Another Consumer Electronics Show, another chance for TV manufacturers to try to get you to buy a new TV whether you need one or not.
This is getting pretty ridiculous: Every year, Samsung, LG, Sony and plenty others try to sell us on some new display technology they claim we positively cannot live without. Five years ago, it was how quickly a TV refreshed its image (even if you can't really detect it), to be followed by 3-D, which can now be decisively called a flop. Then we got curved displays and 4K, or Ultra-High Definition (UHD), and now, this year, a new contender: quantum dots. It sounds like a delicious candy, but it’s actually a relatively arcane display technology that can produce more vibrant colors and darker blacks. Watch this video to learn more:
This is all very nice—great, even. But the question remains: Are people really dissatisfied with the image quality they’re currently getting out of the LCD and plasma TVs they bought in the past decade? The TV industry had a boom when we ditched our boxy CRTs for slim flat panels in the early 2000s, but they’re going to have to do better than quantum dots to get most of us to upgrade anytime soon.
