What is a Mini LED Display and How it Differs from Micro-LED

Mini LED Display

Table of Contents

The world is moving ahead faster and faster. As a result, mini LED displays have come to the market. For example, it is the display technology adopted by Apple iPad Pro.

This post will discuss this technology, how it works, and its benefits.

What is a mini LED display?

The term “mini LED” refers to a more compact variant of “standard” LEDs. These are light-emitting diodes. It’s more of an improvement on the LCD LED technology. 

Packing more LEDs into the same amount of space is now possible. Depending on the screen size, the number of LEDs can vary from hundreds to thousands. These microdisplays can even have tens of thousands of individual lights.

More LEDs produce more dimming zones. It provides greater control over contrast, black levels, and blooming elements. Images with more dimming zones help you to achieve it.

TV makers have modified the lens packing for each LED. It enables more light emission and results in a brighter picture. Besides, it allows a mini LED display to consume HDR material.

Mini LED Display

Differences between micro and mini LED displays:

Concepts:

The micro and mini LED display are similar in their work. There are many distinctive diodes in a backlit LED matrix. You can change each diode’s color and brightness separately. It allows you to make a wide range of images and patterns.

Structural principles:

The micro LED display is simpler to put together than the mini LED display. It is because its LED board’s overall structure can be more straightforward. It is due to fewer concerns about weight and stress. So this technology is simpler to put together. But it is more complicated to make it work on a small scale.

Manufacturing:

Both mini and micro-LED systems use similar methods for manufacturing. However, mini LEDs tend to have a higher yield rate. Besides, more energy-efficient ways are present to make mini LED display lights.

Mini LED screens are easier to make in large quantities. It is because they are similar to the existing LEDs. Micro screens, however, are a new kind of technology. Instead, they usually require an investment in new manufacturing infrastructure.

Fields of application:

Mini LED displays are helpful in most applications right now. These include electronic devices, video games, car displays, and many more. Micro screens are also beneficial for the same things. As they are more expensive, mini LED displays are better in these situations. Micro-LEDs are great for things like virtual reality. It is more applicable where clarity is essential in a small space.

Mini LED Display

Reasons for the development of the mini LED display:

For smartphones:

For smartphones, mini LEDs are much better than traditional OLED technology. Backlit Mini LED displays are crystal clear and more petite than OLED displays. They also have better color representation. They keep their high contrast and magnificent brightness in high-end gaming monitors. Mini LEDs are 70–80% cheaper, considering the infrastructure cost. They also last longer. They don’t have the problems that traditional OLED screens do with “burn-in.”

The segment for cars:

We can see the car industry adopting mini screens for development. OLED displays can be too bright when viewed directly, but when viewed from the side, they can be too dim. It makes them dangerous for use in car displays. Mini LEDs are easy to control more precisely due to their brightness control.

On the television side:

In recent times, LCD TV technologies have lost ground to OLED technologies. As a result, their effectiveness and market share have reduced. This difference is evident in the financially viable part of television.

Mini LEDs give LCD screen makers a chance to get a second win in this market race. It allows them to make a product that can do better in the busy global market of today.

For LED screens with a direct view:

You can assemble mini displays with a “chip on board” (COB) architecture. You can control each mini LED’s brightness and color without an integrated driver. This type of integration makes it possible for this technology. This simple integration is helpful for narrow pixel pitch displays.

Mini LED Display

How does the technology behind a mini LED display work?

The mini LED backlight is behind the LCD substrate in a panel. Thousands of tiny LEDs make up this panel. You can turn it on or off, depending on the image. Most of the time, you group them into zones for responsiveness. In this way, the backlight matches up perfectly with the main idea.

In these local dimming zones, which run at the same rate as the LCD substrate, the TV turns them on and off. When a zone is out or barely lit, the area will look darker or black on the screen. When turned on, that part of the screen will be brighter.

Mini LED Display

The main advantage of using a mini LED display:

LED backlights in mini LED TVs are much smaller than in conventional LED TVs. So they can be much more precise. Mini LED TVs produce images that are more vibrant in color, darker in black levels, and brighter for HDR.

Mini LED televisions will be less accurate than OLED televisions. However, they will be a lot closer than currently available LED sets. Moreover, their price will be more reasonable than the finest OLED televisions.

Although modern OLED televisions are Ok, these are still susceptible to picture retention. It could result in irreversible screen burn in the worst possible scenarios.

Mini LED display’s prospects:

In addition to the many promising uses, there are numerous fields where you can use mini LEDs widely. For example, the entertainment industry is always looking for new technologies. The best movie theatres in the world have already moved on from projectors to LED screens. In the future, when customers want even better entertainment, mini LEDs will be the next step. The future of movie entertainment is a movie screen made from this technology.

The virtual reality sphere is another place where a mini display can be helpful for fun. In this field, it’s important to show photos and videos in a small space with a lot of detail. They are the best way to do this in a small headset or other areas. These ideas for the future of mini displays have one thing in common. This technology can make pixels smaller. It is what display developers of any kind will discuss in the future. It is where mini screens have an advantage.

Sunny Wong
Sunny Wong

Hello. I am Sunny Wong, the author of this post.

I entered the LED screen industry in 2008 and have always been in this field.

The purpose of this article is to share with you the knowledge related to LED screens from a Chinese supplier’s perspective.

If you want to distribute or explore your local LED screen market, please ask me any questions.

Get A Quick Quote

We would contact you within 12 Hours.