What to know before buying an OLED

LG OLED TVs for example are class leaders in picture quality like the LG C3, the OLED technology contained in the OLED panel on these TVs deliver deep black levels, high brightness levels with a high level of nits, for viewing in a well lit room. One of the bonuses of OLED displays are there ability to have wide viewing angles. Therefore, if you are watching a movie on your TV from a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon Prime TV, your friends or family will be able to sit comfortably even when they are not viewing the TV from a straight position. They may be seated on a couch to the side, but they will still be able to have a enjoyable viewing experience.

There are other amazing OLED TVs from a plethora of manufacturers like the Samsung, the Sony Bravia, Hisense and the TCL 6 series that would make a great addition to your Living Room. These TVs and even 8k TVs manufactured by LG that provide a blazing refresh rate for quick response times and low input lag, something that will appeal to gamers as well. During fast paced action games, you want will love the ability to play games on 4K TVs with HDR technology with your gaming console like an Xbox in Dolby vision, the gold standard for High Dynamic Range standards. Samsung for example uses it’s QLED technology which provides quantum dots on your QLED TV. Some of Samsung's latest QLED TVs use a separate LCD backlight (which is often an edge-lit backlight) on their LED TVs.

Edge lit backlight TVs have a ring of LED lights around the perimeter of the TV to provide an incredible UHD (Ultra High Definition) viewing experience on the OLED screen. You can also look at mini LED TVS which are a step down from the picture quality of OLED displays. Placing smaller LED diodes behind the LCD pixels on your display means images can be brighter. Backlighting control is more precise which gives you less backlight bleed and stronger contrasts. These TVs usually come in at a lower price point than OLED TVs, as although their picture quality has improved tremendously over the years, it still cannot compete with OLED technology.

Samsung has developed the moniker of QD-OLED which is a hybrid display technology that takes the the wonderful qualities of OLED TV and improves its brightness and color through the use of quantum dots.

Let’s take a deeper look into some amazing OLED TVs, their specs, their pros and some downsides as well. This way you will have a real good idea of what type of smart TV that meets your needs.

OLED TV Features and Specs

One of the great things that we love to discuss about new OLED displays are the fact that you can get wonderful picture quality with screen sizes that can reach 85”. The specs on lower screen size TVs would be applicable to the larger screen size of each specific model.

With 4K TVs and 8K TVs available with OLED technology ensure that your OLED display provides a viewing experience where every pixel is just popping out with vibrant colors and sharpness. OLED TVs are a huge jump from the standard LCD TVs or monitors as they provide a much better picture quality and color accuracy. One main draw of OLED is that each pixel can be turned on and off individually. The contrast provided on OLED screens allows for viewing of a scene where there are a lot of black elements, pixels on the OLED TV can shut off automatically as the best OLED TVs have Adaptive or Intelligent picture quality settings, giving you deep black levels.

In addition, the dimming ability of OLED displays lets you watch TV and movies in dark rooms. So sit back after a long day of work in the comfort of your Living Room and enjoy movie night in a relaxed and comfortable environment.

OLED TVs have some of the best sounding formats in Dolby Atmos. You can connect a soundbar or Av receiver via the eARC HDMI port and set up a home theater system that immerses you in spatial sound. For example you may see terms on a TV like 7.1.2, what means is that you have a speaker set up for Dolby Atmos surround sound. The first number corresponds to your center channel speaker and surround speakers, the second number is for how many subwoofers are connected, and finally the third number are your “Height” or Dolby Atmos speakers. These will give you that 3D sound where you can hear action over and around your head, giving a cinematic movie theater viewing experience,

In addition to supporting HDR formats like HDR 10 and HDR 10+, the best OLED TVs will also have the Dolby Vision format which is the top of the line in High Dynamic Range viewing. Dolby Vision lets you see millions of more vibrant and sharp colors than HDR 10. Gamers will also love being able to play on their gaming console in Dolby Vision, giving you an edge in online gaming thanks to the amazing display and refresh rate. Please note that the Sony Playstation 5 does not support Dolby Vision, however the XBOX series X/S does.

Remember years ago when Plasma TVs were the best on the market for viewing angles and color reproduction. They were great, but one of the downsides to those displays were when you had static images on the screen for a while you ran the risk of screen burn in, which means that image will sort of appear ghostly on the display behind what you are watching. While burn in is not that much of a concern anymore due to advances in technology, OLED TVs do run the risk of image retention or burn in. However, the best OLED TVs have built in tech to help alleviate the concern of screen burn in.

