Battle of the OLEDs: LG and Samsung both unveil panels with 4,500 nit brightness claims — but there's a catch

• New panels promise peak brightness of up to 4,500 nits
• Real-world brightness is likely to be significantly lower
• Still a big improvement over existing panels

LG Display and Samsung Display have both had a bright idea: OLED panels that can put out 4,500 nits of peak brightness. That's a really big deal because the two firms provide the panels for pretty much everybody in the industry, so much brighter OLED TVs are on their way. But can you expect to get all those nits from your next TV?

The short answer is no, and the slightly longer answer is nooooooo. That's because the claimed peak brightness is what's technically possible, not what you'll actually get.

That's not to say these new panels aren't going to be (literally) brilliant. But you're not going to need sunglasses to watch Stranger Things just yet.

What are LG Display and Samsung Display's new panels?

We don't yet know what sizes these panels will be coming in, but rumors (via FlatpanelsHD) suggest that Samsung's new ultra-bright panels will top out at 77 inches and LG's at 83.

LG's new panel is the 2026 Tandem WOLED panel featuring the latest version of LG's Primary RGB Tandem technology, which stacks red, green and blue elements on independent layers to maximize light efficiency. The result, LG says, is that the new panel "achieves a peak brightness of up to 4,500 nits. It also incorporates advanced light-absorption and diffusion technology to minimize reflections, delivering the lowest reflection rate among existing displays of just 0.3 percent."

Samsung's 2026 QD-OLED panel, which is being showcased at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, features "newly optimized organic materials and supporting a peak brightness of 4,500 nits, among the highest brightness levels achieved for a self-emissive display."

It's all very impressive, but it's important to note that peak output figures are rather like peak Wi-Fi speeds: they're based on very specific circumstances in a testing lab, not what you'll see in your front room. So for example multiple TVs came out in 2025 with a claimed brightness of up to 3,500 to 4,000 nits, but in our tests they were calibrated to put out nearer 2,250 nits.

That means realistically we can expect the actual brightness levels of TVs using these panels to be close to 3,000 nits – not as bright at they're capable of delivering in perfect lab conditions, but still very bright compared to the panels of just a few years ago.

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