LCD Panel Price Increases Threaten Black Friday TV Deals as Samsung Trims QLED Output

Samsung Display no longer makes LCD panels and LG Display has stopped making them, leaving major TV brands dependent on a small group of Chinese suppliers that now dominate the market: BOE, TCL CSOT and HKC. Those producers are not running at full capacity. Rather than increasing supply and potentially lowering prices, they are restricting production to contain oversupply and defend prices, according to The Elec.

TCL CSOT and HKC will raise prices on some products in September 2026, while BOE will increase prices in the fourth financial quarter, the report said. The Elec noted that concerns China's dominance of the LCD supply chain would translate into greater control over panel prices are becoming a reality.

The increases put large TV manufacturers in a difficult position. They will have already locked in LCD panel orders for Black Friday and the holidays, making it hard to change production plans. Price increases on panels used in affordable sets, which already have thin profit margins, could affect the TV deals available on LCD models this year. Giant-screen LCD TVs are currently a popular choice, so the change could have an outsized effect on that part of the market.

Samsung is also reportedly reducing QLED TV production sharply. According to ETNews, via FlatpanelsHD, the company is cutting QLED production from 10 million units to 2 million to 3 million units this year, a reduction of as much as 80%, and is considering dropping QLED altogether by 2028. QLED uses LCD panels with a layer of quantum dots to deliver better colors, and it launched as a more affordable and very bright rival to OLED. As the best OLED TVs have improved and taken a strong hold on the premium end of the market, QLED has become a technology seen often on budget models.

Samsung is shifting its focus to mini-LED-branded and Micro RGB LED TVs, according to the report. The high-end Neo QLED lineup is being cut as well. ETNews reported that Samsung Electronics' QD TV shipment plan this year has been significantly reduced to less than 30%, and that Neo QLED will produce only half of this year's volume next year before gradually stopping manufacturing.

In 2026, Samsung launched a new line of budget Mini-LED TVs that do not include QLED technology, including the Samsung M80H. TechRadar said it tested the M80H alongside a Samsung Neo QLED QN80H and found the M80H to be a clear step down in image quality. At the other end of the range, TechRadar reviewed the flagship Samsung R95H Micro RGB TV, which also does not use QLED, and found it to be a brilliant evolution of LCD technology.

Quantum dots are not dead, according to FlatpanelsHD. Samsung is continuing to invest in QD-OLED and in future technologies such as QD-EL, also known as NanoLED, which is essentially the quantum dot equivalent of OLED. But if Samsung is already wavering over the viability of its QLED screens, a rise in the panels it buys will probably be another nail in the coffin, TechRadar said.