Micro LED vs OLED: What are the Differences?

While choosing a display, you might have come across the terms Micro LED and OLED. After reading this article, you will have a clear idea of their strengths and weaknesses. You will be able to decide which is the best display technology for your business.

What is a Micro LED Display?

Micro LED is an improvement over traditional LED. Traditional LED displays use an array of backlights to illuminate an LCD panel. In Micro LEDs each pixel is a microscopic LED, capable of emitting its own light. A screen made using micro LED technology is a micro LED display.

What is an OLED Display?

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. OLED technology emerged in 2023 as a replacement to the LCD technology. In OLED displays, pixels are made of organic compounds. The screen made using OLED technology is called an OLED display.

Micro LED vs OLED: What are the differences?

Let us compare Micro LED and OLED in terms of some fundamental display parameters.

The Technology of Display

OLED

OLED displays offer high quality contrast, wide viewing angles and a great viewing experience in dim environments.

These organic compounds are independent light sources, hence, there is no need for a backlight. This means that each pixel can be turned on or off individually, offering true blacks.

Micro LED

Each microscopic LED has three sub-LEDs in red, blue and green. Therefore, TVs are able to control the color of each pixel, offering a great amount of visual fidelity like deeper blacks and a high level of brightness.

The Outcome

As the new direction of future display technology, OLED and Micro LED both have excellent display effects. However, OLED still has the problem of screen burn-in that has not been completely solved, so Micro LED display will be better.

Sharpness and Resolution

Display sharpness and resolution are important considerations, whether you are a tech enthusiast or a business owner.

OLED

In terms of resolution, both Micro LED and OLED have similar profiles. Their panels can be constructed for HD, 4K and 8K resolutions, with 4K being the most common.

Micro LED

Micro LED displays, having smaller pixel size and hence a higher pixel density, offer slightly greater image sharpness.

The Outcome

Micro LED and OLED are very similar in terms of sharpness and resolution. Hence, this one is a tie.

Brightness and Color

For versatile use cases like dim-rooms, street-signs and home theaters, brightness and color are important considerations.

OLED

OLED displays struggle to provide high brightness levels, especially in large screen sizes. This is due to the fact that organic compounds tend to degrade over time, causing burn-in of the pixels. At best, OLEDs are able to go up to 3000 nits.

Micro LED

Since there are no organic compounds in Micro LED, they do not face such a problem. Micro LED displays are able to go up to 10,000 nits. Hence, Micro LEDs offer greater brightness and color as compared to OLED.

The Outcome

Due to Micro LEDs not depending upon organic compounds, they can push well past OLEDs in terms of brightness. Hence, this once goes to Micro LED.

Image Quality

Image quality is dependent on several factors like color gamut, sharpness, resolution and brightness. It is a universally important measure of the quality of a display.

OLED

Like QLED TVs are able to reach up to 90% of the color gamut as defined by rec2020 standard. However, conventional OLED TVs are only able to reach a benchmark of 75%.

Micro LED

Micro LED TVs are projected to surpass the 90% benchmark, hence offering greater color quality. With a smaller pixel size and greater brightness, Micro LEDs offer superior image quality.

The Outcome

While Micro LEDs promise higher image quality than OLEDs, it is too early to declare it a winner. For now, this is a tie.

Viewing Angles

Viewing Angle refers to a TVs ability to maintain a good image quality when viewed from an angle, instead of its center. For multi-user setups like seminar halls, digital signs and billboards, it is critical to have a display that has good viewing angles.

OLED

OLED TVs offer great viewing angles, with hardly any loss of brightness or color. However, QD-OLED offers better viewing angles, since the Quantum Dot Layer helps spread light equally in all directions.

Micro LED

Due to Micro LED having its RGB pixels so near the screen, it seems that it will offer near perfect viewing angles. However, conclusive testing is yet to be done.

The Outcome

Both Micro LEDs and OLEDs offer great viewing angles. While the future of Micro LED has much more to offer, as of today it is a tie.

Cost and Reliability

Cost and reliability are critical considerations for all businesses. It forms the basis of future planning and budget formulation.

OLED

Since Micro LED is a relatively new technology, price and availability are its greatest weaknesses. It is currently not available in small sizes due to its manufacturing process. For large screen Micro LEDs, the price can go as high as $219,999, the price of Samsung’s 146” The Wall TV.

Micro LED

While OLED has suffered from screen burn-in due to static images, latest generation TVs have largely fixed this issue. OLED TVs provide a high-quality viewing experience for a reasonable cost.

The Outcome

Micro LED is a recent technology which is highly expensive. You can purchase an OLED TV for less than $1000. Modular Micro LED installations by Samsung and LG are currently targeted at businesses and go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Therefore, OLED wins here.

Micro LED vs OLED: Which One is Better?

Micro LED has the potential to become the best display technology in the market. However, due to low availability and high cost, it will take 5–10 years before this technology can become truly commonplace.OLED displays, due to their affordability and quality, are currently the best option in the market.