How do LED TVs differ from regular LCD panels and are they worth the money?

An analysis of the operating principle and advantages of such TVs will help you understand whether it is worth overpaying for LED technology.

Why LED?

LED – an abbreviation used to shorten the phrase Light Emitting Diode, or good old LED in Russian. The companies that were the first to produce LED models did not translate the name given to such TVs: apparently, “LED TV” does not sound intriguing enough. But how are LEDs used in the new generation of TVs?

LED TV... Sounds like something very complex and high-tech! But to understand what it is, it’s enough to look around. What kind of lamps are in your flashlight? And what kind of lighting in the kitchen? Remember how LED headlights dazzle oncoming cars and how brightly the New Year's garlands burn. The era of incandescent lamps has given way to the era of fluorescent lamps, but that is already behind us: wherever it comes to lighting, LEDs command the parade.

So they decided to use them in TVs instead of cold cathode fluorescent lamps, which were used in LCD TVs of the previous generation. Exclusively for illumination. Did you think that the image itself would be made from LEDs? Oh, these are technologies of the future, and OLED screens, although they exist, are still imperfect and cost crazy amounts of money.

How does it work and what does it give?

Now that you're up to date with LED technology and what it means, it's time to understand how it compares to plasma or LCD TVs. We won’t load you with a lot of technical information, because this is still the same LCD TV, in which the backlight has changed. But we still note the main characteristics of LEDs. After all, they are designed to take image quality to a new level!

You've probably noticed that LEDs are much brighter than regular bulbs. This property is one of the key ones, since a powerful backlight ensures high brightness of the screen, which means that colors will be visible in all their glory even in a room with bright light, which cannot be said about plasma or LCD.
The abandonment of massive CCFL backlight made it possible to make the TV body amazingly thin: diodes are also good because they do not take up much space. Thus, the thickness of the LED TV body can be less than a centimeter, depending on the type of technology used. This technique, of course, looks super modern.
When was the last time you changed an LED? Most likely, if this happened at all in your life, it was quite a long time ago when they were not so advanced and widely used. Now their service life is measured in decades, and the likelihood that it will burn out or overheat tends to zero.
This may not make a big difference, but an LED TV consumes less electricity than an LCD or plasma, since the LEDs themselves need many times less power. If the TV in your house is always on, you may be able to slightly reduce the amount on your electricity bill.
This does not have any impact on picture quality, but it is nice to know that by using diodes you can contribute to the environment. They do not use aerosols or mercury, and do not require special disposal. Truly modern technologies must be environmentally friendly!

Sounds good: improved image quality, energy savings, low chance of failure. But which LED TV to choose?

By the way

If plasma, although not without its drawbacks, was considered more advanced than conventional LCD TVs, then LED LCD panels wiped its nose: their image quality is almost as good, and they consume much less energy, and most importantly, they are cheaper.

What types of LED lighting are there?

As before, LEDs illuminate the matrix behind the LCD screen, but it can be illuminated in different ways. LED TVs can be divided into models with white and color backlighting and models with full backlighting or backlighting at the edges.

It would seem that a model with fewer LEDs located around the perimeter, and sometimes even just along one edge, should cost less, but this is not the case. Edge LED TVs use a complex system of light reflectors to illuminate the entire screen, so this model will cost more. But it will be thinner: unlike Full LED or Direct LED, where there is a sheet of LEDs behind the matrix, Edge TV can be found less than a centimeter wide.

By the way

Among the disadvantages of LED, we can note only slight flares at the edges on Edge Led models and too much black brightness due to local dimming technology, which can become a disadvantage if image details are lost in a dark area.

True, thin Edge panels use only white backlighting. But don’t be upset: with multi-colored RGB backlighting, the case will be 100% thicker, the equipment will consume more energy, it will cost a lot of money, and from the bonuses you will essentially only get a more complete transmission of halftones, which, by the way, are not always transmitted accurately. Still, white light is currently more popular than multi-colored lighting.
Edge LED TV has the right specs but is a bit pricey? Then choose the Full model with the same white light. These TVs are not inferior in image quality to Edge models, and the contrast is even more impressive. Their price is lower due to simpler technology that does not require expensive reflectors and diffusers. Yes, it will be a little thicker, but this parameter is still not decisive.

It turns out that while OLED technology has not become available, LED models are indeed the most affordable high-tech option to purchase at a reasonable price. Perhaps their device is not revolutionary - do not rush to throw out a working plasma or LCD TV - but if the question of buying new equipment has already arisen, then LED TVs are definitely worthy of your attention.