TV buying guide: Which TV display is best for you?

Nov 5, 2021

There are many different TVs out in today’s market. With Black Friday deals already starting (stay tuned for a post on all of this year’s deals, coming soon), you may be looking to purchase a new screen for the home. But which TV is right for you? Trusted Reviews has put together a TV buying guide that breaks down all the display technologies and what the different marketing acronyms mean. Here’s what they have to say about QLED.

Kob Monney writing for Trusted Reviews:

Pros: Very bright, wide and accurate colour range, no image retention, good in bright rooms

Cons: Black levels dependent on backlighting

Who makes Quantum Dot/QLED TVs? Samsung, TCL, Sky, Hisense, Sharp

QLED (Quantum Dot Light-emitting Diode, forget about the missing ‘D’) is a fancier take on LCD TVs made popular by Samsung. After some to-ing and fro-ing on what it means, it now refers to a TV that combines traditional LCD technology with Quantum Dots.

What are Quantum Dots we hear you ask? They are filters that use an array of tiny dots of slightly different sizes to produce different wavelengths (and therefore colours) when light is applied. As each dot is focused on one colour, Quantum Dots can produce more precise colours, as well as a wider range of colours, and when you factor in its inherent ability to cope with high brightness, you get spectacularly colourful, bright and varied images.

Although not every Quantum Dot TV is equal. Match a Quantum Dot TV with a full array backlight and you get more precise black levels and brightness, but you’ll also have to pay more. Edge-lit Quantum Dot TVs boast a colourful image, but without a full-array dimming system, black levels and contrast can suffer.