What are Micro RGB TVs and why are they everywhere at CES 2026?

Micro RGB TVs first arrived last year pinch small fanfare and a confusing name, truthful you whitethorn person mistaken it for different sheet tech aliases not moreover noticed. That is not apt to beryllium nan lawsuit this year, though — it’s nan basking caller “luxury” show exertion and is all complete nan place astatine CES 2026. So why do we moreover request these caller TVs and really are they different from OLED, Micro LED and Mini LED models? Here’s really it useful and really it compares.

A little history of level sheet show tech

To amended understand Micro RGB, it helps to spot really level sheet show exertion has evolved complete nan past 20 years. The first LCD TVs utilized liquid crystals that go transparent to ray erstwhile voltage is applied, letting a rear backlight radiance done arsenic a pixel. Those pixels harvester to create moving aliases still images, pinch colour created via an RGB select furniture placed successful front.

The main problem is that LCD crystals fto immoderate ray partially leak through, truthful blacks are acheronian grey alternatively of axenic black. And for a backlight, early LCD TVs utilized a achromatic surface lit by dim and power-hungry fluorescent lights, which caused uneven ray distribution. And finally, nan RGB select colour furniture reduced a panel’s brightness.

The adjacent measurement up, then, was to usage LED backlights instead, placed astatine first astatine nan edges of nan achromatic surface and past later straight down it (the first TV pinch this tech was Sony’s 2004 Qualia). That added nan benefits of higher brightness, little powerfulness consumption, improved colour equilibrium and moreover ray distribution. It besides allowed individual dimming zones that amended opposition by allowing near-pure blacks successful protector areas of an image.

Quantum dot (QD) exertion came connected nan segment astir 2013 pinch Sony’s Triluminos televisions. This type of LCD sheet employs a semiconductor nanocrystal furniture (rather than an RGB select layer) that tin nutrient axenic monochromatic red, green, and bluish ray erstwhile struck pinch a bluish backlight. Unlike erstwhile LCDs, they connection higher brightness and colour accuracy acknowledgment to nan purity (narrowness) of nan guidelines RGB colors. The best-known TVs utilizing this tech are Samsung’s QLED models.

The latest improvement of QD LED exertion is Mini LED. That combines nan accuracy of quantum dot tech pinch hundreds aliases moreover thousands of LED dimming zones. Those models connection precocious brightness and colour accuracy on pinch bully contrast, but still don’t present cleanable blacks and tin show “blooming” successful scenes pinch agleam points of ray owed to leakage into neighboring pixels.

Both of those problems were solved pinch OLED technology, which first came connected nan marketplace successful 2007 pinch Sony’s XEL-1 model. The panels are made utilizing sheets coated pinch integrated LEDs, each paired pinch a transistor that tin move nan LED connected aliases off. On regular OLED TVs, OLED pixels are achromatic and a select furniture generates colors, overmuch arsenic pinch LED TVs. However, pinch QD-OLEDs, OLED pixels are bluish and colour is created via a quantum dot layer, for illustration LED QD displays. The latest type of QD-OLED featured on respective caller monitors astatine CES 2026 (Samsung’s 5th-gen QD-OLED) uses an RGB stripe shape to trim colour “fringing” connected text.

This is nan first, and still nan only wide commercialized TV tech that tin move its ray root disconnected connected a pixel-by-pixel basis, allowing cleanable achromatic levels and near-infinite contrast. However, owed to their integrated nature, OLED TVs suffer from a deficiency of brightness and nan imaginable for “burn-in” that tin termination pixels.

There is different type of self-illuminating tech called Micro LED. Rather than organic, it uses microscopic inorganic LEDs to shape nan individual pixel elements. Those tin besides beryllium turned connected aliases disconnected individually, truthful they connection nan aforesaid axenic blacks and sky-high opposition arsenic OLED. At nan aforesaid clip they’re perchance brighter than OLED and don’t suffer from burn-in. The tech is still prohibitively costly to manufacture, though, truthful nary person arrived to marketplace different than Samsung’s The Wall, which costs a cool $40,000.

Micro RGB

Before talking astir Micro RGB, let’s look astatine colour abstraction and gamut some for HDR, which uses nan BT.2020 standard, and SDR, commonly associated pinch nan REC.709 standard. REC.709 is perfect for regular HD contented for illustration TV broadcasts and YouTube videos. It tin show a constricted group of colors and brightness is mostly capped astatine 100 nits.

BT.2020, however, is designed for high-end HDR streaming and 4K aliases 8K contented creation (via Dolby Vision, HDR 10 aliases HDR10+). It has a overmuch wider colour gamut, meaning it tin show a wider assortment of colors and a bigger chunk of nan visible colour spectrum. It’s besides designed for importantly higher brightness levels of 1,000 nits aliases more.

To execute nan colour accuracy required for BT.2020, TVs must person highly meticulous red, greenish and bluish pixels. Up until past year, nan astir color-accurate TVs utilized quantum dot exertion and achieved a maximum of astir 85 percent BT.2020 sum (some projectors tin screen 100 percent aliases much of nan BT.2020 spectrum arsenic they usage RGB lasers to create colors).

That brings america to Micro RGB (also known arsenic RGB Mini LED), nan astir precocious LED sheet yet. Unlike nan azygous achromatic aliases bluish backlights recovered connected Mini LED models, it features individually-controlled, precise red, greenish and bluish LED backlights that radiance done a liquid crystal layer. It besides offers much section dimming zones. The nett consequence is higher colour accuracy and amended opposition than regular Mini LED displays, but pinch perchance greater brightness than OLED. Since each pixel still can’t beryllium turned connected and disconnected for illustration OLED aliases Micro LED, though, opposition falls short of those technologies.

So far, location is 1 and only 1 Micro RGB TV connected nan market, Samsung’s 115-inch 4K MR95F model. The colour accuracy is awesome pinch 100 percent sum of nan challenging BT.2020 HDR standard, an industry-first and immense leap complete quantum dot tech. That intends it tin nutrient billions of colors natively and show a higher percent of them successful nan visible spectrum than immoderate TV to date.

Samsung near retired a fewer cardinal specs for illustration nan section dimming area count, only saying that it has 4 times much than its similarly-priced 115-inch Q90F QLED exemplary (so apt astir 3,600). The institution besides grounded to disclose nan full brightness successful nits, but nan fig should beryllium awesome fixed nan imaginable of Micro RGB.

We were gobsmacked pinch nan MR95F Micro RGB exemplary successful person. Engadget editor Sam Rutherford said it produced “stunningly rich | and vivid colors that put Samsung’s different top-tier TVs to shame,” including nan aforementioned Q90F. It besides came pinch an arsenic stunning $29,999 value tag.

A mates of different manufacturers including HiSense person besides released RGB Mini LED models akin to Samsung’s Micro RGB, but they disagree somewhat successful that nan RGB modules are larger than nan ones recovered connected Samsung’s latest TVs.

Which companies will person Micro RGB tech astatine CES 2026?

Luckily, nan number of Micro RGB TVs is astir to dramatically increase. Earlier this month, Samsung announced a afloat lineup utilizing nan exertion pinch 55-, 65-, 75-, 85-, 100- and 115-inch surface sizes, saying they’d group “a caller modular for premium location viewing.” Those sets will besides connection 100 percent BT.2020 HDR sum nether a caller certification modular called Micro RGB Precision Color 100. While surely apt to transportation much reasonable prices than nan first model, they’ll astir apt still beryllium Samsung’s astir costly TVs erstwhile released later this year.

And connected Sunday, Samsung besides revealed a 130-inch Micro RGB prototype meant to showcase nan technology. Once again, it blew america distant partially conscionable because of nan immense size, but besides owed to nan unthinkable "color accuracy and richness," arsenic Engadget editor Devindra Hardawar put it. "I couldn’t thief but announcement really everyone conscionable looked a spot stunned, for illustration nan monkeys from 2001 seeing nan monolith for nan first time," he added.

At nan aforesaid time, LG announced its first Micro RGB “evo” TV lineup successful 75-, 86- and 100-inch models. The institution is besides promising 100 percent BT.2020 colour gamut sum and said nan sets will person complete a 1000 section dimming zones for colour control. Not only that, it said that its caller TVs will present 100 percent sum successful SDR modes arsenic well, some for Adobe RGB and nan situation P3 standard.

It was absorbing to comparison LG's Wallpaper and different OLED sets pinch nan caller Micro RGB tech, pinch our editor Devindra again being amazed. "LG already announced its Micro RGB set a fewer weeks ago, but that didn't hole maine for opinionated successful beforehand of nan 100-inch demo TV it brought to CES," he said. "Throughout a assortment of clips, colors looked wonderfully rich, and nan wide texture of nan images looked amazingly life-like."