TCL showed off its intended successor to OLED during its Display Week 2024. But wait a bit with getting too excited…
OLED looks beautiful, but it also has its problems. The biggest is that it is based entirely on LED pixels made of organic material. And that ages faster than regular “chemical” LEDs. Via numerous tricks, improved techniques and more, this wear and tear – sometimes leading to the dreaded “burn-in”, among other things – is being increasingly well controlled. But in the end, OLED is just an interim screen technology, while we wait for something better. That “better” is being worked on behind the scenes by many companies. For example, during their Display Week this year, TCL hinted at QD-EL displays. That type of screen, by the way, is also known as (built from) nanoled. The manufacturer showed a working 16-inch one in a laptop.
Blue is a problem
Interesting was the (relatively for a prototype) high and variable refresh rate from 30 Hz to 120 Hz. Still, there is no need to immediately start looking enthusiastically for devices equipped with this type of screen. In fact, there are still problems in terms of lifespan regarding the blue nano-LED: it is far too short. In short: scientists are still working hard behind the scenes, without knowing how long it will take before this shortcoming is solved. But once this type of screen becomes available, it will wipe OLED off the map very quickly.
1000 Hz
By the way, TCL presented another nice feature: a screen with a refresh rate of no less than 1000 Hz. Also still experimental and with a completely different problem. HDMI and DisplayPort cannot handle the enormous amount of data that would be generated, so a completely new interface standard needs to be developed. So some patience here too, but a glimpse into the future is always nice.