TV Technology Compared: OLED, QLED, Mini-LED and LED-LCD

Comparison pages are where most television research actually happens, and where most of it goes wrong. The honest answer to nearly every one of these match-ups is that the two technologies fail differently rather than one being better, so the useful question is which failure you can live with in your own room.

These pages are written that way. Each one sets out the mechanism first, then the trade-off, then the kind of viewer each side suits. The three big match-ups are OLED against LED-LCD, QLED against OLED, and Mini-LED against OLED, and they share a spine: self-emissive pixels versus a controlled backlight.

The rest isolate one property at a time. Contrast and black levels explain why black is the hardest thing a television does. Viewing angles explain why the sofa's far end sees a different picture. Longevity, power consumption and screen size against cost cover the practical side: what wears out, where the watts go, and why inches got cheap while picture quality did not.

• Contrast and Black Levels: Why Black Is the Hardest Thing a TV Does

  Contrast decides how deep a picture looks. How LED TVs chase black with local dimming, why blooming sets the ceiling, and where OLED still pulls ahead.

• How Long an LED TV Lasts, and What Fails First

  An LED TV's backlight fades over tens of thousands of hours, but dying capacitors and abandoned smart-TV apps usually kill a set first. Plus OLED burn-in.

• LED TV vs LCD TV: Same Screen, Different Backlight

  An LED TV is an LCD TV: the letters name the backlight, not the panel. Here is how the screen really makes a picture, and the limit every LCD shares.

• Mini-LED vs OLED: Which One Wins Your Room?

  Mini-LED LCD brings thousands of dimming zones and huge brightness; OLED brings per-pixel perfect blacks with no backlight. Which top-tier TV wins comes down to your room.

• OLED vs LED-LCD: Which One Should You Buy?

  OLED makes its own light for perfect blacks; LED-LCD is brighter, cheaper and burn-in-free. A plain guide to which TV suits your room, content and budget.

• QLED vs OLED: One Makes Its Own Light, One Doesn't

  QLED is a quantum-dot LCD with a backlight; OLED is self-emissive. Where they split (brightness, black levels, burn-in, price) and which fits your room.

• Screen Size and Cost: Why Inches Got Cheap and Quality Didn't

  Screen size is now the cheap part of a TV; the real money is in the backlight. How to buy inches from the sweet spot, match size to distance, and not overpay.

• Viewing Angles: Why an LED TV Fades When You Slide to the Side

  Off-axis color drain and greying blacks come down to the panel underneath. How VA, IPS, and OLED handle the side seat, and how to pick for your room.

• What Really Drives a TV's Power Use

  The backlight, screen size, HDR and standby all shape a TV's power draw. Here's where the watts really go, and why LED and OLED sets differ so much.