To OLED or QLED

That is the Question…Which is Better?

Okay, I’ve been a Samsung TV guy for about 7 years now.  Until very recently I would not have even considered picking a different brand name for my future basement home theater.  HDR (high dynamic range), Dolby Vision and all that came along and sort of changed everything for me…maybe.
I kept seeing articles talking about OLED and how great the contrast and color are using the new technology.  Crutchfield even had an entire search filter for it on their site.  So now I’m thinking great, I’ll just get the best version of that technology from Samsung.  Oops, Samsung doesn’t make any TVs with OLED.  They have QLED which of course has nothing at all to do with OLED.  Forget about Dolby Vision on their TVs too.  So, what’s going on here?  Do I need to go all LG now?

I decided to look at and compare the LG OLEDC7P and the Samsung QNQ7F, since they are in my target price range of about $2,000 – $4,000.  I am looking for a 75” or similar sized TV, but it looks like for LG I would have to jump up to the OLED77G6P.    Click for Amazon’s current price.  It’s an unbelievable TV to be sure, but I’ll stick with the lower series and just have to settle for 65” if I decide on LG.

Take a look at some lower priced options for 4K TVs

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The Case for OLED

First of all, every single review I’ve read about the OLED65C7P has the same common theme.  Again and again I’ve seen this phrase repeated: “best picture ever”.  Fifty million online reviews can’t be wrong, Samsung will just have to concede the point.  So what other features should I look at…what’s really important to me and my future home theater?  Let’s see, the LG has 4 HDMI inputs with HDMI 2.0a .  I only need one input of course with my future receiver doing all the heavy lifting there.  Really cool that it has HDMI 2.0a, I need that…I think.  From what they tell me this HDMI update is to “enable transmission of HDR formats, which provide enhanced picture quality by simultaneously enabling greater detail for both the dark and bright parts of an image”.  Yup, I need that.
What else…USB ports (3), ethernet port, optical digital audio output, any kind of audio feature?  Meh, won’t need to worry about any of those with my intended setup.  What it comes down to for me are just 3 things:

• How does the picture look?
• How does the TV look on the wall?
• Is it big enough?

As mentioned, this TV had the picture quality needed and more to spare.  As far as the esthetic quality goes it might just win this too.  The thing is gorgeous. It’s ultra thin at just a quarter of an inch on the top.  The bottom is almost 2” thicker than the top, but this is to be expected if you want to like power the thing and stuff.  The frame around the screen is very small and there is no company logo on the front.  I like this very much. Sadly as noted above, this series is not available larger than 65”.

Could be a deal breaker for me, but it’s very tempting.

Check Amazon’s Current Price

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The Case for QLED

Ok, now let’s talk about that Samsung QNQ7F and can it possibly overcome the greatest picture quality of all time?  Let’s cut to the chase, how is that picture really?  Apparently it’s great in bright rooms, not so great in darker rooms.  Hmm, that’s really not too good when it’s intended location is a basement home theater.  I mean, it’s still really good…just not nearly as perfect as Mr. LG over there.  It does have HDMI 2.0a…so it’s got that going for it, which is nice.
The design of this TV is really, really good; even better than the LG in my opinion.  It’s also ultra thin and has very little frame around the picture.  It does say Samsung on the front, but to me that says “status”.  The Samsung also has this new feature called “Invisible connection”, which has a thin fiber optic cable that runs between the TV and a separate “One Connect” box.  The box is where all cables will be plugged in, so that only one cable goes up to the TV.  The problem with that is, I would already have just the one HDMI cable going up to the TV from the receiver.  The receiver is my “One Connect” box.
Did I mention that the Samsung does come in a 75” version?  Let’s not underestimate the importance of this.

Check Amazon’s Current Price

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The Verdict

Let’s face it, I would not regret owning either TV. A switch to LG from years of Samsung loyalty would not necessarily mean that I couldn’t switch back in some future round of innovations.  I never buy warranties because I am always up for buying something new!  This will come down to the ultimate dimensions of my theater room.  I suspect the ceiling height may require going with the smaller 65” TV anyway.  If this is the case, OLED it will be.  Otherwise, the size is just too important to ignore.

Maybe I could just get an LG for another room of the house…hmm.

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Next up I choose my Dolby Atmos receiver

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