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Although the first Micro RGB TVs (also called RGB Mini-LED, True RGB, or RGB LED by some manufacturers) appeared in 2025, 2026 is considered the year that Micro RGB TVs will finally take over your home’s entertainment setup. Several manufacturers, including LG, Samsung and Sony, showed off Micro RGB TVs at CES 2026, which are expected to be available later this year. Notably, these TVs are sometimes confused with Micro-LED TVs due to their similar names.
However, despite their similar-sounding names, Micro RGB and Micro-LED TVs are very different. If the first ones quickly appeared on the market from different manufacturers, albeit at high prices, Micro-LED televisions remain a very niche product. Both TV display technologies are very interesting, and while Micro RGB TVs are the next step in the evolution of Mini-LED TVs, Micro-LED TVs are on a completely different level.
How Do Micro RGB TV Panels Work and Work?
Micro RGB panels, currently used in some Hisense, Samsung and TCL TVs, are, as mentioned, an evolution of Mini-LED technology. Instead of the blue or white LEDs used in conventional Mini-LED TVs, Micro RGB panels use red, green and blue LEDs. As a result, they don’t need color filters or quantum dots to convert white or blue light from the backlight into RGB colors to compose the visuals you see on screen. They simply use the colors coming from the RGB LEDs. This not only produces purer colors (as no secondary filtration is involved), but also brighter colors, significantly improving the color volume, gamut and HDR performance of a Micro RGB TV.
Like regular Mini-LED TVs, Micro RGB TVs rely on local dimming to improve contrast, because there aren’t enough LEDs to provide pixel-level dimming, which is what you get in OLED TVs and true Micro-LED TVs. This means that the number of dimming zones and the quality of the dimming algorithm can determine the contrast level. There is also a problem with potential light loss, when light from lit LEDs spreads into neighboring pixels that are supposed to be dark.
Expert reviews of TVs equipped with Micro RGB panels have been largely positive, praising the color performance and high brightness. However, these TVs face some of the same issues as regular Mini-LED TVs, including poor off-axis viewing and some blooming. The good news is that while the first Micro RGB TVs were very expensive, it didn’t take long for prices to drop, with Samsung selling its 55-inch Micro RGB R85H TV for just $1,600. Hopefully, as Micro RGB technology evolves, it will become even better and cheaper.
How do Micro-LED TV panels work and what are their advantages?
Micro-LED TV panels are very different from any other LED technology and are a real competitor to OLED technology. It uses self-emitting RGB LED pixels instead of a limited number of backlight LEDs, as in other LED panels, and has the same number of LED pixels as the display resolution. For this reason, Micro-LED TVs can dim LEDs at the level of an individual pixel, giving them a nearly infinite contrast ratio, inky blacks, and higher brightness than the current crop of Mini-LED TVs, including Micro RGB TVs.
More importantly, Micro-LED panels use inorganic material in RGB LEDs, unlike the organic material in OLED panels. Therefore, there is potentially less risk that Micro-LED TVs will suffer from ghosting and pixel degradation associated with OLED displays. The color performance of the Micro-LED panel is expected to be on par with or surpass Micro RGB panels once the latter reaches maturity.
Unfortunately, Micro-LED TVs have remained niche because they are difficult and expensive to manufacture. Manufacturers have struggled to downsize LEDs to fit popular consumer TV sizes at 4K resolution, which will be necessary for mainstream adoption. Companies like Awall and Samsung currently offer Micro-LED displays, with Awall’s offering primarily being a commercial display solution, not a typical TV. Samsung offers both, with its 114-inch model costing $150,000.