TCL is right to question Samsung’s use of the term “Mini LED”

A FALD backlight uses dozens to thousands of small LEDs, or Mini LEDs, grouped into different zones, each with individually controllable brightness levels. This helps boost contrast, which is critical for image quality and essential for delivering quality HDR on an LCD-LED display. According to a specification line titled “Micro Dimming” on the M-series TVs’ product pages, the devices use “Supreme Mini LED Dimming.” The spec sheets (PDF) available for download from those pages include a tiny footnote that clarifies: “Supreme Mini LED Dimming is Software-based (not full-array hardware-based) technology.” Samsung also uses the term “Supreme Mini LED Dimming” on product pages for its Neo QLED TVs, which TCL accepts as true Mini LED TVs. The Neo QLED spec sheets don’t include the footnote, though. Software-based dimming without individually addressable LED zones differs from the FALD technology described above. With software-based dimming, a TV typically analyzes each frame of a video, breaking it into different zones and determining each zone’s ideal brightness level. Using that information, the display modifies the frame’s brightness to boost perceived contrast. Critically, though, the display’s brightness level remains uniform across the panel, unlike in a display using a FALD backlight. “However, the software plays an important role to get the most out of the hardware, with some brands able to achieve comparable image quality with fewer LEDs or dimming zones,” he said. Because displays that support software-based dimming work differently from those that use a backlight with individually addressable LED zones, they’re not what people typically think of when describing “FALD.” Eric Virey, principal displays analyst at Yole Intelligence, considers FALD a hardware feature first and foremost. It requires a “2D array of LEDs uniformly distributed across the entire area of the display,” along with a good algorithm to help reduce blooming, he said, adding, “To me, a ‘software-based’ Mini LED dimming just doesn’t make any sense if you don’t have that full, 2D-array of LEDs or Mini LEDs in the backlight.” An LED display with FALD should have better contrast than an equally specced display without it. But experts I spoke with took things further, suggesting that a display shouldn’t be considered Mini LED if it doesn’t support FALD. “I think that is broadly agreed across the industry that FALD is a key and mandatory feature in Mini LED backlights,” Virey told me via email. Bob O’Brien, Counterpoint’s research director, also equates Mini LED with FALD. “Mini LED was originally introduced as an improved FALD technology, with more dimming zones. So among those in the industry, it has always been assumed that a Mini LED TV has FALD capability,” he told me. Even Samsung’s own website describing Mini LED suggests that local dimming is essential. “Mini LED is an advanced backlighting display technology that uses tiny LEDs, smaller than standard ones, for more precise backlight control through local dimming zones—a technique where backlight zones are controlled independently,” it says. “There are no organizations with authority to make and enforce such standards. TV brands have historically exploited the lack of clear standards to be more creative in their marketing,” O’Brien said. “I think that [TCL’s] claims are legitimate and raise some important question[s] for the entire industry, which lacks a clear definition of what a Mini LED display is,” Virey told me. The problem can be seen elsewhere in the display panel industry with technologies like QLED. The industry could try to create standards, but Virey thinks it would lead to “an endless race.” “Each time there are new technologies, new marketing terms are invented and can easily be abused,” he said. While enthusiasts may delight in digging into the complex underpinnings of backlight technology, most people just care about performance. So how are Samsung’s M-series TVs? There aren’t many reviews. RTINGS found that the M80H had “low” contrast (6,440:1, according to the review site’s testing) that makes “dark scenes look washed out in a dark room.” Regarding HDR performance, RTINGs said, “Content mastered at 600 or 1,000 nits, which is most HDR content, cuts off rapidly at the TV’s peak brightness. This lets the TV get as bright as it can, but there’s less gradation in bright parts of the scene, so highlights can seem to blend together.” By comparison, Samsung’s $1,200 Mini LED Neo QLED QN80H, which uses individually addressable dimming zones, reached a contrast of 80,000:1 after calibration, according to RTINGs. That translated into visible improvements during actual use. RTINGs reported that the QN80H “looks good in a dark room thanks to its high contrast ratio and great black uniformity, making it a good choice for a home theater room.” The AP Tech video below shows how an M-series TV and one with FALD handle dimming differently.