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Samsung Places A Big Bet on Quantum-Dot TV, Acquires QD Vision (zdnet.com)
Quantum-dot televisions promise "better picture quality and are also cheaper to manufacture than organic light-emitting diode sets," ZDNet reports. And now Samsung has confirmed their acquisition of Massachusetts-based QD Vision for $70 million, according to this article shared by Dthief:
QD Vision, previously known as Color IQ, is a specialist in quantum dot display technology. Developed for displays including PC monitors and television sets, quantum-dot technology uses semiconductor nanoparticles to change the properties of quantum dots, improving color definition and sharpness... QD Vision will become part of Samsung's research and development unit in the hope of creating quantum-dot LED displays suitable for the consumer market which could, in turn, become a strong competitor against OLED displays... The agreement follows Samsung's pledge earlier this year to launch a total of 14 SUHD television models this year, all of which use quantum dot technology.
Cheaper to manufacture means the price I pay for a TV/monitor is going to drop right? Right? *crickets*
I don't think anyone has said QLED TVs will be cheaper, only better. Like OLEDs, there's one light source per pixel so you don't have all the backlight and uniformity issues of LCDs - not even the latest full-array local dimming ones with 600+ zones come close to per-pixel dimming. Unlike OLEDs, the colors are produced by a quantum dot layer so you don't have the intensity and lifespan issues of OLED. So the sum should be a TV with insanely high contrast (0-4000 nits?), extremely wide colors (90%+ of Rec. 2020) and excellent edge-to-edge performance with no halos or bleeding backlight but the cost would probably be beyond OLED because you need 3840x2160 = 8 million LEDs with an additional, expensive QD layer on top. Except for extreme brightness - but then you don't want to wear sunglasses to watch TV either - it should be damn close to looking out the window.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Samsung lost a huge gamble when they stopped developing OLED TVs, and left the whole lucrative market of high-end-TVs to LG's OLED displays. Now they keep spinning their story that "Quantum Dots" will be soooo much better - no, they won't. "Quantum Dots" can provide more brilliant colored light from a source of less brilliant light, while sacrificing lumens-per-watt in the process. They solve no other problem, especially not the problem that you first need to be able to put 32 million light emitters on a display that can be controlled to emit precisely the amount of light that you want them to emit, at reasonable cost and efficiency. Samsung has no ace up their sleeves, they have no new light emitting technology at hand that could illuminate their "quantum dots" to compete with OLEDs, they just try to make people wait instead of buying OLED TVs today. Disclosure: I own and operate an OLED TV since early 2015, and haven't experienced any "degradation" or changing colors, yet.