What just happened? Samsung Display has shown off several products at Display Week 2024, including a prototype monitor featuring technology that some say could eventually replace OLED. The Korean giant revealed the world’s first 18-inch QD-LED display, which the company calls next-generation self-emissive tech.

We’ve seen QD-OLED panels appear in several TVs and monitors in recent times, including the Asus PG32UCDM. While QD-LED, aka NanoLED, is also self-emissive, it applies electricity directly to the quantum dots. “This next-generation self-emissive technology features QD RGB pixels emitting light directly through current drive without the need for OLED,” the company explained.

Samsung says QD-LED offers a wide color gamut and high color accuracy for a superior viewing experience. As it doesn’t have any organic material, QD-LED isn’t susceptible to the kind of long-term damage often seen in OLED panels.

Another advantage of QD-LED is that the stable material properties of the panels make their manufacture possible using Inkjet Printing (IJP), something that TCL has used for its OLED TVs. This increases manufacturing efficiency and lowers costs when producing large quantities. QD-LED panels also use environmentally-friendly cadmium-free quantum dots.

The QD-LED set Samsung had on display doesn’t have the most impressive spec list. It measures 18.2 inches and comes with a 3200 x 1800 (202 PPI) resolution with just 250 nits of brightness. But the set is a prototype, and the largest one Samsung has revealed to date, having previously shown off 12-inch and 14-inch versions.

Shoei Chemical of Japan, the new owner of Nanosys, which creates QD-LED, said it has plans to accelerate the development of the display technology, and it could go into full production by 2025 or 2026 at the earliest. FlatpanelsHD notes that the main challenge facing QD-LED is the lifetime of the blue quantum dot.

Samsung had other products on show during the event, including Ultra-Thin OLED panels, a glasses-free 3D OLED panel, and an OLEDoS display for XR headsets.

It was reported earlier today that TCL subsidiary TCL CSOT had shown off a 4K display with a 1,000Hz refresh rate at Display Week 2024. It was assumed that the first 1,000Hz panel would have a 1080p or 1440p resolution.