QDEL Was Hiding in Plain Sight at CES 2025

I honestly don't think a single video I  put out from CES didn't include some form   of this question: "Hey Caleb, any news on  QDEL? " To be fair, in my CES preview video,   I did tease that I had news about QDEL.  But as you've probably noticed by now, I've been silent about it. Well, there's  a story behind that, and I'm happy to   report that the story ends with QDEL having  made far more progress than I'd expected. But should we still be excited? I mean,  between the advancements we saw in OLED   panels and mini-LED backlighting technology, does QDEL still have its own chapter in the   annals of display advancement, or will it end up  being more of a footnote? Let's talk about it. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Caleb Denison,  and let's do a quick QDEL catch-up, shall we? So, QDEL is another annoying  tech acronym that stands for   "Quantum Dot Electroluminescent."  What it is, in practical terms,   is a display made up of quantum dots that  make light when you apply electricity to them. Right now, if you hear about quantum dots in your  TV, they're usually tiny nanoparticles that glow   a certain color when you shine light on them—they  glow sympathetically. That's what's happening in   a QD-OLED, or quantum dot OLED, TV. You have blue  OLED lights shining on quantum dots that glow red   or green in response to that blue light being  shown on them, and thus you get an RGB display. In an LCD-based display, like an LED or  mini-LED backlit TV, the quantum dots   help make very bright, near-perfect white light,  which expands the color gamut and color volume of   those TVs. But again, in that scenario, they're  like helpers—they don't make their own light. In a QDEL display, though—or Nano LED, if  you insist—the quantum dot nanoparticles   make their own light. So, in many ways, a QDEL display is going to have all the   benefits of an OLED display but with none of  the drawbacks—or at least that's the dream.   Perfect blacks, exacting color, high color  brightness, instant pixel response time, all without the risk of burn-in, and with a  presumably much longer lifespan than OLED. Now, the display nerd community, of  which I am a proud card-carrying member, has been looking forward to QDEL since  the tech was floated as a possibility.   But it wasn't until last year at CES 2024  that the public ever saw it in action. And   that's because I got let into a secret back  room at the last second to see a prototype   that was not being shown to the public.