WOLED vs. QD-OLED: Which OLED will dominate in 2025?

WOLED vs QD-OLED: Discover the top OLED monitor 2025! 🚀✨

Organic light-emitting diode technology (OLED) has revolutionized the world of computing, offering an exceptional visual experience on devices ranging from smartphones and tablets to laptops and the best OLED gaming monitorsWhen it comes to PC monitors, consumers generally have two popular options: WOLED and QD-OLED. 📺✨

WOLED panels

WOLED stands for White OLED, and was popularized by LG. WOLEDs feature four subpixels: red, green, blue, and white. This type of panel eliminates individual emitters for the red, green, and blue filters, using a single layer that emits white light. The white subpixel doesn't have a filter, allowing the white light from the emitter to pass through uninterrupted. 🌈

This arrangement allows WOLEDs to maintain the same benefits of traditional OLEDs—pixel-by-pixel control of light output, resulting in incredible contrast—but it also has an added advantage. By using a single white emitter to pass through the color filters, it doesn't face the problem of the individual red, green, and blue emitters aging at different rates, causing color shifts and burn-in.

WOLED technology does not completely eliminate burn-in or image retention on monitors, but it can reduce the severity of these phenomena over time.

But it's important to note that using a filter has its drawbacks. While you can achieve extremely bright whites thanks to the white light emitter, color filters can dampen that light output, reducing the color volume. 💡

QD-OLED panels

Quantum-Dot OLED (QD-OLED) replaces the white light emitter with a blue light source and was developed by Samsung Display. Thus, there are red and green subpixels; the blue subpixel is just an extension.

Each red and blue subpixel is infused with red and blue quantum dots, respectively, on top of the blue emissive layer. The energy-efficient nature of quantum dots (they can pass 99% of the light they receive) means that QD-OLED panels can achieve higher peak brightness levels and produce superior colors, thanks to not having to deal with the color filters of a WOLED panel. 🌟

Another advantage is that since you don't need to drive white light, which also has to deal with color filters, QD-OLEDs are more energy-efficient. 💡

Our testing has revealed that QD-OLED monitors consistently deliver superior color volume compared to WOLED monitors. For example, we've seen QD-OLED panels achieve around 110% of DCI-P3 coverage for superbly saturated color in SDR and HDR content. And the AOC AG346UCD It has officially become the most colorful OLED monitor we've tested to date, coming close to perfection with an sRGB volume of 100,95%. 🎨

Burn-in Mitigation/Image Retention

Burn-in occurs when an image on a monitor is retained and can be seen when different content is displayed. An example would be static ticker bars at the bottom of the screen on a news channel (like CNN or Fox News) or a status/life bar in a game. If that bar remains in the same position without mitigation strategies, that image will be visible when you switch to media content that, for example, displays a light background. ⚠️

When We test OLED gaming monitorsWe haven't had them in our possession long enough to perform endurance tests to verify burn-in. However, manufacturers have implemented extensive firmware mechanisms to mitigate burn-in on modern OLED, WOLED, and QD-OLED panels.

For example, Philips uses pixel shifting to move the displayed content up/left/right/down by 1 pixel (and up to 8 pixels) to reduce burn-in. This can happen automatically every 80 seconds. You can also manually activate burn-in cleaning. LG offers features like Clear Panel Noise and Screen Shift. Samsung panels also offer Pixel Shift, Logo Brightness Adjustment, pixel refresh, and display optimization features.

While it's impossible to guarantee that an OLED panel won't experience burn-in or image retention over its lifetime, these features significantly reduce the risk. 🔧

Conclusions

These days, it's hard to find a bad OLED monitor, as their contrast ratio, color volume, and response times put them in a league above their counterparts. VA and IPS. 💰 The only major drawback to choosing an OLED panel over an IPS panel is the price.

You'll have to pay a significant premium to enjoy the tangible benefits of OLED. But once you commit to this technology, you'll have to decide how much you're willing to sacrifice in your wallet. monitors WOLED-based monitors are typically cheaper, but you have to deal with limitations in brightness and color volume. QD-OLED monitors don't have those limitations, but the price will be even higher. 🤑