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…