Each LCD TVs and LED TVs have been available on the market for a few years. TV-size LCDs gained popularity within the mid-2000s, whereas LED TVs adopted a number of years later. The advertising departments for a lot of corporations, most notably Samsung, have blurred the which means behind these names. Right this moment, many LED TVs have names like QLED or mini-LED. OLED, then again, is a different technology despite its similar name.
LCD TVs and LED TVs are primarily based on the identical know-how. For essentially the most half, all fashionable LCDs are LEDs and vice versa. Nevertheless, the variations are attention-grabbing and value investigating.
Learn extra: QLED vs. LED: Which Is Better?
The brief model
All LED TVs are LCD TVs, however not all LCD TVs ever produced have been LED TVs.
Different names for LED LCD TVs:
TV tech that’s not LCD:
The marginally brief model (LCDs and LEDs unite!)
LCD stands for liquid crystal show. Because the title suggests, this show know-how is a skinny movie made up of thousands and thousands of pixels in a grid. When electrical energy is equipped to those pixels, they twist to both block or let by gentle (illuminated by the backlight) and create a picture.
Outdated LCDs used CCFLs, or chilly cathode fluorescent lights, which had been mainly smaller variations of the lengthy tubes present in workplace buildings and different company areas. These CCFLs contained mercury, so most nations world wide banned them. Nevertheless, many TV producers had lengthy switched to LEDs anyway.
LED stands for light-emitting diode. LEDs aren’t sometimes used to create a picture (effectively, with one exception I will get to in a second). As a substitute, they’re a light-creation know-how and have been used because the backlight in “LED TVs” for 20 years.
Principally, when you’re shopping for a TV at present that is not OLED, it is an LCD TV with an LED backlight. It is deceptive to name it an “LED TV,” however due to years of promoting, that time period has largely caught.
The not-at-all-short model (LEDs all the best way down)
On the underside are LED LCDs from totally different corporations. The highest row are the identical TVs with the LCD layer eliminated. You are trying immediately on the LED backlight. The TV on the fitting has extra LEDs and better management of them, leading to a greater trying picture.
Not all LED LCD TVs are the identical. The quantity of LEDs, the place they’re positioned and the way they’re addressed can range extensively.
At one excessive, the most cost effective LED LCDs sometimes have a single row of some LEDs alongside one aspect of the display screen (usually the underside). These TVs aren’t very shiny and have the worst total image high quality of any TV kind available on the market at present, although backlights with a number of dimming zones have gotten extra prevalent among the many greatest budget TVs.
As soon as the protect of mid-level LED LCD TVs, “local dimming” fashions function extra processing that controls the dimming of teams of LEDs. This lets the TV darken darkish components of a picture past what the LCD itself can do. Think about a picture of the moon in a darkish sky. The LEDs behind the sky would dim to look darker, whereas the LEDs behind the moon would keep shiny. How effectively that is achieved varies vastly throughout manufacturers and fashions.
On the different excessive are LED LCDs with many, many LEDs. The place an affordable LED LCD might need only a handful of LEDs, and a mid-range TV might need dozens or a number of hundred, the top-of-the-line fashions use a barely totally different know-how and have hundreds of LEDs. These get categorized right into a subtype of TV referred to as mini-LED TVs which are a step up from QLED TVs and carry out nearly as well as OLED TVs.
Mini-LED TVs have a few of the greatest image high quality available on the market at present, second only to OLED, and might produce extraordinarily shiny photos. Whereas costlier than different LED LCD sorts, they’re additionally normally cheaper than OLED on the similar measurement.
Someplace in between common LED TVs and mini-LEDs are the so-called QLED TVs, a advertising time period popularized by Samsung however utilized by a number of corporations. These are LED TVs that additionally use quantum dots for higher brightness and coloration. For extra about why that issues, try LED vs. QLED and QLED vs. OLED.
Lastly, there are precise “LED TVs” that include no LCD in any respect. You are trying immediately at a number of million LEDs, that are immediately creating the picture (every pixel is an LED). These are referred to as microLED TVs and are sometimes wall-sized and intensely costly. Not too long ago, a number of corporations have been making TV-sized models, however they’re nonetheless very costly. For the close to future, microLED will possible be simply projector alternative tech for the very wealthy.
Additionally learn: Best TVs of 2025
Which is healthier: LED or LCD?
Broadly talking, LED LCDs are higher than common LCDs, however most LCD TVs are actually truly LED TVs. Throughout the “LED TV” class, there’s virtually infinite variation in worth and efficiency. Take a look at our picks for the Best TVs for concepts on the place to start out. Although spoiler alert, lots of our prime picks are a distinct know-how fully: OLED.
Along with protecting show tech, Geoff does photo essays about cool museums and different stuff, together with nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers and 10,000-mile road trips.
Additionally, try Budget Travel for Dummies, his journey guide and his bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines. You may observe him on Instagram and YouTube.
