2026 will be the year of RGB televisions. Major TV manufacturers are launching sets that use next-generation RGB backlighting technology, which essentially replaces the blue or white backlighting of a traditional mini-LED LCD TV with one that has full RGB color support, meaning these TVs are more efficient, offer richer, more accurate colors, and may suffer less light leakage in dark areas.
Obviously, we have to wait and see how well these TVs perform in practice, but TechRadar's TV team has seen several of them in early demos and they are incredibly impressive. Wide viewing angles (often a problem with LCD TVs), vibrant but realistic colors, deep black tones, powerful HDR reflections… seem like a big danger for the best OLED TVs.
This is largely because RGB TVs will arrive at only slightly higher prices than standard mini-LED technology, and that's in their first year; Think about how quickly prices for standard mini-LEDs have fallen in the few years since their inception, meaning you can get a set of high-quality, large-screen mini-LEDs for under $500/£500 these days.
In the high-end of OLED TVs (such as the LG G5 and Samsung S95F), there has been significant development in recent years: micro lens array, QD-OLED, Primary RGB Tandem, next-generation quantum dots.
Advances in mini-LED televisions, plus the arrival of competition for the creation of OLED panels between LG and Samsung, lit a fire under the high-end OLED world. It's improving faster now than at any time in the 13 years that OLED TVs have been popular.
But at the more affordable end? Not so much.
The LG C5 OLED uses essentially the same panel as the LG C4 and LG C3, and the LG C6 has it too (although there will be a new LG C6H in larger sizes with a better panel).
The affordable LG B5 OLED uses basically the same panel as the LG B4, B3 and… you get the picture.
And that's been fine, because the TVs have been very high quality and mini-LED TVs haven't really been able to match OLED in the key area why people buy them: perfect black tones maintained down to the individual pixel.
That truly cinematic look just hasn't looked the same on mid-range mini-LEDs… but RGB TVs could change that. Sony told me that one of the advantages of using colorful backlighting is that some wavelengths of light are more easily absorbed in black areas than others, meaning there will naturally be less “blooming” from light to dark areas, as is the case with current mini-LED TVs.
If mid-range RGB TVs come closer toward In contrast to cheaper OLEDs, although they surpass them in color and brightness, even purists can opt for the RGB side.
Why is this still a problem for OLED?
The problem with OLED televisions has always been in the manufacturing. The materials needed for organic pixels haven't changed enough in price over time, and the complicated nature of depositing the material hasn't changed enough either. Rate of return is another major issue still holding it back: the manufacturing process simply isn't reliable enough to keep prices from falling.
There have been advances in areas like the new holy grail blue phosphor material, or developments in inkjet-printed OLED materials, but experts have told me that the latter is probably three years away from being used in TV-sized panels, and blue phosphor simply won't be enough on its own.
The costs of making OLED panels simply haven't changed enough over time to make them truly cheap TVs, and while there's no magic wand to suddenly make them less expensive, there are certainly more incentives.
Nothing motivates like an existential threat, and RGB TVs certainly have the potential to be just that for today's affordable OLEDs.
The best televisions for all budgets
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