direct lit va lcd panel brands

Modern LCD TVs rely on LED backlighting to produce the visuals you see on the screen. But their picture quality and price can differ based on their backlighting system. So, what are these backlighting systems, and how are they different?

LCD TVs can be grouped into three categories based on the type of LED backlighting system: Direct-lit, edge-lit, and full-array. As the name suggests, direct-lit TVs feature a panel of LEDs placed directly behind the display stack. Full-array TVs have a similar LED placement, but the number of LEDs is significantly more, and these LEDs are divided into different zones. But unlike both direct-lit and full-array TVs, edge-lit TVs have LEDs on the perimeter, and depending on the TV, these LEDs may or may not be grouped into multiple zones.

The LED backlight zones in full array and edge-lit TVs are significant as they enable the manufacturers to implement a feature called local dimming. It allows TVs to control the backlight on a scene-by-scene basis. So the TV can turn off LED backlighting in parts of the screen where it’s supposed to be darker while keeping other parts lit. As a result, LCD TVs with local dimming can produce deep, uniform blacks and have a better contrast ratio than the LCD TVs that don’t have this feature.

Direct lighting is the newest of the three types backlighting in LCD TVs. The first commercial direct-lit LCD TVs emerged around 2012 and are essentially an off-shoot of the full-array TVs.

As direct-lit TVs require fewer LEDs and no backlight control, they are cheaper to produce and thus typically limited to the entry-level and mid-range segments of a TV manufacturer’s portfolio.

But, the lower number of LEDs also means they have to be placed farther away from the screen to offer sufficient light coverage across the panel. As a result, direct-lit TVs are usually thicker than TVs with other backlighting systems.

Additionally, the lack of backlight control limits the contrast ratio of direct-lit LCD TVs to the native contrast ratio of the panel. So if a direct-lit TV uses a VA-type LCD panel, it will have a reasonable contrast ratio, but TVs with IPS-type panels have a poor contrast ratio.

Sony X85J is a direct-lit 4K LCD TV. It uses a VA-type panel and comes with features like HDMI 2.1 ports, VRR support, and Android TV operating system.

Edge LED backlighting first appeared in TVs in 2008, allowing for a thinner profile than LCD TVs with other backlighting solutions. But as the LEDs are placed on the rim of the screen, edge-lit TVs require a diffuser to light up the entire display adequately. This adds to their cost, making them slightly more expensive than direct-lit TVs. But given that backlighting is just one part of an LCD TV’s cost, you will find both cheap and costly edge-lit TVs on the market.

Some edge-lit TVs also come with local dimming support. But the number of backlight zones is typically far lower than in full-array TVs, and the individual LEDs are responsible for lighting up entire columns of the screen. So edge-lit local dimming is much less precise, and the benefit in terms of contrast ratio is minimal.

Full-array TVs have the best backlight implementation among LCD TVs. Not only do these TVs have a large number of LEDs, but the LEDs are also divided into multiple zones for dynamic backlight control. So, depending on the number of backlight zones and local dimming implementation, full-array TVs can have modest to excellent improvement over the native contrast ratio of the LCD panel.

Unfortunately, LCD TVs with full-array local dimming can also suffer from various screen artifacts, such as blooming and black crush, depending on the number of backlight zones and the overall local dimming implementation.

The Samsung QN90A is one of the best LCD TVs on the market and it uses full-array local dimming. The TV has 4K resolution, HDMI 2.1 port, and a 120Hz VA-type panel.

If you are shopping for a new TV and curious about its backlighting system, you can consult the TV’s specifications. Manufacturers generally mention whether an LCD TV is direct lit, edge lit, or full array. In the case of full-array TVs, the number of local dimming or backlight control zones is also listed in the TV’s specifications. This number is usually different for different sizes of a particular TV and can impact the amount of contrast ratio gain you can expect.

OLED TVs are self-emissive and don’t need a backlight, unlike LCD TVs. Instead, each pixel of an OLED panel can generate its own light and be switched off to display the perfect black color. So, OLED TVs essentially offer pixel-level local dimming. As a result, they have a near-infinite contrast ratio and are generally considered to have the best picture quality. But they are also typically more expensive than LCD TVs and can suffer from burn-in.

All-in-all, the backlight system of an LCD TV can impact its picture performance. And if you are shopping for a new TV, full-array TVs generally have the best picture quality. But if you are restricted by your budget, direct and edge-lit TVs can also deliver good visual performance. But make sure to read expert reviews to get a better idea about the overall quality of a particular television.

LCD panels are backlit by LED lights, so they rely on a backlight behind the panel to make the picture visible, and the LCD layer can"t prevent all light from escaping out of the screen. This means that even in a black scene, the backlight is still on, and some light escapes, causing blacks to appear gray.

Contrast/Brightness: These settings aim to improve the contrast ratio by tinkering with the white and black levels. It doesn"t have a direct effect on the local dimming but can improve the picture quality. The contrast setting increases the luminosity of the brightest whites, while brightness (sometimes called black level), makes blacks darker. Keep in mind the brightness setting on some TVs controls the backlight, which doesn"t affect picture quality.

Frame dimming: Frame dimming, or CE dimming on Samsung TVs, is a basic version of local dimming, but it dims the entire backlight instead of zones. Usually found on edge-lit TVs, it causes small highlights to become dim as well. It may improve the contrast a bit, but it"s not very useful for most scenes.

Local dimming features on LED TVs are a way to improve the contrast ratio. Since these TVs consist of LED backlights behind an LCD panel, local dimming aims to turn off, or dim, certain zones of the LED backlight, making blacks look darker and highlights brighter. However, there may be some issues with local dimming on some TVs as it could cause blooming around bright objects or for entire zones to light up when there"s a small object. Overall, most local dimming features on modern TV do an effective job at improving the picture quality in dark scenes, and only some lower-end models will have glaring problems.

