Display Technology: The Visual Interface
How we see digital content is defined by the interface between light and our eyes. Here's how modern display technologies work:
LED, Mini LED & QLED
These are all variations of the same concept: shine light through an LCD layer of pixels which have color to make an image.
- LED — Has a few dozen light emitting diodes behind the picture layer, letting the TV darken and brighten zones for better contrast.
- Mini LED — Hundreds or even thousands of LEDs, so the number of zones is much higher, giving even better contrast.
- QLED — Uses quantum dots, basically a fancy science pigment, to make really vibrant colors. Think like how blacklight stuff works, but without the blacklight.
OLED
OLED pixels glow colors all by themselves—they don't need any LEDs behind them. This means effectively infinite contrast because an OLED pixel that is black is completely off, while an LED pixel that is black is just blocking most (but not all) of the light trying to pass through it. More contrast means a better looking picture.
Micro LED: The Best of All
Micro LED uses regular LEDs which are very bright and colorful, but they are very very tiny—so you can use three of them to make a pixel without an LCD layer to create the color. This gives you the bright image of an LED display, with the vibrant color of quantum dots, and the infinite contrast of OLED. Currently very expensive, and might be a while before it's affordable because OLED keeps getting better.
Resolution: SD, HD, UHD
These describe how many pixels are in the image. More pixels means more detail:
- SD — Like a DVD. Looks okay on a 32" screen, but not so good on a 55".
- HD — Basically 4x DVD pixels. Looks nice and sharp on a 55" TV, but maybe a little soft on an 85".
- UHD (4K) — 4x more pixels again. Looks good on even very big screens—movie theaters are currently 4K resolution.
- 8K — Exists, but there's not really any content for it yet.