Every other year, we get to learn of a new television model that is out on the market, a significance that innovation is at its best. If you have lived long enough to see it all, you should have witnessed the times of the CRTs, to when we migrated to LCDs.
What I don’t know is whether you realized that it meant a shift from LEDs to OLEDs. If you were not aware yet, the two are slowly paving way for the MicroLED, an emerging home theatre display technology that will eventually swallow them up.
But let’s find out, what each of these is; and try to make a comparison.
What is an LED?
LED stands for light emitting diode, and is a screen display technology that uses a panel of LEDs as the light source. Almost all of the modern electronic devices we know of have used a LED display to display their output.
These include mobile phones, TVs, tablets, computer monitors, laptops screens, among others.
What is OLED?
OLED stands for organic light emitting diode and is slightly different from the LED. While OLED displays as well work by having their own semiconductors that generate light, OLEDs utilize carbon-based material printed into sheet-style structures to produce light.
OLEDs also employ a much simpler design compared to the other display technologies with the sets requiring no back light.
OLED Vs LED
OLED displays greatly improve on what LEDs have to offer. OLEDs have great black levels and contrast, precisely because there isn’t any back light in them. Each individual diode can actually be black; it can be in a state where it produces no light whatsoever.
Secondly, OLEDs have a much better viewing angle than the LEDs. Some of the layers that limit a good view such as the backlight have been removed by manufacturers making this almost a perfect improvement.
This makes the OLED pixels close enough to the glass surface of the screen, making the viewing angle better than that of the LED. This also makes the OLED produce less energy when in operation.
On the downside, OLEDs tend to produce a burn-in when operating. In case a static image remains on the screen for long periods, they tend to get permanently apparent on the screen in a blurred form as a result of the burn-in.
What is MicroLED?
MicroLED or mLED is deemed to be the next generation of displays. Unlike the other technologies, this has panels made up of a series of smaller ones, closely knitted together to make one larger whole.
MicroLEDs create images through an array of microscopic light-emitting diodes. Additionally, these diodes are also self-emissive on a per-pixel level.
OLED Vs MicroLED
MicroLEDs are close to similar to OLEDs, with both being self-emitting technologies that they produce their own light. Each pixel of the mLED is a combination of quantum dot red, green, and blue LEDs that can turn off or on individually.
mLEDs offer the same black levels as OLEDs but with a greater brightness, lower power consumption and longer life-span attached. MicroLED displays also become exceptional when they utilize inorganic materials to do what the OLED screens can not.
