Thunderclap on the TV market, Sony turns to mini-LED

Sony presented its technological roadmap in Tokyo and we were also able to attend its TV brand awareness demonstration during CES in Las Vegas. If his television’s audio and calibration were in the spotlight, he particularly emphasized the mini-LED that made a strong impression.

Sony will equip its high-end models for 2024 with mini-LED panels, throwing a big wrench into the pond, shaking up QD-Oled and OLED in the process. If some see this as an abandonment of OLED by the manufacturer, Sony confirmed that its A95L will remain in the catalog; So we should continue to see OLED and mini-LED coexist, at least for some time.

Perhaps a new QD-Oled model will come out in addition to the arrival of high-end mini-LEDs, but that doesn’t indicate anything at the moment. Why such a 180° turn?

OLED vs Mini-LED, recap

OLED is present on most high-end models from major TV manufacturers (LG, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, etc.). It is supported by white OLED panels from LG Display and QD-Oled from Samsung. The advantages of this technology are numerous, including unmatched contrast because each pixel can be individually turned off or on, but also excellent viewing angles and almost zero ghosting (which can be important in gaming).

That said, not everything is perfect because the organic components of red, green, and blue pixels degrade over time, and brightness and colors suffer after a few years. In addition, tiles are expensive, mainly because there is a significant amount of waste during their production, and prices for larger sizes (77, 85, 97 inches) increase rapidly. In addition, their brightness is more limited. The light peak definitely increases from year to year with the integration of new technologies (we think of the MLA coating that significantly improved OLED in 2023), but the result is unbalanced with mini-LED and the marathon seems already lost. .

To give you an idea, the best Oled and QD-OIed panels today reach around 1500 cd/m² on windows that represent 10% of the screen size – a figure that should increase slightly more in 2024; However, many high-end mini-LED panels exceed 2000 cd/m² and we measured 2400 cd/m² on the TCL 98X955, a record in our comparison. Some Sony monitors dedicated to image professionals that have just been unveiled, such as the BVM-HW3110, also reach 4000 cd/m² at a 10% window. An impressive result, which bodes well for the future potential for consumer television.

Additionally, Mini-Led is easier to manufacture, less expensive and therefore necessarily more interesting to consumers (TCL’s 98-inch sold for around €6,000 compared to €25,000 for the 97-inch LG G3) and does not have LEDs. Degradation over time. Brightness, price, large screen size: a lot of elements that seem to have strengthened Sony’s choice to transition to mini-LED.

In the mini-LED spotlight at Sony in 2024

Sony already offered a series of mini-LED televisions, but as we said, the high-end was only connected to OLED technology. For 2024, the manufacturer intends to improve their mini-LED panels as much as possible and provide a truly high-end viewing experience.

Obviously the emphasis on local dimming, i.e. the television’s ability to turn off certain areas of the LED to show more or less dark areas on the screen, is a key element in the competition with OLED. Sony is banking on its future processor in particular, but also on a new in-house 22-bit controller that will make it possible to manage a large number of backlighting zones and change the brightness to thousands of different levels. We were able to see a demonstration during CES, in which the televisions only exposed their backlight panels; The result was stunning, with object shapes sharper and more distinct than the previous generation X95L.

Brightness increases, consumption decreases

The idea is also to improve the maximum brightness with a claimed 50% higher peak than the later model. Unfortunately, we did not have time to test it in 2023, but we can undoubtedly expect a light peak around 2500 cd/m², which will be one of the highest figures measured in our laboratory.

A small bonus, despite the increase in brightness, Sony has managed to reduce the overall consumption of its television, an interesting point that we will not fail to verify during our test.

Questions and some patience

Sony will face some challenges in any case, as the mini-LED isn’t perfect either. It is especially necessary to work on the contrast, match OLED, but will try to reduce or even eliminate it. Peacock (the halo effect that we observe around bright objects), or even try to improve viewing angles which means that, momentarily, looking at the screen from the sides can taint the viewing experience.

We have no doubt that the brand’s new high-end TV will have a set of technologies that have made previous models successful: a perfectly calibrated panel, a quality sound system and an efficient processor, among others. Sony usually renews its televisions in early spring, we look forward to seeing you in the coming months to learn more about the manufacturer’s new products.