The LED TV products being whisked around lately (used by Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, Philips, LG Electronics and Vizio) are the same type of LED backlit/edge-lit LCD TV’s Sony has in their television range. The phrase LED TV is a farce – it is a term exploited by some companies to increase the status of their brands in the mindshare of average consumers out there. It’s unfair for Sony, who truthfully advertises their various BRAVIA products as LED-backlit or edge-backlit LCDs, which some people may pass off as inferior to a LED TV. There is no difference, though.
Sony’s LED edgelit/backlit LCD’s are just as good, if not better than the competition. Check out this handy chart showing the differences on Sony models:
Seem confusing? LED’s are used for backlighting, instead of fluorescent lights. Light-emitting diode televisions (LED TVs) are LCD television sets that use LED as back light. LEDs in their current form are much too large to be individual pixels on a conventional television. The use of a true LED display is therefore reserved for much larger screens in sports grounds and other commercial locations.
Dynamic RGB LEDs which are positioned behind the panel (aka backlit). This method of backlighting allows dimming to occur locally creating specific areas of darkness on the screen. This means you see truer blacks and much higher dynamic contrast ratios. Edge lit (White Edge) LED’s are positioned around the rim of the screen which use a special diffusion panel to spread the light evenly behind the screen, like the Sony ZX1/XBR10. The edge lit method allows for LED-based TVs to become extremely thin. The light is diffused across the screen by a special panel which produces a superb uniform color range across the screen.
Here’s another chart showing the visual difference one would expect between a normal LCD, a LCD with edge-lit LED, and a LCD with backlit LED:
