LG QNED Mini-LED TVs are your best LCDs for 2021, but not as good as OLED TVs

This story is part of CES, where our editors will present the latest news and the hottest gadgets from CES 2021 entirely virtual.

CES 2021 is coming fast, but LG couldn’t wait to present the latest four-letter word in the TV world. The manufacturer, best known for excellent OLED TVs like the CX series, is launching a new line of televisions called QNED. Based on the most common LCD TV technology instead of OLED, QNED combines the benefits of its NanoCell technology with quantum dots to improve color, contrast and brightness, according to LG.

QNED TVs will occupy the top of LG’s 2021 LCD TV line, but company representatives were careful to say that they will not offer the same level of picture quality as their OLED TVs. LG has not announced any new OLED 2021 TVs, but it is expected to do so closer to CES.

QNED is just one letter from QLED, a technology promoted by Samsung and TCL on very similar grounds (LCD LED backlights and quantum dots), so confusion is inevitable. LG says its QNED TVs will use Mini-LED backlight technology, very similar to the TCL 6 series and 8-Series QLED TVs, which once again improve brightness and contrast compared to traditional LED backlights. Samsung has yet to announce a Mini-LED TV, but it does sell extremely sophisticated wall-size TVs that use MicroLED technology.

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LG has not yet provided much additional information about its QNED sets. He did not say exactly how NanoCell and the quantum dots would work together (both technologies traditionally focus on improving color) or provided more specifications – in addition to saying that TVs would have “up to” 30,000 Mini-LEDs and 2,500 local dimming zones, probably in the larger sizes. Nor did it announce exactly which models will use QNED or which screen sizes and resolutions (4K and / or 8K) they will have. Company representatives promised more details near CES; LG has a press conference scheduled for January 11.

In the meantime, TV buyers are faced with another confused and similar-sounding brand. At CNET, we will do our best to uncover it as soon as we have more information. How QNED compares to QLED and other state-of-the-art LCD TVs, or OLED TVs, is the biggest question, and ultimately that answer will have to wait for analysis. Stay tuned.