What is being called “QLED TV” in today’s market is technically a liquid-crystal display TV using quantum dots, said Han Sang-beom, vice chairman of LG Display, the world’s largest provider of organic light-emitting diode panels, on Wednesday.

“There is a need to clarify technical differences between QLED and OLED due to confusion in the market,” Han told reporters after a study session on the company’s OLED technology, at the LG Science Park in Magok, northwestern Seoul.

QLED TV is Samsung Electronics’ premium TV brand that was launched in 2017 to stand against LG Electronics’ OLED TV, which has been leading the market since 2013.

“A real QLED TV should use self-emissive quantum dots instead of the backlight behind the LCD panel,” the vice chairman said.

His remarks came after an announcement that the sales volume of QLED TVs outnumbered that of OLED TVs last year. According market researcher IHS Markit, a total of 2.68 million QLED TVs were sold in 2018, while OLED TVs posted 2.51 million.

Citing the data, Samsung has claimed its QLED TVs have overtaken the premium TV market leadership.

However, LG underlined that total sales value matters more, saying the value for OLED TVs stood at $6.5 billion, while the figure for QLED TVs was $6.3 billion. 

“Academically, the way which is done by Samsung is called ‘QD-LCD,’ while a quantum dot TV using self-emissive diodes like OLED is called ‘QD-OLED,’” said Kang In-byung, chief technology officer at LG Display. “QD-LCD and OLED are totally different display platforms.”

Regarding the latest 8K trend, Kang said OLED is more suitable for providing 8K picture quality than QD-LCD.

“The higher the resolution, the smaller the pixel will be, hence each pixel should be able to self-control its emission,” the CTO said.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)