The next big thing in TVs is RGB LED backlighting – it’s been clear that this would be the case since the technology was first unveiled back at CES 2025 in January, and all the major TV companies said they planned to support it.
Nearly a year later, the first of these TVs has hit the market in the US and UK courtesy of Hisense, and we’ve seen what the future RGB TV lineups from Samsung, LG, TCL and Hisense will look like. (Sony will launch a TV this year, but hasn’t revealed a final version yet, only prototypes.)
Samsung and LG are both calling the tech ‘Micro RGB’, while Hisense and TCL both call it RGB MiniLED – so far, at least.
So here’s what you need to know about the tech behind RGB TVs, and what to expect from the big TV makers vying to get these new models onto our coveted list of the best TVs – and we’ll hear even more details during CES 2026 in January.
What is ‘Micro RGB’ LED?
Regular LED and mini-LED screens work by shining a bright light of a single color through a grid of color-filtering pixels, which turn this light into the correct colors that each individual pixel needs to show, creating the final image you see.
Generally, the backlight is blue (through it’s occasionally white, or a mix of two tones), and each pixel uses liquid crystals to turn it whatever hue it needs to be. Quantum dots are also often used for changing the color.
The difference between LED and mini-LED is purely – as the names suggest – the size of the LED lights shining through the pixels. Smaller LEDs means you can have more of them – creating brighter and more evenly illuminated colors – as well as aiding the ability to selectively dim precise areas of the light, to help with improving contrast between light and dark section of the picture.
RGB LED TVs work just like other mini-LED TVs, in that a layer of tiny lights shines through a grid of color-changing pixels – but this time, the LEDs aren’t a single color. Each mini-LED has red, green and blue elements (hence the name), and can combine them to shine in basically the right color for that section of the screen even before the light hits the color-filtering pixels.
The pixels then still filter the colors to the precise final hue, but they’re doing much less work than in the older kind of mini-LED tech.
What are the benefits of this? First, it means a wider range of colors can be created by the TV. RGB TVs promise to be able to show way beyond 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is the coloring system used for HDR movies and TV, meaning they’ll show truly everything that creators could want you to see. Not only that, but they’ll also hit 100% of the BT.2020 color gamut, used for professional work.
It should also be more efficient than previous tech. Whenever you filter colors, you lose some energy in the process, reducing brightness. That’s partly why quantum dots are used – they lose less energy in the process than standard LCD pixels.
But if you don’t have to filter the colors as drastically, as is true in RGB TVs, you lose less energy. This means that these TVs can be even brighter than current TVs, or could hit the same brightness but with lower energy use.
And Sony told me that the tech should also help with bringing mini-LED’s handling of stark contrast areas even closer to what OLED can do. People love the best OLED TVs because each pixel generates its own light, and can be dimmed to total blackness, meaning true black can be one pixel away from dazzling brightness in the on-screen picture.
LED TVs struggle to match this because they have a big light shining behind the pixels – light leaks from the bright area into the dark areas, creating gray ‘halos’ where there should be total blackness.
But when the light shining behind the pixels changes colors, it’s less likely to leak – different light wavelengths are absorbed differently, so RGB TVs may get closer to the ‘perfect’ contrast of OLED.
What are Samsung’s Micro RGB TV plans?
Samsung showed me the first RGB TV I ever saw – a prototype at CES 2025 – and said that it planned to launch a TV before the end of the year. It just about met that claim, launching a 115-inch RGB model during 2025 – but it’s what’s coming next that’s most interesting, of course.
It appears that Samsung will launch multiple Micro RGB models, aimed at different budget levels: the MR95H will the highest-end, the MR90H will be premium but not as premium, and the MR85H will be the most affordable. How affordable, you ask? We’ve no idea yet, and probably won’t until spring 2026 – however, when I first saw the Samsung prototype, the company told me the tech shouldn’t be much more expensive to produce than current mini-LED tech. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if the first models are price like Samsung’s current highest-end mini-LED TVs.
Samsung promises that the TVs will hit 100% of the BT.2020 color gamut, and will feature a new Micro RGB AI Engine Pro image processor to make the most of the tech.
Notably, at least some of Samsung’s TVs will stand out by offering the company’s Glare Free screen coating – this is a matte finish on the screen, turning mirrored reflections to just a light haze, removing distractions in bright rooms. We loved this on the Samsung S95F OLED TV this year.
