Samsung Display CEO confirms QD-OLED TV plans

Samsung Display CEO confirms QD-OLED TV plans
(Image credit: Samsung)

While rumours of Samsung finally re-entering the OLED TV market have been rife for some time, they've neither been confirmed or denied by the South Korean giant. That is, until now.

Samsung Display CEO Lee Dong-hoon has said “the company is making good efforts” to manufacture QD-OLED TVs in the near future, according to The Korea Herald.

The QD-OLED displays are an all-new hybrid QLED-OLED design that marries the quantum dot technology found in Samsung's existing flagship QLED TVs with the organic light-emitting diode panel design heralded by LG, Sony and Panasonic's OLED rivals.

The South Korea site notes that investment plans in QD-OLED production have not yet been confirmed, however, as we reported last week, Samsung is reportedly readying a dedicated "large-sized" OLED screen production site following the recent close down of some of its LCD lines in Korea.

The latest casualty, Samsung Display's plant in South Chungcheong Province, is supposedly due to the company making way for the installation of the necessary equipment, allegedly expected in October.

As detailed in a previous rumour, QD-OLED TVs will supposedly use blue OLEDs as a backlight source, with both red and green quantum dots printed over the top of the blue OLED layer. The result should be thinner TVs (closer to the dimensions of the OLED TVs currently being produced by the likes of LG, Panasonic and Sony) and – fingers crossed – both the colour punch and black levels that QLED and OLED respectively have proven many times over to deliver.

Even if Samsung is gearing up for this hybrid, next-gen TV, it will probably be some time before it reaches living rooms. We reckon there's still a good year or two of pure Samsung QLED TVs to go yet.

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Becky Roberts

Becky is the managing editor of What Hi-Fi? and, since her recent move to Melbourne, also the editor of Australian Hi-Fi magazine. During her 10 years in the hi-fi industry, she has been fortunate enough to travel the world to report on the biggest and most exciting brands in hi-fi and consumer tech (and has had the jetlag and hangovers to remember them by). In her spare time, Becky can often be found running, watching Liverpool FC and horror movies, and hunting for gluten-free cake.