There’s no denying what the top dogs in the TV tech space are. OLED and mini-led represent the cream of the crop, with both screen types producing far better black levels, punchier contrast and more vivid colors than regular LED-lit LCD (liquid-crystal display) TVs.
But which technology wins outright? In our OLED vs mini-LED guide below, we pit both forms of tech against each other, covering black levels, contrast, colors, motion handling, vulnerability to burn-in, and gaming performance.
No matter which form of TV you decide is the right one for you, the best mini-LED TVs and the best OLED TVs offer the kind of top-tier picture quality regular LED TVs can’t get near. Now brace yourself for a big ol’ flatscreen TV scrap.
OLED explained
OLED TVs have been around for over a decade, quickly becoming the most desirable screens in the industry after LG first broke into the market with the tech back in 2013. OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays are famed for their perfect black levels, wide viewing angles, “infinite” contrast performance, and nimble, responsive motion handling.
Unlike LED and mini-LED, OLED TVs don’t use a backlight. Instead, each pixel on an OLED screen can individually light and dim itself, which benefits contrast massively. Without the threat of the backlight blooming you get with LED (and mini-LED) displays, OLED TVs are brilliant for watching movies in a dark room.
There are a few caveats, though. First of all, OLED TVs are generally more expensive than mini-LED TVs. They’re also more prone to screen burn-in (which we’ll get to shortly), while they’re not as bright as the best mini-LED TVs. Thankfully, the latter area is one where OLED has made real strides in recent years thanks to developments like QD-OLED, which uses a quantum dot layer on OLED screens to produce more accurate colors and brighter images, and micro lens array (MLA), which uses millions of convex lenses on the display panel to boost brightness
Mini-LED explained
Mini-LED TVs have steadily grown in popularity over the past few years, and there’s an excellent reason for that. Not only do they normally offer far deeper black levels than traditional LED displays, but they also get brighter than most OLED TVs. Most mini-LED TV are usually cheaper than their OLED counterparts, too.
The term mini-LED refers to the type of backlight that’s used to illuminate this TV tech’s LCD panel. The main difference between this sort of backlight and the ones you typically find in LCD-based displays is that the miniaturized design of the mini-LED light modules means vastly more LEDs can be deployed in the panel’s backlight. That means more uniform light distribution and increased screen brightness. Throw in superior local dimming solutions over what regular LED TVs typically can muster, and it means mini-LEDs produce significantly more convincing blacks that are less prone to screen artifacts like backlight blooming.
OLED vs mini-LED: black level performance
Spoiler: OLED is going to win round one. OLED TVs have self-dimming pixels that can completely turn off during dark scenes, which allows for perfect, instantly convincing black levels. If you’ve only ever owned LCD screens and dealt with dark (but not dark enough) grays, the moment you first watch a movie or show at night in a dim room on an OLED TV will be a revelation. When it comes to black levels, there’s no beating OLED.
With that said, mini-LED TVs are capable of delivering far deeper black levels than regular LED TVs. Because they have considerably more LED lights and dimming zones, the screens of mini-LED TVs are more evenly backlit than LCD TVs. This means they don’t suffer from the overly bright corners you can often find in many LED models. While mini-LEDs are still prone to blooming (an issue also known as the “halo effect” where brighter on-screen elements have a visible glow around them), it’s harder to spot than on LED TVs.
Winner: OLED
OLED vs mini-LED: brightness
Despite advancements over the last couple of years, the best OLED TVs still can’t get as bright as the finest mini-LED TVs. Traditional W-OLED panels have historically struggled to match mini-LEDs and even LED TVs, and if you’re in a bright room that gets a lot of light, watching an OLED TV in sunny conditions can prove to be an eye-straining challenge. By contrast, mini-LEDs get so bright, they can compete with daylight for daytime viewing.
Many mini-LED TVs can comfortably reach peak brightness levels of around 1,500 nits, while high-end models like the premium Sony Bravia 9 can hit a gobsmacking 2,280 nits. OLED just can’t reach these levels.
Many OLED TVs still can’t hit 1,000 nits, though the introduction of QD-OLED and MLA panels has seen significant recent improvements. The QD-OLED Samsung S95D can reach an ultra-impressive 1,868 nits (measured on a 10% HDR white window test pattern), while the LG G4 OLED with its MLA panel can hit 1,489 nits across the same 10% window.
If your living room setup requires the brightest TV tech possible, mini-LED is the clear winner in this category.
Winner: mini-LED
OLED vs mini-LED: contrast and color
Contrast performance is directly tied to how good a television’s black levels are. As OLED TVs are self-illuminating, every pixel can be turned off to create perfect, true blacks, which means they remain the contrast kings. While mini-LEDs are capable of convincing black levels, they’re not as good as OLEDs due to their always-on backlight. Perceived contrast also tapers off when watched from wide viewing angles on mini-LEDs, leading to slightly washed-out images. This isn’t a problem with OLEDs.
OLED also wins when it comes to color reproduction. Hues are generally more natural-looking on OLED TVs compared to their mini-LED equivalents. Once again, this is largely down to OLED tech’s pixel-by-pixel lighting. By comparison, colors can look slightly faded when viewed from an angle on mini-LEDs because of the backlighting required to illuminate the panel.
