edge lit led lcd panel pricelist

Samsung announced its new lineup of "LED TVs" at CES in January, and gave CNET editors a walk-through today to preview the technology. The company also set prices, and as expected, it"ll cost you a fortune to take one of these thin models home.

The name "LED TV" sounds simple enough, but it"s important to remember that these inch-thin sets are actually otherwise normal LCD (liquid-crystal display) TVs that use LEDs (light-emitting diodes) instead of the standard fluorescent backlights. But it gets even more confusing. We"ve reviewed LED-based LCD displays before, most recently the Sony KDL-55XBR8 and Samsung LN46A950--the two best-performing LCD TVs we"ve ever tested. A lot of the credit for those TVs" excellent picture quality can be attributed to their local dimming technology; groups of LEDs behind the screen can be dimmed or turned off to achieve those deep, inky blacks we all love so much.

The 2009 Samsung LED TVs we"re previewing here do not utilize local dimming, so we don"t expect them to match the picture quality of the local dimming sets. Of course, we"ll know more once we can review one. In the meantime, we"ll refer to the new displays as "edge-lit LED-based LCDs." More complex, we know, but also quite a bit more accurate.

The slideshow above goes into the nitty-gritty behind, or along the edge of, the technology. The short story is that the LEDs themselves are arranged along all four edges of the screen, and a special "light guide" sends light toward the middle. The result, according to the company, is similar uniformity characteristics to standard backlit LCD displays.

The downside is that they"re extremely expensive. The cheapest model, the 32-inch UN32A6000 ($1,599), will cost more than twice as much as the company"s standard 1080p 32-incher, model LN32B530 ($749) does. The 46-inch UN46B6000 ($2,799) pictured at the top commands a $700 premium over the equivalent standard 120Hz set, model LN46B650 ($2099). The step-up LED-based LCDs cost more for extra features like

TV/Audio/Video: If you can"t get enough of your favorite sports, the latest movies, love 3D entertainment -- or just want to listen to your favorite music in stunning clarity -- our newest electronics can help you experience it all in a whole new way. Another plus? Now, you can get a one-year Disney+ subscription with participating OLED TV model purchases, or a 6-month subscription with participating NanoCell TVs.

The 55" NEC E554, an LED edge-lit, commercial-grade display, is ideal for education, corporate and other digital signage applications. Compared to previous generation displays, this model"s edge-lit LED backlighting allows for reduced power consumption, a thinner depth, a smaller bezel and lighter weight. Full HD resolution delivers stunning image quality for a variety of content, and the E554"s integrated tuner and speakers allow users to enjoy high-definition broadcast capabilities. This display can be controlled remotely through the RS-232C networking feature, which also provides customers the ability to synchronize multiple displays, remotely power on/off and lock out external buttons to prevent unwanted changes in the display"s setting.

The 32" NEC E324, an LED edge-lit, commercial-grade display, is ideal for education, corporate and other digital signage applications. Compared to previous generation displays, this model"s edge-lit LED backlighting allows for reduced power consumption, a thinner depth, a smaller bezel and lighter weight. High definition resolution delivers stunning image quality for a variety of content, and the E324"s integrated tuner and speakers allow users to enjoy high-definition broadcast capabilities.

There"s an unsung hero in your living room, a piece of technology that has been steadily advancing for years, providing better and better picture quality and more immersive entertainment, and it"s one you may not even know exists. I"m talking, of course, about the backlight in your TV.

What"s a backlight? Well, it"s the light source that is situated directly behind the LCD panel of the majority of TVs. It"s what makes the screen glow, what gives bright colors their vibrancy, and increasingly, what gives dark shadows their depth.

There"s a little more to the glowing panel of an LCD TV than you might expect. The LCD panel offers the shape and color components of an image, but it doesn"t actually produce any light of its own. And without light to produce the colors we see and project the image outward to the viewer, an LCD TV wouldn"t be worth much. Enter the humble backlight.

Behind the LCD panel is a backlight, and between the backlight and the LCD panel are usually a few layers of polarized filters, backlight diffusers, and other optical layers designed to turn this collection of tech components into a sharper viewable image.

You"ll have an LCD panel to provide much of the image content, and a backlight behind it to provide the light that makes that LCD panel visible and the colors vivid. But that backlight has undergone a lot of changes over time — several just within recent years. And a lot of the improvements we"ve seen in modern TVs can be traced to the humble backlight.

But with the advent of LCD-based flat screen TVs, the need arose for illumination, and originally that meant cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL), a technology that"s similar to fluorescent and neon lighting. But because these lamps generate heat that can damage a display and aren"t terrible energy-efficient, they"ve pretty much disappeared from today"s TVs.

Instead, they were replaced by one of the biggest innovations in modern TV technology: LED backlighting. With this change, TV manufacturers started calling LCD TVs with LED backlight "LED TVs" to differentiate them from the older CCFL-lit models. But with the last CCFL TVs going off the market a decade ago, it"s just as likely that TV makers have kept the LED nomenclature around to blur the distinction between LCD TVs and OLED panels, which use a very different (and largely superior) display technology.

