Say goodbye to Samsung LCD screens, as a new report from Korea IT News (via CNET) says the world's biggest TV maker could switch to OLED, or at least some form of OLED, next year. . The report claims that Samsung Display will invest 13,1 trillion won (approximately US$12.000 billion / GBP 8.500 billion / AU$15.500 billion) "by 2025" to develop a new mass production line for its QD-technology. OLED, the production of which should begin in 2021 for the creation of 65-inch televisions "or more". The move will also lead to a complete shutdown of LCD production at Samsung Display, which was originally scheduled for 2020 but was postponed when "oversupply of Samsung LCD displays turned into undersupply" as demand of television increased at the beginning of the Covid- 19. pandemic. The report builds on years of rumors that Samsung was developing a hybrid ``QD-OLED'' display, combining an OLED TV screen with the quantum dot technology that underpins Samsung's popular QLED lineup. How does it work? QD-OLED is said to use a self-emissive OLED panel to emit blue light, as well as a quantum dot filter to convert that light into other colors, bypassing the need for a backlight, as the OLED panel acts as its own light sources. , but still uses QLED technology to improve contrast. The exact effect or level of image quality has yet to be seen, however, but it should enable higher brightness and even wider color gamuts compared to traditional OLED. There are no official blueprints or public timetables for Samsung to make its tech debut, but this latest report matches what market analysts said last year: Omdia predicts that mass production of Samsung's QD-OLED kits would begin by the end of 2021, for 2022. Liberation.
A change of tone
Samsung Q60T QLED 2020 (Image credit: Samsung) The company has been reluctant to switch to OLED TVs for some time, despite it being the premium TV panel technology of choice for LG Electronics, Sony, Philips and Panasonic. With TCL and Hisense only briefly experimenting with the OLED slapdash O8B, Samsung chose to push the limits of image quality on LCD, with the higher maximum brightness and hardware longevity it offers. Purporting to be a sort of quantum dot shortcut to the visual benefits of OLED, with much lower production costs, the appeal of QD-OLED is to offer TV brands a cheaper alternative to OLED panels, in addition to offer customers a cheaper entry point. than the equivalent. performance. However, that would be a rather sudden change for Samsung, which regularly improves its QLED lineup with a greater focus on 8K TVs, as well as the Neo QLED 2021 iterations that incorporate Mini LED backlight technology for better brightness and contrast control. Could all this progress be combined to follow a QD-OLED strategy?
Samsung 8K on-screen TVs (Image credit: Samsung) Samsung is likely to start a little small, with just one QD-OLED model released in 2022 to gauge consumer interest, before introducing a trio of iterated models in 2023 that they display the technology at a mix of prices, which vary in price. output, resolution and build quality. We saw a similar strategy when Samsung started pushing 8K TVs in earnest, though QD-OLED's potential as a cost-effective alternative to OLED may allow Samsung to push the technology faster early on. In 2019, Samsung told us that it believed "various technology improvements should precede the adoption of existing OLED panel technology in TVs, and no decision has been made on whether or not to adopt QD-OLED panels in our TVs." It seems, maybe, maybe Samsung found the "improvement" it was looking for. Today's best deals Samsung Q60T QLED TV 43"