[Music]
So bones are bones, and bones do break. My ladder slipped out from underneath me while
I was hanging Christmas lights and I broke my wrist. Tis the season. And while this might
stop me from making teardown videos, I have had this video in the works for quite a while
and a broken wrist is not going to stop me from reviewing these two TVs.
I've been looking for a new TV for my office, and LG said they would send over two to have
me compare side-by-side and I get to pick which one I want. At first glance, two giant
black rectangles hung up on the wall might look the exact same, but the technology that
makes up these two TVs is entirely different. We'll bust out the microscope to take an up
close and personal look at the pixels. Full disclosure, both of these TVs are really good.
It was very hard to choose between the two, but I have made a decision. I'll have a lot
of side-by-side comparison shots so you can make up your mind as well. And you'll have
to let me know what you think down in the comments.
Let's get started.
*no snap*
[Intro]
So I've had these two TVs mounted up on my wall for about a week now. And I've played
a few video games, I've watched a few movies, and it's been a very tough choice to decide
between the two. But I think I've finally made a decision. The TV on the left is an
OLED display. The TV on the right is a Samsung QLED display. Samsung has gotten kind of tricky
with their naming schemes, even though they both have LED in the name. The QLED is actually
LCD screen technology. The LCD screen is back -lit by LEDs – hence the LED part in the
part in the QLED name. If you remember, when I toured the OLED experience trailer, we saw
both TVs torn down, and could see the segments that make up the QLED TV with the big LED
lights behind it illuminating the pixels in front. It's called a transmissive TV because
the light passes through the pixels. While the OLED TV, the one on the left right now,
is using emissive technology – meaning that the pixels make their own light and you get
this futuristic looking super thin panel.
Both of these TVs are 65 inches. So this OLED panel here on the left weighs about 75 pounds
but is incredibly thin. The emissive LEDs which make their own light can be made into
these super super thin panels. The are some spots back here for the HDMI ports, that's
a little bit thicker and adds some weight to it. The QLED panel over here weighs about
61 pounds but does not include any of the HDMI ports, those come in a separate unit,
which I currently have down there on the ground.
The QLED panel is quite a bit thicker than the OLED panel and it costs about $26 a year
to run instead of $31. It's a little bit cheaper to run the few LEDs that are back-lighting
the QLED TV than it is to run the millions of self-lit LEDs on the surface of the OLED.
But those millions of self-lit pixels on the OLED panel are what gives you more control
over the image and I'll show you what I mean. The most extreme example of this control is
with a star field like that old-school screen saver. Take a look at these side-by-side comparisons.
Both TVs are playing the exact same video from the same source and the TVs are on standard
color settings straight out of the box. Since the OLED TV on the left can light each pixel
individually, you know, with that emissive technology. The detail on it's true black
background is way more prominent than on the QLED LCD screen. Both of these TVs are set
on standard straight out of the box. Since the QLED on the right uses the back light
to shine through the pixels, and each back light LED handles quite a big quadrant of
pixels, individual pixels struggle to get lit up very bright because it's all being
handled by one gigantic LED behind them.
If you watch a lot of well lit scenarios like the news or sports, this isn't a big deal.
But for entertainment, which is what I use my TV for, like movies, TV shows and video
games, the ability to have detail in low light without lighting up the whole screen is kind
of cool. If you watch scary movies or movies set up in space, you know, sci-fi stuff, where
there's a lot of dark or black scenes, OLED might be the better option. Even though the
same video is being mirrored across both screens, it looks like it's an entirely different video
because of the way the TV technology displays the image.
So I paused the image really quick. I have a digital microscope right here that we're
going to put up to the screen of the TV and take a look at one of the little stars. This
is a neon green pixel that we're looking at right now. You can see it here on my laptop
display. That little dot is what we're seeing on the screen right now. And each of those
color groupings makes up each individual pixel on the OLED screen. Now let's take a look
at the same green dot over here on the QLED. This is the exact same star, and that's what
the QLED pixels look like. Instead of each color being lit individually, they're being
lit by the massive back light. And because each LED back light handles such a large portion
of the screen on the QLED, it's hard to find the detail in the individual pixels in something
like a star field. The star field does a really good job of showing off the capabilities of
OLED.
Even though the same video is being mirrored across both screens, it looks like an entirely
different video due to that display technology. The stars show up better on one screen than
they do the other, even with the lights on, the difference is very discernible. I'll put
up some more side-by-side comparisons, so pay attention to the colors and viewing angles
as I move around a bit. As far as gaming goes, the OLED is nvidia G-sync compatible with
one milliseconds response time. And it also has AI picture which optimizes the image details
and lighting in real time, as well as optimizes the sound. It can tell what size room you're
in by the way the sound waves bounce off the walls and adjusts itself accordingly.
For normal work like editing my videos and browsing the Internet, I'll continue to use
my LCD computer monitors. They have a more natural feel for me. But for anything that's
entertainment related, like watching movies, playing video games, or browsing social media
on my phone, I'm going to have to go with OLED. The detail is all there all the time
in light or dark scenarios It really all does just boil down to personal preference though.
If you want something super futuristically thin and colorful, OLED is probably the way
to go. I'm not here to bash either technology though. Both of these TVs are pretty great.
Remember that both of these TVs are 4K, so all of the pixels are there. Just the technology
lighting the pixels is different on each unit. You might have heard of something called burn-in
where there's an image kind of permanently burned into the display of an OLED TV or an
OLED phone. My personally Galaxy S8 was plagued with this. For me it was the keyboard that
was burned into the display because that's what I used the most. And my keyboard was
on the screen most of the time. LG has included a few precautions against burn-in with a pixel
refreshing feature. Along with a screen shift that moves the screen slightly at regular
intervals to prevent the screen from sticking, and the TV can detect and adjust the brightness
of logos or TV station watermarks with the brightness of those logos adjusted down, it
insures that nothing bad happens to the TV. Now we just need those burn-in protection
features on cell phones.
The average person keeps their TV anywhere between 4 and 10 years, so it's a pretty big
purchase decision. Hopefully my video was able to cast a little bit of light on the
different technologies behind OLED and QLED. There is a reason why smartphone manufacturers
are going with OLED displays. Yeah they're thinner, but they're also better for entertainment,
like social media, watching videos on YouTube, and I think that's the way I'm going to lean
for myself as well, since for me, a TV is entertainment.
Let me know what you think down in the comments. Would you go with OLED or QLED? I'm curious
to hear what you think. I'll leave a link for the TV down in the video description.
Come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you
around.