Winner: OLED
OLED vs mini-LED: motion handling
This is a tight one. OLED TVs tend to handle quick motion in action-packed movies and video games slightly better than mini-LEDs because they tend to have faster response times (though there’s often not much in it). When it comes to refresh rates, you can buy OLED and mini-LED TVs that support refresh rates up to 144Hz ( 240Hz in some cases with mini-LED). Again, there’s really not much to separate the technologies here, but OLED just edges the motion category.
Winner: OLED
OLED vs mini-LED: screen burn-in
If OLED was Achilles, screen burn-in would be its heel. OLED TVs remain far more susceptible to this issue than mini-LEDs due to the organic materials their pixels use. Caused by leaving the same image on the screen for too long, burn-in is the temporary – and in extreme cases, permanent – discoloration of a TV’s pixels. While OLED TVs are less prone to burn-in than they were a few years ago thanks to features like automatic brightness limiting and pixel cleaning cycles, it’s an issue that continues to plague the tech.
Be it a HUD in the best PS5 games or the taskbar in Windows 11, any static screen element is a potential enemy when using an OLED TV. And if you use an OLED TV as a monitor and sit close enough to the screen, the ghostly, immovable imprint of a burned-in logo is one of those things you can’t unsee.
Mini-LEDs don’t suffer from burn-in because they don’t use organic materials in their pixels. Though burn-in is avoidable on OLED TVs through sensible viewing habits (setting your TV to turn off when idle for, say, two hours can prove a lifesaver), there’s no denying it’s an issue OLED displays can’t fully shake.
Winner: mini-LED
OLED vs mini-LED: viewing angles
Thanks to their self-emissive pixels, viewing angles on an OLED currently can’t be topped. No matter how acute the angle you’re watching an OLED display at, contrast and brightness will remain the same to your eye, regardless of where you’re sitting.
Mini-LED TVs offer better viewing angles than LED ones, no question. Yet for most models, the presence of a backlight means colors and contrast can look a little washed out if you’re not sitting directly in front of a mini-LED screen. This is an easy win for OLED.
Winner: OLED
OLED vs mini-LED: gaming
Another close call. OLED TVs often have blistering response times, which make them ideal for first-person shooters like Call of Duty Black Ops 6, which demands quick reflexes. Mini-LEDs are usually very responsive, too, but OLED wins by a narrow margin when it comes to reducing input lag in the best Xbox Series X games.
Where mini-LED wins over OLED revolves around burn-in. Playing a game for extended periods on an OLED TV can leave a screen vulnerable to permanent image retention, as many games have on-screen HUDs that never shift position. As mini-LEDs don’t use organic materials to construct their pixels, they’re less prone to burn-in, meaning you can play games on them for hours on end without having to sweat potential screen burn.
Winner: tie
OLED vs mini-LED: screen uniformity
This category is for the eagle-eyed, so probably shouldn’t be considered a make-or-break factor unless you’re cursed with super-obsessive peepers. Simply put, OLED TVs have the best screen uniformity because they don’t use a backlight.
Though mini-LED TVs have deeper and more consistent black levels than LED TVs, you can spot an issue known as “dirty screen effect” on mini-LEDs, as even the best backlight local dimming is limited to “zones” of multiple LEDs rather than OLED’s per-pixel dimming. In real-world viewing, DSE manifests as blotches on the screen that stick out, looking noticeably uneven in fast panning shots while watching sports like ice hockey or soccer, or when playing video games.
OLEDs aren’t blighted with dirty screen effect, so are ideally suited for sports fans and gamers. The only issue OLEDs can suffer from in terms of screen uniformity is vertical banding. This defect shows up in panning shots during dark scenes, appearing as faint vertical lines when dark gray surfaces appear on screen. Like dirty screen effect, you really need to be obsessive to pick out this issue.
Winner: OLED
OLED vs mini-LED: Price
Even though they’ve been on the market for more than a decade, OLEDs are still considered to be the highest-end, most premium models available. OLED TVs are more expensive to manufacture than mini-LEDs, which means they cost more to buy. Generally speaking, a good 65-inch OLED TV like the LG G4 will cost between $1,500-$2,000 depending on sales. Meanwhile, if you want one of the best 65-inch mini-LEDs, such as the Hisense U8N, you’re looking at a far more affordable $1,100 to $1,500, and even less with Prime Day and Black Friday TV deals.
Winner: mini-LED
OLED vs mini-LED: which TV tech wins?
Judged by pure picture quality, OLED beats mini-LED in most categories. It remains the finest type of TV money can currently buy, though the best mini-LED TVs have certainly closed the gap.
It’s not quite a cut-and-dried win for OLED, though. For many folks looking to pick up a new TV, a good mini-LED set will be more than up for the job. With better black levels than LED displays, brighter images than OLED, and no burn-in worries, they’re easy to recommend to people on a mid-range budget.
If money is no object and you’re lucky enough that you can afford the best of the best, OLED is still the ultimate TV technology, thanks to its perfect blacks, superb contrast, accurate colors, and unbeatable gaming performance.
Winner: OLED
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