The television market is experiencing a new technology arms race. Giants like Samsung, LG, and Hisense are locked in a fierce battle, making ‘RGB’ the new frontline. With a dizzying array of acronyms — from OLED and Mini LED to the emerging RGB variants — buying a new TV can be overwhelming.
This guide seeks to demystify the latest display technologies and help you understand what truly matters for your ultimate viewing experience.
Micro RGB and RGB mini LED
RGB technology has become the battlefront in the premium TV wars and the biggest innovation unveiled at CES — the world’s biggest consumer electronics show — in Las Vegas this month. Manufacturers are abandoning traditional white or blue backlighting and colour filters, instead using microscopic red, green, and blue (RGB) LEDs to produce pure colour directly.
This refinement is primarily aimed at solving the peak brightness limitations of older, self-emissive displays like OLED.
But it comes in two variants, which can be confusing. First, there is micro RGB. This is a refinement of LED technology that employs sub-100μm red, green, and blue LEDs to achieve extreme brightness and precise colour control.
It is positioned to combine the perfect blacks of OLED with the high brightness and longevity of inorganic LEDs. Samsung unveiled a massive 130-inch micro RGB TV, designed to look less like a television and more like a “vast, immersive window.” LG is also committing to this technology, focusing on micro RGB for the Australian market and skipping the less-distinctive mini RGB step.
So what’s mini RGB? Chinese-owned Hisense claims to be the originator of this variant, which is an elevated transmissive display.
Hisense is taking its RGB mini LED further by introducing a fourth backlight colour, ‘Sky Blue – Cyan,’ which it claims expands the colour spectrum and provides greater precision. This technology forms the foundation of the new flagship 116-inch UX TV series.
OLED
OLED is long considered the gold standard for image fidelity, primarily due to its ability to produce perfect black.
Each tiny pixel is a self-illuminating element made of organic material. Each one can be individually switched completely off.
When a pixel is off, it produces zero light, resulting in an infinite contrast ratio. This delivers stunning depth and realism. OLEDs also boast extremely fast response times.
But OLEDs generally have lower peak brightness than LED-based sets. There is also a potential for permanent image retention or “burn-in” due to the degradation of their organic materials, a challenge that manufacturers like LG are attempting to solve with innovations like ‘hyper radiant colour technology’ to increase luminance up to 3.9 times brighter than conventional OLEDs.
Mini LED and QLED
These screens still rely on a separate backlight shining through an LCD layer to create the image.
Mini LED is an evolution of traditional LCD technology. It uses thousands of tiny LEDs for the backlight, grouped into hundreds or thousands of local dimming zones for better black control. Its strength is very high peak brightness, which is excellent for vibrant high dynamic range content, and it significantly reduces light spill or ‘blooming’ compared to standard LEDs.
QLED or quantum dot LED is Samsung’s branding for an LED-backlit LCD panel that uses a layer of quantum dots. These microscopic crystals produce highly pure and vibrant colours when hit by the LED backlight. QLEDs are known for their excellent colour volume and very high peak brightness.
But like all transmissive technologies, they cannot achieve the perfect black levels of self-emissive displays like OLED or micro RGB.
The AI battleground
The true battleground for 2026 is the integration of artificial intelligence processors and platforms, turning the TV from a passive viewing device into a highly personalised, intelligent hub.
Why do you need AI in your TV? AI processors are used to upscale older content to 4K/8K, enhance picture quality, and perform simultaneous image processing.
Then there is personalisation. Generative AI platforms, like Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, are being integrated to allow users to better search for content and ask questions about what they are watching.
Furthermore, AI sound controllers can offer customised audio experiences, such as muting commentators while preserving crowd noise during sports events, or vice-versa.
Bottom line
While OLED remains the king of contrast, the massive investment and innovation in RGB technologies mark them as the most aggressive in the quest for the ultimate combination of contrast, colour purity, and extreme brightness.
The author travelled to Las Vegas with assistance with Samsung, LG and Hisense.
This article first appeared in The Australian as What is RGB and why is it the new frontline in the TV war for your living room