Today"s TVs use a number of backlighting methods, which we"ll discuss below, but the biggest change has been the introduction of discrete backlighting zones. Instead of illuminating the entire screen, the LED backlights of a TV can be addressed individually, meaning that they can be turned on or off, dimmed or brightened as needed to provide brighter or darker portions of the TV picture.

But there"s a catch. Not every form of backlight offers the same level of control. As a result, not every TV has the same level of capability, even if it supports the same HDR formats.

Edge-lit displays illuminate the LCD panel by setting a row of LEDs along the top and bottom edges of a screen, or ringing the perimeter of the TV frame with LED lights. This light is then distributed across the back of the LCD panel with a special diffuser light guide, a semi-transparent sheet of plastic that allows the light from the LED in the TV bezel to illuminate a larger portion of the display.

It"s a very cost effective way to light a TV, since it uses the least amount of LEDs. It also offers some level of dynamic backlight control for HDR support. On sets that are equipped to do so, portions of the edge lighting strips can be darkened or dimmed to provide deeper blacks, or brightened to accentuate brighter portions of the screen. However, since they don"t directly light the LCD panel from behind, the effect is considerably muted when compared to other backlight technologies.

Both of these methods suffer from the use of broad, diffuse dimming zones, which mute the HDR effect considerably, and will often illuminate unwanted portions of the display, an effect called haloing.

Samsung AU8000 LED 4K Smart TVSamsung"s cheapest models often feature edge lighting, and the Samsung AU8000(opens in new tab) is a prime example of this. The TV"s high contrast ratio offers pretty good clarity and sharpness, but the lack of local dimming means that HDR content won"t look as good as it should, and you"ll see some noticeable elevated black levels.

A variation on edge lighting developed by Samsung and used in some Samsung QLED TVs is called dual LED. Instead of using a single color backlight for the TV, Samsung uses a combination of cool blue and warm yellow LED lights, and alternates between them based on the content of the scene to offer a modest improvement in picture quality.

Samsung Q70T QLED TV (2020 model)Samsung uses dual LED backlight as a half-step between edge lighting and direct-lit LED backlight in it"s better affordable QLED sets, and it shows. The alternating color temperatures do offer some improvement over basic edge lighting, but the result is still a less impressive picture, even with Samsung"s impressive QLED display. Check out our full Samsung Q70T QLED TV (2020 model) review(opens in new tab) for more.

Direct lit LED backlighting uses LED lighting across the back of the TV, directly behind the LCD panel, providing a fairly uniform amount of light across the screen. It also allows for a brighter picture, since it uses more LEDs, and is able to utilize more of the light coming from those LEDs.

However, an all-white back light alone has its limitations. Because the entire LCD panel is lit uniformly, there"s little to no dynamic range offered by the display.

One common problem caused by this uniform backlight approach is that darker portions of the display are still illuminated, resulting in black portions of the screen appearing grey, a phenomenon called "elevated black levels." It"s especially noticeable on letterboxed movies, which will have a distinct unwanted glow in the black bars above and below the picture.

Toshiba C350 Fire TV (2021 model)The Toshiba C350(opens in new tab) is one of the better Amazon Fire smart TVs we"ve reviewed, but the direct LED backlight is something of a double-edged sword. It"s better and brighter than a basic edge-lit LED backlight, and picture is better as a result, but the lack of local dimming means that – despite the TV"s support for Dolby Vision and HDR10 formats – HDR content just doesn"t look very good.

Local dimming zones have become fairly common on TVs across the price spectrum, and more premium TVs have differentiated themselves by offering a greater number of backlighting zones with smaller, more tightly controlled light, which can minimize light blooms and haloing to provide better HDR performance and contrast.

TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535)When it comes to value in TVs, the TCL name should be one of the first things you look for. The TCL 5-Series Roku TV (S535)(opens in new tab) is a great example of this, offering a QLED screen with full-array local dimming backlight that matches some of the best mid-range TVs, but at a lower price. The result is great picture quality and solid HDR performance.

Local dimming has been further refined with the introduction of mini-LEDs. By shrinking the LED size down to about one-fifth the size – mini-LEDs measure 0.008-inch (200 microns) across – more LEDs can be packed into the backlight panel, and much smaller dimming zones to be used.

Models from Samsung, TCL, and LG all utilize mini LED backlighting for its superior performance, and the combination of mini-LED and QLED color enhancement offers some of the best TV picture quality that"s ever been available.

Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TVWhen it comes to the several TVs on the market that have mini-LED backlight, the Samsung Neo QLED takes the top spot, holding the top position among the best TVs we"ve reviewed. It"s a great TV for many reasons, but the impeccable backlight and HDR performance of the Samsung QN90A Neo QLED TV(opens in new tab) makes it one of the best LCD TVs we"ve ever seen.

Ultimately, the best backlight is no backlight at all. This can be achieved in one of two ways: With current OLED displays or micro-LED technology, the latter of which isn"t yet available to regular consumers.

OLED displays have individual pixels that light up without the need for a separate illumination source, creating a self-emissive display panel that doesn"t need any sort of backlight.

