- Samsung restarts development of self-emitting QNED displays
- This QNED is not the same as LG’s QNED – it is self-emissive like OLED
- ‘True QNED’ is not yet close to mass production
As if TV technology wasn’t confusing enough, Samsung Display has reportedly restarted the development of QNED televisions – and Samsung’s QNED isn’t the same QNED we’ve previously seen from LG.
Samsung’s QNED is short for Quantum-dot Nanorod Emitting Diode, and like OLED, it’s a self-emitting technology, meaning each pixel generates its own light rather than using a backlight behind a grid of pixels.
For those familiar with TV technology, the simplest way to think of the version proposed here is as a micro-LED version of QD-OLED. QD-OLED works by making OLED pixels shine blue light through a layer of quantum dots, which convert the blue to other colors as needed. But where QD-OLED uses organic LEDs (OLED), QNED uses inorganic nanorod LEDs that could be cheaper to manufacture, longer lasting and hopefully more efficient.
The article continues below
You’ll still have an individual light for each pixel as you do with micro-LED, but unlike micro-LED you don’t need three sub-pixels of red, green and blue to create your colors – you just have the blue and you let the quantum dots do the rest, which can mean it doesn’t have the costs that micro-LED struggles to beat.
(LG’s QNED technology is basically its version of a QLED TV – using advanced color filtering technology such as LED-backlit quantum dots and an LCD screen.)
Samsung had previously said QNED would deliver better contrast, brightness and response times than the most advanced current display technologies, but as FlatpanelsHD notes, it put the project on hold in 2022 to concentrate on QD-OLED and micro-LED, with which it had more success.
According to reports in the Korean trade press, Samsung restarted QNED in late 2025 after having a breakthrough in the way it places nanorods.
Why has Samsung returned to QNED?
Speaking to ETNews, an insider said: “The team that previously worked on QNED has regrouped. Internally, there is a realization that nanorod LED technology should be pursued as a long-term strategy, prompting the restart of QNED.”
This means that Samsung Display has (at least!) three TV panel technologies in active development: QD-OLED, which is the current flagship and improves every year; EL-QD (aka nano-LED, ELQD, QD-LED, EL-QLED and AMQLED); and now QNED.
It comes on top of the continued development in the industry around micro-LED, which has been in TV for several years, but is struggling to achieve a realistic price; constant improvements in mini-LED; and the launch of RGB backlit TVs. Oh, and IJP-OLED is also lurking somewhere over the horizon. It’s an interesting time for TV technology…
Are you considering buying a new TV?
Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we’ll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from picture quality experts, and we’ll recommend our top three TVs in that size at different prices.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
