What Does 'Neo' Mean On Samsung TVs?

Buying a new TV can be an endless exercise of decoding acronyms. Brands like Samsung are constantly introducing new picture features, and many of these lighting and panel technologies have long, complex names. If you've been shopping for a new TV, you may have seen or heard the word "Neo" used to describe a Samsung TV. With this context in mind, Neo is simply the term Samsung uses to describe Mini LED backlighting, which improves brightness and color accuracy. 

Mini LED has been around for several years, and the lighting tech isn't exclusive to Samsung; brands like Sony, Hisense, and TCL use Mini LED, too. But when you buy a "Neo" Samsung TV, you're also investing in the company's Neo QLED technology (great, more acronyms). 

"QLED" is actually a universal acronym shared by many TV makers, and it stands for Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diode. These quantum dots are tiny particles used to enhance an LED-LCD TV's brightness and colors. In 2021, Samsung started using Mini LED illumination on its QLED TVs — along with advanced local dimming — to deliver contrast levels and lighting details unheard of at the time. Samsung would spend the next five years perfecting its Neo QLED technology, which is now available in 4K and 8K displays. 

We wouldn't blame you for wanting to give up on TV shopping altogether; there's a dizzying amount of sets on the market, and no QLED or OLED is created equal. That said, Samsung's Neo QLED moniker represents one of the top LED-LCD lineups you'll find in stores and online. These are excellent TVs for brightly lit rooms, as the powerful LED lighting is able to overcome glare from most ambient light sources.

Thanks to Mini LEDs and local dimming, Samsung's Neo QLED TVs also do a great job at reducing haloingwhich is when lighting from one area of the panel accidentally spills into a zone it shouldn't. This is a common issue that most LED TVs will struggle with in one form or another, and is often most evident around closed captioning and subtitles, especially during darker scenes.

Samsung's Neo QLED TVs also use the company's most advanced processor for picture refinements and upscaling, so your dust-caked DVD collection with low picture quality has a chance at a new life with improved resolution. Neo QLEDs are fantastic TVs for gaming, too, especially if you plan on hooking up a PS5, Xbox Series X|S, or a graphics-hungry PC. HDMI 2.1 is supported across all Neo QLED inputs, which means that console and computer gameplay are able to take advantage of HDMI features like variable refresh rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM).