- QD-EL / NanoLED TV promises exceptional brightness and color
- It uses self-emitting quantum dots – just like OLED, but better
- Quantum dot maker Nanosys says the technology could be ready by 2029
It is always wise to take technical predictions with a large grain of salt. But when the predictions are about TV technology and come from the company that invented quantum dots, we’re all ears. Nanosys has detailed several advancements coming to TVs in the next few years, and some of them are pretty exciting.
Speaking to Insight Media in the video below, the company explained that the first major development we’ll see is the introduction of brighter QD-OLED TVs this year. It’s thanks (at least in part) to a new version of Quantum Dot Color Converters (QDCC) that allows panels to deliver the higher brightness. We’ve probably already seen the first TV with the upgraded technology in the form of Samsung’s S95H (pictured at the top of this article), which we got our first info on at CES, which promises to be 35% brighter than the Samsung S95F it replaces.
These brighter TVs may just be the beginning. According to Nanosys’s Jeff Yurek, “By 2030 we want to ship what we consider really ‘high flux’. Now we’re talking about not just QD-OLED, but maybe microLED for something like an AR application, which would require hundreds of thousands or maybe a million or more nits”.
So it’s less TV and more ‘a headset so bright it can mimic looking at the sun’, if you’re into that sort of thing.
But Nanosys also mentioned a long-awaited technology waiting in the wings that could potentially overtake OLED as the best technology for high-end TVs: QD-EL, also called NanoLED.
Look at
QD-EL NanoLED TVs will arrive at the end of the decade
We’ve written about QD-EL – also known as QD-LED, EL-QD, EL-QLED and NanoLED – before: Samsung invested heavily in the technology last year with the goal of commercializing it “within a few years.” And according to Nanosys’s Yurek, “We think 2029 is a reasonable target for when we’ll start seeing them in the market.”
The EL in QD-EL stands for electroluminescent, and like OLED, it is a self-emitting technology, meaning that each pixel would generate its own light. This means that there is no need for backlighting, as you have in current QLED TVs – and it promises to be very bright and very energy efficient.
As we reported last year, the QD-EL prototypes shown at trade shows have been relatively small—under 20 inches—and reports suggest that there are still hurdles to overcome in terms of QD-EL’s stability and energy efficiency.
QD-EL is not the only technology on the way that promises to steal the crown from the current OLED technology among the best TVs.
We heard from an insider at CES 2026 that inkjet-printed OLED could start being used in TV-sized panels in 2-3 years, following recent breakthroughs in the technology from TCL.
My colleague Matt Bolton was also told at CES by Sonny Ming, Hisense’s General Manager of Product Marketing and Scenario Product Operation Department, that microLED TVs could finally be ready in regular sizes and more realistic sizes within 5-8 years.
Assuming these aren’t Elon-Musk-flying-roadster-type predictions, it means that by the end of the decade we could have several new kinds of TV technology — on top of the new RGB TV technology arriving in 2026 — delivering unusually bright, energy-efficient, and immersive displays.
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