LG has been heavily invested in OLED displays (even
bendable ones) and, especially for gamers, a go-to brand when upgrading a living room TV. Now in a continued attempt to "consolidate its dominance in the premium TV market," LG Display has unveiled its 4th generation OLED TV panel with a major brightness boost along with some interesting claims and bragging rights.
According to LG, its latest OLED TV panel can achieve an eye-searing 4,000 nits of brightness, which represents a 33% jump compared to the previous generation. LG also says it's the industry's first OLED panel to reach that level of brightness.
To put it into context, a single nit is equivalent to the brightness produced by a candle. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that a maximum brightness rating doesn't necessarily mean it can achieve a rated level uniformly across the entire display. Still, it's a key metric, especially if you plan to place the TV in an area where lots of ambient light spills into the room (like a living room with lots of windows).
It's also important from the standpoint that OLED has been under attack by mini LED technology. Just as it sounds, mini LED displays pack a whole bunch of tiny LEDs for a much brighter picture compared to traditional LCD/LED. The other added benefit of using tinier LEDs, compared to traditional LCD/LED displays, is better handling of blooming, otherwise known as the halo effect.
OLED still has an advantage on that front, though, as each individual pixel can illuminate and dim itself, thereby negating the need for a backlight. And for the most part, OLED still wins in overall image quality, though some premium mini LED models have narrowed the gap considerably in recent years. For more on this, see our
Displays 101 guide.
To achieve a new level of brightness, LG said it's leveraging a proprietary
Primary RGB Tandem structure, which uses independent stacks of RGB elements to produce light. Previously, LG employed a three-stack light source consisting of two blue element layers alongside red, green, and yellow elements in another layer.
"The Primary RGB Tandem structure applied to the fourth-generation OLED TV panel organizes the light source into four stacks by adding two layers of blue elements and independent layers of red and green elements. It improves maximum brightness by increasing the amount of light produced by each layer compared to the previous structure," LG explains.
On top of the main brightness boost, LG says it enhanced color purity and brightness in its 4th generation OLED TV panel. To put some numbers to that claim, LG says color brightness can hit 2,100 nits, which is a 40% improvement over the previous generation.
At the same time, LG is also touting gains in energy efficiency. By utilized the panel's new structure and power system, LG says it reduced temperatures and achieved in the neighborhood of 20% greater energy efficiency, a a number that's based on a 65-inch panel.
LG says its
latest OLED TV panel will adorn its "top-of-the-line mass-produced lineup" coming out this year.