Because illumination can be controlled at the level of individual pixels, OLED technology offers the highest level of contrast and HDR performance, with no light blooming, and true black reproduction as individual pixels go dark.

Sony Bravia XR A80J OLED TVSony"s excellent OLED TVs highlight how awesome OLED can really be, with category-leading picture quality and cutting edge technologies that make the most of the premium TV technology. The Editor"s Choice Sony Bravia XR A80J OLED TV(opens in new tab) does this in spades, providing an excellent premium OLED experience.

Shrinking mini-LEDs down even smaller, you get micro-LED. Measuring as small as 50μm — about 0.002 inches across — micro-LEDs are 1/100th the size of a conventional LED. That"s small enough to cluster them together for individual pixels, creating another form of self-emissive display. The first micro-LED TVs are on sale now, but with prices in the tens of thousands of dollars, they"re not really something the average consumer would even consider.

You can get a more detailed explanation of mini-LED technology in our guide Micro-LED vs. Mini-LED: What"s the difference? or read Micro-LED vs. OLED TV: Which TV tech will win? to see how the two leading self-emissive technologies compare.

Samsung MicroLED TVKnown for a long time as simply "The Wall" Samsung"s first micro-LED TVs are coming this year, and are available for pre-order… in Korea. We"ve seen these displays in person, and they are astonishingly good, but between the wall-sized screens necessary for 4K resolution and the mortgage-sized price tag(opens in new tab), it may be several years before this is a viable technology for the average TV shopper.

But there"s more than one way to approach full array with local dimming, because TVs will offer different numbers of dimming zones and local domain can be achieved with either standard LEDs or mini LEDs.

And there"s a direct relationship between backlight quality and TV price, so what is the best option when you don"t want to pay an extra $1,000 for the category-leading quality of OLED – even the affordable Vizio OLED TV is $1,199(opens in new tab) – or shell out tens of thousands for a giant micro-LED TV?

For most people, we recommend looking for a TV with mini-LED, like the Editor"s Choice Samsung Neo QLED QN90A, or the more affordable TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635). Mini LED backlighting hits the sweet spot for affordability and improved backlight performance. If you want better than average backlight control without spending the extra money for an old TV, a mini LED TV is the way to go.Our favorite TVs

In this succinct guide, we"ll provide a brief overview of common initialisms found in the world of TV, PC monitor, and laptop displays. To keep things simple, we"ll focus on how each technology impacts expected image quality. Whether you"re looking for a handy refresher for the next time you"re shopping or a quick, digestible guide to give to inquisitive friends and family, we"ve got you covered.

You"re likely reading this article on a liquid crystal display (LCD). "LCD" refers to any display type that uses liquid crystals, including TN, IPS, and VA (which we"ll get into shortly). Even an old-school calculator or digital watch can use an LCD. But a simple "LCD" designation doesn"t tell you how a screen will perform. You need more information, like the backlight type the panel uses—usually LED, followed by the more expensive Mini LED.

LCDs long ago ousted cathode ray tube (CRT) and plasma displays as the dominant consumer display tech. In the past, it was common to find LCDs with cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlights, but most LCD displays today use LED backlights (more on that below).

TN, IPS, and VA are the three primary types of LCD displays you"ll find in TVs, monitors, and laptops. They all vary in how they use their liquid crystals. Each could warrant its own article, but we"ll keep it simple here by focusing on the differences you can expect to see in real life. Advertisement

It"s easier to reach high refresh rates and low response times with TN displays, although pricier IPS and VA are catching up. It"s worth noting that the upcoming Asus ROG Swift 500 Hz Gaming Monitor, which should be the fastest monitor on the market, purportedly achieves its refresh rate via an "E-TN" panel that claims 60 percent better response times than regular TN. So while you can buy a supremely fast IPS (up to 360 Hz) or VA monitor, TN is still the technology pushing the limits of refresh rates.

VA panels excel in contrast, which is often considered the most important factor in image quality. VA monitors commonly have contrasts of 3,000:1, while a typical IPS comes in at 1,000:1. IPS Black displays, which started coming out this year, claim to double the contrast of typical IPS monitors to up to 2,000:1. We reviewed the IPS Black-equipped Dell UltraSharp U2723QE, and the difference was noticeable.

During the Consumer Electronics Show back in January, we noticed that some TV manufacturers were debuting LCD TVs with a new type of LED backlight, a direct-lit LED backlight.

At the time we didn"t know a lot about direct-lit LED backlights, but based on where these TVs were positioned in the manufacturer"s lineup—typically in or close to the entry-level series—it appeared that direct-lit LED backlight technology was able to bridge the price gap between lower-cost CCFL (fluorescent) backlights and the newer edge LED backlights that have become increasingly common in many LCD TVs. This year, for example, both Samsung (EH series) and LG (LS3400 series) are offering lower-priced LCD TVs with direct-lit LED backlights.

Most of the LCD TVs in our TV Ratings now come with edge LED backlights, where the LEDs are arrayed around the perimeter—typically the sides—of the TV. A waveguide (or lightguide, or diffuser) then spreads the light across the entire panel, hopefully in a uniform fashion.

