QLED vs OLED 2019/11

Samsung Q90R vs Sony AG9

Samsung Q90R and Sony A9G are two very powerful televisions that use QLED and OLED technology, respectively. To better understand the technology behind them, we will compare these two TVs and explain their advantages and disadvantages.

Like all current OLED TVs, the Sony A9G has a panel produced by LG Display. LG Display is a wholly owned subsidiary of LG Electronics. That’s why the picture characteristics of all OLED TVs are largely the same. Perfect black, a very wide viewing angle and theoretically infinite contrast. Only the brightness rarely exceeds 1000 Nits, so OLED TVs have problems in rooms many light sources, however, these panels can handle reflections very well. The individual manufacturers therefore try to distinguish themselves with other features.

At Sony, these features are improved image processing, motion interpolation and improved sound – but this only applies to selected models. The Sony A9G is one of them. More about that later.

QLED TVs are not only available from Samsung, although the South Korean company introduced and coined this marketing term. Sony, TCL and Hisense also produce TVs with the same technology. QLED TVs use VA panels with an additional quantum dot layer that splits the backlight light into colors. This results in extremely accurate P3 color space coverage that even surpasses OLED TVs.

In addition, many QLEDs feature Full Array Local Dimming, which can produce a deep black even when backlit. Furthermore, they are incredibly bright, sometimes even up to 4000 Nits (!). Therefore they cut a good figure in bright as well as dark rooms. The contrast also reaches good values, so that HDR contents look good. But this is better with OLEDs. Also the viewing angle is worse with QLEDs, because they are limited by the VA panel. Some QLED televisions have an additional layer that counteracts this. However, this is at the expense of the contrast.