For years, TV innovation followed a predictable pattern: brighter, sharper, bigger. At CES 2026, the formula changed. The buzz wasn’t just about peak brightness anymore—it was about how colors are rendered and how HDR performs in real living rooms, not just dark demo spaces.
TV Technology’s Quantum Leap
The headline-grabber was Samsung’s 130-inch Micro RGB TV, using microscopic red, green, and blue LEDs to improve colour precision and colour volume. It’s firmly high-end for now, but it signals a push towards better control over how colours and highlights are rendered, rather than simply pushing brightness higher.
Hisense showcased its 116UXS model featuring RGB MiniLED evo technology, while TCL showed off the industry-first X11L SQD LED (Super Quantum Dot Mini-LED), which the company claims has even better color than RGB LEDs. LG’s most boundary-pushing display was easily its wallpaper-thin model.
The key breakthrough is RGB LED technology. In the past, LEDs in TVs typically emitted only white or blue light. They could adjust to improve contrast, but not color vividness. TVs with RGB LEDs have clusters of red, green, and blue lights that individually adjust to improve not only contrast, but also color. It’s among the most promising display tech experts have seen in years.
HDR standards are evolving alongside the hardware. Dolby Vision 2 was shown off at CES, with Dolby confirming support from brands including Hisense, TCL, and Philips. The update focuses on improved tone mapping, better near-black detail, and more consistent results across different lighting conditions—aiming to make HDR behave more predictably in the real world.
The gap between premium and budget TV brands is quickly closing. Both TCL and Hisense have made impressive strides in performance, bringing them closer and closer to Sony, Samsung, and LG. And it’s not just incremental improvements; both companies have been innovating and leading with technology. Hisense was the first company to debut an RGB LED TV last year, and this year TCL’s X11L leads the way with reformulated quantum dots.
For consumers, this means better picture quality at every price point. The days of paying a massive premium for the “big three” brands may be numbered as Chinese manufacturers continue their relentless march up the quality curve.