QLED vs Neo QLED: What’s the Difference?

Neo QLED and QLED screens are essentially the same type of display; both types of TV utilize an LCD display with a quantum dot color filter, and their only structural difference is the type of lighting that is used to illuminate them. Samsung has stated this on its Neo QLED product information pages, where the company defines mini-LED as a backlight made up of smaller LED bulbs that can provide more precise control over brightness and contrast levels — not a new type of TV.

Depending on the model you purchase, this one structural change will result in a considerable difference in the price level of the two displays. Therefore, when promoting QLED technology in a store, the consumer can infer that the display will have a quantum dot color filter but can’t determine what type of backlighting technology will be provided. This is where potential customers run into issues; in one post on the r/4kTV subreddit a customer asked if there was a noticeable difference between the Neo QLED and QLED because of the local dimming capability, which assumes that the QLED model he is considering has local dimming capability as well. The most expensive way to get the least amount of value for your money in this case is to buy a product based on a brand name rather on the quality of its backlighting technology.

QLED and Neo QLED are both quantum-dot LCDs — the panel isn’t the difference

With both sets setup with the demo running on both, what you’re seeing through the marketing materials is that you’re comparing two different technologies. If you strip away all the names, you’ve got two LCD TVs that are built similar in design: a backlight is placed on the rear of the TV set, providing a white light (or backlight); next, a quantum dot layer has been placed on the front of this backlight, converting the white light that is coming from the backlight into a more pure red and green color; finally, a layer of LCDs has been placed in front of the quantum dot layer; this layer of LCDs acts as the “shutter” for the device and blocks out any unwanted light from reaching your eyes.

The shutter, above all else, is the technological limit and the reason the two sets cannot produce black. The “Liquid Crystal” technology employed by both sets can only dim the white light coming from the backlight and not completely eliminate the light. This is how Samsung is able to differentiate between Neo QLED and OLED. Neo QLED uses many small LEDs to create white light and uses multiple layers of panels to send the light from those small LEDs to create many more colors than an OLED television because it lights each individual pixel. Both TVs that you are comparing to are sitting firmly in the Neo QLED category.

Therefore, the Neo in Neo QLED does not indicate that you will receive a better technology in terms of display; rather, it simply indicates a different means of controlling the light that has always been present in the two technologies. All of the advantages that the premium “Neo” provides to the picture quality must be achieved through the backlight, thus our comparisons will focus there, rather than on the panel.

The one structural difference: mini-LED backlight and local dimming

By swapping out the larger backlight LEDs with smaller LEDs, Samsung is able to fit more LEDs behind their screens. As a result, the small size of the mini-LED allows for a higher density of LED placements to provide more accurate and refined brightness and contrast control compared to traditional LED technologies.

However, when the mini-LED backlight is arranged in a dense matrix instead of many long strips, televisions can control the amount of light emitted from any given section separately versus having to regulate the entire array of light at the same intensity with traditional QLED backlight technology. Local dimming is the term used to refer to individual dimming zones within a mini-LED television where brightness levels are controlled independently, whereas with a QLED, brightness levels are set for the entire panel simultaneously.

Three things follow from that, and only three:

• Blacks can get darker in mixed scenes. The zones behind a dark sky can drop while the zones behind a streetlamp stay up, instead of the whole picture rising to serve the lamp.
• Highlights can get brighter without washing out the rest. Power freed up by the dimmed zones can be pushed into the bright ones, which is why mini-LED sets reach higher peak figures than their conventional siblings.
• Nothing about color, resolution, viewing angle, or motion changes. Those live in the panel and the processor, and the panel is the same family on both sides.

Most analysis misses the last point of comparison; even if a Neo QLED appears more brightly lit when viewed in-store, its backlight is not the only explanation for this observation. Several other factors affect how colour is presented on a display – these include image processing, the selection of a particular mode, or the configuration of settings used in stores.

What local dimming actually changes: contrast, black level, and brightness

The qualitative claim made by Samsung on Neo QLED is to achieve even finer control over backlight for more brightness, more contrast, and much deeper blacks. An independent measure of this control provides some quantification and it is a very large number.

Rtings purchased both versions of the 2025 lineup and performed tests on the same test bench. In the Rtings review of the Samsung QN90F, this version of mini LED achieved brightness levels of 1,008cd/m² or 1,008 nits for the hallway lights scene, 921 for the yellow skyscrapers scene, 485 for the landscape pool scene. In the Rtings review of the Samsung Q8F, the traditional QLED achieved brightness levels of 312, 254, 126 for the same three scenes as the QN90F. Each of these brightness numbers is an actual measured number taken during the tests with an active tone mapping in the picture reference mode. For reference, the QN90F was a 75-inch TV and the Q8F was a 65-inch TV.

