Samsung has been promising to launch smaller and more affordable MicroLED TVs for quite a while and had been expected to do so later this year. However, it seems its ambitions have been thwarted and that it may not be able to do so until 2024 or 2025 at the earliest.
That’s according to a paywalled report by DigiTimes, which says technical problems mean Samsung Display has been forced to delay the launch of new 76-inch, 88-inch, 96-inch and 110-inch MicroLED TVs.
MicroLED is often heralded as the next big thing in TV display technology. It’s similar to OLED in that it’s made from organic material with each pixel generating its own light. It delivers the same per-pixel dimming as OLED, ensuring the same deep black levels and precise contrast. However, it’s also much brighter than OLED, capable of hitting a peak brightness of around 4,000 nits compared to just 1,000 on the most advanced OLED TVs. Samsung Display has said it could even deliver up to 10,000 nits in the future. So the result is far superior HDR compared to today’s OLEDs and Mini-LED TVs.
Another benefit of MicroLED is that it’s more durable than the delicate organic material used to make OLED TVs, meaning longer-lasting displays with no risk of burn-in. Check the video below for a closer comparison of MicroLED and Mini-LED.
Despite all the promise, MicroLED is still very much a bleeding edge technology. Samsung has notably struggled with pixel density, and existing models can only achieve 4K resolution. It was reported previously that Samsung is struggling to achieve even that in its smaller MicroLED displays.
At the same time, MicroLED is prohibitively expensive, with Samsung’s first 110-inch MicroLED TV launched last year with a $100,000 price tag.
Samsung promised to launch smaller MicroLED TVs in 2021 only to delay them due to the pandemic-related closure of its production facilities in Vietnam. The company then committed to making MicroLED TVs in South Korea, with a planned launch date of 2022. However, its struggles to achieve 4K resolution have apparently put paid to those hopes. DigitTimes says Samsung also faces other, undisclosed production issues.
Even if Samsung does manage to produce its MicroLED TVs before 2024, don’t expect them to be cheap. The company has reportedly said prices will drop in future, but the cost of the TVs would likely still be in the tens of thousands of dollars, DigiTimes said.
In addition to the one-off MicroLED TV launched in 2021, Samsung also sells a MicroLED display called “The Wall”, aimed at the digital signage industry. The Wall is really just a series of panels that can be arranged in various configurations to suit the needs of commercial advertisers.
LG Electronics has also launched a commercial MicroLED display known as "Magnit" which comes at a similar high cost.
