Samsung Will Soon Ship Micro LED TVs, But Mini LED Still Leads the Lineup

Samsung has announced imminent availability (most models will start shipping this month) for its high-end Micro LED and Mini LED TV lineup. ArsTechnica adds: We'll get to Micro LED in a minute, but let's start with the mainstream high end, which comprises the Mini LED TVs. Samsung is giving these a proprietary 'Neo QLED' label. The top-end QN900A is the most tricked-out 8K option, with 65-inch ($5,000), 75-inch ($7,000), and 85-inch options ($9,000). One step down while keeping the 8K banner flying is the QN800A, offered in the same sizes but at $3,500, $4,700, and $6,500, respectively. Since there's hardly any 8K content out there to enjoy, most people who aren't just looking for bragging rights will want to opt for the 4K models. The flagship there is the QN90A, at 55 inches ($1,800), 65 inches ($2,600), 75 inches ($3,500), and 85 inches ($5,000). One step down gets you the QN85A, which comes in the same sizes as the QN90A at $1,600, $2,200, $3,000, and $4,500.

While much of the hype in the world of TVs is currently focused on OLED, Samsung's LCD TVs remain the bestselling TVs in many regions, and in-depth technical reviewers like Rtings pretty consistently name Samsung's sets as the best non-OLED ones available in terms of picture quality, albeit not always in bang-for-buck. Samsung doesn't even make OLED TVs, though it produces OLED panels for other products. And to potentially battle OLED in the long term, Samsung is relying on Micro LED technology, which has individually emissive pixels just like OLED does. That means Micro LED matches OLED's chief advantage, which is that pixels of maximum brightness appear right next to pixels that are completely black. But Samsung claims the burn-in risk associated with OLED is not a factor in the same way with Micro LED.

Plus, OLED TVs have been knocked for not matching the HDR peak brightness of the best traditional LED TVs. Micro LED is said to combine the best of both worlds: perfect blacks with very high peak brightness and all the granularity you'd expect in between. Micro LED TVs have been talked up as the future TV tech for years, and they've been commercially available in very limited contexts before, but this year marks Samsung's first quasi-mainstream attempt to sell a bunch of them. They still won't be for everyone, though. They're sure to be colossally expensive for one thing, but they'll also only come in 110- and 99-inch sizes to start. Later, we'll get 88- and 76-inch sizes, but even those are bigger than most people's living rooms can accommodate. So for its more mainstream flagship TVs, Samsung is leaning on Mini LED, which is not the same as similarly named Micro LED. Mini LED TVs are still fundamentally the same technology as any other LCD TV the company has sold for years, but with a new approach that allows much more granular backlighting to reduce blooming around bright objects and other problems associated with LCD TVs while still delivering strong peak brightness.

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