So you’ve heard that OLED displays offer a fantastic experience when watching movies, they’re known for having amazing contrast ratios and true blacks. But what about when you’re trying to watch your favorite show in a bright room? If you didn’t know, OLED displays can’t get particularly bright, therefore they’re less effective in bright environments.
Bright rooms are known to cause glare which can be quite annoying, especially if you’re trying to watch a movie or show. The most obvious thing to do is use your OLED display in a darkened environment, but that’s not always as easy as it sounds. So it’s perfectly possible that you may suffer from glare when using your OLED display.
Answer: To answer your question, OLED displays aren’t particularly great at handling glare, it’s just how this technology works. Thankfully there are ways you can handle glare such as using an anti-glare screen protector or purchasing blackout curtains which reduces a huge amount of sunlight if that’s the main source of glare.
What Exactly Is Glare & What Causes It?
You’re probably wondering what glare is, well if you have a bright room, you may notice that the image on the screen looks pretty washed out. This is because your eyes are picking up reflections more than the actual image on screen. This is because your TV, especially OLED displays, are good at reflecting light.
The main cause of glare is usually due to the amount of light in the room, if there’s a lot of light, then the chances are that you’ll experience some glare. This can be from sunlight coming in through windows or even just having a lot of lightbulbs in the room.
If you think about it, your TV acts as a mirror sometimes, therefore it’s important to try and reduce the amount of light in the room. If you can’t do that, then you should consider using an anti-glare screen protector as it will help to reduce the amount of light reflecting off the screen.
The most common way of handling glare is to use your TV in darker surroundings, with OLED displays, this is the best place to put them as bright rooms are known to cause glare & OLED displays are particularly bad at handling bright rooms. If you can’t reduce the amount of light in the room, then you should purchase blackout curtains which will help to reduce the amount of sunlight coming into the room.
Also Read: OLED TV In Bright Room
How Does Glare Affect OLED Displays?
Certain TVs such as LED TVs handle glare pretty well, this is why they’re often used for casual users that aren’t inclined to darken their room. With OLED displays they work best in dark rooms, this is because they can’t get as bright as QLED displays due to the self-illuminating pixels. Since they can’t get as bright, it’s safe to assume that glare is a big issue with OLED displays.
With QLED and LED displays, they use powerful backlights which means they’re able to get significantly brighter than OLED displays. OLEDs mainly consist of Organic Light Emitting Diodes which aren’t as good at handling glare, this is because they don’t have as much of a backlight.
So, if you’re thinking about getting an OLED display then glare is something you should be concerned about. This is why we recommend OLED TVs for enthusiasts that want the best of the best. The average consumer can still benefit from an OLED display if they take certain precautions such as darkening the room when necessary.
How Can You Effectively Handle Glare?
Since handling light sources isn’t as easy as it sounds, there are ways you can effectively handle glare. The most common way is to use an anti-glare screen protector, this will help to reduce the amount of light reflecting off the screen. If you can’t reduce the amount of light in the room then you should consider using blackout curtains as they will significantly reduce the amount of sunlight coming into the room.
Another way is to increase the TV screen brightness, this is a brute force attempt as it will make the image on screen appear brighter therefore making it easier to see, but it can also reduce the lifespan of the self-illuminating pixels. This is another reason why bright environments are known to reduce the lifespan of OLED displays.
Finally, TV placement can work wonders when it comes to reducing glare. If you place your TV in such a way that the light doesn’t interfere with the OLED display, then glare won’t be an issue. This can be tricky as it requires you to experiment with different TV placements until you find the sweet spot.
What Are Alternative TVs To OLED?
The best alternative to OLED displays are QLED displays, they’re known to be more beginner friendly, and they’re better at handling glare. QLED TVs are also cheaper which makes them a great alternative for budget conscious shoppers. So, the average consumer is most likely going to gravitate to QLED displays, and they have their own benefits over OLED displays such as delivering better colors.
QLED displays are great at producing vibrant colors, and they’re known to be more color accurate than OLED displays. Color accuracy is important for certain applications such as video editing, and if you’re looking for a TV that’s going to be used for professional purposes then QLED is the way to go.
Also, if you didn’t know, burn-in is a prominent issue with OLED displays, so if you go with QLED or even LED, burn-in is essentially non-existent as they use a backlight as the main source of light. Burn-in is a huge turn off for some people as you have to take certain precautions such as ensuring there are no static images being left on screen for long periods of time. This isn’t something most people are down to do, they just want a TV that they can watch without having to worry about burn-in.
Understand OLED Weaknesses
Understanding the limitations of your OLED display is the best way to get the most out of it. OLED displays can’t get particularly bright with the LG C1 reaching a peak brightness of around 750nits whereas the Samsung qn90a frequently hits over 1000nits, and over 2000nits with HDR content.
So does this mean your OLED display is trash? Not so fast, OLED displays are pretty much the best displays at delivering a true HDR experience due to their great black levels. This means that OLED displays are still the best display technology for those that want the best HDR experience, but they’re not as good as QLED displays when it comes to handling glare.
So to get the most out of your OLED display, you must ensure that you do not place it in a bright room. Some people will say that OLED TVs will work fine in bright rooms, and this is true, but you’re not getting your money’s worth, and you’ll be much better off purchasing a QLED display.
Verdict
In conclusion, glare can be a big issue for OLED displays but there are ways to effectively handle it. The most common way is to use an anti-glare screen protector or blackout curtains. This is the best fix for someone who can’t effectively control the light levels in their room.
