Samsung unveils QD-Display: The Quantum Dot meets OLED TV display

Will QD-Display put the Quantum Dot cat amongst the OLED pigeons?

by Andy Bassett

QD-Display is the name Samsung has given its latest TV screen development, which started life as an $11 billion gamble on QD-OLED technology.

Samsung Display has used CES 2022 to pull back the curtain on its latest display technology which it has dubbed QD-Display. The company is introducing QD-Display for the home entertainment market in two 4K TV sizes, 55- and 65-inch, along with a QHD 34-inch curved gaming monitor. It’s been reported that the TVs will be capable of a 144Hz frame rate while the monitors can support up to 175Hz.

Initially known by the potentially confusing QD-OLED nomenclature, QD-Display combines OLED and Quantum Dot technologies for a display that delivers the best of both worlds.

This means that the world’s first self emitting Quantum Dot display is capable of delivering true blacks, wider, deeper colour coverage - something Samsung Display is calling XCR (eXperienced Colour Range) - a peak brightness of 1500nits and even wider viewing angles than conventional OLED.

Samsung Display’s press material lists the main properties as:

1/ Exceptional colour performance
2/ Low blue Light
3/ Halo free bright images against dark backgrounds
4/ Extended HDR
5/ Superior colour range (XCR)
6/ True blacks
7/ Widest viewing angles
8/ Fast response time
9/ Low reflections

The starting point is a layer of printed Quantum Dots which are activated using a blue self-emitting (OLED) pixel layer. The only other component involved is an Oxide TFT backplane which completes a 3-layer structure. This simple architecture ensures that high-performance is achieved along with slim design aesthetics.

Samsung unveils QD-Display: The Quantum Dot meets OLED TV display

Unlike previous displays that were designed with Quantum Dot sheets, QD-Display has red and green quantum dot material printed on each pixel and since the blue light has a high energy frequency, the Quantum Dot layer can easily convert the light into red and green colours, which have lower energy frequencies. Thus, unlike displays that rely on colour filters to tune the image, and by using true RGB pixels rather than white plus RGB pixels of conventional OLED panels, QD-Display’s colour conversion allows for a superior colour performance.

So, while conventional WRGB OLED manages around 76-percent of the BT2020 colour gamut, QD-Display can hit 90-percent coverage while also achieving 99.9-percent of the DCI-P3 colour spectrum too. This colour representation can therefore reproduce almost all of the colours visible in nature.

Since QD-Display provides the lowest measurable black level of 0.0005 nits and true RGB to create perfect whites and high luminosity, the dynamic range is improved, with an infinite contrast ratio quoted. With QD-Display, ‘shadow details’ are rendered with exceptional clarity and integrity and since there are millions of self-emitting pixels, a brightly lit pixel can be next to a black pixel, thereby producing sharp edges for images as well as subtitles.

Samsung unveils QD-Display: The Quantum Dot meets OLED TV display

Despite using blue self emitting pixels the QD-Display has been engineered to have one of the lowest levels of potentially harmful blue light among comparative displays, typically 40 to 50% less than an LCD display.

Viewing angles are improved over conventional OLEDs and IPS LCDs, with more than 80 percent of the luminance in QD-Displays maintained at 60 degrees off-axis, aided by the top-layer emission nature of the display.

Gamers will be pleased to hear that QD-Display is able to re-create motion with significantly less blur since it provides an almost instantaneous Grey to Grey (G to G) response time of 0.5ms and delivers what Samsung is calling ‘top tier’ VRR capabilities alongside the 144Hz High Frame Rate on the TV panels. The new 34-inch monitor is even better with a 0.1ms response time, 175Hz HFR and adds in G-sync Ultimate and FreeSync Premium support.

Samsung Display’s new QD-Display is now available in Sony’s newly announced Bravia XR MASTER Series A95K TV range and Samsung itself has a 65-inch QD-Display TV on show at CES 2022 where it has won a Best of Innovation Award. Interestingly Sony has retained the QD-OLED nomenclature - something Samsung Electronics is unlikely to do.

Source: Samsung
Image Source: Samsung

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