Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on our sister site, Tom’s Guide.
OLED TVs like the LG C3 OLED and LG G3 OLED still have a long life ahead of them, but Mini-LED TVs like the Sony Bravia X95K and Samsung QN95B QLED… well, their time at the top of our best TV page could be coming to an end.
At least, that’s what’s going to happen according to a new report by market research firm Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC). The company expects that shipments of Mini-LED LCD displays will peak in 2025 for small displays, and then drop off for TV displays in 2027.
So what’s going to take its place? According to the research firm, it’s all about OLED. Apple will be moving away from Mini-LED in its iPads and MacBooks starting next year and will be switching to OLED. That, FlatPanelsHD says, will encourage more development of OLED display panels as manufacturers ramp up both production output and quality.
The latter is something we’ve seen happen at CES 2023, where LG Display showed off its third-generation META OLED panels that use Micro Lens Arrays for a 60% boost in brightness. It’s expected that LG will use those panels in the new LG G3 OLED, but has yet to confirm as much.
What about MicroLED and QD-OLED?
DSCC’s report, which was cited by Korean news outlet The Elec, doesn’t explicitly mention other display types like QD-OLED or MicroLED. That makes sense as both of those two display types are newer and, for now, too expensive to be used in the majority of new 4K TVs, making them a bit of a rarity in the TV market.
Both display types, however, present interesting advancements for TVs. For one, they’re brighter than OLED TVs — at least ones that use LG Display’s first and second-generation Evo panels — and, in the case of MicroLED, are more modular, too. The only TV we know about with MicroLED that’s available to the general public is Samsung’s The Wall — but that still requires you to go through a custom installer.
On the other hand, QD-OLED TVs like the Samsung S95B OLED and Sony Bravia XR A95K OLED are rising in popularity much more quickly due to their global availability — but they still face stiff competition from LG’s suite of OLED TVs.
Does that mean the next generation of Mini-LED TVs like the Samsung QN95C are dead on arrival? Hardly. But it could mean that Samsung’s flagship lineup might look very different in 2027 from what we’re seeing in 2023.
About the Author
Nick Pino heads up the TV and AV verticals at Tom’s Guide and covers everything from OLED TVs to the latest wireless headphones. He was formerly the Senior Editor, TV and AV at TechRadar (Tom’s Guide’s sister site) and has previously written for GamesRadar, Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and other outlets over the last decade. Not sure which TV you should buy? Drop him an email or tweet him on Twitter and he can help you out.
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