I’ve mentioned it elsewhere, however I generally pity folks coming into the house theater house in 2026. Whereas the know-how is healthier than ever — a $500 TV would possibly blow away a $1,000 mannequin launched only a few years in the past — there’s such a lot of phrases and requirements to know that purchasing will be intimidating. HDR alone has 4 main requirements, solely two of that are liable to be essential going ahead.
Panel know-how could be the most complicated side for the time being. For a very long time, all you needed to know was that OLED was la crème de la crème. Now, nonetheless, it is not solely being challenged by requirements like MicroLED, however enhanced variations of itself. On this piece I’ll distinguish between two applied sciences, WOLED and tandem OLED, each of which is perhaps extra acquainted than you’d count on.
What’s WOLED?
An previous acquainted face that also has a spot
WOLED is brief for white OLED (organlc light-emitting diode). Whereas that time period would possibly really feel new, it is doubtless solely as a result of it wasn’t essential to tell apart earlier than. The reality is that in the event you’ve owned any form of OLED TV prior to now, it was in all probability WOLED-based, since client alternate options to WOLED solely emerged in 2022. Extra on that in a second.
The gist of WOLED is that by itself, a real vanilla model of OLED would not be nice on your lounge. This most elementary tech passes white mild via purple, inexperienced, and blue colour filters, producing the colours you see in every pixel. However the consequence is not very vibrant, or not less than not sturdy sufficient for regular viewing circumstances. You’d have to look at in a dim room — daylight viewing could be out of the query.
In the event you’ve owned any form of OLED TV prior to now, it was in all probability WOLED-based.
WOLED’s resolution to this can be a fourth, unfiltered white subpixel, which boosts brightness to affordable ranges. The truth is, fashionable WOLED TVs are highly effective sufficient that in scenes with sturdy highlights, the whites will be blinding. That is enhanced by the first benefit of OLED: superior distinction, created by the power to show particular person pixels on and off. Blacks on an OLED are pure. Most LCDs can solely get near black, since they’re depending on LED backlights which might be not often shut off fully.
What occurred in 2022 was the emergence of Samsung’s QD-OLED, the QD standing for quantum dot. This differs from WOLED by beginning with blue mild, which is definitely extra intense than white, regardless of the way in which your mind would possibly understand it. This passes via the quantum dots, which emit totally different colours based mostly on their dimension. The result’s much more spectacular colour saturation versus WOLED. Notably, QD tech has since unfold elsewhere, as an illustration showing on Sony TVs.
Different corporations have caught with variations of WOLED, nonetheless, together with LG, which tried to compete with QD-OLED utilizing one thing referred to as MLA (micro lens array) OLED. This helped focus mild output. Certainly LG’s third-generation OLED units can obtain 3,000 nits of peak brightness, sufficient to be plainly seen in noon solar. Its first-gen OLED merchandise have been capped at simply 500 nits.
So what’s tandem OLED, and what makes it higher?
Double the enjoyable
For many individuals, myself included, the primary they’d ever heard of tandem OLED was doubtless Apple’s 2024 iPad Professional. Up till that time, the corporate had solely used LCDs for iPads. You too can discover a tandem show in 2025 Professional fashions.
Apple’s model of the know-how actually stacks two panels collectively. This would possibly sound ridiculous, however the result’s amplified brightness, as much as 1,600 nits peak — about 1,000 greater than the LCD-based iPad Air. That is not as vibrant as newer TVs, after all, however a pill is often not more than a few ft away out of your eyes. Most TV viewers are sitting not less than thrice as distant, and the inverse-square regulation dictates that depth diminishes as a sq. of the space from a lightweight supply. You really need greater brightness the additional away you’re, in different phrases.
There are different methods of going tandem. For its fourth-gen OLED TVs, LG has developed one thing dubbed Main RGB Tandem OLED. This separates a yellow layer (used within the third gen) into separate purple and inexperienced layers, elevating peak brightness to 4,000 nits, and total colour brightness to 2,100. You are not getting a number of sandwiched panels. As a substitute, there are merely 4 layers within the stack, the opposite two being blue.
The result’s a noticeably brighter image, in addition to wider protection of colour gamuts.
There’s each good and unhealthy information right here. The excellent news is that Main RGB Tandem OLED can be present in some Panasonic and Philips TVs, and with all three manufacturers, the result’s a noticeably brighter image than earlier efforts — it doesn’t matter what you are watching. LG specifically claims decrease energy consumption, in addition to wider protection of the DCI-P3 and Rec.2020 colour gamuts, as much as 99.5% and 83% respectively. Your eye in all probability will not discover the additional colour shades, however this does put LG’s tech roughly on par with QD-OLED.
The unhealthy information is that there are only a few tandem OLED TVs in the marketplace, they usually’re not low-cost. As of this writing, the LG G5 begins round $1,800 for a 55-inch mannequin, and the Panasonic Z95B is $2,000. Provided that some similarly-sized WOLED units are promoting for $1,200 or much less, you must be deeply obsessive about image high quality to justify the leap. The financial savings may very well be put in direction of a soundbar, a recreation console, or just paying off your payments.
Relative to QD-OLED, there may additionally be barely inferior element in near-black shades. For a purist with a fats finances, this is perhaps a problem, on condition that the most effective QD-OLED TVs are already as vibrant as tandem OLED.
The elephant within the room
Some notes on the long run
Finally, all types of OLED could also be on their manner out. Do not get me unsuitable — any mannequin you purchase at present goes to look wonderful, and final a really very long time so long as you preserve it correctly. However inside the subsequent few years, OLED may very well be supplanted by MicroLED and micro RGB, which use microscopic purple, inexperienced, and blue LEDs. These merge the precision of OLED with the brightness and longevity of LCD/LED panels. On prime of this, they ship near-perfect colour accuracy.
In the event you already personal an OLED TV and also you prefer it, you should not be in a rush to purchase a tandem OLED product.
The true catch for the time being is worth. Each codecs are so new and costly that in the event you may even discover a set, it is liable to value you tens of hundreds of {dollars} — Samsung’s 115-inch micro RGB set is $30,000. It is going to take smaller sizes and mass manufacturing to deliver costs right down to affordable ranges.
In the event you already personal a WOLED TV and also you prefer it, then, you should not be in a rush to purchase a tandem OLED product. A bit of persistence might land you one thing higher, assuming these manufacturing hurdles are overcome.