The near-threefold difference on the brightest scene is significant and can be observed where it should be seen: how well the brightest highlights are distinguished from a dark frame. The difference in black level is even more significant. Rtings explains that on the Q8F all the black levels are raised uniformly across the entire screen for any content. As there are no zones to dim any specific area, the result is all dark content appears gray and washed out. The QN90F has blacks rated as very good with minimal blooming.

The verdict on the QN90F includes a condition that negatively impacts the experience of gamers. In Game Mode, black levels drop noticeably, with slower zone transitions and increased halo effects, even though both the panel and the backlight are the same as in Movie Mode; the only differences between the two modes are the processing paths. The brightness measurement on the box is done in a mode that most console gamers will not use, and therefore, the measurement does not provide a fair comparison between Movie Mode and Game Mode.

Blooming: the limitation Neo QLED can reduce but never remove

When you ask why there is still a soft glow around subtitles with a mini-LED TV that has a black background, the answer is that there are layers of light sources and shutters. A zone is larger than a pixel; therefore, when you place something small and bright in the middle of a dark zone, your TV has to elevate the whole zone in order for you to see it. This difference in brightness is referred to as blooming because it extends beyond the zone that it originated from, and the zone counts cannot help to eliminate this issue — the zone counts only reduce the length of the area that the light spills into.

Rtings’ test methodology on lighting zones is very upfront about the shortcoming of the local dimming feature – that there is no local dimming feature that is capable of eliminating haloing, which is the most prevalent flaw that exists with all local dimming features. The Rtings page also states unequivocally that you cannot purchase a TV solely based upon how many zones of dimming it possesses because the algorithm that controls those zones plays a much larger role in how well they work. In fact, many TVs are unable to control every zone individually in real-time.

This clarification addresses one of the biggest misconceptions that many people hold when they arrive at the store. One user, who posted their experience of purchasing a 65-inch QN85D on Samsung’s community forum, pointed out that the TV was listed as having fewer zones of dimming than the model it replaced, and wanted to know why Samsung had decreased the number of zones. This person assumed that because there were fewer zones, they must be “downgraded” from the previous model. However, the number of zones is not the entire answer; what the zones themselves are doing is what you have to focus on.

How much blooming you actually see depends on conditions no spec sheet prints:

• Room light. Ambient light swamps the halo; the same set can look clean by day and ringed at night.
• Content. Subtitles and small specular highlights on black backgrounds are the worst case, and credit sequences are where owners notice it first.
• Picture mode. Game Mode measurably worsens zone behavior on the QN90F.
• The dimming setting itself. Rtings notes that higher local-dimming settings are more aggressive, raising contrast but making the transition between bright and dark areas more obvious.
• Firmware and source. This one surprises people. In the AVForums QN90F owners’ thread, one owner reported that during app transitions “the local dimming temporarily disengages, leaving the backlight fully active and exposing obvious clouding and raised blacks,” and that running the same content through an external streamer over HDMI behaved differently. He solved it by buying an Apple TV rather than by changing a picture setting.

Interpret the above information for what it is – a single owners example of a single model with a single firmware version, not an extrapolated sample from a diverse audience of users with different firmware versions. This shows that the feature that you paid for in this television is a function of software and therefore there are inevitable changes to this software over time. For example, Rtings also has a record of the Samsung QN90F firmware changelogs indicating that Samsung removed the HDR Game setting after a firmware update and the replacement of this function continues to have issues after the update.

QLED and Neo QLED are product families — the entry-level local dimming gap

The issue is that “QLED” and “Neo QLED” are category names not model designators. There are many different types of televisions in both categories, which means that televisions sharing the same category name (as opposed to model name) do not expect to work the same.

At the lower end of the QLED lineup, the QLED badge doesn’t indicate everything is as good as it might be. According to Rtings’ Q8F overview of the 2025 Q8F, a television sold under the QLED category by Samsung, there are no local dimming features, and therefore, no local dimming zones. The Q7F, which sits below the Q8F, is lacking features beyond those of the Q8F, and while overall picture quality was ranked in Rtings’ review, it concludes that these televisions will give the user very similar experiences, but will eliminate the features that make Neo QLED desirable.

A QLED badge confirms the quantum-dot color layer and nothing about the backlight — an entry QLED can have zero dimming zones.

The series name tells you which tier the TV falls into; this dictates how the items behave. For example, Q7F and Q8F are both considered part of the conventional QLED range. However, the QN70F, QN80F and QN90F are all part of the mini-LED Neo QLED range. When using SKU numbers to identify which product you are purchasing, you must also remember that this may not always be the best way to identify products. For instance, a 65-inch Q8F will have the SKU number of QN65Q8FAAFXZA, whereas a 65-inch QN90F will have a SKU number of QN65QN90FAFXZA; thus both will have the same prefix of ‘QN’, but only one will be a Neo QLED. Always refer to the series number that is located in the middle of the SKU number for your TV to correctly determine its classification.

