Chinese companies have moved from “breaking the ceiling of large screen displays” to “exploring new boundaries of display technology”.
Author: Su Yi
Editor: Zi Qi
OLED screens have become the choice for more and more smartphone companies, but not so much in the large screen field like televisions.
The 2022 TCL QD-Mini LED Spring New Product Launch held on March 9 became the “highlight” of the television and display industry this year: TCL launched three new QD-Mini LED televisions at once, breaking the “ceiling” of Chinese television picture quality and clarifying the long-standing competition between OLED and Mini LED in large screen television displays—driven by companies like Apple, TCL, Samsung, Huawei, Sony, and Xiaomi, Mini LED is becoming the clear direction for high-quality large screen displays.
It is also worth noting that in the context of increased uncertainty in global economy, trade, and geopolitical cooperation, and core technologies becoming “weapons” for international sanctions, the importance of Chinese companies possessing independent core technologies and standard-setting rights has become even more pronounced. The TCL QD-Mini LED Spring New Product Launch undoubtedly showcased China’s leading capabilities in semiconductor display technology and intelligent manufacturing.
OLED display technology has been packaged by many television companies as the “picture quality ceiling”, but it is not the perfect solution for large screen televisions.
First, it cannot achieve brightness and has poor gray scale transition.
OLED screens have self-luminous characteristics, and while the dark parts of images are “blacker” compared to LED screens, even approaching 0nit, this leads to many television brands claiming “ultra-high contrast” at launch events. However, “good picture quality” is not determined solely by “black”; “black without brightness” does not directly enhance overall picture quality and contrast, and can lead to poor gray scale transitions and loss of detail in dark areas, especially in everyday bright environments like living rooms, where high-quality source material requires color layering.
Zhihu users found during tests on OLED televisions that even when the HDR brightness of the OLED television was increased to 1100nit, it was still “beaten” by the actual image comparison effect of LCD televisions. In fact, many natural scenes exceed 1000nit and can even reach 2000nit, so many users can only achieve a higher quality experience in dark conditions by “pulling the curtains, turning off the lights, and using dim lighting” after purchasing OLED large screen televisions.
Second, OLED inherently struggles to solve the “burn-in” problem.
OLED’s organic phosphor materials are physically unstable; the brighter they are, the faster they age. Therefore, many OLED televisions require ABL (automatic brightness limiting) features, which further limits OLED’s brightness and HDR high dynamic range. North American testing agency RTINGS conducted experiments showing that if an OLED television is on for 12 hours a day, it may experience “burn-in” by the 102nd week. This issue has improved but remains unsolved. Samsung previously conducted a live test when releasing QLED televisions, and the results showed that under high brightness and continuous gaming scenarios, an OLED television exhibited burn-in after just 12 hours.
Third, low yield and high costs.
Although some OLED display manufacturers claim that “large screen yield rates have significantly improved”, they are still at the 55-inch stage, and the yield rates for cutting panels larger than 65 inches are not high, resulting in very high prices. A 100-inch OLED screen can only have 3 defective points, but the probability of defects has long been uncontrollable. In other words, OLED is more suitable for small and medium screens, especially mobile phone screens.
These three reasons have made it difficult for OLED televisions to truly promote market popularity over time, and users are “voting with their feet”. According to data from Aowei Cloud Network, the shipment volume of OLED televisions in the Chinese market over the past three years was 192,000, 181,000, and 290,000 units respectively. Compared to the 38.5 million television shipment volume in the Chinese market in 2021, the proportion of OLED is less than 1% (about 0.8%), which is the result of nearly ten years of cultivation in the Chinese market.
Mini LED can be said to combine the advantages of LCD and OLED display technologies, and effectively solves the three major pain points of OLED: Micro-LED achieves pixel-level local dimming by miniaturizing the traditional LED design structure and arraying these tiny chips, enabling high brightness, low energy consumption, high resolution, and high saturation display effects, while also offering significant advantages in lifespan and display non-degradation. In terms of cost and yield, Mini LED backlighting is almost unaffected by panel limitations; whatever size LCD can cut, it can support that size of television, and the technology is more mature and yields are more assured.