The other type of LED-based backlighting we"ve seen—now less common—is a full-array LED backlight, where rows of LEDs are spread across the entire back panel of the TV. Using a feature called local dimming, the LEDs are divided into a number of zones that can be individually controlled, so some portions of the backlight can be dimmed while other remain illuminated. In some instances, we"ve seen this improve contrast and black levels. Some edge LEDs also have a form of local dimming, but this has had a negligible effect on contrast or black levels on most of the TVs we"ve tested.

Direct-lit LED backlights are an offshoot of full-array backlighting, in that they use LEDs spread across the entire back panel of the TV. (The TV"s spec page may just refer to these TVs as having a full-array backlight.) However, there are a few key differences compared to the more expensive full-array LED sets we"ve tested previously. One is that they use significantly fewer LEDs across the back of the panel. Another is that these sets lack the local dimming feature.

In addition, these TVs are much deeper than previous LED-backlit models, especially the ultra-thin edge LED sets. In fact, they more closely resemble LCD TVs with CCFL backlights. The reason: Because fewer LEDs are used, they have to be moved farther away from the screen to provide adequate light coverage across the panel, much the way the beam of a flashlight gets wider as you move it away from an object.

But the primary reason we"re seeing direct-lit LED backlights is price. Though they do cost a bit more than CCFL models, they"re less expensive than edge LED models, since they don"t require the lightguide plates. And in a tough economy, this lets manufacturers offer less-expensive models without having to forgo what has become perceived as a key LCD feature—an LED backlight. Although direct-lit LED backlights are no slimmer than CCFL-based LCD TVs, they do offer an advantage over models with fluorescent lights: better energy efficiency.

We"re currently testing a few Samsung models that use direct-lit LED backlights, so make sure to check out our TV Ratings in the next week or so to see how these sets fared. We"ll also be watching the market to see if more manufacturers embrace this type of backlight in their lower-priced LCD TV models.

The Hisense U8H matches the excellent brightness and color performance of much pricier LCD TVs, and its Google TV smart platform is a welcome addition. But it’s available in only three screen sizes.

The Hisense U8H is the best LCD/LED TV for most people because it delivers the performance of a much pricier TV yet starts at under $1,000, for the smallest (55-inch) screen size. This TV utilizes quantum dots, a full-array backlight with mini-LEDs, and a 120 Hz refresh rate to deliver a great-looking 4K HDR image. It’s compatible with every major HDR format. And it’s equipped with two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs to support 4K 120 Hz gaming from the newest Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Add in the intuitive, fully featured Google TV smart-TV platform, and the U8H’s price-to-performance ratio is of inarguable value.

Key to this functionality is the U8H’s employment of mini-LED backlighting with local dimming, which allows this TV to produce very bright light while still maintaining satisfyingly deep black levels that are typically free of blooming (or light bleed that’s visible around bright objects against a dark backdrop). This not only ensures impressive image contrast, it also makes the U8H a viable choice for most rooms, whether they’re brighter than average or dimmed down like a movie theater.

That’s not to say the U8H has pixel-precise light control—it’s not an OLED TV, after all—but it does a terrific job most of the time. In fact, in our tests, the U8H bested last year’s upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90A, in certain scenarios: The intro to Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix features the filmmaker against a pitch-black backdrop. Though last year’s QN90A failed to maintain perfect control over dimming elements during this scene (the black backdrop brightened distractingly once a sufficient amount of brighter content appeared on screen), the U8H did not. (For the record, the newer QN90B also passed this test.) The U8H’s mini-LEDs also help the screen look uniformly bright: Although the U8H is still not as good as an OLED TV in this respect, it shows very little indication of being a backlight-driven display, even during tricky scenes with large swaths of dim lighting.

The U8H’s brightness, black-level integrity, and local-dimming abilities make this an excellent TV for watching HDR content. The U8H is capable of playing HDR content in all of the major formats (HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG), but when it comes to impressive HDR, what’s under the hood is much more important than format compatibility. The most crucial thing for good HDR is high brightness and deep color saturation, and the U8H’s quantum dots achieve the latter. It’s not as simple as just having quantum dots, however: While many TVs (even the budget options) have quantum dots nowadays, what is often not taken into account is that brightness directly affects color saturation. For example, both the 2022 TCL 6-Series and the Hisense U8H are equipped with quantum dots, mini-LED backlights, and local dimming. But because the U8H is notably brighter than the 6-Series, it also achieves a higher total color volume. During our color-volume testing, the U8H exhibited color ranges at more than 100% of the DCI-P3 color space (the range of color needed to properly display HDR content), and it is capable of roughly 10% more total color volume compared with the 6-Series.

What does this mean in real-world terms? It means that the Hisense U8H truly excels as a modern 4K HDR TV, whether you’re watching the latest episode of Rings of Power or playing Overwatch 2. While watching HDR content side by side on the U8H and on our upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90B, I was truly surprised by how similar they looked at times, given that our upgrade pick is much more expensive. That said, though the U8H achieves impressive results where light output and color volume are concerned, it also exhibited some occasional video processing and upscaling issues (see Flaws but not dealbreakers), which videophiles and AV enthusiasts may take umbrage with. But in general, the picture quality punches well above its weight, metaphorically speaking.

