How many times can a brand say it's launching a new TV technology before it actually launches? In the case of Micro LED, the answer seems to be multiple times. Samsung first unveiled its ``The Wall'' Micro LED TV in Las Vegas at the CES tech event in 2018, while Sony has been promising Micro LED technology in its TVs for some time now. But it looks like 2021 could be the year that Micro LED makes its way into our homes, or at least some homes with the right amount of space and the big budget to match. At the Unbox & Discover event in March 2021, it was announced that Samsung's Micro LED TV will launch in its larger 110-inch and 99-inch sizes "worldwide from the end of March", with a waist of 88 inches by the end of 2021. . Samsung also announced a reduced size of 76 inches. It may still be in big-screen territory, but it's the smallest for Micro LED technology, which is notorious for being difficult to condense into smaller sizes. Does this mean that Micro LED is becoming more viable every day? Below we've outlined everything that makes Micro LED such an appealing idea, and why your next TV might come with Micro LED technology.
Frequently asked questions about micro LEDs
- What is micro LED? A method of getting brighter and more contrasting images from a television than is currently possible otherwise.
- what are the advantages? Higher brightness, long lifespan, low power consumption.
- Will I be able to see the difference? Certainly. Even when screens reach manageable sizes, the contrast ratio and brightness of a typical Micro LED TV is evident.
- Are Micro LED TVs expensive? Right now the answer is: yes, ruinously. But this has been the case since the infancy of every new television technology...
What is the micro LED?
Currently, LEDs are used to provide backlighting for LCD screens; all current non-OLED televisions use this methodology of shining light through their pixels. And all non-OLED TVs use an LED to backlight dozens, if not hundreds, of pixels at a time. But Micro LED uses LEDs that are so small that they can function as individual pixels. And a pixel that is its own light source does not require a backlight. This means screens are thinner (due to the lack of backlighting) and images are better controlled across the board. Suddenly, higher color fidelity, wider contrasts, and higher brightness are available. Of course, self-emitting pixels are exactly what makes OLED TVs so appealing. But Micro LED doesn't use any organic components, so the inevitable performance degradation that plagues OLED displays won't become a problem for Micro LED over hundreds of thousands of hours of use. The rare but dreaded ``screen burn'' is also not a problem with Micro LED. And micro LED has the potential to deliver much brighter images than OLED, and with HDR imaging technology becoming more ubiquitous, that's a huge advantage. The brightest OLED TVs top out at around 1,000 nits, but Samsung has already hit 4,000 nits for its Micro LED displays and is confident 10,000 nits can be achieved. Combine this downright staggering level of brightness with the pure black tones that self-emitting displays are capable of, and the potential of micro LEDs for huge contrast ratios is apparent. All that brightness shouldn't add up to an energy consumption cost, either; Since there is no color filter for the LEDs to glow, they shouldn't need as much oomph. This brightness also promises large volumes of color, and since there is no 'crosstalk' of color or light, even between neighboring pixels, lighting must be perfectly accurate. Viewing angles should also be at least as good as OLED screens.
How does Micro LED work?
Basically, Micro LED gets the job done with its unrestricted implementation. Compared to conventional LED/LCD or even OLED displays, Micro LED is a technological tour de force. Of course, since the LEDs here function as individual pixels, there are quite a few of them. A 4K resolution display needs around 8,3m of LEDs to deliver a 3840 x 2160 resolution image, at least that's what you think. But in fact, since Micro LED needs one red LED, one blue LED and one green LED for each pixel, a 4K Micro LED display is made up of around 25m individual LEDs. So is it any wonder that micro LED displays currently sit somewhere between "really, really big" and "absolutely huge"? Or that, as things stand, its cost is prohibitive?Why is the micro LED important?
The micro LED is important because it promises brightness levels, contrast ratios, and color volumes that were previously unavailable. It promises super wide viewing angles. It is capable of delivering all the elements of good image quality while consuming less power than OLED technology, and its lifespan exceeds OLED as well. And since it's possible to group thousands of LED pixels into "modules" that can be taken apart and assembled together, Micro LED displays can (at least in theory) be any size and shape. No need to be tied to an old 16:9 aspect ratio if you fancy some modular micro LED action.Micro LED TVs: where to find one?
Both Samsung and Sony are happy to part with significant sums of money in exchange for a Micro LED TV. But beyond whether you can afford one, the next big question is: do you have the space for a micro LED TV? Until recently, the smallest 'home' micro LED Samsung had available was a whopping 110-inch screen, which is the type of screen size most commonly associated with projectors. Starting in March 2021, however, Samsung announced that its Micro LED TV will ship first in the massive 110-inch size, along with slightly more manageable 99-inch and 88-inch sizes expected later in 2021. The good news it's that there's a 75-inch Samsung Micro LED in the cars, but there's no confirmed release window for this size beyond "the roadmap of the future." However, at least Samsung's big micro LED TVs come, like any other massive TV, as a single unit. The equivalent Sony Micro LED (which for some reason the company calls "Crystal LED") comes in 16 "modules" and must be assembled on site.