Samsung Electronics will build just 2–3 million quantum dot LCD TVs in 2026, down from about 10 million last year. That’s a cut of roughly 80%, South Korean trade outlet Electronic Times reports.
Samsung’s overall TV output, meanwhile, will stay close to 40 million units a year. In other words, demand isn’t falling. The company is reshaping its lineup.
Quantum dots have long been a calling card of Samsung’s premium TVs. These sets place a special quantum dot film (QD film) between the LCD panel and the backlight. The film widens the color gamut and makes the picture more vivid.
Samsung started moving away from the technology this year, when it dropped its entry-level QLED lineup. Those models were replaced by Mini LED TVs that have no quantum dot layer at all. Now the cuts have reached the rest of its quantum dot range.
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According to industry sources cited by Electronic Times, Samsung plans to halve Neo QLED production in 2027. It is weighing a complete exit from quantum dot LCD models starting in 2028. Instead, Samsung intends to move its most expensive TVs to Mini LED, and later to more advanced RGB Mini LED panels with separate red, green, and blue LEDs.
The outlet points to pressure from Chinese manufacturers as one reason for the shift. TCL, Hisense, and other brands have greatly expanded their range of affordable quantum dot TVs. As a result, the technology is no longer an exclusive perk of the premium segment.
The market has also been caught up in disputes over the QD label itself. Some manufacturers have been accused of selling TVs marketed as quantum dot models that contain minimal amounts of quantum dots, or none at all. In March 2026, Samsung won one such case against TCL in a Munich court after TCL failed to prove that its QLED-branded TVs used the relevant technology. The labeling fights cut both ways: in September, TCL sued Samsung in Los Angeles over marketing its M-series TVs as Mini LED.