Many TVs use LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panels that are lit by LED backlights. There are two popular types of LCD panels: In-Plane Switching (IPS) and Vertical Alignment (VA), and there are two main differences between each type. A VA panel usually has a high contrast ratio and narrow viewing angles. However, an IPS panel has low contrast and wide viewing angles. These are the main differences between each, and for the most part, panel type doesn"t affect other aspects of picture quality, like peak brightness, color gamut, or color accuracy.

For the purposes of this article, we"re going to compare two LED-backlit LCD TVs: the Sony X800H, which has an IPS panel, and the Hisense H9G, which has a VA panel. Due to their different panel types, there are three noticeable differences in picture quality: viewing angles, contrast, and black uniformity, so we"re going to look at each one.

Viewing angle refers to the angle at which you can watch the TV without seeing a noticeable drop in picture quality. IPS TVs are the clear winner here, as the image remains accurate when viewing from the side - you can see the differences in the videos above. This is their main advantage over VA panels. Most VA panel TVs have a noticeable loss in image accuracy when viewing from the side. The narrow viewing angle of VA-type TVs is also problematic when the TV is used as a PC monitor from up close since the edges of the display look washed out.

Contrast ratio is one of the most important factors when it comes to picture quality. It determines how well a TV displays blacks, so one with a good contrast displays deep blacks when viewed in the dark. However, if your TV has a low contrast ratio, you"ll notice that blacks look gray when viewed in the dark.

VA panels are far superior to IPS panels when it comes to this, so if you tend to watch movies in the dark, you likely want to get a TV with a VA panel. Most TVs use VA panels due to this main advantage, and high-end models may have a local dimming feature that further enhances black levels. On the other hand, IPS panels normally have low contrast, so blacks look closer to gray, but you may not notice the difference in contrast in bright environments.

Our black uniformity tests determine how well a TV displays a dark scene with a bright image in the center. Ideally, you want to see a completely black screen with the center cross being the only part that"s lit up, and this is important for people watching movies. No LED TV has perfect uniformity, and unlike viewing angles and contrast, the panel type doesn"t completely determine its black uniformity. However, most VA panels that we"ve tested have good black uniformity, while most IPS panels have sub-par black uniformity. This doesn"t mean that every VA panel TV has good uniformity, as this can change between units, and you can also improve uniformity using the local dimming feature.

LCDs function by having liquid crystals in little groups to form the pixels. These crystals react and change position when charged with electricity and, depending on their position, they allow a certain color of light to pass through.

IPS displays have their crystals aligned horizontally at all times. When charged, they turn to allow light through. VA displays have their crystals aligned vertically. When charged, they move to a horizontal position, allowing light through. When current isn"t sent through them, however, their vertical alignment blocks light far more efficiently, creating better blacks and giving better contrast.

There"s also another type of IPS panel, called Plane-to-Line Switching (PLS), which can be seen with the Sony X800H. This panel type was designed by Samsung and technically performs the same as an IPS panel. When you compare the pixels visually, IPS panels look like chevrons, VA looks like very straight rectangles, and PLS looks like round-edged capsules. You can learn more about pixels here.

The way the pixels are laid out can also affect text clarity. Many IPS panels, like the ones on the Sony X800H or the LG SK9000, use RGB sub-pixel layouts, while many VA panels have a BGR layout, like on the Hisense H9G. The sub-pixel layout doesn"t directly affect picture quality unless you"re using it as a PC monitor. Some applications may expect an RGB layout, so if you have a BGR sub-pixel layout, text may not look clear. You may need to increase the text scaling to read it properly, but this issue isn"t common with an RGB layout. You can learn more about it here.

TV manufacturers have come up with ways to improve LED TVs to increase picture quality. There are competing technologies, like OLED, which also present their own unique characteristics.

Unlike LED TVs, OLEDs don"t use a backlight and instead have self-emitting pixels. This allows the pixels to individually turn on and off, resulting in perfect blacks. This means that they also have perfect black uniformity as there"s no blooming around bright objects like on some LED TVs. They also have wide viewing angles, sometimes even wider than some IPS panels, so OLEDs are a good choice for wide seating arrangements.

However, the one major downside to OLEDs compared to LEDs is their risk of permanent burn-in. This could be problematic if you constantly watch content with static elements, like the news, or if you use it as a PC monitor. We don"t expect it to be an issue for people who watch varied content, but if you"re truly worried about it, LED TVs appear to be immune to burn-in.

Samsung released quantum dot TVs in 2015, which they later labeled as QLED in 2017. These TVs include a quantum dot layer between the LED backlights and the LCD panel to achieve a wider color gamut. Other companies like Vizio and TCL also use this quantum dot technology on their TVs. Adding this extra quantum dot layer doesn"t change the characteristics of the panel type; the VA panel on the TCL 6 Series/S635 2020 QLED still has a high contrast ratio and narrow viewing angles. Although most QLED TVs use VA panels, you can easily use an IPS panel as well.

Manufacturers have tried different techniques to improve the viewing angles on VA panels over the years, aiming to produce a perfect LCD panel with both wide viewing angles and high contrast. While they have yet to achieve that goal, a few TVs have hit the market that try to combine the best of both panel types. The first TVs with this viewing angle technology came out in 2018, and only a few high-end models like the Samsung Q90/Q90T QLED and the Sony X950H had this technology in 2020. These TVs are a bit unique, delivering noticeably better viewing angles than their pure VA counterparts, but still worse than true IPS panels. This comes at the expense of a lower contrast ratio, as these TVs have worse native contrast than most VA panels, but they"re still better than IPS panels. Combined with their local dimming features, they still produce deep blacks.

Between IPS and VA panels, neither technology is inherently superior to the other as they both serve different purposes. In general, IPS TVs have wide viewing angles suitable for when you want to watch the big game or your favorite show in a large seating arrangement. They"re also beneficial for use as a PC monitor since the edges remain accurate if you sit up close. However, VA panels are a better choice for watching content in dark rooms, as their improved contrast allows them to display deep blacks. Choosing between the two is a series of trade-offs and qualities, so choosing the best TV for your needs depends on your usage.

