPS is one of the ones with the best viewing angles (178º). However, OLEDs are perfectly visible and without image deterioration at any angle, which is a huge advantage in many configurations.

Disadvantages of OLEDs

Not everything was going to be rosy, and they are panels that have their shadows, like all technology. So, we contrast its advantages with the disadvantages of OLEDs.

Very high price

First of all, the OLED panel is not affordable for most people due to its high price. We only find it in the high ranges, and the televisions are at prices above €1000 comfortably.

This makes it difficult for the demand for this panel to be high because not everyone can afford to pay almost €2,000 for a 55 or 65-inch panel. It is true that in the last year we found panels close to €1000, but they are still expensive for many people.

Shorter useful life

This is a point that we must enter into and that is that its useful life is shorter than that of the rest of the panels that we find in televisions or monitors. In 2013, LG announced a useful life of 35,000 hours, while the 2020 panels reach 100,000 hours of useful life.

According to LG, we would have to be watching 5 hours a day for 54 years for the brightness to drop to 50%. However, these claims are "waste paper" because it cannot be proven, so it is up to us to believe it or not.

In addition, it is not specified under what configuration those 100,000 hours of useful life are achieved. Most who buy an OLED will want to use HDR, a technology that requires more brightness and squeezes more pixels. In the end, the more voltage, the more brightness; the less voltage, the less brightness.

We don't know if LG gives that data using HDR (Dolby Vision in most cases); In the same way, we consider that LEDs have a more contrasting useful life.

Little offer on OLED monitors

Although LG has announced in January 2021 that it will launch UltraFine Pro OLED monitors, we go to the peripherals market and find no OLED models. What is most abundant are IPS, nano-IPS, VA and TN, but keep in mind that the gaming market has high needs:

All this translates into a very high price, and it is that viable products must be launched on the market: that interest users. Current panels (IPS, etc.) already meet the needs, and are not cheap when all conditions are met.

Burns or "burn-in" in OLED

We arrive at the controversial point of the article, do OLEDs burn or not? It must be said that the panels from 2020 onwards have been greatly improved in this regard. At first, in 2013, they would burn in, leaving fixed smudges on the screen, which is a disaster.

Burn-in is a phenomenon that occurs in OLED panels, characterized by leaving fixed spots on the panel caused by fixed elements that have been displayed for a long time. These smears were caused by the fixed elements that are displayed for a long time: the logo of the television channel, the HUD of a video game, etc.

If you see a "ghost" image on the panel all the time, it's a burn, but if it disappears it's just retention.

We are not haters of any brand, we simply limit ourselves to giving our opinion based on experience. Therefore, clarify several points about OLED burnouts:

We hope this information has been helpful to you. If you have any questions, comment below and we'll get back to you shortly.

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