The TV industry is getting ready to take the boldest leap of color in decades: CES 2026 is already coming to pass as a year when RGB TVs put white LED backlights of traditional LCDs at the backburner, replacing them with individually adjustable sources of red, green and blue light to achieve the fidelity of color never seen before. In contrast to both QLED and mini-LED televisions, in which white or blue light is transformed into a complete spectrum of visible colors in layers of quantum dots, RGB television sets use thousands of microscopic LEDs to emit the true primary colors. Such an architecture does not only reproduce 100 percent of the visible color gamut, but provides even greater maximum brightness than OLED, without the contrast tradeoff typical of non-OLED displays.
The headliner action of Samsung is a declaration of technical superiority – the introduction of a 130-inch micro RGB TV with ultra-small LEDs of less than 100 micrometers. Samsung has crammed light sources much smaller than the 100500 u range of mini RGB and through its Micro RGB Engine Pro, it can adjust color and contrast scene by scene, giving it much finer control. Increased clarity is further promoted by the Neural Processing Unit powered by AI, which can even upscale the content of lower resolution with amazing accuracy. The ability to have homogeneous light distribution and constant thermal control at this size is an important engineering accomplishment, which makes this model a symbolic limit of the potential of RGB technology.
Another change is that 85-100 inch screen sizes are becoming a mainstream offering by LG countering with its “Micro RGB Evo” line in 75, 86 and 100 inch models. Formerly the domain of the 100-inch TV sets, the lineups of 2026 place it in the standard luxury segment. Samsung even The Frame, which was designed-oriented will now come in 98-inch version. It is also interesting how “small” is becoming in TV terms pricey technologies are now available in 32 to 55-inch models, including the 55-inch Micro RGB version by Samsung and the 32-inch S5 DécoTV by Hisense, a QLED art display at an affordable cost.
This democratization of high display technology is driven by production economies of scale. OLED, which seemed too expensive in previous years, has also had its cost of production of 65-inch panel drop to below $1000 in 2020 and it is projected to be under $500 in 2026. The yield gains and depreciation of the Guangzhou plant by LG Display have allowed the firm to get its costs cut by 30 percent every year. Even RGB LED backlights, according to an industry source, are themselves priced at about 400-600 per panel, which has put OLED and RGB LCD in the same price bracket of each other, which has the potential to boost competition pricing and adoption.
On the materials front, quantum dot technology has been developed further, becoming more efficient in conversion and with stability under high brightness. Quantum dots are no longer the main source of color in RGB televisions, but are used in hybrid designs, especially in mini RGB designs at TCL and Hisense. These Chinese producers are aiming at explosive growth in the market, as mini RGB has less technical requirements, they can provide ultra large screen at high-speedy price, and they can set themselves to be mass-adopted instead of holding a niche premium leadership.
Another frontier that is quickly being refined is backlight control. Full-array local dimming has been accepted in high-end art TVs, a product category that Samsung has been pioneering with The Frame. The new Gallery TV will combine miniLED and local dimming zones providing LG with better uniformity and black depth than The Frame Pro with edge lighting. TCL Nxtvision A400 Pro is not an exception, already operating in China and probably to be launched in the global market during CES. Such art-oriented exhibitions also include glare-reducing ambient light sensors and matte finishes, and subscription-based art collections, such as Gallery+ by LG with 4,500 pieces, including movie scenes and game artwork, updated every month, and even computer-generated images.
This is because engineering problems in the manufacture of RGB television are still a challenge. Micro RGB scaling to ultra-large dimensions requires fine steps and placement of millions of LEDs, efficient thermal solutions, and strong driver IC designs to control the behavior of individual pixels with no latency or non-uniform aging. Picture engines powered by AI are becoming a necessity, not only to upscale content but also to dynamically adjust the color to adapt to the environment and aging of panels.
It is not only a larger screen and nicer color, but also the coming out of RGB LED as a commercial reality, the reduction of price disparities between OLED and high-end LCD technologies, and the expansion of high-end display experiences not only to ultra-large sizes, but also to compact scales. To the tech-savvy consumer, and those who are in the industry, the event marks a turning point in the otherwise display engineering priorities, whereby RGB accuracy and smart backlight control are poised to re-brand what is meant by the term “premium” in home entertainment.