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LED-backlit LCD, which uses light-emitting diodes for backlighting is a common type of display on televisions and laptops. Unlike pure LED screens these LCDs are not self-illuminating and are reliant on the backlighting for illuminating the display. It is an advancement on the preceding cold cathode fluorescent technology and some manufacturers and retailers may advertise this type of screen as an LED TV.

In this article, we are going to look at the importance of the arrangement of this lighting, rather than the type, as this is crucial for how light is directed into color filters and other critical layers. The three arrangements available are:

Edge-lit is a type of screen backlighting that has LED lights lining either the top and bottom edges of the screen or the perimeter of the screen. This form of backlighting differs from others as the screen is not lit from behind, and often produces a more muted effect. An opaque piece of plastic called a diffuser light guide distributes the lighting across the rear of an LCD panel.

Edge-lit LEDs can be individually brightened or dimmed to provide the high degree of backlight control that screened content demands. Edge-lit screens can achieve this in one of two ways:

Direct-lit backlighting uses LED lighting across a television back panel. This form of backlighting initially used Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFLs) before transitioning to LED. The lighting is behind the LCD panel to provide consistent lighting across the entire screen.

The use of LEDs creates an extremely bright picture. This can lead to black and naturally dark tones appearing too bright, a phenomenon known as ‘elevated black levels’. This appearance can really affect wide-screed films, especially as there is no way to alter the backlight of specific portions of the screen. This has led to the development of alternative backlighting arrangements that minimize the greying of black sections of the screen.

Both types of backlighting provide the illumination LED screens required to produce a visible image. The main difference is that direct-lit backlights sit behind the LCD panel to provide the necessary lighting whereas edge-lit screens have LEDs sitting at the perimeter of the screen. Here are some other notable differences:

The first generation of LED backlighting was edge-lit. However, this early form of edge-lit technology caused the development of hotspots on the screen and the overall lighting was inadequate. As LED design became more efficient and effective, Samsung revisited this type of backlighting with a market-leading edge-lit LED television in 2009.

Direct-lit panels use a simple array of LEDs to provide uniform lighting across an entire LCD panel. The adoption of direct-lit screen technology in the 2000s was driven by the availability of white LEDs that could replace existing CCFL technology.

Direct-lit performs across a range of viewing angles and colors, but it is limited by not being able to increase contrast, as the entire backlight has to be dimmed to change color intensity. This affects the ability of a screen to achieve a deep black tone. Full array lighting and flexible backlight technologies have superseded direct-lit lighting. They are more advanced and can achieve more nuanced imaging effects.

Edge Lit screens can achieve full, deep blacks as they can use local dimming technology to reduce lighting in areas of the screen that display black or dark colors.

Screens are more than just the flat color panel that we see in the end. There are a few different pieces stacked behind that image. Besides OLED panels, LCD and LED panels have backlights, a polarizer, TFT glass, liquid crystal, a color filter, and a polarized layer.

While each type of backlighting uses a different light source, they have to be arranged in a particular way to properly direct the light into the color filter and through the other layers. The main three arrangements are called Edge-Lit, Direct-lit, and Full Array.

Direct-lit backlighting is when LED lighting is used across the back panel of the TV. It is placed directly behind the LCD panel and provides a uniform light across the screen. It provides a much brighter picture due to heavy LED use. Unfortunately, all that extra light can make darker shades too bright. In some cases, black sections of the screen can appear to be grey. This is a phenomenon known as “elevated black levels”.

Wide-screen formatted films with letterboxing can make the elevated black levels incredibly apparent. As the entire backlight panel is controlled by a single command, there is no way to eliminate the grey tones created in what’s supposed to be black space. As direct-lit arrangements were created as the first step from CCFL to LED backlights, it was a problem that just came with the territory. Which inspired the creation of full array of LED arrangements.

In order to combat the elevated black levels of direct-lit panels, LED backlighting using a full array with local dimming (FALD) was created. It breaks up the LED backlight panel into several zones. Each section or zone is responsible for only a portion of the screen’s backlighting. This allows for areas to have local dimming or brightening.

The idea behind providing local dimming was to further increase the contrast and provide deeper shadows, brighter highlights, and more vivid color. The shadows and dark sections of movies stop being grey blocks and match the rest of the image better. FALD TVs are the best arrangement for LCD/LED TVs compared to edge-lit and direct-lit. It provides the benefits of a full light source and evens out the darker areas of the screen to prevent elevated black levels.

Full Array and Direct-Lit backlights are placed behind the LCD panel to provide the television lighting. As Full Array is an improved and refined version of Direct Lit, it provides a better image with more vivid colors and higher contrast.

Direct-Lit panels use a simple array of LED lighting that provides a uniform light across the LCD panel in the television. This is great for color and viewing angles, but it has no ability to increase color contrasts aside from dimming the entire backlight.

Full Array backlights are made with sections of LED lights across the entire panel that is controlled dynamically to provide high brightness contrast and even more vivid colors. It completely removes the elevated black levels that plague direct-lit televisions.

During the switch from CCFL to LED backlighting, direct-lit arrangements were created as the first step. A simple set up of LED lights all controlled as one to provide consistently bright light to the LCD panel. At first, the transition was such an improvement that most were happy with the new backlighting. It didn’t take long for enthusiasts and home theatre hobbyists to spot that black tones were hard to achieve. The elevated black levels were just too grey.

That’s when the idea to section the LEDs into separately controllable sections came into being. It allowed for portions of the screen to be locally dimmed which changed the heavily lit greys back into the darker black shades they were intended to be. The new arrangement was called a full array with local dimming. Today, full arrays are still among the most expensive televisions aside from QLED/OLEDs.

Direct-lit is still used to create a cheaper option, but manufacturers also make use of an arrangement known as edge-lit to achieve the same cost as a direct-lit panel without suffering elevated black levels. Unfortunately, Edge-Lit backlighting suffers from a lack of color vividness compared to full array and direct-lit panels.