And thanks to Hisense’s inclusion of Filmmaker Mode, it’s easy to rein in the U8H’s brightness abilities for a more-subdued and filmic experience in a darker room. Our measurements revealed that this mode has a very accurate white balance, mostly accurate colors (green is a bit oversaturated, but not egregiously so), and a perfect “dark room” gamma (which controls how quickly the video signal transitions from dark to light). Additionally, the TV’s 120 Hz refresh rate means it can play Blu-ray discs at 24 fps without the judder that’s usually present on TVs with 60 Hz refresh rates.

In terms of design, the Hisense U8H is not as svelte as our upgrade pick, but it’s plenty sturdy and doesn’t look or feel cheap. Two narrow, metal feet jut out from beneath the panel and steadily hold the TV. They can be attached in two separate spots, either closer in toward the middle of the panel or out toward the edges, to account for different-size TV stands. The feet are also equipped with cable organization clasps—a nice touch for keeping your TV stand free of cable clutter. Though the TV is primarily plastic, its bezels are lined with metal strips, providing a bit more durability in the long run. I moved it around my home, and it was no worse for wear, but we’ll know more after doing some long-term testing.

The Hisense U8H has some difficulties with banding, or areas of uneven gradation, where transitions that should appear smooth instead look like “bands” of color (sometimes also called posterization). Like many current 4K HDR TVs, the U8H uses an 8-bit panel rather than a 10-bit panel, which affects the color decoding and color presentation process. This is usually relevant only with HDR video and games. When playing games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, I saw a few instances where the content wasn’t rendered correctly and displayed ugly splotches of color on the screen. However, this almost always occurred during static screens (such as a pause menu or loading screen); I rarely spotted it during actual gameplay. Hisense has stated that it would address the problem in a future firmware update, but at the time of writing it was still present. This is a flaw that may give dedicated gamers pause, but we don’t consider it to be a dealbreaker for most people.

I also saw occasional instances of banding with TV shows and movies, though they were few and far between. The U8H isn’t the best at upscaling sub-4K content, so videos with a 1080p or lower resolution looked a little soft. You can get better overall video processing and upscaling by springing for our upgrade pick (this is one reason it’s more expensive, after all).

Finally, like most TVs that use vertical alignment (VA) LCD panels, the U8H has a limited horizontal viewing angle, which may be a bit annoying if you’re hoping to entertain a large crowd. Our upgrade pick uses a special wide-angle technology to address this.

For gaming, use the game picture mode (the TV should switch into this mode automatically when paired with the newer game consoles), and then go into the Gaming submenu to make sure the right settings (VRR) are enabled. We recommend leaving the HDMI setting in “auto,” unless you notice that your game console is incorrectly identified.

There’s never been a better time to buy a TV. Yes, we said the same a couple of years ago, but that doesn’t make it any less true The industry has worked nearly all of the bugs out of LCD and OLED TVs, and today’s prices are lower than ever. Or they were until this recent chip shortage took hold.

The G2 Evo Gallery edition is a great OLED TV with a super thin bezel that looks especially nice on the wall. Our only caveat is that quantum-dot OLEDs that use RGB subpixels have eclipsed LG’s older WRGB technology (WRGB uses a white subpixel for brightness, which reduces color saturation).

Sony applied its image-processing prowess and high-end audio technology to Samsung’s quantum dot OLED panel to build the best 4K TV we’ve ever seen. But buying the best requires very deep pockets. You could buy an OLED from LG or Samsung and keep upwards of a grand in your pocket. On the other hand, you might find you don’t need to buy a soundbar, because the Bravia XR A95K’s audio technology is also the best the industry has to offer.

Samsung’s best 4K UHD LCD TV delivers terrific image quality, particularly when it comes to HDR, and it serves up a quartet of 120Hz-enabled HDMI ports plus a nifty remote that can be charged via RF harvesting. We were annoyed by Samsung’s convoluted Smart Hub TV interface, which requires too many clicks for our taste. That said, the QN90B is the best-looking 4K LCD TV you can buy right now.

You can spend a lot of money for an 8K TV, or you can spend a lot of money on an 8K TV. TCL’s 8K offering is an incredible value for the quality and performance that’s delivered for the price. If you don’t need to have the absolute best in the 8K category, the TCL 65R648 is a fantastic deal.

TCL is rapidly gaining—and deserving—a reputation for building affordable smart TVs that deliver incredible value. It’s 55-inch 6-series is certainly no exception, combining quantum-dot color with mini-LED backlight technology to build a set with great color, brightness, and the Roku TV operating system. We like it a lot.

CRT TVs were around for more 50 years and were still being improved when they fell out of favor. LCD TVs aren’t nearly that mature, and you’ll still find the occasional entry-level models with color and contrast issues. Color and contrast have nonetheless improved drastically in the last few years, and the improvements have trickled down almost to the lowest rung on the ladder. OLED remains at the pinnacle, but remains expensive to manufacture. I’ll talk more about LED versus OLED in a bit.

