The past five years or so have seen the television market diversify to the point where it's hard to keep up. Simple LCD and plasma TVs have been replaced by a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms like QLED, Neo QLED, OLED, Mini LED, Micro LED, and probably a few other variations I'm forgetting. It's a lot for a tech writer to keep track of, let alone the average consumer.

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In this article, I'll clarify the differences between two of the most popular technologies: Neo QLED and OLED. I'll demystify each technology, the pros and cons of both, and define which might best serve you best in your next TV.

What is Neo QLED?

Let's start with the basics. Neo QLED (Neo Quantum Light Emitting Diode) is a name exclusive to Samsung's 4K and 8K televisions. The panels employ what Samsung calls Quantum Matrix technology, which provides backlighting via thousands of tiny LEDs. Each LED is a small fraction of the size of those in older TV backlighting setups. This means that Neo QLED's closest non-proprietary analog is Mini LED (explained below in the FAQ section).

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A Neo QLED panel has thousands of lighting zones. In older TVs, sections of the screen that should be pitch black appear gray or milky due to the limited number of lighting zones. Some older TVs have as few as four for the whole screen. With Neo QLED, precise portions of the screen are lit.

The result is an image with better, sharper contrast between lights and darks, and more accurate colors. Samsung's use of its Quantum Dot technology, which provides additional light filtration on a pixel-by-pixel basis to make the colors more accurate and richly saturated, additionally improves color accuracy.

What is OLED?

OLED is an older, non-proprietary technology that is differentiated by a single layer that provides light and color. Where Neo QLED and most other panel types rely on one layer to provide the colors for the individual pixels and another layer to light up those colored pixels, OLED panel pixels provide their own light.

An OLED TV is essentially an array of millions of microscopic, color-changing LEDs. Each pixel emits colored light, meaning there are as many lighting zones as there are pixels. Each one can also switch off entirely, providing perfect black levels.

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OLED televisions have been around for years, with almost every major TV manufacturer producing a version.

Which is better, Neo QLED or OLED?

As with most technology comparisons, there's no universal answer here. The right answer depends on what content you watch, your budget, your viewing environment, and your personal preferences. 

Neo QLED pros and cons  

Pros:

• Brightness- Due to its use of discrete, miniaturized LEDs for backlighting, Samsung's Neo QLED tech creates images four to five times brighter than OLED panels, on average. This makes Neo QLED panels great for brightly lit rooms.
  
• Refresh rate- While OLED TVs and monitors are finally catching up to their competition's refresh rates, there is a wider selection of Neo QLED displays with higher refresh rates. This refresh rate is important for gaming and watching fast-paced live sports. 
• Cost- There are certainly more budget-friendly OLED options than ever. However, many models sacrifice port selection, smart TV features, and other useful display tech to reach a budget price while still including OLED panels. Neo QLED, on a feature-by-feature comparison, typically comes at a price of at least a few hundred dollars below an equivalent OLED model.

Cons: 

• Imperfect black levels- While Neo QLED is one of OLED's closest competitors for ideal black levels, it still can't match the contrast of OLEDs. This deficiency is because Neo QLED lights millions of pixels with only thousands of LEDs. The result is minimal, but still visible, light bleed. 
• Selection- Unlike OLED TVs, Neo QLED displays are exclusive to Samsung. This exclusivity means that if you're not a fan of Samsung's Smart TV interface, design philosophy, or the company as a whole, you're out of luck. OLED panels are, conversely, made by a slew of manufacturers you can choose from. 
• Thickness- It might seem comical to call a Neo QLED TV thick (most are around one inch in depth), but they're still much thicker than OLED panels. There's a reason OLED technology remains so popular in smartphones. The tech provides one of the slimmest display panels you can buy. OLED TVs practically disappear when viewed edge-on.

OLED pros and cons

Pros: 

• Contrast and black levels- OLED's contrast and black levels are unmatched. If you consume a lot of content with dark scenes (like horror movies or video games), you'll have a better experience with an OLED. 
• Thinness- Although most OLED TVs will have a section toward the bottom end about two inches thick, most of the display is thinner than your smartphone, often dropping to 1/4-inch thick in some models. This thinness provides visual appeal and premium quality, especially when mounted on a wall.
• Model diversity- OLED TVs were once almost wholly the domain of LG. That situation has changed dramatically. Nearly every major manufacturer, Samsung included, has joined the party. OLED models are now available in a wider variety of sizes, resolutions, and price points than ever before. 

Cons: 

• Price- OLED prices have fallen somewhat, but a fully-featured OLED TV will almost always be more expensive than alternative technologies.
• Fragility- All that thinness means the panels can be delicate. Any television will shatter from a hard blow, but OLEDs even require caution when mounting them thanks to their ultraslim display panels. The TVs can't support their weight, making lifting them into place by their beefier bottom sections particularly tricky.
• Burn-in risk -Burn-in happens when a display retains residual images that won't disappear, no matter how many times its pixels are refreshed. If you've ever had a monitor with a permanent, ghostly version of a Windows taskbar, you've experienced this issue. OLED panels can be more prone to burn-in than competing LED technology. While manufacturers have used numerous methods to combat this issue, and panels are more resilient than they have been before, it's still worth considering, especially if you expect to display static imagery for extended periods. 

Should I buy a Neo QLED or OLED TV?

There are some categories of consumers to whom I would recommend one type over the other:

• Gamers or sports fans- Neo QLED: The additional available brightness, more common availability of 120Hz refresh rates, and lack of worry about in-game graphics or sports score overlays causing burn-in all point toward Neo QLED being the better choice.
• Movie buffs and binge-watchers- OLED: If you're building a home cinema around your new TV and want the best contrast ratio and richest colors, OLED is the way to go. Most OLED models shine even more when sticking to the careful color grading of big-budget films and modern prestige TV series. 
• Viewers with super-bright living rooms- Neo QLED: OLED's rich colors and dark blacks won't matter if the image is too dark to see due to ambient light from windows or lamps. While you can try to reduce room light using window treatments or dimmers, it's not always practical. For this reason, the vastly superior maximum brightness of Neo QLED wins here.
• Picky interior decorators and others who prioritize aesthetics- OLED: The ultraslim profile of an OLED TV gives it two advantages. First, it makes the TV almost vanish when viewed from the side. Second, it makes the television much easier to hide in a cabinet.

Both Neo QLED and OLED TVs are great, and you're not going to be disappointed with either. There are models of either TV type that will blow away anything that came before, and will likely make you forget any doubts you had the second you flip it on for the first time in your living room.

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