As if buying a new TV wasn’t already complicated enough, we’re about to introduce you to yet another thing to think about. A thing, moreover, that TV brands (accidentally or otherwise) don’t tend to talk about, despite experience showing time and time again that it can have a profound impact on picture quality.

Contrary to what you may think, not all LCD TVs are built around the same core panel technology. They can actually have at their hearts one of two really quite different technologies: VA or IPS.

Each, as we’ll see, has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages – so much so that we personally think the type of panel a particular TV uses should be presented right at the top of its specifications list, rather than typically left off altogether. Especially as some brands have been known to actually mix and match VA and IPS panels at different screen sizes within the same TV series.

The VA initialism stands for Vertical Alignment. This name is derived from the way VA panels apply voltage to vertically aligned liquid crystals that have been mounted perpendicularly to the panel’s glass substrate, making them tilt as required to let the necessary amount of light through for each image frame.

The main advantage of VA panels is contrast. Their perpendicular crystal alignment provides greater control over the light passing through each pixel, meaning dark scenes and dark areas look less grey / enjoy better black levels.

The extent to which this strength is exploited can vary greatly between different manufacturers, and depends on any number of secondary factors. The type and position of LED lighting a particular VA screen might be using can have an impact, for instance. There are multiple variations on the VA theme available from different manufacturers, too. As a basic principle, though, black levels and contrast are consistently and often considerably better on LCD TVs that use VA panels.

Because of their ability to control light better, high-end VA panels generally deliver more brightness in real world conditions than IPS ones do. This further enhances their contrast capabilities, and arguably makes them more consistently able to do fuller justice to the wider light range associated with high dynamic range technology.

Being able to deliver dark scenes with relatively little overlying low-contrast greyness additionally means that VA panels tend to achieve more consistent colour vibrancy and toning.

VA panels for use in LCD TVs come from a number of panel manufacturers, including Samsung Display (which makes a so-called SVA variant) and AU Optronics (which makes an AMVA variant). TV brands are able to buy in panels from these and other VA panel manufacturers as they see fit.

Samsung Electronics is the most consistent user of VA panels in its LCD TVs. In fact, until recently pretty much every Samsung TV at every price level used a VA panel. For the past couple of years, though, IPS panels have unexpectedly cropped up in one or two parts of Samsung’s TV range, including 2021’s high-end QN85 series.

Sony predominantly uses VA panels on its most premium TVs, but it also habitually mixes IPS and VA panels across its wider mid-range and entry level LCD ranges. The same goes for most of the other big brands, too, including Panasonic and Philips.

IPS stands for In-Plane Switching. Like VA panels, IPS panels work by manipulating voltage to adjust how liquid crystals are aligned. Unlike VA, though, IPS panels orient their crystals in parallel with (rather than perpendicular too) the glass substrates present in every LCD panel, and rotate their crystals around to let the desired amount of light through rather than tilting them.

By far the biggest and most talked about advantage of IPS technology is its support for wider viewing angles. In fact, one way of identifying IPS panels has traditionally been to look for quoted viewing angles of 178 degrees.

When we talk about wide viewing angle support in relation to LCD TVs, we’re talking about how much of an angle from directly opposite the screen you can go before the picture starts to lose contrast, colour saturation and, sometimes, brightness.

With VA panels the angle you can watch them before the picture starts to deteriorate sharply can be really quite limited – as little as 20 degrees off axis. While we’d say the 178-degree claims for regular IPS panels are rather exaggerated, you can typically sit at a significantly wider angle than you can with VA and still enjoy a watchable picture.

We’ve even seen occasional evidence of the edges of really big (75-inch plus) VA screens suffering from the technology’s viewing angle limitations when viewed straight on, whereas this never happens with IPS technology.

The VA/IPS viewing angle situation is muddied a little by the introduction into a few high-end VA TVs of wide angle technologies based around filters or sub pixel manipulation. These technologies can be associated with other problems, though, such as reduced resolution, and can still struggle to suppress backlight blooming around stand-out bright objects with LCD TVs that use local dimming backlight systems.

Traditionally IPS panels have been associated with – on high-end screens, at least – wider colour gamuts than VA panels can readily manage. They retain this colour gamut better, too, when viewing the screen from an angle. This is why many professional designers, for instance, have tended to prefer IPS technology to VA. There can be some pretty extreme variance in the range of colour supported across different IPS price points, though, and improvements in premium VA solutions – especially the widespread use of Quantum Dot technologies – have largely evened things up, at least at the premium end of the VA market. In fact, with dark scenes, at least, IPS’s issues with black levels and ‘grey wash’ effect can give good VA panels a colour advantage.

There was a time when IPS technology was considered to have an edge over VA when it comes to response time, leading to less motion blur and improved gaming reaction times. These days, though, we’re seeing pretty much identically low input lag measurements (between 9.4 and 10.4ms) from both VA and IPS TVs.

As with VA, there are different variations on the basic IPS theme made by different panel manufacturers. LG Display is by far the biggest manufacturer of IPS LCD panels for TVs, but AU Optronics also makes them, as well as, more surprisingly, Samsung – though some of the non-LG Display IPS products seem to be more focused on PC monitors than TVs.

Given how dominant LG Display is in manufacturing IPS LCD panels, it’s not surprising to find that pretty much every LCD TV LG Electronics makes features an IPS panel at its heart. Other TV brands that use IPS panels on at least a few of their TVs each year include Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Hisense. In fact, the only big brand that has tended to shun IPS is Samsung (perhaps because of arch rival LG Display’s dominance of the IPS market).

As noted earlier, it can be frustratingly difficult to determine whether a TV is using VA or IPS technology. Sometimes it is mentioned in the specifications list on a manufacturer’s website – but more often it is not.

If you’re able to actually get your hands on an LCD TV, try knocking gently on its screen. If it’s an IPS panel it will feel solid and the picture will only be slightly affected – or completely unaffected – by the impact of your knocks. If it’s a VA panel, the picture will distort quite noticeably around points of impact.

