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LG's new QNED TVs add mini LEDs for a stunning new lineup in 2021

LG has added another TV acronym to its roster of tech to gawk at.

A Promo image of LG's new QNED TVs Credit: LG

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It’s almost a new year, and LG is ready to celebrate with yet another new TV tech acronym: QNED Mini LED TV, a brand new series of televisions to be premiered at LG’s Virtual CES Expo on January 11, 2021. QNED TVs feature quantum dots and LG's NanoCell technology in their displays for enhanced brightness and color reproduction, but more importantly, these new TVs will also be powered by up to 30,000 mini LEDs that add more dimming zones than ever to this premium lineup.

Despite the buzz around these new QNED TVs, LG made sure to state that they're still a step beneath the company's flagship OLED TVs, which offer emissive display technology that allows each individual pixel to turn on and off independently for industry-leading contrast between the brightest and darkest images on screen. While mini LEDs are smaller than traditional display backlights, the QNED TVs are not "emissive displays" like OLED and Samsung's new MicroLED tech, so they can't create the same level of contrast.

Still, the new QNED TVs could be a hit with those looking for a brighter alternative to OLED displays. We can also expect QNED TVs to be cheaper than LG’s comparable OLED TVs. Their most direct competitors today are TCL’s 8-series Mini LED TVs and Samsung’s QLED TVs.

"Our new QNED Mini LED series is a premium home entertainment option that expands and improves the LCD TV space and gives consumers another terrific viewing choice," said Nam Ho-jun, senior vice president of R&D at LG's Home Entertainment Company.

LG says its 2021 QNED lineup will include 10 new 4K and 8K models in all, for a wide array of screen sizes and price points. The top QNED TV, an 86-inch 8K monster, will feature up to 2,500 dimmable zones for exceptional contrast, along with (we expect) impressive brightness and color reproduction thanks to its mix of other display tech like quantum dots. To put things in perspective, that equates to as much as 10 times the number of dimming zones you'll see on traditional LED TVs.

At its virtual Expo on January 11, LG will have a live exhibit of its new 86-inch 8K QNED TV, which the company hopes will give it an edge in the market over rivals like Samsung and TCL. We’ll have to wait and see if QNED can stand proud against the other great Mini-LED TVs available today, but LG’s other OLED and LED offerings give us confidence that its new alphabetical entry into the TV acronym library will be a worthy one.

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