Samsung Display debuts 'QuantumBlack' coating for QD-OLED monitors — screen tech boosts ambient black levels while reducing glare

QD-OLED displays have been some of the best monitors you can buy for a few years due to their incredible color volume, but the tech has struggled with rising black levels since its debut. Anytime a light source is shining or reflecting off the panel, it starts to look purple and loses contrast. Samsung Display is finally addressing this issue with its new "QuantumBlack" screen coating that brings along several key upgrades.

QuantumBlack is the branding for a film that the company is applying at the factory for every QD-OLED panel produced. That means new QD-OLED monitors from other vendors will also come with it as long as the monitor is a 2026 model. For instance, Asus calls it "BlackShield Film," AOC has labeled it "DarkShield 3.0," MSI named it "Dark Armor," and Gigabyte chose "Obsidian Shield."

Nomenclature aside, Samsung says the QuantumBlack film reduces light reflections by 20% compared to previous-gen products, while improving black depth under ambient light. The company didn't provide specific numbers for how much more contrast these new panels can retain, but there are plenty of hands-on videos on YouTube — the difference is definitely noticeable, and the monitors do look darker.

The black level raise issue is exclusive to QD-OLED due to a lack of a polarizer in the OLED stack. Samsung Display chose to do this to preserve brightness and color depth, but it comes with its side effects. The light hitting the panel reflects more than it would on WOLED, and mixes with the pixels that are turned off (black pixels) to make the panel look washed out. You see a purple/magenta tint because QD-OLED uses a blue layer as its base.

Apart from countering black level raise, the new QuantumBlack coating also improves the surface hardness from 2H to 3H for better durability. QD-OLED panels are known to be exceptionally prone to (micro)scratches; you'll find thousands of Reddit threads disagreeing over how to clean one of these displays, so, it's nice to see Samsung Display make strides in this department. The company even claims the coating is resistant to fingernail scratches.

With every new OLED monitor generation, we usually look for more major upgrades like the new RGB striped layouts from both LG and Samsung, but small changes like a better screen coating can add up to big differences.

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