Ever since I noticed my first RGB-backlit TV at CES 2025, from Samsung (immediately followed by Hisense and TCL later in the show), I have been actually bullish on the know-how’s potential — even going as far as to call it “a huge danger to OLED TVs”.
2026 is admittedly the 12 months of the RGB TV, with major launches coming from nearly every huge TV maker, and I have been actually excited by the fashions I’ve seen in previews, starting from Samsung’s first-of-its-kind 130-inch RGB TV to Panasonic’s tease of a future RGB model it may launch, to Hisense’s UR9 RGB TV that’s unique by offering a DisplayPort connection, to Sony’s demonstration of the tech it plans to launch in 2026.
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They are not even right here and so they’re too complicated
A significant a part of the issue is that there are already simply too many variations — or doable variations — and concerns to trace.
You may learn our full explanation of RGB-backlit TVs here. Nonetheless, the gist is that as a result of it makes use of a colourful backlight, which means it might ship a wider vary of colours than common mini-LED and might have much less mild bloom from vivid areas to darkish space probably, as a result of colours do not at all times leak as clearly (as my colleague Jake Krol noted on his more recent trip to see Sony show off its RGB tech again).
So, it is a new know-how that is higher than common mini-LED, proper? It is essentially the most premium tech, able to tackle the best OLED TVs?
Properly, not in accordance with TCL, which is including two RGB TVs in its new TV range, and neither of them is its flagship TV. The flagship is the TCL X11L, which makes use of a new-and-improved model of normal mini-LED tech to deliver some impressive results compared to other mini-LED models in our testing.
This is what’s most complicated: one of many RGB TVs that TCL is launching is its second-fanciest mannequin, sitting just under the X11L, however the different is one among its least-premium fashions, sitting beneath its mid-range 7-series mini-LED TVs, on account of its restricted variety of dimming zones and middling brightness.
LG can also be launching RGB TVs, which could come as a shock on condition that it is the standard-bearer for OLED. Properly, guess what? It is positioning its RGB TVs beneath the LG G6 and LG C6 OLED TVs within the vary, and it actually simply appears to be providing them so it might present an inexpensive, larger-screen possibility than its OLEDs can ship.
Philips is equally launching an RGB TV mannequin that appears to switch the mini-LED fashions it is at all times had that sit beneath the OLEDs in its product vary, so it is the identical deal there.
So all three of those corporations suppose that RGB TVs will not be going to be the flagship. However Hisense disagrees! Its flagship TV this 12 months is an RGB TV, and the TV just under that will even use RGB tech, after which it switches to common mini-LED tech when you get to the mid-range U7-series (which looks great this year thanks to a new anti-reflective layer).
Samsung can also be making RGB TVs the flagship of its LED vary, with mini-LED models only coming in lower down the range with the QN80H and below (including some models that are mini-LED without QLED, which genuinely shocked me).
Besides Samsung has a sort of break up flagship TV persona as of late: is the flagship the Samsung R95H RGB TV, or is it the Samsung S95H/S99H elite OLED TV (which has impressed us in our early testing at home)? It is principally each!
Sony will launch its ‘True RGB’ TV someday this 12 months, however we do not know what the value will probably be, or the way it will examine to the Sony Bravia 8 II OLED TV within the line-up — however I count on it to sit down above it, based mostly on Sony’s pursuit of 4,000 nits reference-quality TVs to match its studio screens.
So to recap, is RGB tech the brand new premium OLED-killer tech? Properly, LG and Philips appear to suppose it is not, and OLED continues to be the highest canine. Samsung hasn’t chosen a aspect. TCL does not like OLED anyway, and but nonetheless says RGB tech does not even beat its personal mini-LED tech.
Solely Hisense is totally dedicated, and is even eradicating its sole OLED TV from sale in 2026.
So what is the common TV purchaser purported to suppose? Clearly, the TechRadar TV group goes to be testing them to work out that are certainly very premium and which must be real options to OLED because the premium TV choose… however for somebody who’s simply attempting to grasp the choices out there to them and degree of high quality you get from a specific sort of know-how, the RGB launch seems to be like a complete fumble.
And that is earlier than you get to attempting to reckon with what’s within the panels themselves.
Not all RGB tech is created equal, most likely
Since mini-LED launched round 2021, the know-how has develop into… difficult. There isn’t any rule on what could be known as “mini-LED,” so among the TVs marketed that manner at present are simply TVs we might have often called direct-LED TVs prior to now. Samsung even launched edge-lit TVs that it markets as mini-LED, which I believe is pushing the definition too far.
But in addition, do you get higher outcomes from one thing with very small LEDs packed in, however horrible management of sunshine bleeding from one space to a different, or from one thing with greater LEDs in fewer zones, however with higher shaping of the sunshine because it passes via the panel?
