Mini LED vs. OLED: I’ve tested a bunch of TVs with both display types, and this one is better

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TV technology seems to change every year, and if you’re shopping for a new set, you might not even know where to start. Choosing the right TV for your needs can feel overwhelming, but it’s not too difficult when you put things into perspective.

Currently, there are two main technologies that you should know about: Mini LED and OLED. These two styles of TVs work in markedly different ways, and each has its own set of advantages and limitations.

Also: OLED TVs are the best you can buy

In short, in an OLED TV (organic light-emitting diode), each pixel lights up when the set is powered up. To create different colors, the set passes the lights through different filters. When no electricity is applied to a pixel, it remains black — in very dark colors.

Mini LED (which may also be called QLED or QNED, depending on the manufacturer) uses an illuminated LCD panel where each pixel is made of red, blue, and blue color filters combined to create different colors.

Where the “Mini” part comes in is that, instead of one big backlight, the display has thousands of little ones. In this setup, individual areas, not individual pixels as in OLEDs, turn off when needed to be dark.

Details

You should buy a Mini LED TV if you…

1. You want to save a little money or you want a bigger TV

Of course, this depends on the size and brand, but as a general rule, Mini LED TVs are less expensive than their OLED counterparts.

Looking at TCL’s latest TV lineup, for example, customers can get last year’s 65-inch TCL QM8K for $1,499 (or as low as $998 at the time of writing), while a 65-inch OLED from Sony or LG costs around $3,000. And the prices only go up as you get older.

So if you want to install a large screen on a modest budget, the Mini LED is the way to go. While you won’t get as sharp a picture, you’ll still get a great-looking screen with decent audio for streaming, live sports and news, and console games.

2. You want (or need) a bright TV

The way the panel produces images means that Mini LED TVs can achieve a higher total brightness than OLED sets. The gap between the two has narrowed quite a bit in recent years due to technological advances, but the Mini LED is still the clear winner.

For example, “LCDs can produce 3-4 times the brightness of OLED when displaying a full-screen white image, which allows them to maintain a wide color volume even in bright environments while maintaining high contrast of black levels,” adds Wong.

Also: TCL QM8 Review

Hisense U8QG, another good Mini LED set, can output 5,000 lumens with a dimming point of 5,600. This is especially beneficial if you are watching TV in a room with a lot of natural light or in a room with surface lighting that may cause glare.

3. You are worried about getting burned

Burn-in, where part of the image on the TV remains as a ghostly background, even when the rest of the image is on the screen, is rare, television manufacturers say. But it is so rare that it never happens; Google, Sony, and LG, among others, all have some tips to avoid it.

If you check Reddit or the manufacturer’s support forums, you’ll find repeated complaints about image burn-in. This usually only happens if the user plays the same game or watches the same channel for a long time, but the point is, it can happen.

Due to the design of their screen, Mini LEDs are not much affected by this issue. OLED sets have introduced technology to avoid burn-in, but if you want to avoid it altogether, go with Mini LED.

You should buy an OLED TV if you…

1. You want the best picture quality and viewing experience

If you simply want the best picture quality, you’ll want to go with OLED. Since the set can control brightness on a pixel-by-pixel basis, it usually produces a clear image with improved contrast and blacks.

Mini LED TVs are brighter, but that’s not always a good thing, as sometimes the images can appear washed out. OLED also offers better viewing angles than Mini LED TVs, which is ideal if your living space is closed.

Also: LG G6 vs. Samsung S95H

While LG, Sony, and Samsung continue to push OLED technology brighter and brighter with new features like layered panels and improved processors, you’ll still get a much dimmer picture than Mini LED.

2. You want the best gaming experience

If you’re a competitive gamer, you know that every millisecond counts. Between Mini LED and OLED, the latter has a faster response time, or the time it takes pixels on the screen to change from one color to another. While Mini LED TVs and monitors have a response time as low as 1 ms, some OLED sets have a response of just .1 ms.

OLED TVs may support VRR technologies such as Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync to prevent screen tearing and stuttering.

Additionally, OLED TVs were among the first to support Dolby Vision Gaming 4K at 120Hz, enabling more fluid graphics. For casual players, either option will do just fine. But if you take your gaming sessions seriously and want the best TV display, go with OLED.