There’s also a resolution “race” in progress, though it seems to have stalled for the nonce at 8K UHD. Buying a TV with resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels remains a pricey proposition, and there’s almost no content to take advantage of it. Apart from 4K Blu-ray, most video content is still delivered in 1080p resolution, even though 4K UHD TVs with resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels rule the roost in terms of sales.

The best news, to expand on my previous point, is that top-end technology (quantum dots, mini-LED) has filtered down to the mid-range (defined as $750 to $1,250 for a 65-inch-class set). We haven’t seen one that quite puts it all together yet, but TCL’s 6-series come darn close. Too close, certainly, for the big three (LG, Samsung, and Sony) to remain comfortable.

Even better, nearly all the high-end 4k UHD 65-inch-class TVs that cost $600 to $10,000 or more a few years ago have dropped to below $3,000. Even Samsung’s 8K UHD QN800A-series can be hand for $3,500 (65-inch class). LG’s 8K UHD OLED—the 88-inch-class model OLED88Z9PUA—is something to behold, but it costs $30,000. Ouch. Then again, if your entertainment center is big enough to require an 88- to 120-inch-class television, that price tag might worth the experience.

HDR: The acronym stands for high dynamic range, and it has become the norm in better TVs. HDR simply means a larger difference in luminance between the darkest area of an image and the brightest area. It doesn’t sound like much, but a lack of contrast (a comparative washed-out appearance) in LED TVs has long been an issue, especially at the entry level.

HDR10 looks good. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ look better. HDR10+ is Samsung’s baby and its latest TVs support it. Alas, while many streaming services deliver HDR in HDR10+ (HDR requires very little extra data), it hasn’t caught on with most of the company’s competitors. On the other hand, many sets support the HLG standard that is common in Europe.

Contrast:Contrast is the distance in terms of luminance between the darkest and brightest points in an image. Part of HDR is also increasing contrast. A high-contrast TV is an HDR TV, although we’ve never heard of one called that. It just doesn’t sound sexy, I suppose. Anyway, he higher the contrast, the more subtle detail the TV can deliver.

LED-backlit LCD versus OLED: There’s a luxuriousness to the image that OLED TVs produce that appeals to many, including myself. Because each sub-pixel is its own light source, when a pixel is switched off, you get near perfect black. LED-backlit LCD TVs bleed light around and through the LCDs, which are not perfect shutters.

Even the best LED/LCD TVs can’t match the blacks of OLED. (Mini-LED gets closer—see below). On the other hand, they can generate much higher peak brightness, which compensates with most material and really makes HDR pop.

The main drawbacks of OLED as a technology are a relatively limited lifespan, and burn-in; i.e. ghosts of previous images remaining on screen. LG claims 100,000 hours to half brightness for its TVs: That’s where 500 nits becomes 250 nits, and that number of hours is calculated based on the TV displaying standard dynamic range material. HDR content will shorten an OLED’s lifespan.

With normal use (two hours a day), those drawbacks will never bite you. Or for at least not for a very long time. Using OLEDs for signage, all-day long viewing, or for rendering static images, on the other hand, is not recommended.

Micro-LED (not to be confused with mini-LED backlighting) is a non-organic self-emitter technology that doesn’t suffer any of these issues, but it’s still so expensive as to excuse itself from this conversation.

Viewing angle: While most TVs look great when viewed head-on, not all look that great when viewed from an angle. So, if you’re planning to host Super Bowl parties or other events where people will watch from oblique angles, make sure you check into this aspect. Anti-glare coatings, as well as the type of LCDs used: IPS (In-Plane Switching), TN (Twisted Nematic), VA (Vertically Aligned), etc., can affect the image when viewed from other than purely perpendicular.

Backlighting: Two basic types of backlighting are used in LED-backlit LCD TVs: array and edge lit. As previously discussed, every element in an OLED (or micro-LED) panel is its own backlight.

Array backlighting is simply a grid of LEDs placed directly behind the screen. It’s an advanced type of what was once referred to as direct backlighting. Edge lighting, as you’ve probably guessed, places the light source around the edge of the display. The photons emitted by the source are redirected by various means (tunnels, light pipes, reflective materials, et al) to the filter and LCD layers of the display. Edge lighting has generally been relegated to entry-level TVs.

Array backlighting produces better blacks than edge lighting, though how much better depends on a number of factors, such as the quality of the LCDs (some leak less light than others), the algorithms used to darken the zones (the individual lights or light groups), and the material being displayed. Array backlighting can also produce significantly more brightness than edge lighting, which comes in handy for HDR.

Mini-LED is the latest development in LED/array backlighting. TCL was first to market with it, but Samsung’s latest TVs also feature the technology. Basically, the LEDs are much smaller, there are far more of them, and they’re placed much closer to the filter and LCD layers, reducing bleed and deepening blacks while simultaneously increasing brightness. It’s not quite OLED, but it’s a lot closer than normal array or edge LED backlighting.

While edge lighting is on it’s way out, it does have one advantage. It generally doesn’t suffer the odd artifacts—such as blocking (obvious dark or light squares), moiré, and shimmer—that array backlighting can produce.