More and more top industry enterprises are adopting Mini LED screens in their new products, and without exception, they are all high-end new products in their product lines. For example, Apple’s high-end displays like Pro Display XDR, iPad Pro, Macbook Pro, etc., have all adopted Mini LED screens since 2019. According to foreign media reports, a 27-inch iMac equipped with a Mini LED display is expected to be officially released at the WWDC Global Developer Conference in June this year. In addition, manufacturers like TCL, Samsung, LG, Sony, and Xiaomi have launched large screen Mini-LED television products, while ASUS, Acer, Dell, and Lenovo have released Mini-LED monitor products.
More importantly, Chinese companies have a leading advantage in patents, standards, mass production manufacturing, and innovation in smart terminals in the Mini LED field, which is a first in the history of global semiconductor display technology development. Driven by Chinese display companies represented by TCL Huaxing, significant progress has been made in three important product iterations of Mini LED in the past five years:
The X10 released in early 2019 was TCL’s first generation Mini LED television and the world’s first mass-produced Mini LED television, which achieved a peak brightness of 1500nits with 15,000 light beads and 768 backlight zones, surpassing the brightness and contrast display levels of OLED televisions.
The second generation TCL C12 was released, achieving breakthroughs in display technology by directly injecting semiconductor circuits and micron-level MiniLED into the glass substrate, allowing for more precise local dimming; it also brought Mini LED televisions down to the price range of 10,000 yuan, which is an important psychological price point for Chinese users seeking high-end large screen televisions.
The third generation TCL Mini LED smart screen was launched on August 26, 2021, with the world’s first OD Zero Mini LED smart screen featuring nearly 100,000 micron-level LED light beads and 1920 backlight zones, with a brightness of 3000nits and a contrast ratio of up to 10 million to 1, representing the highest technical state and star product case of Mini LED globally.
At the TCL QD-Mini LED Spring New Product Launch, held about six months later, TCL launched three new products including the TCL X11 Lingyao QD-Mini LED smart screen (available in 65, 75, and 85 inches), the TCL 98X9C Pro giant QD-Mini LED smart screen (98 inches), and the TCL C12E Lingsi QD-Mini LED smart screen (available in 65, 75, and 85 inches), among which the world’s largest QD-Mini LED television was launched. While accelerating the popularization of the third generation QD-Mini LED and meeting the needs of different circles for screen sizes and differentiated products, it has truly broken the picture quality ceiling of large screen televisions from a market perspective.
It can be seen that Mini LED has undergone significant changes in the past three years: 1) The pace of technological advancement has accelerated, with the product launch cycle becoming shorter; 2) Mini LED is being adopted by more and more global top manufacturers; 3) From a market perspective, it has completed three key cycles of technology verification, benchmark case creation, and market popularization; 4) TCL has played a core driving role throughout the process from technology leadership, product innovation to market popularization. TCL announced last year that in the next three years, the penetration rate of Mini LED in large-size sales should exceed 60%. With the continuous release of new products and the advancement of experiences, QD-Mini LED has also become an important “technology label” for TCL, beginning to penetrate the awareness and mindset of the general public.
Another important trend in the global television market over the past three years is that “Chinese intelligence is becoming more attractive“.
Data from Aowei Ruiwo shows that among the top 15 brands in the global television market share ranking in 2021, Chinese brands accounted for 8 seats. TCL has consistently ranked first in global market sales among Chinese brands for many years, and the gap with LG, which ranks second globally, has narrowed to about 1%, establishing itself as a strong contender.
More importantly, Chinese television brands represented by TCL have also made significant breakthroughs in the global high-consumption market and high-end large screen products, which is a true measure of the “comprehensive strength” of television companies in terms of technological accumulation, product innovation, and brand influence.
