Samsung is currently working on combining the advantages of quantum dot and OLED display technology as part of a new TV strategy, according to a report by Korean newspaper ETnews.
Update 22.2.2018: Samsung Electronics has commented on the rumor, saying: "It is not true. The company will push forward a two-track method," according to Yonhap. However, be aware that Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display are two separate companies.
QD + OLED
Samsung’s current line-up of “QLED TVs”, which are souped-up LCD TVs enhanced by quantum dot film, has largely been rejected in the market place. Consumers are instead turning their attention to LG’s OLED, a technology that Samsung tried, and failed, to commercialize several years ago.
Samsung is now preparing to make a comeback to OLED TVs, according to Korean newspaper ETnews who is usually reliable when report on Samsung and LG. This is part of a “new product strategy”, the report claims.
You may recall that Samsung actually launched an OLED TV way back in 2012. Back then, the Korean company used RGB OLED pixels but it proved too difficult and costly to mass-produce so Samsung abandoned the project and switched to plan B, which at the time was quantum dot enhanced LCD TVs.
This time around, Samsung will use blue OLED pixels with “red and green color filter (CF) with quantum dot placed on the blue” OLED. This effectively means that the OLED pixels are enhanced by quantum dot, which could potentially improve brightness and colors compared to current OLED TVs.
Prototypes were showcased at CES
ETNews further claims that Samsung showcased 55 and 65-inch QD-OLED TV prototypes in a private room during CES 2018. However, the report stresses that the technology is not fully baked yet.
- “QD-OLED technology has not been completed yet. This is because blue light leaks between each pixel when the red and green QDCFs are placed on the blue OLED. If the light leakage phenomenon is severe, it becomes difficult to express the color properly.”
The newspaper cites an unnamed Samsung executive as saying that the ultimately goal remains unchanged, which is to produce actual self-emitting QLED TVs. Until that happens, QD-OLED could move the goal post.
- “Samsung has not recognized OLED TV technology by competitors as a true OLED TV as it is using color filters and white pixels. The goal of QLED is to achieve QLED. It seems that as much time as it takes, we have tried to evolve QD-OLED into a new technology that takes advantage of the strengths of Quantum dot and compensates for its drawbacks” .
In 2016, a series of reports out of Korea claimed that Samsung was investing in a new 8-generation OLED factory and that the company would reintroduce OLED TVs “next year at the earliest and no later than 2018”. At CES 2018, Samsung also introduced a 156” TV based on microLED display technology.
