- Samsung restarts development of self-emissive QNED displays
- This QNED is not the same as LG’s QNED: it is self-emissive, like OLED
- The ‘True QNED’ is not close to mass production yet
As if TV technology wasn’t confusing enough, Samsung Display has reportedly restarted development of QNED TVs, and Samsung’s QNED is not the same QNED we’ve previously seen from LG.
Samsung’s QNED is short for Quantum-dot Nanorod Emitting Diode and, like OLED, is a self-emissive 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 that it’s like a micro-LED version of QD-OLED. QD-OLED works by shining blue light from OLED pixels through a layer of quantum dots, which convert blue into other colors as needed. But while QD-OLED uses organic LEDs (OLEDs), QNED uses inorganic nanorod LEDs that could be cheaper to manufacture, longer lasting, and hopefully more efficient.
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You would still have an individual light for each pixel, as with micro-LED, but unlike micro-LED, you don’t need three subpixels of red, green and blue to create your colors; You just have the blue and let the quantum dots take care of the rest, which could mean it doesn’t have the cost issues that micro-LED is struggling to overcome.
(LG’s QNED technology is basically its version of a QLED TV, using advanced color filtering technology such as LED-backlit quantum dots and LCD display.)
Samsung had previously said that QNED would offer better contrast, brightness and response times than the most advanced current display technologies, but as FlatpanelsHD notes, it paused the project in 2022 to focus on QD-OLED and micro-LED, with which it was having more success.
According to Korean trade press reports, Samsung restarted QNED in late 2025 after making a breakthrough in the way it positions nanorods.
Why has Samsung returned to QNED?
Speaking to ETNews, a source said: “The team that previously worked on QNED has regrouped. Internally, there is a recognition that nanorod LED technology needs to be pursued as a long-term strategy, which prompted the reboot of QNED.”
That means Samsung Display has (at least!) three TV panel technologies in active development: QD-OLED, which is the current flagship and gets better every year; EL-QD (also known as nano-LED, ELQD, QD-LED, EL-QLED and AMQLED); and now QNED.
This adds to the continued development in the industry around micro-LED, which has been in TVs for several years but is struggling to reach a realistic price; constant improvements in mini-LED; and the launch of RGB backlit televisions. Oh, and IJP-OLED is also lurking somewhere on the horizon. It’s an interesting time for television technology…
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