CAN MINI LED BEAT OLED IN 2024?

2024 was meant to be a big year for Mini LED TVs, but all the signs suggest OLED's dominance isn't going anywhere

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2024 was meant to be the year Mini LED finally took off as a valid alternative to OLED in the premium TV market for a couple of reasons.

First, because in 2023 two big-name flagship sets massively closed the quality gap between Mini LED and OLED. Both the five-star Samsung QN95C and Sony X95L offered huge year-on-year improvements – to the point they beat the flagship OLEDs we tested them against in some areas.

Our verdicts on both TVs say as much: “The dimming-zone-rich QN95C proves emphatically that Mini LED is much more than just a bright-room technology,” wrote our testers in our Samsung QN95C review. “Mini LED combines with local dimming and Sony’s latest picture processor to outstanding effect,” they continued in our Sony X95L review.

Second, because the same big names seem set to build on the success Mini LED had enjoyed with the new Samsung QN95D and Sony Bravia 9 TVs. Both companies made huge marketing pitches for the Mini LED sets, with Sony going so far as not to bother releasing an OLED flagship, leaving the Bravia 9 as the top dog in its current line-up.

Close, but no cigar But, with both sets having been reviewed in our dedicated testing rooms, we can sadly confirm that lightning hasn’t struck twice and both sets are good, but not great. The Samsung QN95D and Bravia 9 are both solid four-star products. That doesn’t mean they are bad, but when we compared them with the best of this year’s OLED screens, they simply couldn’t justify their high price.