Enlarge / A 77-inch QD-OLED was one of the new TVs announced at CES 2023. (credit: Samsung Display)

OLED TVs are the premium focal point of many modern-day home theaters, but they're still imperfect technology. As usual, last week's CES in Las Vegas featured a smattering of upcoming TVs, plenty of them OLED-based. We saw bigger sizes and increased competition among OLED panel makers; however, the most interesting development was claims of boosted peak brightness.

A dimmer screen has long been the weak point of OLED displays, especially compared to their cheaper LCD rivals. But while 2023's upcoming OLED TVs largely trumpet improved brightness capabilities and present potential for unprecedentedly rich highlights, it'll still be years before you want to put an OLED TV in your sun-filled living room.

OLED's brightness problem

If you listed the drawbacks of an OLED TV compared to an LCD one, they're typically price and dimness. Despite having inky, deep blacks, OLEDs are known to be noticeably dimmer than LCD displays. Dark blacks still help the screens deliver next-level contrast, and good OLED TVs can make highlights in HDR content pop dramatically. But less overall luminance makes it hard to enjoy the image on an OLED TV in a brightly lit room or positioned under a light.

Enlarge (credit: LG)

January means new technology product announcements from the CES trade show in Las Vegas. LG, a regular CES participant, announced this year's OLED TV lineup at the show. Similar to LG's 2022 OLED TVs , this year's focus is about boosting brightness. But in 2023, LG's OLED TVs will also face stiffer competition, including from Samsung Display's QD-OLED tech, which is also supposed to be getting brighter.

Today, LG announced updates to its 8K Z series (77 and 88 inches), high-end 4K G series (55–97 inches), and flagship 4K C-series (42–93 inches) OLED TVs. The company didn't detail new additions to its less advanced B series, but Forbes reported that LG would eventually release B3 OLED TVs with an A7 Gen 6 processor and 55-, 65-, and 77-inch sizes this year. LG will reportedly no longer sell the entry-level A series in North America.

In addition to using OLED.EX panels (which LG calls "OLED Evo" in its consumer TVs), LG Display announced in late 2021 that OLED.EX panels were up to 30 percent brighter than traditional OLED panels; LG also claims the 55-, 65-, and 75-inch G3 are up to 70 percent brighter when using a feature called Brightness Booster Max. The feature isn't available on the 83- or 97-inch G3 or any other LG OLED TV series.

Enlarge / Amazon's Fire TV Omni QLED Series with Alexa widgets displayed. (credit: Amazon)

A year after it started pushing its own TVs, Amazon is expanding its lineup with pricier, more advanced options. The Fire TV Omni QLED Series announced yesterday at the invite-only Amazon hardware event shows the tech giant upping the ante with quantum dot displays and more evolved features for smart homes.

Amazon's first self-branded TVs came last September, ranging from the more budget-friendly 4-Series, which originally started at $370 for 43 inches, and the Omni Series, which originally cost $1,100 for the largest model, at 75 inches. The 4K TVs aren't particularly unique. They're HDR TVs and include HDMI 2.1, with eARC for soundbars, and feature variable refresh rates from a mere 48–60 Hz at 4K. Amazon Alexa is also present, of course. Alexa can work when the TVs are off, enable voice control, and work with Alexa Routines but is not an Amazon-exclusive among modern TVs.

Amazon is paying a little more attention to image quality with the Omni QLED Series; it still avoids specific claims, though, like brightness or color coverage specs. The new 65- and 75-inch TVs use Samsung Display's QLED technology with quantum dots for a claimed boost in color, plus full-array local dimming to boost contrast.

Enlarge / LG's OLED Flex LX3 TV won't pick a side. (credit: LG )

If you've been watching display tech lately, you may have noticed an interesting feature: bendable displays. Yes, monitors and TVs that you can bend to be either flat or curved are purportedly coming out soon. The feature is meant to appease those who can't settle on flat or curved, and most upcoming products feel similarly indecisive, exhibiting identity crises that make it hard to see where they fit... literally. Does something like this belong in a living room, office, or gaming den?

In the case of the LG OLED Flex LX3 4K TV announced Wednesday (no price or release date) , the most obvious answer is the living room. It's a 42-inch TV with a tuner, LG's webOS, and even LG Display's OLED Evo technology used in the LG C2 TV . The primary difference from every other TV is that this one has buttons (including buttons on the remote) for changing the screen from flat to a 900R curvature across 20 steps. That provides the potential for an extremely curved TV.

The thing is, you probably don't want to watch curved television. Vendors tried making this a thing years ago, but as we wrote back then, curved TVs mostly accommodate people sitting pretty close to and directly in front of the TV. That's not how most people gather 'round the heart of the living room. Living room TVs are frequently shared, with people sitting at various distances from the screen and at varying angles. But up close and centered sounds awfully similar to how most people use monitors.

Enlarge (credit: Scharon Harding/Getty Images )

Let's say you're buying a new PC monitor, TV, or laptop and want an idea of how clear fast movement would appear on it. What information would you consider? Specs like response time and refresh rate provide an idea of display speed. But if you think about it, a measurement of time isn't a particularly straightforward answer to the question of, "How much motion blur will I see?" In response, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), which makes other display standards, including DisplayPort and Adaptive-Sync , today announced a new specification program that puts a label on displays quantifying their expected motion blur performance.

The Clear Motion Ratio Compliance Test Specification ( ClearMR ) is a standard and logo program for consumer displays, including PC monitors, TVs, laptops, tablets, and all-in-ones (several products are already certified). It introduces a series of tiers with a numerical value that's supposed to indicate to consumers the display's ratio of clear pixels to blurry ones during fast-paced movement. For example, ClearMR 7000, which has a "Clear Motion Ratio" range of 6,500 to 7,500, means the display would have a clear-to-blurry ratio of 65–75:1 or 65–75 times more clear pixels than blurry ones.

In an interview with Ars Technica, Dale Stolitzka, senior principal researcher at Samsung Display’s America R&D Lab and lead contributor to ClearMR, said that VESA settled on ClearMR 3000 as the lowest tier befitting laptops with screens in the 90–120 Hz range. Displays that are 60 Hz would typically not qualify for ClearMR certification.

Enlarge / Magnifying the differences, similarities, pros, and cons. (credit: Aurich Lawson)

Somewhere along the line, consumer display technology became an alphabet soup full of terms using the letters "LED."

In this succinct guide, we'll provide a brief overview of common initialisms found in the world of TV, PC monitor, and laptop displays. To keep things simple, we'll focus on how each technology impacts expected image quality. Whether you're looking for a handy refresher for the next time you're shopping or a quick, digestible guide to give to inquisitive friends and family, we've got you covered.

LCD

You're likely reading this article on a liquid crystal display (LCD). "LCD" refers to any display type that uses liquid crystals, including TN, IPS, and VA (which we'll get into shortly). Even an old-school calculator or digital watch can use an LCD. But a simple "LCD" designation doesn't tell you how a screen will perform. You need more information, like the backlight type the panel uses—usually LED, followed by the more expensive Mini LED.