At first, the know-how was very samey, but it surely’s developed into one thing advanced over time with 1,000,000 methods to method its easy idea.
RGB TVs are launching with a ton of confusion across the particular implementation already in-built, despite the fact that they provide such a transparent unique idea (of getting a colourful backlight as an alternative of a single coloration).
For instance, do you know that some RGB TVs won’t really use purple, inexperienced, and blue LEDs in every backlight factor, as is the entire promise of the know-how? There are variations of the tech that use two LEDs (blue and inexperienced) with a phosphor coloration filter to create the total vary of hues. This could be cheaper to make, however it’ll certainly carry out much less nicely.
Sony has been making a big fuss about how its upcoming TV will have individual red, green, and blue LEDs for each backlight element, as a result of it is a premium piece of tech. Sony appears to be briefing towards different manufacturers that could be reducing corners, to clarify that its (most likely high-priced) TV is well worth the money.
Who could be launching a less expensive TV that cuts corners this fashion? Most individuals would most likely guess the Chinese language manufacturers which were undercutting the likes of Sony and Samsung on worth for years.
However Hisense is doing the very same briefing as Sony towards unnamed opponents who could use the cheaper model. The corporate informed me that its two new RGB TVs use all three LED colours, not like some that could be utilizing the dual-LED system.
Okay, what about TCL? The corporate actually will get some side-eye from TV lovers following the result of a lawsuit saying that it can’t call certain TVs “QLED” anymore. Properly, TCL informed me explicitly that its higher-end RGB mannequin not solely makes use of all three RGB LEDs, but it surely really has two of every LED per factor to supply higher mild efficiency.
The corporate mentioned that the purple factor even makes use of a person management chip per purple LED, as a result of the purple wavelength wants essentially the most cautious administration. For inexperienced and blue, the 2 LEDs are every managed by one chip.
Now, Sony’s made a giant tune and dance about having one LED per coloration, and TCL’s out right here with two LEDs per coloration — who’s the extra premium now, eh, Sony? The reply is: I do not know! We would have to check each, however this entire factor leaves me exhausted slightly than excited a couple of new know-how that hasn’t even launched but. A number of corporations are pointing fingers at others for reducing corners, however everybody can also be efficiently emphasizing how they’re completely not reducing corners.
The excellent news is that it must be very apparent if TVs are utilizing the cheaper system as soon as we get them in our labs, as a result of the spectrum energy distribution of a TV display screen is sort of a fingerprint for various applied sciences, because it measures the inherent luminance of various wavelengths inside the panel, which will get adjusted for the content material.
However the factor is, we’re not even carried out with the know-how being complicated but, as a result of at CES in 2026, Hisense actually did not present its two new RGB TVs in any respect, as an alternative opting to point out the subsequent model of the tech, which is not RGB anymore. It is RGBC, as a result of the corporate is seemingly including a cyan LED along with the purple, inexperienced, and blue.
Am I enthusiastic about this? I do not know, man, why do not you let me see what I consider the RGB ones first!
And I have not even talked about how RGB TVs will typically “coloration zones” as an alternative of the “dimming zones” you get with mini-LED, that means it’s good to divide the variety of coloration zones by three with the intention to get the equal quantity to easy dimming zones, as a result of coloration zones depend all three RGB parts as independently dimmable (however that is foolish, as a result of we solely care in regards to the variety of zones by way of their capability to show issues black).
What do you inform folks in your personal promoting?
Look, it is clearly nice that the TV world is extra revolutionary and aggressive than it is ever been proper now. It is going to imply higher outcomes and cheaper TVs for folks shopping for them, so I am removed from mad about all this.
However I am bemused, as a result of the TV corporations are making it each tougher for themselves and for me by rolling this tech out in such a chaotic method.
Take Hisense, valiantly betting on RGB as being the flagship top-of-the-line TV. It’ll certainly simply promote that RGB is the very best you may get — good and simple, proper? Besides TCL will supply an RGB TV that massively undercuts each of Hisense’s TVs, so Hisense’s personal promoting may fit towards it as a result of it makes that TV look extremely tempting compared to its personal — and each corporations have opted to call their variations of the know-how ‘Mini RGB’, in order that they’ll sound extremely just like most individuals.
When somebody asks me whether or not one sort of TV know-how is best than the opposite, and even simply whether or not one thing is sweet for a specific goal, I can usually give a succinct reply, even when it begins with ‘relies upon’.
I actually do not know the right way to reply with RGB tech this 12 months. I will most likely have to inform folks to disregard the identify and simply consider it as mini-LED due to how interspersed it’s with mini-LED tech between completely different producers at related costs.
However that looks as if such a waste of a brand new display screen know-how, does not it? OLED has such a easy dominance of branding as the premium TV tech, and RGB might have challenged it, however collectively, the branding has been diluted earlier than it even launched totally.
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