The Panel Type Index
Which TV panel type should you buy? Let your room decide, not your budget. In a room you can dim, buy an OLED — WOLED or QD-OLED, both emissive panels where each pixel makes its own light and switches fully off, giving truly black blacks and the widest viewing angles available. In a bright living room, buy a mini-LED QLED — every QLED is an LCD whose backlight goes far brighter than an OLED can, which is exactly what overcomes daylight on the screen, and it carries no burn-in risk from static content. A cheaper TV of the right panel type will look better in your room than a pricier one of the wrong type. One terminology trap worth naming: QD-OLED ships in TVs today; QDEL does not — QDEL (NanoLED / EL-QD) has no OLED layer and is not in any shipping consumer TV as of 2026. The table below maps every TV we cover to its actual panel technology, its manufacturer-stated brightness class, and the HDMI-port detail that decides whether a console actually gets 4K/120Hz.
The index: every TV we cover, by panel technology
| Model Series | Panel Technology | Peak Brightness Class | Gaming Ports (4K/120Hz) | Best-Suited Room | Price Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LG C-series | WOLED (emissive OLED) | Moderate (OLED-class) | 4K/120Hz, VRR, ALLM on all HDMI ports (C1 and later) | Dim / dedicated room | Flagship tier |
| Sony Bravia OLED | OLED (subtype not classified in our data) | Moderate (OLED-class) | 4K/120Hz, VRR, ALLM (check port spec per model) | Dim / dedicated room | Flagship tier |
| Samsung QN90-series | Mini-LED QLED (LCD) | Very high | 4K/120Hz, VRR, ALLM (check port spec per model) | Bright living room | Premium tier |
| TCL QM-series | Mini-LED QLED (LCD) | High | 4K/120Hz, VRR, ALLM (check port spec per model) | Bright / mixed lighting | Mid-range tier |
| Hisense U-series | Mini-LED ULED (LCD) | High for the price tier | 4K/120Hz on select ports only | Bright / mixed lighting | Budget tier |
Screen sizes are deliberately not listed: size lineups change within a model series between years, and we only publish what we can trace to a source. Check the live listing for current sizes.
What each panel technology actually is
| Feature | WOLED | QD-OLED | Mini-LED QLED |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | OLED: white emitter + RGB filters + white subpixel (LG Display) | OLED: blue emitter + quantum-dot conversion (Samsung Display) | LCD: mini-LED backlight + quantum-dot film |
| Emissive? | Yes — per-pixel | Yes — per-pixel | No — backlight + LC shutter |
| Burn-In Risk Class | Small long-term risk with static content | Small long-term risk with static content | None |
| Viewing Angle | Widest available | Widest available | Narrower; shifts off-axis |
Full normalized dataset with CSV download: the Display Reality Index. Panel physics from first principles: how TV display panels actually work. Head-to-head: OLED vs QLED and QD-OLED vs WOLED.
Notes and sourcing
- Panel technology per model series follows our published guides: WOLED is LG Display's OLED architecture (marketed as "OLED evo"), QD-OLED is Samsung Display's. Sony's Bravia OLED line is listed as OLED without a subtype because our dataset does not classify it per model.
- Brightness classes are qualitative tiers, not nits figures — we do not publish numbers we have not traced to a source, and manufacturer nits claims are not comparable across measurement conditions.
- Gaming ports: "all HDMI ports" vs "select ports only" is the single most consequential spec-sheet detail for PS5/Xbox Series X owners — see the gaming TV guide.
- Marketing names shift year to year. This index describes model series as we cover them; confirm the panel technology of the specific model year before purchase.
Cite this data:
panelpicks Panel Type Index, retrieved August 2026. Canonical URL: https://panelpicks.com/panel-type-index/. Companion dataset: the Display Reality Index (CC BY 4.0).
Frequently Asked Questions
Let your room decide. In a room you can dim, buy an OLED (WOLED or QD-OLED) — each pixel makes its own light and switches fully off, so blacks are truly black and viewing angles are the widest available. In a bright living room, buy a mini-LED QLED — its backlight goes far brighter, which is what overcomes ambient light, and it carries no burn-in risk. A cheaper TV of the right panel type will look better in your room than a pricier one of the wrong type.
Both are emissive OLED panels. WOLED (made by LG Display, sold as 'OLED evo' among other names) uses a white OLED emitter with RGB color filters plus a white subpixel. QD-OLED (made by Samsung Display) uses a blue OLED emitter converted to red and green by quantum dots, which holds color saturation better at high brightness. Both carry the same small long-term burn-in risk with static content.
No. QD-OLED ships in TVs and monitors today and uses quantum dots to convert light already produced by a blue OLED emitter. QDEL (also called NanoLED or EL-QD) drives quantum dots directly with electricity, has no OLED layer at all, and does not yet ship in any consumer television as of 2026.
Not always. Many TVs only wire full 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 bandwidth to some of their HDMI inputs. In our coverage, the LG C-series supports 4K/120Hz, VRR, and ALLM on all its HDMI ports, while the budget Hisense U-series supports 4K/120Hz on select ports only — plug a console into the wrong socket and you silently lose the feature. Always check the specific model's port spec.
Last reviewed: August 12, 2026. Model rows are drawn from our published buying guides; panel-technology classes from the Display Reality Index v1.0.