With the new slimmer and sleeker design of OLED TVs, they are easily wall mountable for better viewing angles. Please refer to your TVs user manual to confirm compatibility of TV wall mounts. These may vary depending on the screen size of your TV, and the features you would like to have in a wall mount such as swiveling and tilting capability.

Connectivity is one of the features that we love about the best OLED TVs on the market. You can expect to get at least 4 HDMI ports with 2 of them capable of a 120 FPS frame rate. The main HDMI port should have eARC (or Enhanced Return Channel) so when you connect an AV receiver or soundbar, sound can travel back and forth from your TV to your device. Please note that currently streaming services top out at a 60 FPS refresh rate, so you won’t get 120 FPS when watching TV.

In addition, OLED TVs will have at least Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi AC, if not Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi AX. Wi-Fi 5 allows you to access the 5 GHZ network band with faster speeds than the older “N” standard. If you have Tri-Bans router you can even access the speedier 5 GHZ channels like 153 for faster uploads and downloads. If the TV has Wi-Fi AX than you can expect up to 2.5 x faster performance than Wi-Fi AC, and you get better batter life on your new Apple iPhone which supports Wi-Fi AX when connected to Wi-Fi versus 4G LTE or 5G cell service. Wi-Fi AX also allows you to access the super fast 160 MHz spectrum.

You can also expect Bluetooth 5.0 or higher so you can connect devices like a keyboard, universal remote or headphones for a private listening experience. This high Bluetooth standard gives more the ability to still be connected from farther distances and their is extremely low input lag between your device and the TV. Try and find a model with the latest Bluetooth 5.3 standard to get the best out of your Bluetooth connection. Although a minimum standard of 5.0 should suffice just fine.

OLED TVs from each manufacturer will feature their built in OS system which allows you to get apps for streaming services, productivity, gaming and more. Some OLED TVs run off the Google TV version which has chromecast built in, allowing you to get apps from the Google Play Store, which has an immense library of apps.

Some of the best OLED TVs produces low blue. This should help ease eye strain and allow for better sleep patterns (especially when watching TV before bed time). So don’t worry about long TV watching as this feature is extremely useful in reducing eye strain.

OLED TVS also offer better and more efficient power consumption. This not only can help with the TVs longevity, but it also won’t make a big dent on your electric bill.

A great OLED TV

Now that you know more detailed information on OLED TVs, we would be remiss in not sharing what we believe to be a wonderful OLED TV, the LG OLED evo G3 55 Inch 4K Smart TV. This smart TV gives you a 4K UHD HDR viewing experience with it’s OLED’s HDR Expression Enhancer. This technology tone-maps specific images for unrivaled sharpness. This TV is Dolby Atmos compatible but comes with a 4.2 channel speaker configuration. In terms of connectivity you get an Ethernet port which means you can connect a LAN cable directly to you router for the fastest speeds. That being said this TV is also Wi-Fi 6E compatible which takes Wi-Fi 6 to a new level giving you more bandwidth for blazing upload and download speeds, especially with many Fiber providers now offering speeds of 2.5Gbps or 5 Gbps. There are some drawbacks to this Wi-Fi standard as it doesn’t have the best range but it’s great for congested areas like apartment buildings with many people connecting to the 5 Ghz band, but with Wi-Fi 6E you can access the 160 Ghz band which will be much less congested allowing you to get blazing upload and download speeds.

Gamers will also love this OLED TV thanks to it’s included features like ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) for fast response times, which is crucial for competitive online gaming. Other features geared towards gamers include Cloud Gaming, NVIDIA Geforce Now, Utomik, FreeSync and Nividia G-Sync compatibility. This means this TV contains a great GPU processor providing the graphics for an amazing gaming experience.

This 4K UHD TV also pairs with HDR standards like Dolby Vision / HDR10 / HLG. HLG is commonly used by cable TV channels as their form of HDR.

Access streaming service apps like Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, Youtube TV, Spotify, iHeartRadio and more through the TV’s OS. There is also a web browser so you can search the web with a large view.

There is also a limited 1 year warranty from LG plus a limited 5 year panel warranty. So feel at ease that your product is protected in case of failure during that period. Labor charges may apply, please refer to your user manual.

Get your OLED TV

If you are in the market for a new TV, you have to look into an OLED Display. Based off what we have derived from our viewing experiences, you can expect deep black levels, vibrant unrivaled color reproduction, tremendous refresh rates and plentiful connectivity options. Whether you plan on placing your OLED TV on it’s stand or wall mounting it, you can expect great viewing angles, so why not throw a great party to watch a sports event where all of your guests can get a great viewing experience no matter where they are seated. Getting one of the best OLED TVs that can support 4K HDR and even 8K HDR is the way to go for the best picture quality.