The 32, 43 and 50-inch Q8F models will have a lower refresh rate (60Hz) and fewer HDMI inputs (three) than the 55-inch and larger Q8F models (144Hz and four HDMI inputs). Also, the 43 and 50-inch QN90F models utilise a lower HDR implementation compared to their larger counterparts; therefore, they likely won’t be as bright or colourful. There is no correlation between the quality of the 75 inch QN90F and the quality of the 43 inch QN90F based on this review.

QLED vs Neo QLED: spec-by-spec comparison

Instead of utilizing the ranges provided in the abstract, the chart below shows two actual measurements for 2025 and, thus, all rows indicate the respective units. Brightness and black-level data for the 65-inch Q8F and 75-inch QN90F were obtained from Rtings’ reviews using the same testing equipment in the same mode of reference picture for both products; the badge data comes from Samsung’s website.

Two rows are worthy of close inspection: HDR formats and local dimming options. The HDR formats are the same on both models, as Samsung does not allow the use of Dolby Vision on its less expensive models; therefore, a disc or streaming item that is mastered in Dolby Vision will revert back to standard HDR10 on both TVs. Additionally, local dimming applies to both the Q8F (which has this feature) and the QN90F (which does not have this feature), but the QN90F cannot deactivate local dimming when using Game Mode, creating permanent dimming behavior regardless of how you set your TV.

This table does not identify the degree to which your room is dark or what material you view most frequently, which could determine the visibility of the differences between the two models. These factors should be determined prior to the purchase of either model.

What to check before you pay the Neo QLED premium

The premium earns its money in a dark room showing high-contrast material, and earns very little in a bright room showing daytime television. Before paying it, work through the listing in front of you in this order:

1. Find the series name, not the SKU. Look for Q7F, Q8F, QN70F, QN80F, QN90F in the product title. The retail SKU starts with “QN” on both ranges and will mislead you.
2. Confirm the set actually has local dimming. This is the single spec the premium buys. If the listing doesn’t state it, treat it as absent until the manufacturer’s page for that exact model says otherwise — you can filter Samsung’s own store by Neo QLED and QLED as separate categories to see which range a model belongs to.
3. Check the spec for your exact screen size. Refresh rate, input count, and HDR implementation all change between sizes of one model, so read the row for the size you’re buying rather than the headline.
4. Match the set to your room and content. Dark room, films and HDR at night: the dimming is the reason to upgrade. Bright living room, sports and daytime viewing: brightness and reflection handling matter more than zone control, and the gap narrows.
5. Read the price against today’s listing, not a launch figure. TV pricing moves through the year and older stock is discounted heavily once the next lineup ships, so a premium quoted anywhere else may not be the premium you’d pay.

Another layer to consider: Samsung’s Neo QLED brand is not the only one that offers mini-LED backlights, as there are several other brands that offer mini-LED options at varying price points. If you are looking for the dimming functionality that mini-LED technology can offer, Samsung’s Neo QLED is an option; however, it is not the only choice available on the market today.

If the answer to step two is no local dimming, the price gap isn’t buying you a better version of the same feature — it’s buying you the feature.

Is Neo QLED Worth the Extra Cost?

The premium price tag for Neo QLED is justified when you utilize the mini-LED backlight and dimming zones in environments with less light, such as darkly lit rooms, and when viewing content in a darkened environment. However, the price difference for this technology will provide little benefit in a bright room, such as when viewing daytime television, where both technologies have the same panel, the same colours, and the same HDR formats. Therefore, before purchasing Neo QLED, ensure that you do a comparison of Samsung’s QLED 4K TV listings to see if the specific series of TV you are interested in has local dimming capabilities. Once you confirm this information, you will be able to determine whether the difference in picture quality is due to a better technology or simply the difference in brand name.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will a firmware update fix blooming on a Neo QLED?

The television can change its behavior either positively or negatively, but don’t purchase a television simply because a manufacturer has made changes to it via firmware updates (these can be especially problematic depending on the time it takes for them to get fixed). As outlined in Rtings’ review of the Samsung QN90F series TV, some HDR settings were removed after an update and never worked correctly since then; therefore, the performance of this particular television should be assessed based upon how it currently functions.

Is the Costco or Sam’s Club version a different television?

Rtings indicates that the Q8FD and QN90FD are the models available at warehouse clubs and that they perform exactly as well as their standard variant models and that the warehouse club variants come with a longer term warranty than the standard models. The extra letter in the model number indicates the retail channel where the version is sold, but does not indicate any difference in panel performance or panel technology.

Should you set local dimming to High for the best picture?

The changing of the settings does not happen automatically. Rtings uses a method of evaluating lighting zones that denotes that higher settings of brightness level would be aggressive causing increased contrast, which would also create an obvious line of separation between the lightest and darkest areas in an image. If you have trouble reading through big, bright white spots on your screen because of the large halo effect created around the subtitle, then lower the brightness level as opposed to increasing it.