Gamers – This one’s for you.
If you are stuck between the decision of whether to purchase LED or OLED, then you have to keep reading this article because in the end, you will have a clear mind of what you want to buy.
Whenever purchasing a new peripheral or any other part of a PC, gamers tend to do extensive research to make an educated decision that would not come back to bite them.
However, with recent advances in technology and newer types of panels coming along, one may get confused because of misdirection and bias in many places.
Luckily, we will leave that for you. To decide what fits your needs is your own duty, but helping in that decision is the core of this blog post.
A Little Bit About LED and OLED
Before we get deep into the comparison mode, a general idea of LED and OLED will be given. As we know that displays are an essential part of our entertainment systems, whether it maybe gaming or watching movies or whatever.
Different types of panels are in heated discussion all around the globe. OLED and LED are two basic forms upon which newer technologies are being formed.
LED is basically an LCD display panel using Light Emitting Diodes (LED) as a source of backlight. Thus, writing the name LED LCD would not be wrong. Even in LCDs, there are three forms of displays, TN twisted nematic), VA and IPS, the last two being way better than TN.
OLED differs from LED in sense that OLED uses the same organic semiconductors for lighting as well as for creating the image.
And the display can be controlled on a pixel-by-pixel basis. This one of the main reasons that the pixels in OLED are known as self emissive in contrast to those of LED being called as transmissive.
Battle of the Panels – OLED vs LED
Gaming is the ultimate goal for which we are deciding a display. And thus, this battle would take place on different avenues and we will see which of these comes out on top. The different qualities upon which they will be judged are
- Brightness
- Color
- Contrast
- Input Lag and Response Time
- Refresh Rate
- Viewing Angles
- Screen Burn in
1. Brightness
The first comparison is of brightness where LEDs take a considerable advantage over OLEDs. The reason for this is the source of light.
In LED TVs, we have the diodes at the back as the light source and with the addition of quantum dot technology to LED TVs, this brightness is preserved even if the size of LEDs at the back is made small.
On the other hand, although OLED TVs have a had a substantial increase in their maximum brightness levels, they are still no match for LED TVs.
So, this largely depends on your gaming setup. If you use a dark room while gaming, OLED will not cause you much troubles but if your PS5 is hooked up your well-lit living room, LED would be the better option.
Winner: LED
2. Color
The most recent LCD screens are capable of producing amazing natural-looking colors. However, it is dependent on the technology being used. When properly calibrated, VA and IPS panels provide excellent color accuracy, however TN screens might appear faint or washed-out.
Colors in OLED are less prone to issues in vibrance, however older models faced difficulty in keeping the colors real. The situation has improved in recent years, with Panasonic’s flagship OLEDs being used in Hollywood film grading.
Color volume is an area where OLED struggles. Bright settings, on the other hand, may put an OLED panel’s ability to sustain color saturation to the test. It’s a flaw that LCD-supporters like to point out.
So, LED wins here again.
3. Contrast
Let’s put up the winner here. Its OLED, and it wins because OLEDs are able to provide an infinite contrast ratio as compared to the LED TVs which mostly have a ration of around 1000:1.
The reason for this is that in OLED, when the part of a screen is to go black, the pixel will produce no light whatsoever.
Which gives us perfect blacks. However, with LED, we do not get exclusive blacks instead we get greyish blacks and a phenomenon knows as light bleeding too. Thus, OLED wins a far margin.
4. Input Lag and Response Time
This here is the match of the day, as gamers cannot tolerate a lot of input lag and slow response times. With faster response times in your TV, you will get better fewer artifacts and less motion blur.
OLED pixels are far better in this regard as they are very quickly able to change their state and thus coming out victorious here. Thus, OLED TV wins here.
5. Refresh Rates
This is something over which many gamers begin to drool. Refresh rates means the screen will be smooth. However, both of these types of TVs have models that have refresh rates of 240Hz and even beyond.
Thus, we look at a second important thing here, Variable Refresh Rate. Something which if present in a TV, enhances the gaming experience to a great extent. Unfortunately, not all LED and OLED TVs have this feature, and those which do are bound to perform well.
6. Visual Angles
OLED TVs have excellent viewing angles. They are thin and are excellent in this regard. You could stand anywhere around a TV and not face any distortion in color or image. While the same cannot be said about LED LCD TVs. While the IPS has vastly improved upon this avenue, the VA and especially TN type of panels perform really poorly.
Winner is OLED.
7. Screen Burn in
Now let’s talk about something which has prevented many people from purchasing OLED TVs. This is the phenomenon of burn in which happens when static images are displayed on OLED TVs during gaming for long periods of time.
Examples of static images include logos, health bars etc. which do not change much and thus leave a permanent after image scar on the screen. This kind of issue is not present in LED TVs.
Winner LED.
Bottom Line
As far as gaming is concerned, gamers can always debate on the pros and cons of their gaming setup components. When it comes to display, both OLED and LED have some positive points.
If you do not care for burn in and usually game in a dark room, OLED should be your choice however if you game for really long times on your PS5 playing Fortnite in your living room where even sunlight comes in, LED TV can be the answer.
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