Samsung’s New QD-OLED Technology Promises Brighter Screens and Extended Lifespan
Samsung Display is advancing its QD-OLED technology with a new “Penta Tandem” structure, aiming to deliver significant improvements in brightness, efficiency, and durability for both televisions and monitors. The innovation, slated for rollout in 2026, builds upon existing tandem OLED technology and is already being integrated into top-tier TV lineups since 2025.
The core of the upgrade lies in the blue emitting layer, a critical component of Samsung Display’s QD-OLED approach. The company has transitioned from a four-layer structure to a five-layer stack, coupled with new organic materials, to more effectively distribute energy. This is particularly crucial as manufacturers strive for higher pixel densities, where maintaining consistent luminance becomes increasingly challenging. This development underscores the ongoing quest for enhanced visual experiences in display technology.
Samsung claims the Penta Tandem technology improves luminous efficiency by 1.3x compared to its previous four-layer design and doubles the lifespan of the panels. This translates to the potential for higher peak brightness at the same power consumption, or similar brightness with reduced power draw. The company cites peak brightness levels of up to 4,500 nits for televisions and 1,300 nits for monitors, measured at 3% OPR (on pixel ratio).
The benefits of this technology are expected to be most pronounced in high-resolution monitors. Samsung Display plans a wider rollout of Penta Tandem across flagship sizes, including 27-inch 4K, 31.5-inch 4K, 34-inch WQHD, and a 49-inch Dual QHD model. The company previously achieved 160 PPI (pixels per inch) on its 27-inch QD-OLED Odyssey monitor, likely referring to the G81SF 240Hz gaming monitor. Samsung is also reportedly considering a new Odyssey G9 QD-OLED ultrawide monitor.
QD-OLED displays already utilize quantum dot technology – extremely tiny semiconductor nanocrystals – to enhance colors and overall picture quality by reacting to light emitted from the OLED diodes. The Penta-Tandem approach further refines this process by stacking multiple blue light-emitting layers, ultimately aiming for higher resolutions without compromising pixel density.
