Which OLED Display Type Is Best for Gaming?

I vividly retrieve buying my archetypal OLED TV, the LG E8 55 inch backmost successful 2019, close earlier we each went into hiding. Let maine archer you: it was the perfect isolation companion. At the time, I didn’t really know what OLED (organic light-emitting diode) was like. I knew that alternatively of the backlight successful LCD displays, OLED features self-lit pixels, which means infinite contrast. But aft jumping onto the beauteous lad bid successful Final Fantasy XV and warring done scar territory successful The Last of Us Part II, it deed me. This is what it feels similar to unrecorded a nostalgic fever dream-like representation successful existent time. Naturally, I didn’t halt astatine the E8.

A fewer years later, I bought the LG C2 65-inch TV, and since then, I’ve reviewed tons of devices with OLED displays and learned that not all OLED screens are created equal. In fact, not each OLED displays adjacent stock the aforesaid technology. You mightiness beryllium wondering, “How galore OLED types are there?” Well, excessively many. But there’s really lone 3 you should attraction about: WOLED, QD-OLED, and AMOLED.

WOLED, QD-OLED, and AMOLED: How They Work

OLED has been astir for decades, with companies from Kodak to Mitsubishi trying caller takes connected the technology. It wasn’t until LG debuted its OLED TVs successful the aboriginal 2010s that the exertion became mainstream.

LG’s saltation of OLED is called WOLED (White OLED). The institution doesn’t telephone it that successful its selling due to the fact that LG is OLED, oregon truthful it would emotion for you to believe. But what is WOLED? As I’ve explained, OLED ditches the backlight and uses self-lit pixels. This gets you the infinite opposition and bold colors. The contented is the compounds successful red, green, and bluish emitters deteriorate astatine antithetic rates. As you mightiness know, burn-in is an contented for OLED displays, but this accelerated the process.

WOLED solves this contented by utilizing a axenic achromatic OLED furniture with a RGBW colour filter. So ideate each of those self-lit pixels – they’re not red, green, oregon bluish anymore, they’re conscionable white. However, this has its ain issues. Try blasting a spotlight done a clump of colour filters – immoderate of those lights volition beryllium brighter than others. This causes imbalanced brightness and reduced colour volume. (Pricier WOLEDs effort to lick this with Micro Lens Array technology, which squeezes thousands of microlenses onto a azygous pixel to absorption light.)

However, different solution made its debut successful 2022, called QD-OLED (Quantum Dot OLED), which was heralded by Samsung. QD-OLED swaps that achromatic OLED furniture for a bluish one, which hits a furniture of quantum dot colour convertors. The quantum dots aren't similar the RGBW filter due to the fact that they absorb the light, truthful erstwhile they person the bluish into reddish oregon green, they don't suffer immoderate of the backlight.

Meanwhile, AMOLED is successful its ain small class due to the fact that it’s fundamentally similar WOLED but it features a thin-film transistor (TFT) layer, which helps power the complaint of each pixel, allowing the pixels to beryllium activated faster. However, that comes astatine the outgo of OLED’s iconic “infinite” contrast.

WOLED, QD-OLED, and AMOLED: Which Is Better for Gaming?

The close OLED tech for gaming comes down to condition and preference. If you privation the elemental answer: QD-OLED is the best. However, determination are immoderate situations wherever you privation WOLED, and immoderate wherever you’re stuck with AMOLED.

First, let’s speech astir AMOLED since I was just getting into however it’s successful its ain small category. Most AMOLED displays are typically recovered successful smartphones and laptops. You won’t spot them successful galore TVs due to the fact that they’re expensive. AMOLED is flexible (literally, it’s utilized successful foldables), truthful it tin accommodate virtually immoderate surface size and features precocious refresh rates and amended viewing angles. But for the astir part, you don’t person overmuch prime successful the benignant of OLED you bargain connected smaller devices, particularly since the show isn’t the sole focus. (Ironically, for thing designed for smartphone usage, they are the worst successful nonstop sunlight due to the fact that of their little highest brightness.)

When it comes to gaming monitors and TVs, you get the prime of WOLED (marketed arsenic conscionable OLED) oregon QD-OLED. WOLED gets highly agleam due to the fact that of its achromatic OLED layer, but that’s only with whites. As I mentioned earlier, the RGBW filter loses a batch of brightness crossed its colors. So you get an wide brighter ocular connected a QD-OLED display. And since the quantum dots sorb airy alternatively of filtering it through, you’re besides going to spot bolder colors.

But let’s spell backmost to the achromatic OLED furniture that WOLEDs are rocking. I person my OLED TV situated successful my surviving country crossed from my windows, truthful it gets plentifulness of glare. However, the darkest parts of the TV inactive look black. Meanwhile, my QD-OLED show that’s connected my table does not look achromatic against glare. Instead it gives disconnected a purplish tint. That’s because, successful an effort to summation brightness, Samsung removed the polarizing furniture from QD-OLED displays, which would usually trim reflections.

For wide colour and brightness, QD-OLED displays technically look better. But successful a highly reflective space, WOLED screens are mode little distracting. I volition constituent out, however, that this is each in theory. The prime of the displays themselves truly comes down to specs. You can’t get astir the wealth origin – the much you spend, the prettier it volition be, arsenic a wide rule.

But QD-OLED and WOLED whitethorn not beryllium the lone choices we person for precise long.

The Future of OLED Is PHOLED

There are plentifulness of types of OLED. One of them is called PHOLED (Phosphorescent OLED), which uses phosphorescent materials (as opposed to fluorescent) to person vigor to light. The contented with this exertion is that the bluish successful PHOLED has a importantly shorter lifespan than greenish and red, which makes a PHOLED sheet beauteous overmuch DOA.

However, LG conscionable precocious announced that it’s flooded the situation of bluish PHOLED and is present acceptable for wide production. LG refers to PHOLED arsenic “Dream OLED” and that’s due to the fact that phosphorescence offers 100% luminous efficiency, surpassing the 25% ratio of fluorescence. That means a PHOLED TV volition beryllium brighter and consume little power.

Unfortunately, we won't spot PHOLED displays successful TVs anytime soon. But we volition get a glimpse of the exertion successful smartphones and tablets sooner than later.

Rami Tabari is simply a contributing writer astatine IGN with implicit 9 years of acquisition successful the tech and gaming industry. You tin find his bylines astatine Laptop Mag and Tom's Guide (and connected a random Predator reappraisal astatine Space.com). When Rami isn't wading done a oversea of the latest gaming tech, he's agonizing implicit the worldbuilding successful his upcoming novella.