All things being equal, you have twice as many redraws to play with on a 120Hz set as on a 60Hz set, and motion will nearly always look smoother with a higher refresh rate. Case in point: the best LED-backlit LCD sets all have 120Hz hardware refresh rates. Look for the hardware refresh rate.Or ask; it can be hard to find.

Bit depth: Most TVs these days are 10-bit (10 bits of each color, aka Deep Color), which means they’re capable of rendering just over one billion colors. There are still 8-bit (True Color) sets available, and these produce more than 16 million colors. That sounds like a lot, but you’ll still see banding. A panel with 10-bit color just about eliminates that problem.

Alternatively, many sets still offer optical digital and RCA/analog outputs for connecting older audio equipment, although those connections don’t have the bandwidth required for high-resolution audio such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. If the TV you want doesn’t offer legacy connections, there are HDMI-to-legacy adapters available for very little cash.

While picture quality is king of the shopping criteria, the synergy and efficiency of the remote and user interface (how quickly they get you from point A to point B) can have a great impact on how much you enjoy your TV.

Energy consumption: You know those yellow stickers on the TVs that estimate yearly power consumption? Unless you adjust your set to ECO mode or something similar (which hardly anyone does, because you won’t get the best picture quality), those stats are pure fantasy. Note that 4K UHD sets use more power than 1080p sets, and 8K UHD sets use more power than 4K UHD sets, though not as much more as you might think.

While I’ve described the features you should look for in a TV, as I said before, image quality is the biggest part of the equation, and that you largely judge with your eyes. That said, there are some handy, cheap, color- and brightness-measuring apps for smartphones these days. Even if they’re not 100-percent accurate, you can compare the results to spot differences.

One issue you’ll run into when shopping (unless you’re just going by online reviews and opinions) is that most of the on-TV demos you’ll see running are designed to make that particular TV look good. Or, at the very least—not make it look bad. To accurately assess a TV’s capabilities, you might bring your own material on a USB stick. (It’s what I do.) What material is that?

You can search the web for 4K UHD HDR demos, and finding suitable ones, load them on your USB stick. Sony’s Contrast Demos are particularly useful to test blacks and backlighting. Beyond that, highly detailed scenes such as cityscapes, fine patterns, and forest scenes are handy for spotting shimmer and moiré. Quick pans over large patterns and car chases can be good for spotting jerky motion.

YouTube is also a good source for HDR, 4K UHD, and even 8K UHD content to test TVs with. It’s often highly compressed, but generally indicative. There are even “zone counters” for counting the number of zones in the array backlighting. Watch the small white block move along the edge of a black screen and each time it dims (or brightens—your choice) it has traveled over a new zone.

There are two types of LED TV - edge-lit and back-lit televisions. So what is the difference, and is it important? Find out everything you need to know.

This type of lamp has managed to produce high-quality televisions. But, there have always been disadvantages to this technology, such as poor contrast ratios and color reproduction.

Different parts of the screen can have the blocks of lights switched on or off at any time, which gives the TV a much better contrast ratio than a traditional LCD TV.

Therefore, a back-lit LED TV with local dimming produces a better picture, which helps it to create an image comparable with other TV technologies like OLED.

A downside is that the power consumption of these TVs can be greater than standard LCD or edge-lit televisions – especially those models which use RGB LEDs.

The advantage over an edge-lit TV is that the lighting will usually be more uniform across the screen – eliminating the light-pooling of edge-lit screens.

The lights in edge-lit LED televisions are placed around the perimeter of the LCD screen – and the light they emit spreads across the back of the panel using a series of ‘light guides.’

LG 2022 QNED LCD LED TV Lineup – Models, Specifications and Prices: LG announced its lineup of LCD LED TVs for 2022 at CES 2022 in Las Vegas. In this article we list all new models, including model numbers, specifications and (when available) prices.

LG’s focus this year is of course on the OLED TV line-up , but the South Korean manufacturer also continues to bet on LCD televisions. The latest models for 2022 have features such as mini LED (QNED), hdmi 2.1 and webOS 22.

We see the term QNED again this year in LG’s LCD LED TV line-up. QNED stands for quantum nanocell mini LED. To put it simply, the mini LED technology is an improved version of the LCD LED technology that we have seen in recent years. The LCD screen remains as it is, but the backlighting with this technique consists of thousands of small LEDs (so mini LED) that can be controlled in very small groups. The advantages of miniLED are a higher contrast and a higher brightness. Do you want to know more? Then read us background article about miniled and microled.

LG will launch five series with the name QNED this year. Two of them have the 8K resolution and three come with the 4K resolution. It is striking that of the five QNED series, only four have miniLED local dimming backlighting. The top model in the field of LCD LED is the QNED99 series. The models in this series have the 8K resolution, come with approximately 2,500 dimming zones, are equipped with mini LED backlighting and have a 100Hz panel. A step lower we see the QNED95 (QNED96) series. This series is largely similar to the QNED99 series but has a 50Hz panel instead of a 100Hz panel.

