After years of dismissing OLED TVs, the world's leading TV maker in 2024, for the first time, sold more OLED than miniLED LCD TVs, according to Omdia.
The presentation by Omdia, summarized by Korean news outlet The Elec, paints a surprising picture.
First, it confirms that global shipments of miniLED LCD TVs were lower than shipments of OLED TVs in 2024, despite forecasts predicting miniLED would surpass OLED.
- "Mini LED TV shipments have never exceeded OLED TV shipments before. Last year, OLED TV shipments were 6.8 million units, higher than Mini LED TV shipments of 4.7 million units. This shift is partly because Samsung Electronics, initially expected to lead the Mini LED TV market, has instead increased its OLED TV shipments," reported The Elec, citing market data from Omdia.
Samsung's reversal
Being by far the largest manufacturer of small-to-medium-sized OLED panels, Samsung's years-long dismissal of OLED TVs always rang hollow.
After a failed attempt to launch RGB OLED TVs in 2012-13 to challenge LG, Samsung Electronics introduced its first QD-OLED TVs in 2022. Samsung has since launched TVs based on LG Display's WOLED panels.
Samsung currently offers three OLED TV ranges and several more 'Neo QLED' miniLED LCD ranges. Photo: Samsung S95D
Now, Samsung sells more OLED than miniLED LCD TVs, which it refers to as 'Neo QLED' across multiple ranges.
- "Samsung Electronics' annual Mini LED TV shipments rose from 1.3 million units in 2021 to 2.3 million units in 2022 but then declined to 1.7 million units in 2023 and 1.4 million units in 2024. Meanwhile, its OLED TV shipments increased from 1 million units in 2023 to 1.44 million units in 2024," wrote The Elec.
However, Samsung's declining miniLED LCD TV sales are likely also driven by increased competition from China’s Hisense and TCL, both offering miniLED LCD TVs with more dimming zones and lower prices than Samsung. Samsung also uses TCL’s LCD panels in many of its models.
2025 may skew the picture
Omdia forecasts that 2025 could see miniLED LCD TV sales surpass OLED TV sales, with 9.2 million versus 7.1 million units shipped.
However, this prediction comes with a significant caveat. Samsung plans to classify some edge-lit LCD models, including The Frame Pro and QN70F, as miniLED. These edge-lit miniLED TVs deliver picture quality well below that of miniLED zone dimming: it is essentially an exercise in rebranding more LCD TVs under a premium label.
Also read: Samsung 2025 TV line-up (with TV compare tool)
While the market data is interesting, the real takeaway is that the competition between OLED and miniLED LCD, as well as between Korean and Chinese brands, is lowering prices and boosting performance. As a result, consumers can look forward to larger, better and more affordable high-end TVs with stunning HDR picture quality – except with edge-lit miniLED.
- Source: The Elec
