It's that time again, the week of Black Friday when everyone and their grandma are falling head over tails for some new discounted TVs as if everyone's current television has suddenly collapsed, malfunctioned or otherwise in need of repairing. This year, those deep discounts are running for a longer stretch of time allowing you to, for the first time, realize that you don't actually know how to shop for televisions. Like at all. LCD, QLED, OLED, UHD, 4K UHD, Q8LED, Smart LED. What on Earth are the engineers at Samsung doing to produce a bajillion different monitors and which one is actually worth dishing out $1,000 to $2,000 for? Well here, I've simplified it down to the basics so that you can best decide which TV to buy during this unprecedented time of sales and discounts.

LCD vs QLED vs Q8LED vs OLED

Definitions

• LCD = Liquid-crystal display

  • There are a few types but all use a filter to turn backlight into images

  • This is a really (comparatively) old type of TV

  • A simpler example is digital clocks

    • There is a light in the back which shines onto some preset lines which can glow to show us time

• QLED = Quantum dot LED.

  • The "quantum dot" part of the tv is just a fancy filter that turns blue light made by LEDs into true colors like red, green, and blue

    • They're lab synthesized fluorescent particles about 2-10 nanometers in diameter (if you were wondering)

  • Then there's a layer of LCD color screen to finalize the image

  • This is like a modern LCD but the quantum dot layer make the colors bolder and more accurate

• Q8LED = 8k quantum dot LED

  • As you may guess, Q8LED is the same as QLED but it has a resolution of 8k quality instead of 4k

    • 8k vs 4k

      • 4k = 3840 pixels wide x 2160 pixels high

      • 8k = 7680 pixels wide x 4320 pixels high

    • Resolution counts by pixels (ie 4k or 8k)

    • Screen size (ie 65-inch tv) measure the diameter of the screen

    • Regardless of the screen size of the tv you buy, if you buy a 4k resolution, it will be 3840 pixels wide x 2160 pixels high.

    • Likewise, regardless of the screen size of the tv you buy, if you buy a 8k resolution, it will be 7680 pixels wide x 4320 pixels high.

    • So, if you're buying tv with a big screen size (like more than 70 or 75 inches), you'll need a high resolution or else the pixels will be much more spread apart and give you a lower quality image.

  • OLED = Organic LED

    • There's no filter so individual LEDs create its own light and doesn't rely on a backlight

    • Some people say that this results in a crisper, higher-contrast image but makes it harder to make the image super bright.

UHD vs 4K UHD vs Smart LED

I've lumped these together as their names are mostly a marketing scheme. These are great if you have a lower budget but don't get tricked into thinking that these are really good.

• UHD

  • Ultra high definition refers to the resolution. It's 3,840 by 2,160.

• 4K UHD

  • Just another name for 4k resolution

• Smart LED

  • This just means the TV can use the internet and uses LEDs

Hopefully, this helps as you try to buy some heavily discounted televisions this holiday season! Have a great day!