What’s RGB OLED and why is it important?

Samuel Buchmann

2/1/2026

Translation: Katherine Martin

LG and Samsung’s new panels resolve a problem associated with conventional OLED monitors. Not only that, but WOLED’s also catching up with QD-OLED when it comes to displaying colour.

At this year’s CES, the OLED divisions of LG and Samsung are showcasing panels with stripe-shaped RGB subpixels. Now, you might be thinking, «Hey, don’t all displays work with red, green and blue?» And that’s true – but not the way these displays do. Here’s an overview of the new technologies and their advantages.

The subpixel problem with previous OLEDs

There are two types of OLED on the market: WOLED, made by LG Display (LG Electronics’ display subsidiary), and QD-OLED, made by Samsung Display (Samsung’s display subsidiary). WOLED stands for «White OLED», while QD-OLED stands for «Quantum Dot OLED». You can read about the technologies in more detail in this article by my colleague, Luca. In a nutshell:

• On a WOLED, the panel’s OLED layer emits white light, which is then coloured by filters. A typical WOLED pixel consists of four such colour filters – the subpixels. In addition to red, green and blue, one of the subpixels is white. This increases peak brightness.
• On a QD-OLED, the OLED light is blue. A quantum dot layer then alters the wavelength of the light, changing its colour to red and green. A QD-OLED pixel has only three sub-pixels – red, green and blue. Until now, these have always been configured in a triangle formation, rather than arranged next to each other.

The subpixel structure used in previous WOLEDs and QD-OLEDs led to a problem with monitors. Windows and MacOS are set up for the subpixel arrangement used in classic LCDs: red, green and blue next to each other. Text is rendered so that it fits into that structure. If a monitor has a different subpixel layout, unsightly colour fringing shows up at high-contrast edges. This reduces the perceived sharpness of the image, especially text.

As a result, LG Display has started arranging its four WOLED subpixels differently in recent years, switching from red, white, blue and green (RWBG) to RGWB. This is already closer to the LCD layout (RGB) and causes less colour fringing, i.e. sharpens text. Samsung, on the other hand, has moved from a diamond-shaped formation to a rectangular formation for its subpixels. However, neither of these solutions is perfect.

Sharper text and richer colours with LG

That brings us to the newly announced panels. They have exactly the same sub-pixel structure as LCD: red, green and blue arranged next to each other in stripes. LG calls this «RGB stripe WOLED», while Samsung has dubbed it «V-Stripe QD-OLED».

Why didn’t they do this from the start? With QD-OLED, Samsung wanted to maximise the distance between subpixels to distribute heat loss as efficiently as possible. The manufacturer says it’s now managed to compensate for durability issues by enhancing the material enough to make V-Stripe QD-OLED possible.

With WOLED, LG previously had to prioritise brightness. This was because even with the white subpixel, it could only hit a full-screen brightness of around 250 nits. Now, however, LG’s switching to the new tandem WOLED backlight. This involves a stack of several OLED layers, allowing a panel with an RGWB layout to achieve a full-screen brightness of around 380 nits. One such example is LG’s new 39GX950B.

Tandem WOLED vs. Tandem OLED

The new names that LG has given its stacked OLED backlights are slightly confusing. Tandem WOLED is used in large displays such as TVs and monitors. In these devices, three levels of light-emitting diodes work together to produce a white light, which is then coloured by filters. So the «W» in «WOLED» – meaning «white» – still makes sense. As for Tandem OLED (without the «W»), two layers of diodes are stacked on top of each other, immediately emitting red, green and blue light. In other words, there’s no need for an additional colour filter. This is the concept behind small displays, such as smartphones or the iPad Pro.

RGB stripe WOLED is another way of utilising Tandem WOLED’s additional luminosity. Rather than being converted into a higher white peak brightness, it’s transformed into the perfect subpixel layout. Since this consumes more light, RGB stripe WOLED again only has a maximum brightness of 250 nits. At 10 per cent APL, it’s 500 nits. Meanwhile, at 1.5 per cent APL, it’s 1,000 nits.

Alongside sharper text, WOLED’s lack of a white subpixel boasts a second advantage – an advantage QD-OLED already had. Namely, that bright colours are displayed better. On WOLED screens with white subpixels, the saturation drops as colours get brighter. This is because the white light outshines it. With RGB stripe WOLED, this doesn’t happen.

The first panels with RGB OLED

LG introduced the new sub-pixel structure in a panel with a 27-inch diagonal and 4K resolution. The pixel density of 166 pixels per inch (ppi) is also new to WOLED. QD-OLED monitors with this pixel density are already on the market. The panel’s frame rate is 240 hertz, meaning it’ll also be suitable for gaming. It’s still unclear which manufacturer will integrate the panel into a finished monitor and when.

Samsung’s presenting V-Stripe QD-OLED in an ultrawide panel in 21:9 format. It has a 34-inch diagonal, a 360-hertz frame rate and a peak HDR brightness of 1,300 nits. There’s still no word on the full-screen brightness and resolution, but the latter’s likely to be 3,440 × 1,440 pixels (110 ppi pixel density). According to the company, the panel’s been supplied to monitor manufacturers since December 2025. These include Asus, Gigabyte and MSI. So far, neither these manufacturers nor Samsung’s own monitor department have presented a specific model.

Samuel Buchmann

Senior Editor

Samuel.Buchmann@digitecgalaxus.ch

My fingerprint often changes so drastically that my MacBook doesn't recognise it anymore. The reason? If I'm not clinging to a monitor or camera, I'm probably clinging to a rockface by the tips of my fingers.

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