What are LG’s Micro RGB TV plans?
LG has revealed that it’s releasing a pretty high-end-focused ‘Micro RGB evo’ model of TV, with the model name MRGB95. Just like Samsung, the set promises 100% BT.2020 color coverage, but also 100% Adobe RGB color support.
It’s available in larger sizes only – 75, 86 and 100 inches – and promises “more than a thousand dimming zones” for local dimming, though current high-end mini-LEDs often have much more than that – though with RGB LED, maybe that won’t be necessary any more.
The TV will use a new-gen Alpha 11 Gen 3 processor – the most advanced in LG’s line-up to date – and will run webOS 26, its next generation of smart TV software.
LG has only announced one model, but FlatpanelsHD reports that two more are in the works: the MRGB9M and MRGB85. This could make its line-up look just like Samsung’s, with super-premium, premium and more affordable options. We’ll have to wait for the official word to find out more – including pricing.
What are Hisense’s RGB MiniLED TV plans?
Hisense hasn’t revealed its official plans for the US and UK yet, but so expect more to come – but it’s already announced its first RGB MiniLED line-up in China, so we know the core specs to anticipate when it brings the tech elsewhere.
It revealed the Hisense E8S Pro line-up in sizes that match LG: 75, 85 and 100 inches. Hisense promises over 6,000 nits of peak HDR brightness – not too different from current mini-LED TVs, but probably requiring less energy to achieve it.
Unlike Samsung and LG, we have some kind of price guidance to rely on here: the Chinese prices convert to around $2,335, $2,955 and $3,940 respectively – and for TVs of those sizes, that’s pretty affordable, though obviously prices might look quite different in the TVs for other countries.
Hisense is also notable here because it released a 116-inch RGB MiniLED this year, so our Hisense UX116 review is the first complete test we’ve done of one of this kind of TV. It impressed us in many ways, but fell short in one of the key areas we expected to see improvements: it had some problems handing dark areas. We’ll very interested to see if Hisense (and other companies) improve on this in 2026.
What are TCL’s RGB MiniLED TV plans?
Much like Hisense, TCL has unveiled its RGB models for China, but not the UK and US yet. But again, we can learn basically what to expect from these models, and they’re pretty juicy.
There will be two models: the Q10M Ultra, and the Q9M. Based on TCL’s standard naming conventions, we can assume that these are both pretty high up in TCL’s range – the TCL QM9K is its highest-end regular mini-LED in 2025, while there is a quite specialist TCL X11K above that.
The Q10M will be available from 85 to 115 inches, while the Q9M will come from 65 inches to 98 inches.
However, the Chinese price for the smallest version of the Q9M (65 inches) converts to just $1,150, while the Q10M Ultra starts from $3,935. That’s a very interest price for the cheaper model, though we’ll have to see if it translates elsewhere.
TCL says that there’s a potential 9,000 nits of brightness from the Q10M Ultra, with over 16,000 dimming zones in the largest size (putting LG’s claim of “more than a thousand” into perspective).
The Q9M will hit around 2,000 nits of brightness, and has up to 2,880 dimming zones. Both TVs will – and I don’t want to shock you here – apparently hit 100% of the BT.2020 color gamut.
What are Sony’s RGB TV plans?
- Sony has shown its RGB tech prototypes multiple times to us
- A launch is planned in 2026, but don’t expect it at CES
- No word on size, specs or anything else yet – but True RGB seems to be the name
We know Sony is planning to launch an RGB TV this year. I’ve seen an early version of it in action and grilled Sony execs about it. In the image above, you’re looking at Sony’s backlighting panel for this TV (I wasn’t allowed to take photos of the set itself).
But what will the final TV look like? When will we see it? What features will it have? The answer is: who knows! Sony has trademarked the name True RGB, though, so that’s something.
It appears that Sony isn’t planning to launch its TV at CES, which is no surprise – it didn’t last year. A spring announcement is more likely.
The interesting question is whether Sony will hit a brightness of around 4,000 nits. The company has told us multiple times since it launched its 4,000-nit studio monitor used for mastering movie HDR that it wants to deliver 4,000-nit home TVs so that you can have as close to the studio reproduction as possible.
And we know from Hisense and TCL’s TVs that mini-LED can achieve this… but Sony has a history of limiting the brightness of its TVs in order to nail better accuracy, so it’ll be interesting to see if this TV can be bright enough and accurate enough.
The best TVs for all budgets
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