QDEL Was Hiding in Plain Sight at CES 2025

At CES, QDEL was the buzzword on everyone’s mind. Short for Quantum Dot Electroluminescent, this display tech uses quantum dots to create light directly, offering OLED-like performance without drawbacks like burn-in or limited lifespan. Despite initial concerns about seeing progress, a prototype emerged, tucked away at TCL CSOT’s booth—a promising sign of development. QDEL offers potential for vibrant, cost-effective displays with better longevity and heat resistance, potentially revolutionizing TV tech. While OLED advances like brighter panels are impressive, QDEL’s affordability and scalability could disrupt LCD’s dominance. Stay tuned as more updates, perhaps at Display Week, might reveal its full potential.

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VIDEO CHAPTERS
0:00 intro
1:04 What is QDEL?
2:31 Behind-the-Scenes at CES 2024
2:58 Discovery of QDEL at CES 2025
6:00 Why QDEL is Still Needed

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[Clark-Mills]

In a battery powered device (like a laptop), the potential power saving are highly desirable. By only generating the desired colour and wasting potentially none, this could be the ideal mobile display. Black screen? No/low power. No halo. Excellent response time. High light output. Now if I were Apple...

[star_man]

QDEL is my holy grail, it’s amazing how far they’ve come in just a year.

[The_ne]

I understand that the QDEL footage was shot quickly without the normal level of production value but damn, did it have to be THAT low resolution? You can literally see him recording on an at least somewhat modern iPhone. Did he set it to 480p?

[LeezahB]

Very interesting! Glad to hear an update on QDEL!

[cashwood]

I swear this is the exact model that TCL showed at displayweek last year

[Youbll]

Maybe one day we might be able to buy a perfect tv 10000nits perfect black’s no burn in, bright colours and quality sound all at a decent price in multiple screen sizes 🙏

[denverag]

The fact that OLED manufacture is just as complex now, as it was in the early 1990s means that the display tech is probably at its price floor
I want QDEL because in theory its price floor is similar to QD-LCD which you can generally pick up for 1/3rd or even less the price of a similar QD-OLED/OLED

[puerulus]

They should bring back surface-conduction electron-emitter displays (SEDs) as well. I can't believe it's been almost 20 years since the prototypes were shown at CES.

[nickevans]

Vincent at HDTV Test has confirmed that the LG G5 is definitely a 4 STACK TANDEM PANEL STRUCTURE OLED PANEL

[nimbulan]

I've really been looking forward to QDEL since I first read about the tech on a display tech roadmap many years ago. I was going to try to skip OLED entirely (for a PC display) but ended up picking one up last year. Here's hoping my next monitor can be QDEL.

[Wobble]

If QDEL is the first modern display to get rid of sample & holds limitations, and uses native rolling-scan or even frame-stacking (sub-field-drive), and is able give us back the 1:1 dynamic:static resolutions we have with CRT displays, this would also mean 60Hz would be enough for a smooth and low-latency gaming experience, and 120Hz QDEL should be amazing and silky smooth, it would also be great if it offers much higher subpixel-resolutions, finer dot-pitch et cetera, as well as 14-Bit colour.

[geoemm]

It's kind of disappointing that we don't have any specs. Like brightness, dpi possibility, efficiency, color reproduction. I hope we have this soon

[Asheen_Singh]

I haven't dipped a toe into OLED displays mainly because of the potential burn in and price, I had a plasma TV several years ago that seemed to be in a similar vein relative to LCDs in terms of burn in.

I have been interested in that recently announced LG 45GX990A, but again burn in, and a presumably high price makes me hope that there will be a direct QDEL rival (preferably with an 1800R curve) that comes along at some point.

[Avruthlelbh]

To go from a dim box to a full laptop screen (that at a glance looks like an acceptable OLED) in a SINGLE year means we got like 2 more before we can see these hitting the market somewhere, in my eyes.

[ngelemental]

This guys channel but be the most advertiser friendly thing in existence cuz the last video I just watched from him I got 5 ads in 12 mins

[MisterRhul]

Is QDEL subpixels true RGB, like inkjet printed oleds?

[tennissir]

It’s been my impression over the past 15 years that panel technologies not developed by the major consumer manufacturers (Sony, LG, Samsung, etc) are rarely sucessful. Usually due to the designers having to charge too much in fees for the big consumer companies to sell at a profit.

[turbojobo]

so whats the difference between qdel and microled?

[DaveBjornRapp]

I love the idea of QDEL. I'll be keeping an eye out for that tech. If I find anything I'll put a link in a comment.

[simonhartley]

Interested to hear how they expect qdel refresh rates to progress.