Samsung QLED TVs with Mini LED could bring down your energy bill – here’s how
Samsung Mini LED TVs may be more environmentally friendly
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New Samsung TVswithMini LEDbacklights could help you save on your energy bill, saysSamsung.
Despite these premium 2021 TVs (ranging from the mid-rangeQN85AandQN90Ato the high-endQN900A 8K TV) coming packed with high-end specification and performance, its Samsung’s addition of Mini LED backlighting that is helping to bring down power usage and improve overall efficiency.
Mini LED technology makes use of light-emitting diodes that are 1/40th of the sizes of traditional LEDs, allowing for far more precise brightness control. This means that the overall brightness of the screen can be lower, without lighting up pixels that don’t need the extra visibility.
Samsung claims that energy consumption is reduced by “about a quarter” (so, 25%), through a combination of improved backlights and optimized power supply boards too – while the slim nature of Mini LEDs means that its screens are even more compact and resource-light than before. Samsung also introduced a new solar-powered TV remote for its 2021QLEDrange, doing away with disposable batteries for good.
Of course, we wouldn’t necessarily advise you to chuck your current television to get this more efficient one right away. Throwing away a TV can be damaging to the environment in itself, if not properly recycled, and it can cause waste to make upgrades before an older model has really run its course.
But if you need to upgrade your old LCD, and are looking for a model that won’t take such a toll on your energy bills, a Neo QLED / Mini LED model should certainly fare better. The only other thing to consider is whether anOLEDmight be better…
It’s not easy being green
TV makers are increasingly laying out their green credentials these days, and in a consumer tech market prone to wastage, a move towards sustainable practices can’t come soon enough.
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LGhas laid out some attractive figures forOLED TVrecycling, showing thatOLEDpanels for65-inch TVsrequire a mere 0.43kg of plastic, compared to the 5.2kg of plastic utilized in a 65-inch LCD. That’s 12 times as much plastic in an LCD screen – and it’s not plastic that’s easily recyclable, either, given the complexity of the material (viaBusiness Korea).
OLEDTVs fare much better when it comes to power usage too. Due to the self-emissive nature of OLED panels, they don’t require the backlight systems of LCD and QLED screens, and use a fraction of the amount of energy.
In 2017,SGSalso praised LG’s reduction of “hazardous substances” in OLED TV manufacturing compared to LCD, as well as the ability of a “self-luminous display […] that used less parts and attained greater resource efficiency and recycle rates.”
Samsung made some noise in 2020 around ‘Eco-packaging’ for select new Samsung TVs, made from “eco-friendly corrugated cardboard” that can be repurposed into a pet kennel or magazine rack, alongside moves to replace metal staples with glue and utilise more recycled plastic in its packaging.
However, the aggregate wastage of plastic-heavy LCD TVs may be more than these green measures can counteract by themselves.
Henry is a freelance technology journalist, and former News & Features Editor for TechRadar, where he specialized in home entertainment gadgets such as TVs, projectors, soundbars, and smart speakers. Other bylines include Edge, T3, iMore, GamesRadar, NBC News, Healthline, and The Times.
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