If you go for the 4K resolution, you will end up with the QNED90 (QNED91) or QNED85 (QNED86) series. All models in this series are equipped with the mini LED technology with local dimming, HDMI 2.1, webOS 22 and support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. The sizes range from 55-inch to 86-inch. Finally, there is the QNED80 (QNED81) series, consisting of LCD LED TVs with edge lit LED backlighting. So no mini LED is used on these models.

webOS 22 introduces personal profiles for a personalized viewing experience. Under each profile, users can set up quick access to their favorite streaming services, get tailored recommendations based on their viewing history, and receive real-time alerts to keep up to date with favorite sports teams. Logging in to profiles can be done both via the TV browser and via a smartphone with NFC Magic Tap. NFC Magic Tap can also be used to mirror the screen of a mobile device to an LG TV. Viewers can also mirror content in their home from one TV to another using Room To Room Share. Watches cable or satellite content on another TV over WiFi without an additional set-top box. Always Ready turns an LG TV into a media display when not in use. Always Ready is activated with a press of the power button on the LG Remote to transform the screen into a digital canvas for displaying artwork, keeping track of time or playing music. In addition, the upgrade of ThinQ AI allows LG’s 2022 TVs to become a smart home hub. ThinQ provides voice control and compatibility with other ThinQ devices.

Below you will find an overview of all LCD LED televisions that LG will bring to the Netherlands and Belgium in 2022. We will update this article as soon as we receive more specifications and all prices.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. just announced the U.S. availability and pricing of its award-winning LED HDTVs. Samsung has delivered the largest LED TV lineup with eight series ranging from 19 to 65 inches, with select series delivering the most immersive 3D experience. Samsung’s LED TV lineup will begin to roll out in retail this month.Series/Model

“Our commitment to innovation has always been strong. We’re not only delivering elegant design and eco-friendly energy consumption, but we’re adding a new dimension to superior home entertainment through a broad lineup of 3D LED TVs,” said John Revie, vice president of Home Entertainment for Samsung Electronics America. “We are passionate about this year’s LED TV lineup as we once again raise the bar on technology innovation by delivering a superior TV experience and leadership in the HDTV space.”

This year’s premium LED TV models, the C7000, C8000 and C9000, feature Samsung’s Real240Hz™ refresh rate technology and Samsung’s proprietary built-in 3D processor that is compatible with major 3D format standards. While the TVs are optimized for viewing 3D content, the built in 3D processor lets you render 2D content into 3D in real time.

Samsung’s LED C8000 and C6800 include Samsung’s Precision Dimming technology that merges the advantages of LED edge-lighting with the control of local dimming technology in directly back-lit LED televisions. Precision Dimming uses an array of special LEDs that create diamond-shaped areas of light to illuminate objects on the panel. These areas can vary in size and shape according to the light required, and an algorithm calculates where the light should be targeted to intensify contrast. The result: higher contrast ratios, deeper blacks, vibrant colors and enhanced energy efficiency.

The LED 6500, 6800, 7000, 8000 and 9000 come with Internet@TV connectivity which includes Samsung Apps, allowing users, with internet access or a wireless network with our Link Stick* (or similar), to download and view applications on their TV screens. Samsung Apps provides consumers with a broad selection of content and applications from leading services like The Associated Press, Netflix, Pandora, Twitter, USA TODAY, and VUDU. More than 20 apps should launch by the end of March, with more to come.**

In 2010, Samsung builds on its tradition of innovative design by introducing narrower bezels and brushed metal frames in silver and black — pushing the limits beyond the familiar black bezels of many HDTV’s. The LED TVs are very slim, with the 7000 Series measuring one-inch, and LED C8000 measuring 0.9 inches and the LED C9000 measuring a pencil thin 0.3 inches. For select models, Samsung also developed a groundbreaking four-legged quad stand that makes the TV look more like furniture and a new “mystic earth” Touch of Color™ (ToC™) design scheme with chrome edging to better match a living room’s decor. The new LED TVs match Samsung’s 2010 line of Blu-ray players and home theater systems.

All these functionalities are delivered without compromising on the energy efficiency that Samsung LED TVs are known for and meet even higher standards of sustainability. They all exceed the more stringent EnergyStar 4.0 guidelines, and are slimmer and lighter for easier shipping and storing. The 2010 LED TVs are the highest performing and most eco-conscious HDTV products Samsung has ever released.

The C9000 Series come equipped with a premium 3-inch color touch-screen remote control — which features a live feed of the channel you’re currently watching. For the C9000 only, the easy to use, full touch-screen remote control comes complete with an earphone jack and Twin View, which lets you watch TV or Blu-ray DVD titles on the remote or TV at the same time. The remote includes Allshare and a QWERTY keyboard for the LED C7000, C8000 and C9000, and at 2.4 Ghz, its integrated Wi-Fi and infrared technology controls the TV, STB and AV devices with on-screen buttons. The touch screen remote is available as an accessory for the LED C7000 and C8000, as well as select LCD and Plasma Series.

Samsung’s innovative ultra-slim wall-mount solutions enhance Samsung’s latest ultra-thin televisions by reducing the gap between the TV and the wall to a mere 0.6 inches, making the experience similar to hanging a picture frame. They feature a unique cord system to help you stay untangled for a neat and organized appearance. The wall mounts come in two versions that support various TV models.Product