Samsung Releases 82” and 88” QLED TVs
June 5, 2017

Samsung Electronics will release new models of its premium QLED TVs in 82” & 88” sizes, exceeding the 75” models, which have been the largest Samsung TVs to date. The two new sizes will likely be released in South Korea in August; Samsung released a 75” QLED TV last month, which met with enough consumer interest to prompt the move to larger sizes.  Samsung’s current 82” and 88” 4K HDR sets do not use QLEDs and sell for $5,000 and $20,000 respectively. Sony’s 85”model sells for $7,000.  No price for the new QLED models has been released, but the Samsung 75” QLED models sell for $9,300 (flat screen) and $10,646 (curved) in Korea, expect a substantial incremental price increases for the larger sets. QLED technology is Samsung’s shot at ultra-premium technology that competes with LG Electronics’ 77” OLED TV, which is now available in the US ($14,999). The QDs are encased in a film that is added to the LCD stack, which converts light from the blue LEDs into a more precise rendition of colors than phosphor based LED backlights.  While QDs have advantages over traditional backlights, they still use polarizers and color filters, which both reduce light output and create some color misrepresentation themselves.  The second phase in QD technology, would be to use the quantum dots in the color filter itself, which give a more accurate representation of colors.  We would expect to see this 2nd generation usage in 2018/2019. Another potential change would be to add QD’s to the LED chip thereby converting the light to white without using any phosphors.  This approach would reduce costs but still require polarizers and a color filter. The next phase would be to use QDs as emissive devices similar to OLEDs and eliminate all the LC artifacts – backlight, polarizers, color filter, spacers the precise cell gap. However, currently electroluminescent QDs have very short lifetimes and it is quite unclear when or if they can be designed to meet the demanding needs of TVs.  See the first article on Display Week Musing to get a glimpse at QD performance from one of the most knowledgeable researchers.  

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