It’s tempting to assume that any TVs with obviously low contrast are IPS while any screen with a narrow viewing angle is VA. As well as depending on having a wide experience of lots of panels, though, there’s just too much variation in the high and low-end fringes of each technology for this approach to be reliable.

Arguably your best bet is to check out a TV model you’re interested in on an industry website called Displayspecifications.com(opens in new tab), which includes usually reliable information on the core panel of pretty much every TV released.

You might want to consider IPS TV if your room layout means one or more viewers regularly find themselves having to watch the screen from a wide angle (though don’t forget that a small number of high-end VA TVs feature wide viewing angle technology). IPS’s black level limitations tend to be less obvious in bright rooms too, if that fits with the sort of environment your TV is likely to be used in for the majority of the time.

Our long experience of testing VA and IPS TVs, though, has led us to conclude that in general, the sort of person most likely to be turning to us for buying advice will be happier with an LCD TV based on VA technology.

VA’s ability to deliver typically much deeper, more convincing black levels and more HDR-friendly contrast helps them deliver a much more consistent and immersive modern AV experience. Especially if you’re the sort of person who likes to dim the lights for serious movie or TV viewing nights.

LCD LED is the screen technology most will be familiar with (or already own). These screens use a backlight to illuminate their pixels, of which there’s usually a choice between full-array and edge-lit backlighting.

DLED stands for Direct Light Emitting Diode. It’s where Full-Array backlighting is derived from but is less advanced, with fewer LEDs behind the screen. It’s likely a display termed as DLED won’t have local dimming i.e. control over how bright or dark an area of an image can be. As such, the LEDs are always ‘on’ and while colours can be bright and punchy, DLED screens without local dimming are less effective at reproducing blacks, producing a washed out appearance in dark scenes with bright elements.

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode. It’s a self-emissive screen technology and that means every pixel has the ability to produce its own light when electricity is applied. The more electricity applied, the brighter they glow, with different materials used to deliver different colours.

Every single pixel works independently of its nearest neighbours, offering dimming abilities at a pixel level. You can have a pixel that’s ‘on’ next to one that’s ‘off’ (literally black), and that creates some of the best contrast ratios and black levels of any TV.

By reducing the size of the LED form, it means more can be squeezed in, allowing for up to thousands of LEDs to be deployed depending on the screen size. Much like Spider-Man’s ‘with great power comes great responsibility’, with more LEDs comes more dimming zones, leading to greater control over how bright and dark an image can be.

Unlike an LCD LED or Quantum Dot TV, Micro-LED combines the LCD layer and LED backlight. What that means is that a pixel is a cluster of three LEDs (a red, green and blue) to create the colours seen on screen.

However, MicroLEDis expensive to produce on a mass scale and in smaller sizes. The smallest MicroLED screen so far is a 76-inch option, but Samsung hasn’t provided a hard date for availability.

QLED (Quantum Dot Light-emitting Diode, forget about the missing ‘D’) is a fancier take on LCD TVs made popular by Samsung. After some to-ing and fro-ing on what it means, it now refers to a TV that combines traditional LCD technology with Quantum Dots.

What are Quantum Dots we hear you ask? They are filters that use an array of tiny dots of slightly different sizes to produce different wavelengths (and therefore colours) when light is applied. As each dot is focused on one colour, Quantum Dots can produce more precise colours, as well as a wider range of colours, and when you factor in its inherent ability to cope with high brightness, you get spectacularly colourful, bright and varied images.

Although not every Quantum Dot TV is equal. Match a Quantum Dot TV with a full array backlight and you get more precise black levels and brightness, but you’ll also have to pay more. Edge-lit Quantum Dot TVs boast a colourful image, but without a full-array dimming system, black levels and contrast can suffer.

IPS and VA are both screen technologies and you’ll find them in LCD LED TVs, as well as Quantum Dot and Mini-LED. IPS stands for In-Plane Switching and offers consistent, accurate colours at wide viewing angles, as well as quick response times.

VA stands for Vertical Alignment and while viewing angles are poorer compared to IPS, contrast and black levels are better. If you like watching movies in a dark room, VA is the panel to plump for.

Of the two, VA is more popular among TV manufacturers due to its contrast and black levels, but some still use IPS, Panasonic for some of their edge-lit displays, LG with their QNED Mini-LEDs and Sony in their more affordable LED TVs.

TV manufacturers also develop their own technologies on top of IPS and VA panels (such as Samsung’s Viewing angle technology on its VA displays) but you often have to pay a premium for that.

In short, with LCD LED, for the best possible picture quality, a TV with a VA panel and full-array local dimming is your best bet. If you’re aren’t swayed by best image quality, or are purchasing a smaller screen, a standard DLED or edge-lit display will likely suit.

When buying a TV with LED technology, we can find different screen technologies. Choosing a TV with one type of screen or another is a factor that will influence the image quality significantly. Mainly two types of panels are manufactured: IPS and VA panels. As we will see now, depending on the use you are going to give to your TV, you may be more interested in a TV with VA panel or IPS panel.

Next, we are going to explain the differences between IPS panels and VA panels. In this way, we hope to help you choose the best TV for your particular use.

First of all, comment that the name IPS comes from the fact that the liquid crystals of the panel are aligned horizontally (In-Plane Switching). These crystals are parallel to the glass substrates allowing the orientation to be changed by rotating the liquid crystal molecules in the same plane.

This is the technical explanation, but the interesting thing is to know, what performance this type of panel is going to give us and what pros and cons it offers.

An IPS panel offers as a great advantage, wide viewing angles. This means that even if the TV is viewed from a side angle, contrast and color are maintained.

Some IPS panels offer lossless viewing angles up to 178°. Thanks to this, a TV with an IPS panel can be viewed correctly from the sides. The good thing about this is that color saturation and contrast will remain almost lossless when viewed from the side.