Taking the newly launched TCL X11 Lingyao QD-Mini LED smart screen as an example, it adopts the third-generation Mini LED technology QD-Mini LED, leading industry competitors by two generations, and the advancement in experience is also very apparent:
Compared to other Mini LED television products on the market, it can achieve “dark field starry sky without halo” high transparency and blackness. Data shows that it has 2304 zone quantum dot local dimming technology, as well as a full 120Hz, 2000nit ultra-high brightness, and a 10 million to 1 super perceptual contrast ratio with full ecosystem HDR. Additionally, TCL, through quantum dot technology and dedicated picture quality engine tuning, can achieve a 157% color gamut value and a 58.3% color purity improvement, resulting in a “1 billion original color screen”. In simple terms, this greatly expands the details and layers displayed by the Mini LED screen, making blacks deeper and highlights more vibrant.
This advantage is also evident when compared to OLED televisions. In TCL’s tests of “outdoor bright light” and “dark area gray scale transition,” the display advantages of the TCL X11 Lingyao QD-Mini LED smart screen with 2000nit ultra-high brightness, 10 million to 1 super perceptual contrast ratio, and DCI-P3 reaching 98% are clear at a glance. In the dark image detail comparison, the same image can show six cups completely, while OLED can only show half, once again confirming industry comments that “black without brightness has no actual significance”.
In addition to high-quality picture quality, the new generation TCL X11 is also equipped with an Onkyo 2.12 Hi-Fi speaker system, featuring a 5-channel 7-unit 60W ultra-high power scheme and two sky sound units, supporting full-domain AI sound field and Dolby Atmos, providing a customized high-quality surround sound experience for family living rooms. In terms of intelligence, it supports NFC one-touch transmission, multi-screen projection, cross-terminal video calls, AI fitness, and has a thinner (as narrow as 2.8mm) integrated body suspended design compared to OLED televisions.
There is a very clear trend of user consumption upgrading and product high-endization in the Chinese television market. GFK data shows that from January to October 2021, the offline sales proportion of televisions priced over 10,000 yuan reached 19.7%, close to 1/5, significantly increasing nearly 5 percentage points compared to 2020. GFK survey data shows that 82% of respondents expressed willingness to purchase higher-end electronic consumer goods to enhance their quality of life and happiness.
Data from Aowei Cloud Network indicates that over the past seven years, while the overall shipment of televisions in China has shown a “flat” state, the screen size has rapidly increased, with the market for large screens over 65 inches growing particularly quickly. Accompanying this rapid growth in size, the number of zones representing display quality, contrast, and stereo quality have become necessities. Third-party market surveys have also confirmed this, with 54% of users choosing screen quality/picture quality as the final factor influencing their purchase, 36% choosing sound quality/speaker effects, and 27% of users indicating they plan to replace products of 70 inches and above, while 41% of users said they would purchase high-end large screen televisions priced over 10,000 yuan next time.
The newly released TCL 98X9C Pro giant QD-Mini LED smart screen is the world’s largest QD-Mini LED smart screen, not only creating a “star benchmark” for global QD-Mini LED ultra-large screen high-quality televisions, but also significantly boosting TCL’s high-end brand momentum and ultra-large screen television market. Data shows that TCL occupies 22.78% of the domestic market share for ultra-large screen televisions of 98 inches and above, ranking first, surpassing all international brands.
According to “Yi Observation”, the three QD-Mini LED television products launched at the 2022 TCL Spring New Product Launch not only created benchmark cases for the global high-end large screen television market through comprehensive innovation in display technology and products, confirming that QD-Mini LED technology can directly compete with OLED in the large screen display field, but also covered different segments and user circles from ultra-large high-end, high-end benchmarks to popularization-driven markets. For instance, the TCL X11 Lingyao QD-Mini LED smart screen has been commented by the industry as a “10,000 yuan miracle machine”.
