Display Week: LG Display Demos 4th-Gen OLED That Can Push 4,000 Nits

May 15, 2025 by Dave Haynes

One of the primary knocks, for the longest time, with large format OLED displays has been brightness, but LG is at the screen-nerd Display Week event this week in Silicon Valley talking up what it describes as 4th-generation OLED panels that can push as much as 4,000 nits.

That is very bright – the sort of level needed for LCD displays operating in direct sunlight conditions. Ask a DOOH media company and they’ll say they look for 3,000-3,500 nits for outdoor scenarios.

More brightness means better visuals. Here’s how LG Display explains it: a “proprietary Primary RGB Tandem structure, which independently stacks RGB (Red, Green, Blue) elements to emit light. This enables a maximum luminance of 4,000 nits, the highest in the industry (with 1 nit being the brightness of a single candle). They feature a special film to express natural colors and brightness in any environment, achieving vivid colors and perfect blacks even in bright indoor spaces, as if watching in a dark movie theater.”

OLED displays have historically lagged behind its main rival tech – LCD flat panels – because OLEDs are based on organic materials that can degrade as they get pushed hard on brightness, because of the heat.

LG Display plans to accelerate its efforts to target premium markets with its fourth-generation OLED panels, such as AI TVs and Gaming OLEDs.

The fourth-generation OLED TV panel unveiled at SID Display Week 2025 perfectly implements AI TV features, such as upscaling that converts low-resolution content into overwhelmingly high picture quality. It also boosts energy efficiency by approximately 20% compared to the previous generation (based on a 65-inch panel), through enhancements in the element structure and power supply system.