OLED is great, but where are all the Mini LED laptops?

Enlarge / Working outside like this isn’t so easy on an OLED laptop with limited brightness. (credit: Maria Korneeva/Getty)

If I could have any type of display panel in my laptop, it would be Mini LED.

Sure, OLED is best at producing deep blacks and high contrast, but Mini LED is a powerful substitute. The potential for blooming still exists, but it’s not a huge deal on a small laptop screen. Meanwhile, there’s no burn-in risk, and I’d likely get better full-screen brightness when I want to take my laptop outside. Plus, the battery life of Mini LED screens is superior to that of OLED panels.

For the things I do most frequently on my laptop—working on Word documents and spreadsheets, reading, editing photos, and streaming video—the highest contrast ratio isn’t imperative. I’d settle for second-best if it meant other gains.