So, you may be interested in buying an IPS panel TV if you are going to watch it from different points or if you are several in the family and there are some of you who watch the TV from a more foreshortened position.

Their response time is usually somewhat lower than those offered by VA panels. The time it takes for the pixels to change is somewhat less and they can deliver moving images with a little more clarity.

As weaknesses, their contrast is usually quite low. The contrast values of any IPS panel are always poorer than those offered by a VA panel. In this type of panels, the black level achieved is very low and are usually dark grays instead of blacks.

The black level, however, can be improved in Full Array TVs with Local Dimming and in Mini LED models. The models with this system use more LED bulbs and with the possibility of adjusting the illumination by zones, achieving better black values. The downside is that as a general rule, IPS panels tend to have more light leakage problems than VA panels, although this varies from unit to unit and the type of backlight used.

Generally, they are not the best choice for movie buffs as a lot of information is lost in dark scenes. Compared to a VA panel, this problem is noticeable.

It is also common, that they have more reflections compared to VA, although this depends on each model and if it includes any added filter to reduce reflections.

IPS panels are widely used in monitors, thanks to what we have said about their better response time and better color reproduction and are especially recommended for photo editing.

The main manufacturer of IPS panels is LG. Some Sony and Panasonic models carry IPS panels, and these are mostly manufactured by LG Display. Although recently LG announced that it was cutting back on LCD panel manufacturing.

Within IPS panels there are different variants with different names but which are based on the same concept and obtain very similar performance. The best known are the PLS and ADS panels, which are mounted in some current Samsung TVs.

Unlike an IPS panel, a VA type panel has an alignment of liquid crystals in a vertical plane to the glass substrate and which tilt when a voltage is applied to let light through.

VA panels achieve much higher contrasts than IPS panels. Their major advantage is the reproduction of deep blacks and better detail in shadow areas, so that not as much information is lost as in IPS type displays.

The contrast levels of a VA panel, can be up to 300% higher than that of an IPS panel. The black tones it achieves are always much deeper. This is very noticeable in dark scenes in movies. Therefore, it is the best choice for moviegoers.

(The following images are for guidance only, as it depends on each particular model and the type of backlighting used, whether Full Array, Edge LED or Direct LED).

However, new versions of these panels are being produced and the angles are improving, especially in the high end, and in some cases are equal to the angles offered by IPS.

The main manufacturer of VA panels was Samsung and their own TVs mainly mounted panels manufactured by themselves. However, like LG, they have greatly reduced production and it is now very common for them to carry panels from other manufacturers such as BOE, AUO, etc.

The other manufacturers such as Sony and Panasonic have long since stopped making panels and carry panels made by companies such as Chi Mei, Sharp or AUO. In any case, the fact that a brand does not produce its own panels, does not mean in any case, less image quality.

We leave you with a summary of the advantages offered by each type of panel for you to value which is the option that suits you best according to the use you give to the TV.

Here the winner is IPS panels by offering better viewing from extreme angles. Colors and contrast are best maintained when viewed at angles greater than 35°..

In VA screens, there is usually a loss of contrast quite pronounced from about 35-40 ° looking a more washed out image. Also the colors begin to lose saturation and flatten out, losing detail in the colors and looking more uniform.

Anyway, there are some TVs with VA panel, which incorporate a filter that improves the viewing angle. An example is the Samsung’s top-of-the-line QLED models. and the X95K and Z9K from Sony.

In summary, especially in the low and mid ranges IPS panels provide a better side view than VA panels, so they are better if you view them from different points.

The winner in this field is VA panels. The contrast is much higher than that offered by IPS panels, which are far inferior in this respect. Blacks tend to be purer on VA panels than on IPS panels.

The difference between IPS and VA panels is usually quite noticeable in this aspect reaching up to 300% in some cases. Therefore, they are always much more recommendable for users who like movies.

(The following images are only for orientation, since it depends on each specific model and the type of backlight used, whether Full Array, Edge LED or Direct LED).

In the contrast variant, the brightness level also comes into play. In this aspect, an IPS or VA panel can reproduce a similar brightness, but having a better black level, the contrast ratio of a VA panel is usually much higher than that provided by an IPS.

It is unusual for burn-in or retentions to occur on LCD displays whether they are IPS or VA type. This problem occurs when an image is left static for a prolonged period of time. However, the risk is higher for IPS type displays.

VA panels are more recommended for watching movies and series in dark rooms and in a location that is quite in front of the TV. They give us the highest contrast values and allow us to see better details in the dark parts of the image. Also, although it depends on each specific model, they usually have less reflections.

IPS panels on the other hand, are the best option, if the location from where you sit is not fully frontal to the TV and you usually watch it in a brightly lit room. Colors and contrast are maintained with less variation when viewed from the sides.

2022 models2021 modelsQNED96, QNED91, QNED86, QNED80: VA or IPS depending on inchAll the range mounts IPS panel except in 50 and 70 inches which is VA.

As you can see, each type of panel has its advantages and disadvantages. With this comparison, hopefully the differences between IPS and VA panels are clear to you. Moreover, these panels are not only found in televisions, but are also manufactured for monitors and cell phones.

For viewing in dark or very dimly lit rooms, the best choice is a TV that mounts VA screen, as it will provide better blacks as well as less blooming and light leakage.

If in your case you are going to be viewing the TV from a fairly foreshortened angle, IPS panels are going to offer you a better angle than VA panels. The colors will maintain better saturation as well as the contrast will be maintained, making the picture look less washed out.

As we have seen, it depends on each situation, but generally in the absence of assessing other important aspects such as the image processor, refresh rate, etc., we recommend a TV with VA panel. They are the most recommended for watching movies and series due to their better contrast and detail in the dark parts.

It depends on the models we compare, but usually the highest picture quality today is going to be provided by a TV with OLED technology, thanks to being a self-emissive technology. This means that each pixel is the light source and can be switched on and off independently, giving a pure black, which LED TVs cannot achieve.

Recently, TVs with Mini LED technology have been launched, which still use an LCD panel with backlighting by LED bulbs, but now the size of these is much smaller. In this way, they can have many more bulbs, so that the backlighting is more accurate, improving blacks and reaching a higher peak brightness. In this last aspect of brightness, Mini LED TVs are superior to OLED models.

Because OLED TVs are newer and generally more expensive, the average buyer is looking at LED/LCD TVs right now. And although there are several features and specifications to consider while shopping—the brand name, HDR compatibility, and refresh rate, just to name a few—there’s one important hardware spec that isn’t widely advertised: LCD panel type.

LED/LCD TVs are so called because of the two things that make up their displays: an LED (Light Emitting Diode) backlight and an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) panel for that backlight to shine through. LED backlights vary between a variety of implementations, but modern LCDs generally come in one of two panel technologies: IPS (In-Plane Switching) and VA (Vertical Alignment).

Unlike other hardware specifications (which are usually listed on the side of a TV box or on the manufacturer’s website), information about a TV’s LCD panel type is a bit more inside baseball. But panel type has a far greater impact on a TV’s performance than you might expect—it affects contrast, color, and viewing angle as well.

Individual pixels in an LCD display are made up of liquid crystals activated by voltage. How the display arranges its crystals is part of what sets IPS panels apart from VA panels.

IPS (In-Plane Switching) panels are a common display type for both the best computer monitors and TVs. Without getting too far down the rabbit hole, let’s talk a little about how IPS panels distinguish themselves from other types.

Every non-OLED TV on the market today is an LCD TV powered by LED lighting. Individual pixels in an LCD display are made up of liquid crystals activated by voltage—this is what produces color. An IPS panel aligns its crystals horizontally, parallel to the glass substrate.

IPS technology was developed in part to improve the color and wide viewing angle performance of a display. There"s also a range of variations under the IPS umbrella, including ADS, S-IPS, H-IPS, e-IPS, P-IPS, and PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching). But, while they all differ marginally from one another in operation, their core functionality (as compared to VA panels) is the same.

VA (Vertical Alignment) panels represent another common display type, used for both computer monitors and TVs, but especially for the latter where they greatly outnumber their IPS counterparts. Most LED/LCD TVs you"ll find on the market use a VA panel. While IPS panels align their liquid crystals horizontally, VA panels align them—you guessed it—vertically. They run perpendicular to the glass substrate rather than parallel to it. When met with voltage, the crystals tilt, letting light through and producing color.

This positioning changes how the liquid crystals behave. Without any voltage, the liquid crystals in a VA panel do not tilt, which is a better outcome if your goal is to block light and create image depth. Like with IPS, VA panels also come in a few varieties: PVA, S-PVA, and MVA, though again, their core functionality (as compared to IPS panels) is the same.

TN (Twisted Nematic) is an older LCD display type. They"re still relatively common display types for computer monitors—thanks to their lightning fast response times and excellent handling of motion blur. TN panels aren"t typically used in TV production anymore, though.

The cornerstone of picture quality, contrast ratio refers to the range between a display’s darkest black levels and brightest highlights. Because VA-style panels excel at producing deep, dark black levels, this is arguably their biggest strength. VA panels almost always feature deeper black levels than their IPS counterparts, and this goes a long way in creating a detail-rich picture. An IPS panel can mitigate this by serving up an exceptionally bright image to offset relatively shallow black levels.

A TV’s total viewing angle describes how much a viewer can move away from an ideal, head-on viewing position before the contrast and color of the picture begins to deteriorate. Due to the positioning of their liquid crystals, IPS panels excel in this department; they typically offer significantly more viewing flexibility than TVs with VA-style panels. In other words, IPS panels are more reliable for group viewings (or any situation where a viewer might need to sit at an off-angle).

While impressive color production is possible on both display types, IPS panels tend to offer wider colors, given the nature of their hardware. While a wider range of colors tends to spell better color accuracy, the advent of additional TV technologies like quantum-dot color have evened the playing field considerably. In other words, you’re far more likely to notice the benefits of an IPS TV’s wider viewing angle than you are to notice its tendency for wider color.

Here’s the final takeaway: IPS panels are significantly better than VA panels when it comes to viewing angle and somewhat better than VA panels when it comes to color. VA panels, however, almost always offer deeper black levels and better overall contrast. And because they block light better, TVs and monitors using VA panels tend to have better backlight uniformity regardless of LED backlight type.

Unfortunately, not only is it rare to find a TV’s panel type listed on a manufacturer’s website, but it’s increasingly rare for a brand to reveal a TV’s panel type at all—even when we contact brands directly for information. The reason for this caginess has everything to do with marketing; it’s better to keep shoppers focused on the bells, whistles, and impressive performance specs of a TV rather than its potential shortcomings.

To add to the confusion, it’s common for different sizes of the same TV series to mix and match display types; you might find that the 55-inch version of a TV features a VA-style display while the 75-inch model uses IPS.

Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to determine panel type if you have the proper equipment and you know what to look for. Certain test results and viewing characteristics act as tell-tale signs. This is why my colleagues and I make a point of discussing panel type in just about every TV review we publish, and why you should make a point of reading reviews before making a purchase.

Panel type is not the end-all-be-all for LED/LCD TVs. Many other factors, most of them related to the style and intensity of the LED backlight, can have a major impact on factors like contrast, viewing angle, and color intensity. Ultimately, you need to see a TV in person (and ideally in the space it’s going to live in) to get the best idea of how well it creates an image. But by knowing the core differences of IPS vs VA LCD panels, you can at least make some good guesses before you buy.

Unlike the best gaming monitors, IPS and VA TV panels are on an even playing field. TVs with both technologies are capable of high refresh rates of 120Hz, or occasionally 240Hz (although it usually comes at a premium).

If you focus on single-player gaming, or your multiplayer gaming happens online, the excellent contrast of VA is the way to go. The most gaming benefits you’ll see will come from extra features like Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), or cloud game capabilities.

