For people chasing the peak of home theater technology, picking up an OLED TV is often a must. It may soon be displaced by MicroLED and RGB mini-LED, yet for now, OLED tends to be the best you can get in terms of contrast and color accuracy. HDR content “pops” on it in a way that even QLED can’t match.
If you’re picking up your first OLED set, there may be some quirks to the technology that you’re not anticipating. Some of them are inherent, while others just represent how TV makers have decided to implement it. None of these things should discourage you from taking the plunge — it’s just better to be informed before you buy a set and plug it in.
Your TV is going to have forced downtime
For the greater good
The greatest weakness of OLED is the “O” part — an organic electroluminescent layer. While an OLED TV may actually last longer than an LCD, organic materials are more prone to decay than synthetic ones, so TV makers have had to resort to a number of measures to achieve longevity. Pixel shifting, for instance, gives some pixels a break by temporarily shifting the entire image over. Logo brightness adjustment automatically detects static objects, such as the logo for a 24-hour news station, and drops their intensity to avoid burn-in.
Perhaps the most important one is something called a pixel refresh. Strictly speaking, refreshes actually put more strain on your display — but by managing pixel voltages, they prevent “ghost” images and even out overall pixel wear. They’re about maintaining a consistent picture quality, which is ultimately more helpful to keeping a TV practical to use.
The kicker is that while you can trigger refreshes manually, they’re usually automatic, and your TV becomes unusable while the process is underway. Most refreshes take about five to 10 minutes, and occur once you’ve turned off a TV after several hours of use (four hours being a common figure). More rarely, your TV may enter a deep refresh cycle that takes about an hour. You’ll encounter this after a few thousand hours of cumulative use, assuming you’re not forced to trigger it at your own discretion. As a rule, you shouldn’t run a deep cycle more than once a year, since that’s unnecessary and likely detrimental.
Needless to say, if you’re coming from a conventional LCD/LED TV, it might feel strange to have your TV decide when you can watch it. But TV makers do try to schedule refreshes for obvious downtime, so it shouldn’t be much of a sacrifice.
OLED is actually one of the dimmest options
Contrast reigns supreme
I doubt most OLED owners are going to complain about how bright their TV can get. The tech’s performance has steadily improved over the years, and on the shelf in an electronics store, an OLED is normally more impressive.
In terms of non-peak brightness, however, OLED is outclassed by every other panel type. Whereas an average OLED might be capped at 200 to 400 nits, even a “vanilla” QLED set is liable to be brighter, and QD mini-LEDs deliver about 500 to 1,000 nits or more. Mini-LEDs can get so bright that some models are usable in direct sunlight, and may be preferable to OLED if you want the most vibrant colors (accuracy notwithstanding). To get the most out of an OLED TV, it needs to be viewed in a room with the curtains drawn and the lights dim or off.
This is somewhat deceptive. While even the peak brightness of OLED tends to be lower than QLED or mini-LED, the fact that it can achieve true blacks makes for starker contrast. Indeed, on better OLED models, the highlights can be so intense as to be blinding — so you’re not necessarily missing anything unless you enjoy having your TV on with sunlight still pouring in through the windows.
OLED TVs also tend to limit brightness intentionally to maximize longevity. Apart from dimming logos, they may scale back overall brightness when most of the frame is taken up by white or near-white content, such as an ice rink. Unchained from this, the gap with other options is liable to be smaller. Not that I would recommend cranking any set up to 100%.
HDR isn’t always the miracle it’s made out to be
It’s about what you watch, not just how
As I’ve pointed out, HDR (high dynamic range) is really the main attraction with OLED tech. Because an OLED panel can turn individual pixels on and off, it’s capable not just of perfect contrast, but more faithful color representation than anything short of MicroLED or RGB mini-LED. That might not make sense until you realize that conventional LCDs rely on LED backlight “zones,” producing at least a little color bleed.
The gap between QLED and mini-LED isn’t necessarily as dramatic as you might be expecting, however. It’s there, but sometimes subtle, to the point that a casual viewer might not be aware.
There are a couple of reasons for this. First, TV manufacturers have been working hard over the years to improve the black levels of LCDs, for instance increasing the number of backlight zones and enabling local dimming. More zones allow for more precise dimming. Mini-LED sets actually have thousands of backlights, so problems like blooming and color bleed are far reduced.
Second, HDR formats matter. A lot of video is still mastered for HDR10, which uses static metadata. That provides a general improvement over SDR (standard dynamic range), but because it can’t adapt to what’s onscreen, some scenes may end up too bright, too dark, or otherwise less impressive than intended. It’s why studios have rapidly migrated to the two main dynamic formats, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.
Even Vision isn’t a guarantee of a spectacular picture. Some people complain that it doesn’t render enough detail in dark scenes, and that’s actually one of the things Dolby is trying to address with Vision 2.
You probably can’t find a matte OLED TV
Tough luck for art TV fans
One of the latest industry trends is the rise of “art” TVs, spearheaded by Samsung’s Frame lineup. These models are designed to blend in with a room’s decor, resembling a framed photo or painting — hence the name. They’re abnormally thin, and often come with swappable magnetic bezels. If you’re not happy displaying free artwork, some companies will gladly upsell you on a subscription service.
Key to the illusion is the use of a matte texture. This sharply reduces reflections, making a screen more closely resemble paper or canvas. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, one of the best examples of this is an e-ink tablet like a Kindle or the reMarkable Paper Pro.
Matte options are virtually non-existent in the OLED world. In fact, the only prominent model to feature it in 2025 was the Samsung S95F, which is wild when you consider how diverse the TV market can be.
There’s a good reason for this, though. Glossy screens may suffer from more reflections, but the tradeoff is a sharper image with more vibrant colors. If you want to see OLED reach its full potential, glossy is almost always the best way to go. OLED isn’t a great choice for art TVs anyway, given its visibility in sunlight, and the risk of burn-in if an image is left onscreen for too long.
