Can RGB Backlighting Elevate LCDs to the Altar When White Light Fades Away?

The limit of picture quality has been reached, but the future of TVs lies not in specifications but in whether they can regain the living room.

In 2025, the color TV industry is staging a familiar scenario: sales continue to decline, but on the stage of product launches, manufacturers are still using one "revolutionary" term after another to stimulate the market's nerves.

This time, the protagonist on the stage is neither OLED nor quantum dots, but RGB+Mini LED, which is hailed as the "ultimate picture quality solution".

At their recent autumn new product launches, both TCL and Hisense have put TVs combining RGB backlighting and Mini LED in the most prominent positions. TCL even shouted the slogan of "the ceiling of picture quality", implying that this will be the last real upgrade for LCD TVs.

But the question is: Is RGB+Mini LED really the end of picture quality? Or is it just the manufacturers' last gamble before a technological inflection point?

What exactly is RGB+Mini LED?

Let's clarify the concept first: Mini LED is not a "panel technology" but a backlighting method for LCD (liquid crystal). LCD itself does not emit light and must rely on the LED lights behind it to emit light. There are roughly three forms according to the placement of the lights:

Edge-lit: The lights are hidden in the frame, with only a few "horizontal partitions", and local dimming is very limited. Full-Array/Direct-lit: The lights are spread all over the back of the screen, enabling finer partitioned light control.

Mini LED: It is still a full-array, but the lamp beads are made smaller and more numerous, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands. Thus, the backlight can be split into more "independent small areas" (partitions). Combined with local dimming, it can improve contrast and reduce halos.

In contrast, OLED pixels emit light by themselves and do not require backlighting: each pixel can be independently switched on and off, with almost infinite contrast in the dark field. The main consumer-grade types are WOLED (LG Display) and QD-OLED (Samsung Display).

A simplified comparison: Mini LED: High brightness, strong resistance to ambient light, no fear of long-term static elements, and better text sharpness. OLED: Extremely strong performance in a dark room, pure black, no halos, fast response, but there are risks of screen burn-in and limited lifespan.

RGB+Mini LED is an upgrade on the Mini LED route: it uses red, green, and blue LEDs to emit light directly, avoiding the loss of the "white light → color filter" process, bringing higher brightness, a wider color gamut (close to Rec.2020), and a purer high-brightness color performance. It still belongs to the LCD camp but takes the "backlighting" to a more extreme level.

Why is it called the "ultimate picture quality solution"?

Compared with OLED: The biggest advantage of OLED is self-luminescence, which can achieve "pure black". However, its shortcomings are also obvious: limited brightness, easy screen burn-in, and short lifespan. RGB+Mini LED has more advantages in brightness and lifespan. Especially in the scenario of extra-large screens over 100 inches, the cost of OLED is high and the yield is limited, while Mini LED can still be mass-produced.

Compared with traditional Mini LED: RGB backlighting skips the "white light + color filter" step, resulting in higher brightness and a wider color gamut. For example, TCL's flagship model claims to achieve a peak HDR brightness of over 6000 nits under the 10% window test condition. Combined with over 20,000 partitioned light control, it can accurately restore high-dynamic scenes.

In the review of Hisense UX980 RGB-Mini LED TV by PConline Appliances, it is mentioned that "the color purity is pure without any impurities, the color gamut area is greatly expanded, and the bright and dark colors are full and real".

Some users in the comment section also said that the RGB partitioned backlighting has a "more delicate performance than in a movie theater" in the dark field, and can effectively eliminate the gray background in a strong light environment, making the picture contrast cleaner. Similar comments are often seen in the discussion area, indicating that this solution has indeed impressed the audience in terms of user experience, which also explains why manufacturers dare to describe it as the "ultimate picture quality".

Behind the 6000-nit light, the 800W electric meter is spinning wildly

High cost: The manufacturing cost of RGB backlight modules is generally 30% - 50% higher than that of the white light solution. The three-color chips need to be independently driven, the circuit is complex, and the yield rate is demanding. This is especially true for screens over 98 inches, and the retail price is difficult to reduce, which naturally limits the scale.

Energy consumption and heat dissipation: The power consumption in the high-brightness mode is significant. The full load of some 98-inch models is close to 800W, and heat dissipation measures (thicker body, fans/liquid cooling) have to be added, bringing noise and installation difficulties. It should be noted that 800W is the instantaneous peak power consumption under HDR high-brightness content. The power consumption during daily viewing is usually between 300 - 500W, but it is still significantly higher than that of ordinary TVs.

Limited perceived premium: Ordinary users can hardly distinguish the small differences between 95% and 99% Rec.2020, and between 5000 and 6000 nits, but the price premium is real.

Supply chain and iteration risks: The suppliers of three-color LED chips are concentrated, and the prices fluctuate greatly. The continuous evolution of OLED and Micro LED may dilute market attention at any time and compress the investment return cycle.

The underlying logic of Chinese manufacturers' bets

Path selection: The key patents and production capacity of OLED are in the hands of Korean companies, while China has the right to speak in the LCD industry chain. RGB+Mini LED belongs to "in-depth innovation in a familiar track", and the risks are controllable.

Meeting demand: The European and American markets prefer bright living rooms and extra-large screens. The high brightness and large-size adaptability of RGB+Mini LED can directly compete with the high-end products of LG (OLED) and Samsung (QD-OLED).

Capital and brand narrative: The "ceiling of picture quality" itself is a starting point for brand and capital narratives. Even if the sales volume is limited, it can enhance the technological image and promote the high-end transformation.

The future of TV lies not in parameters but in whether it can regain the living room

RGB+Mini LED has indeed pushed the picture quality of LCD TVs to the peak, but it cannot solve the fundamental problem of the "declining TV turn-on rate" - users' attention has already shifted to mobile phones, tablets, and projectors. If the TV becomes a mere decoration in the living room, even the highest hardware indicators will be useless. The real shortcoming lies in the ecological experience: a slow system, redundant advertisements, and poor content are the core reasons for users to stop turning on the TV. In the future, the focus of competition may not be who has higher brightness or a wider color gamut, but who can reshape the TV as a "family entertainment center" and a "smart life entrance".

From the perspective of technological evolution, once Micro LED breaks through the yield rate, it may directly enter the mainstream; OLED is making up for the shortcomings in brightness and lifespan through QD-OLED and MLA technologies; naked-eye 3D and AI picture quality enhancement (such as real-time HDR reconstruction, motion compensation, and scene recognition) may also become new selling points; and cross-screen integration - the interconnection between TV, mobile phones, vehicles, and XR - is more likely to determine user stickiness.

RGB+Mini LED has undoubtedly pushed LCD to the limit in terms of parameters, but it is more like a transitional leap. Whether it can stand firm does not depend on how much the brightness can be increased, but on whether manufacturers can play the game of ecology, system, and content correctly. Otherwise, it may end up like 3D TVs and curved TVs, which were short-lived.

Finally

RGB+Mini LED is indeed a great technology that has pushed the picture quality of LCD TVs to a historical high. However, it also reflects the industry's dilemma: declining sales and users' reluctance to pay for picture quality premiums. Manufacturers can only maintain the imagination with the "ultimate technology".

From a technological perspective, it may be the end of picture quality; from a market perspective, it may just be the industry's last stubbornness. The real future does not lie in a little higher brightness, but in who can redefine the role of the TV in the family - as an entertainment center or a smart life entrance?

This article is from the WeChat official account "Technology Can't Be Cold", written by Frontier. It is published by 36Kr with permission.