5050 LED, Explained Fast: When to Use It, When to Walk Away

“Specify the die map today and you won’t be swapping strips at 2 a.m. tomorrow.”

Problem — Quotes say “5050 SMD—super bright,” but they don’t say which 5050. RGB? Singlewhite? DualCCT? You guess, you sweat.

Agitate — Pick the wrong reel and a retail aisle looks flat, a pixel wall looks patchy, or a heat spot cooks your PCB. Freight, reinstalls, and apologetic emails devour margin.

Solution — Use the five buyer checks below. You’ll define 5050 precisely, compare brighter substitutes, calculate honest lumens, choose the right beam angle, and paste bulletproof RFQ text into every order.Lock this checklist once and every XGM pallet—RGB pixels or white flood boards—lands bright, cool, colortight, and almost RMAproof.

Why “5050” Is Only a Size Code

On paper, 5050 looks authoritative. In reality, it only declares 5.0 mm × 5.0 mm footprint—performance depends on the dice hidden inside, their current, and the thermal path below them.

Common 5050 personalities:

Confusing these causes the three classic failures we see in audits:

Underlux installs — RGB shipped where highflux white was required.

Thermal runaway — singlewhite 5050 placed on thin FR4, +25 °C board rise.

Spec gap — lab 25 °C numbers quoted for a 45 °C field reality.

Below, each subsection gives a 30word hook, a searchintent snippet (≥200 words), an image slot, and a deeper dive (≥200 words) with buyer language you can paste into POs.

1 ▸ What does 5050 LED mean?

It’s just a 5 mm square shell that may hold 3×RGB, 1×white, or 2×CCT dice. Performance swings with that choice.

TriRGB 5050s mount three small dies on a shared frame. Forward voltages split by channel: red ≈ 2.0–2.2 V, green/blue ≈ 3.0–3.3 V. Drive 18–20 mA per channel for clean blending. These parts excel when pixel density matters more than lm/W.Singlewhite 5050s swap in a single ~1.1 mm die. They deliver more white lux per package than RGB, but they must dump heat quickly—plan 60–100 mA continuous on MCPCB or heavy copper.DualCCT versions put two halfsize dice under one phosphor dome to slide from 2700 K to 6500 K using two channels. They’re perfect for retail where “warm in the morning, cool in the afternoon” sells more product—but they are not a dropin RGB substitute.

Copypaste RFQ lines

Die map: “3×RGB / 1×White / 2×CCT.”

Thermal resistance (RθJB): ≤ 15 K/W (RGB), ≤ 10 K/W (white).

Lens: silicone preferred; epoxy allowed only for indoor, noUV installs.

Binning: white ≤ 3step MacAdam; RGB wavelength spread < 2 nm.

Reliability packet: LM80 ≥ 10,000 h @ 85 °C / 65 mA; 85/85 1,000 h; H₂S 3 ppm/72 h; thermal shock −40 ↔ +105 °C, 1,000 cycles.

Traceability: Xray one reel per lot.

These lines stop mislabeled reels at the dock and make vendors match your spec—not the other way around. More drafting help: RFQ template.

2 ▸ What is brighter than 5050 LED?

For white light, a 0.2 W 2835 flipchip beats singlewhite 5050 on lm/W and board temperature. RGB density is still a 5050 strength.

Benchmark at 5000 K, 80 CRI, 100 mA:

Why the gap? 2835 uses a short optical cavity and a copper slug with low thermal resistance (~2.4 K/W). Many 5050 whites sit closer to 3.5 K/W, so heat tax rises as current climbs. If you need long, bright, continuous white runs—shelves, troffers, coves—2835 usually wins. If you need tight pixel pitch and color effects, 5050 RGB stays your best value.

A Northeast retailer tested 5050 white vs. XGM 2835 (96 LED/m, 24 V):

Board temperature: 54 °C → 46 °C

Field lm/W: 138 → 176

Flicker index @ 5 % dim: 0.22 → 0.07

90day service calls: 9 → 1

The CFO liked the energy line; the ops team liked the quiet phone. Still, their RGB windows stayed 5050 because three dies in one footprint gave clean color at 16 mm pitch. Decision tree: choose the package.

3 ▸ How many lumens is a 5050 LED?

Ballpark: RGB ≈ 95–100 lm at 20 mA/channel; singlewhite ≈ 45–50 lm at ~0.18–0.20 W—then expect ~8–10 % loss on a 45 °C board.

RGB 5050 @ 25 °C, 20 mA/channel

Singlewhite 5050

60 mA (≈ 0.18 W): ~28–30 lm

100 mA (≈ 0.29 W): ~45–50 lm (MCPCB recommended)

On thin FR4, the same 100 mA can push the board ΔT +25 °C. That heat shows up later as lumen droop and peachtinted whites. Plan aluminum extrusion or step to 3030 if you must drive hard.

Test at two temperatures:

25 °C lab — sanity check and bin confirmation.

45 °C board — true field baseline.

Document both in your quote. Buyers who adopted a “45 °C flux” column cut RMAs by double digits because expectations matched reality. Quick tool: lumendrop calculator.

4 ▸ What is the angle of 5050 LED lights?

Stock silicone domes throw ~120° FWHM. Frost to ~150° for wall wash, or clip a PMMA TIR lens to ~30°—but leave ~8 mm height.

RGB prefers wide beams: 120° helps color blend. White task lighting often wants 60°; bollards and spot accents like 30°. Options:

Frost / sand the dome → smoother halos, ~5 % flux loss, FWHM ≈ 150°.

Aluminum channel optics → ~60° task beam without extra height.

Snapon TIR cups → tight 30° punch, 2–3× center candela, +8–9 mm zspace.Optics reveal sins: if RGB die spacing exceeds ~0.4 mm, narrow lenses can show color fringing. Always remeasure FWHM and Δu′v′ after lens changes.Example: a Chicago path light added 30° TIR cups to 5050 whites—center lux tripled, fixture height grew 9 mm. A SoHo art wall simply frosted domes—lost 5 % flux, gained buttery uniform halos. Beam planning sheets: optics math kit.