If you’re buying a large screen and intend to host movie nights with friends and family, a TV with an IPS-style panel is far more accommodating thanks to its superior viewing angle. Just be aware that certain content—particularly dark content—won’t pop as much on account of the panel’s shallower black levels.

On the other hand, if you want the best possible picture overall, we recommend investing in a TV with a VA-style panel. They’re not always ideal candidates for group viewings, but the vast majority of the best non-OLED TVs you can buy feature this display type.

The Hisense U8H matches the excellent brightness and color performance of much pricier LCD TVs, and its Google TV smart platform is a welcome addition. But it’s available in only three screen sizes.

The Hisense U8H is the best LCD/LED TV for most people because it delivers the performance of a much pricier TV yet starts at under $1,000, for the smallest (55-inch) screen size. This TV utilizes quantum dots, a full-array backlight with mini-LEDs, and a 120 Hz refresh rate to deliver a great-looking 4K HDR image. It’s compatible with every major HDR format. And it’s equipped with two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs to support 4K 120 Hz gaming from the newest Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Add in the intuitive, fully featured Google TV smart-TV platform, and the U8H’s price-to-performance ratio is of inarguable value.

Key to this functionality is the U8H’s employment of mini-LED backlighting with local dimming, which allows this TV to produce very bright light while still maintaining satisfyingly deep black levels that are typically free of blooming (or light bleed that’s visible around bright objects against a dark backdrop). This not only ensures impressive image contrast, it also makes the U8H a viable choice for most rooms, whether they’re brighter than average or dimmed down like a movie theater.

That’s not to say the U8H has pixel-precise light control—it’s not an OLED TV, after all—but it does a terrific job most of the time. In fact, in our tests, the U8H bested last year’s upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90A, in certain scenarios: The intro to Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix features the filmmaker against a pitch-black backdrop. Though last year’s QN90A failed to maintain perfect control over dimming elements during this scene (the black backdrop brightened distractingly once a sufficient amount of brighter content appeared on screen), the U8H did not. (For the record, the newer QN90B also passed this test.) The U8H’s mini-LEDs also help the screen look uniformly bright: Although the U8H is still not as good as an OLED TV in this respect, it shows very little indication of being a backlight-driven display, even during tricky scenes with large swaths of dim lighting.

The U8H’s brightness, black-level integrity, and local-dimming abilities make this an excellent TV for watching HDR content. The U8H is capable of playing HDR content in all of the major formats (HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG), but when it comes to impressive HDR, what’s under the hood is much more important than format compatibility. The most crucial thing for good HDR is high brightness and deep color saturation, and the U8H’s quantum dots achieve the latter. It’s not as simple as just having quantum dots, however: While many TVs (even the budget options) have quantum dots nowadays, what is often not taken into account is that brightness directly affects color saturation. For example, both the 2022 TCL 6-Series and the Hisense U8H are equipped with quantum dots, mini-LED backlights, and local dimming. But because the U8H is notably brighter than the 6-Series, it also achieves a higher total color volume. During our color-volume testing, the U8H exhibited color ranges at more than 100% of the DCI-P3 color space (the range of color needed to properly display HDR content), and it is capable of roughly 10% more total color volume compared with the 6-Series.

What does this mean in real-world terms? It means that the Hisense U8H truly excels as a modern 4K HDR TV, whether you’re watching the latest episode of Rings of Power or playing Overwatch 2. While watching HDR content side by side on the U8H and on our upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90B, I was truly surprised by how similar they looked at times, given that our upgrade pick is much more expensive. That said, though the U8H achieves impressive results where light output and color volume are concerned, it also exhibited some occasional video processing and upscaling issues (see Flaws but not dealbreakers), which videophiles and AV enthusiasts may take umbrage with. But in general, the picture quality punches well above its weight, metaphorically speaking.

And thanks to Hisense’s inclusion of Filmmaker Mode, it’s easy to rein in the U8H’s brightness abilities for a more-subdued and filmic experience in a darker room. Our measurements revealed that this mode has a very accurate white balance, mostly accurate colors (green is a bit oversaturated, but not egregiously so), and a perfect “dark room” gamma (which controls how quickly the video signal transitions from dark to light). Additionally, the TV’s 120 Hz refresh rate means it can play Blu-ray discs at 24 fps without the judder that’s usually present on TVs with 60 Hz refresh rates.

The TV’s higher refresh rate also reduces motion blur in faster-moving sports and allows for smoother, more stable motion in games. Two of the four HDMI inputs support 4K gaming at 120 Hz. The U8H measured low input lag while playing in 4K resolution, and Hisense’s helpful GameZone setting in the picture menu allowed me to confirm the presence of 120 Hz playback and variable refresh rate during games.

The onboard Google TV smart platform is another feather in this TV’s cap. As usual, however, it will be much more satisfying to use if you have a Google account and already take advantage of Google’s connected services, like Photos. The experience of navigating the TV’s smart features—scanning QR codes to sign into apps, using the onscreen keyboard, and browsing your Google Photos to set a photo as a screensaver—was very satisfying in terms of responsiveness and speed. Powering on the TV and booting into an app took just seconds. The included Bluetooth remote is also equipped with a handy “Hey Google” button, allowing you to pull up Google’s assistant and use voice commands to search for content or set a reminder. If you have multiple users with their own Google accounts, you can designate separate profiles (attached to a Gmail account) so that each user can customize the experience to their liking, as well as access their own Google Drive or Photos. While some reviewers have reported instances of momentary freezing while using the U8H’s platform, I didn’t personally experience any instances of slowdown that were egregiously worse than with any other smart-TV platform.

In terms of design, the Hisense U8H is not as svelte as our upgrade pick, but it’s plenty sturdy and doesn’t look or feel cheap. Two narrow, metal feet jut out from beneath the panel and steadily hold the TV. They can be attached in two separate spots, either closer in toward the middle of the panel or out toward the edges, to account for different-size TV stands. The feet are also equipped with cable organization clasps—a nice touch for keeping your TV stand free of cable clutt