Equally important, as TCL has consistently ranked as the number one Chinese brand in global sales for many years, it has shown a rapid growth rate in the global market akin to “capturing territories”: publicly available data shows that TCL televisions now maintain the second position in market share in North America, with a year-on-year sales growth of 25.4% in 2020; in Europe, the annual sales volume increased by 66.0% year-on-year; and in emerging markets, the annual sales volume increased by 19.4% year-on-year.
With TCL’s current breakthroughs in leading technology and high-end products in the QD-Mini LED television field, it can be expected that TCL will continue to show a stronger acceleration in growth in the global television market, especially in the mature high-consumption markets of Europe and America, completing “super two (LG) versus one (Samsung)” and further breaking the traditional advantages of Korean and Japanese brands in the high-end television field in the European and American markets.
Only in this way can more global users experience and love high-end products of “Chinese Intelligence”, breaking away from the past international market perception that “Chinese manufacturing = cheap”. Chinese brands have the opportunity to truly ascend to global first-tier brands, rather than merely being in the stage of “competing for market share” and “low profits”.
Chinese semiconductor chip technology has long been constrained. Almost all PCs, most smartphones, and tablets’ core processors come from international manufacturers. Huawei has experienced significant shrinkage in its 5G smartphone business due to sanctions, and the recent high-tech sanctions and “complete supply cuts” faced by neighboring countries have all confirmed the importance of having “independent and controllable” core technology and manufacturing capabilities.
In the field of semiconductor displays, Chinese companies now possess the world’s largest liquid crystal screen manufacturing capacity, even exceeding half of the global share. However, the semiconductor industry has never been about “quantity over quality”; in fact, during the three major technological upgrades in the global display industry, no country or enterprise has successfully defended their position. The “giant falling while still warm” curse also exists in the semiconductor display industry. Looking at the market fluctuations of former display giants like RCA in the US and Sharp in Japan, this has always been the case. Before 2007, when the era of LCD televisions arrived, the eight major color tube enterprises established over 30 years in mainland China ceased production and went bankrupt, which remains vivid in memory today.
Faced with a new round of global semiconductor display technology transformation and upgrading, Chinese enterprises must be vigilant and avoid the painful lessons of the past. Currently, China imports over $20 billion worth of panels each year; if OLED dominates the market, the core technology and industry standard-setting rights for the next decade will still be in the hands of Korean companies, and the history of high-end flagship smartphones yielding over half of their revenue (chip + OLED screen) will repeat itself in other smart terminal industries, leading to the entire Chinese consumer electronics industry being constrained. This limitation will become even more pronounced in the future decade of “screens everywhere” in the era of integrated everything.
There is a misconception in the industry and media: the exit of Korean giants from LCD capacity leads to the assumption that this technology will become obsolete. In fact, this competition is not just about the technical dimensions between Chinese and Korean companies; it also involves a comprehensive consideration of regional supply chains, manufacturing capabilities, and costs. Chinese companies have spent over a decade and invested billions to cultivate a large number of technical personnel to achieve their current status, and they cannot afford to lose their advantages and choose to follow Korean companies step by step. The best choice is to select the most suitable technological path and industrial development model based on existing technological and market advantages. TrendForce’s report predicts that by 2025, Mini LED will reach 35.5 million units, becoming a major competitor to OLED.
Chinese companies are now standing on a similar starting line with global major players in the leading semiconductor display field, and only by achieving “comprehensive leadership” in technology, experience, product innovation, and market share, while attracting more companies to participate in perfecting the industrial chain and mature ecosystem, can they succeed. This is TCL’s current choice and an important beginning for Chinese companies to move from “breaking the display ceiling” to “exploring new boundaries of display technology”.
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Founder of “Yi Observation” Su Yi
Former Chief Editor of Sohu Technology Communications
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