The Battle for Mini LED Dominance: How TCL Became a Key Player in 8 Years
Should we become a leader and rewrite the future of LCD with Mini LED? Or should we passively follow OLED and repeat the fate of history?
This is the ultimate question that a generation of Chinese display industry professionals have spent nearly a decade answering.
The story began at the CES in Las Vegas in 2017. That year, the worship of OLED reached its peak.
In front of the LG booth, 10 latest OLED TVs were lined up, attracting the most attention. The 77 - inch LG SIGNATURE OLED TV of the W series won the Best Innovation Award at the 2017 CES with its mural - style design.
Not far away, Samsung was already planning to sell off its LCD production lines. With its newly released foldable mobile phone and its status as an OLED supplier for Apple phones, Samsung precisely targeted the small - size OLED market.
The R & D directors of a group of terminal TV manufacturers at the exhibition gathered around the booths of Korean companies, filling their notebooks with the technical parameters of OLED.
But is what is favored at the moment necessarily the right choice?
At least for TCL, the answer is no.
In sharp contrast to the OLED craze: at the same time, TCL chose to continue to deepen its development in the LCD route with Mini LED and create a generation of flagship products belonging to TCL in this uncharted territory.
Because, Mini LED outperforms OLED in terms of technical ceiling, cost control, and even overall size performance. The only drawback is that it takes five or ten years to produce a product that meets all the theoretical limits. There is no one to follow and no shortcuts. TCL has to lead the industrial chain to explore from scratch.
To some extent, this is an exploration in the uncharted territory and a technological long - march.
01 Choice: A Difficult but Right Path
In September 2025, when the TCL X11L SQD - Mini LED flagship TV was unveiled, many engineers in the audience might have recalled the difficult decision made eight years ago.
In 2017, within the TCL Pan - Smart Screen R & D Center, the debate over the route for the next decade never stopped.
Pushing open the door of the meeting room, one would often see such a scene:
On one side of the whiteboard, there was a list of the technical advantages of OLED. There were mature paths to follow in product planning, supply chain, and even marketing promotion for each step.
On the other side, there was a technology roadmap of Mini LED with an unclear future, marked with numerous questions and unsolved problems.
"At that time, the whole industry was flocking to OLED, but we wanted to research a technology that no one was optimistic about - Mini LED." A key R & D personnel at TCL recalled that during that period, the lights in the laboratory often stayed on until dawn, which supported a large number of casserole porridge take - out shops nearby.
Any sensible person would choose the former: if the whole industry is optimistic about a technology, then even if it is wrong, it is not just your problem.
But the problem is that every seemingly simplest choice has already been priced.
Analyzed from the first - principles, the inherent defects of traditional OLED doom it to be difficult to adapt to the TV market.
OLED, or Organic Light - Emitting Diode, is characterized by self - emission: each pixel can be independently lit or turned off, achieving pure black (no light means black) and infinite contrast, with a strong sense of picture transparency. However, the complex process results in a very low yield rate of OLED, and the cost is several times that of LCD.
On the other hand, the stability of OLED organic materials will decay over time, resulting in an irreversible burn - in phenomenon (permanent residual images on the screen, such as the startup screen) - which is an unacceptable flaw for home TVs.
If we blindly invest in traditional OLED, it means that on the industrial chain side, the advantages that the Chinese liquid crystal panel industry has just accumulated will disappear; on the terminal manufacturer side, all brand owners, including TCL, will work for the OLED panel manufacturers that have taken the lead.
In sharp contrast, Mini LED has great potential: it is in line with LCD technology. Around 2017, the output area of liquid crystal panels in the Chinese mainland had gradually caught up with that of South Korea. Relying on this mature supply chain, the Chinese terminal display industry can gain more initiative. More importantly, it can reuse the large - scale industrial chains of basic materials such as LCD, chips, and PCBs in China, with the potential to reduce costs through large - scale production.
Of course, there are also concerns.
For Mini LED to catch up with the advantages of OLED in achieving perfect black and infinite contrast, the backlight zoning technology, precise light - control algorithm, high - density LED chips, display driver chips, and precise packaging equipment and processes need to be mature simultaneously.
So, "Should we rely on others in the OLED track, or should we spend time and R & D costs to break through independently in the Mini LED track?
The answer is obvious. TCL chose the difficult but right path.
Just one year after deciding on the Mini LED route, in 2018, TCL first demonstrated a Mini LED prototype at the Berlin International Consumer Electronics Show and achieved mass production of Mini LED products in 2019.
However, this was just the beginning.
In the technology industry, there has always been an established rule: after the first mass production, stable shipment volume and a real flagship - level product with a significant lead are usually required to confirm the final step of reaching the top.
As a solution still in the development stage at that time, to create an ultimate product with Mini LED, three long - standing industry dilemmas must be solved: ultimate contrast, ultimate brightness, and 100% BT.2020 global high color gamut
The goal was set. Next, TCL upgraded and overcame challenges step by step in these three core directions.
02 Breaking the Deadlock: Achieving Omni - Zoning in Mini LED
Among the three dilemmas, the first problem to be solved was the contrast dilemma caused by the lack of dark - field details.
The Mini LED solution, like the self - emission of OLED pixels, precisely matches the light and dark changes of the picture. Each small area can control the light independently, completely turning off the corresponding backlight zones in the dark areas and brightening the high - light areas separately, while retaining the cost and lifespan advantages of LCD technology.
However, increasing the number of backlight zones is not a simple addition or subtraction but a system - level problem that requires understanding of the chain reaction:
In terms of material cost, an increase in zones directly doubles the number of lamp beads; in terms of driving cost, each zone needs to be independently controlled, and the cost of the driving chip doubles accordingly; in terms of process, the layout accuracy of tens of thousands of lamp beads is extremely high, which greatly increases the difficulty of lamp board prototyping. In addition, to control tens of thousands of zones simultaneously, the demand for the algorithm computing power of the chip will also increase significantly.
To solve these problems, in 2021, TCL established the Pangu Laboratory. In the 1600 - square - meter laboratory, top global display talents gathered, with nearly 50% having master's or doctoral degrees, covering multiple fields such as LED chips, quantum dot materials, and optical design.
More importantly, the Pangu Laboratory also established a Mini LED test line, achieving full - process independent R & D from lamp board technology, PCB materials to quantum dot synthesis, and truly realizing a closed - loop verification from materials to finished products at a groundbreaking level.
The team was no longer satisfied with using industry - standard components but delved into the material formula and production process. They regarded the lamp board, diaphragm, and driver chip as a systematic project for overall optimization, customized core components in cooperation with the industrial chain, and established an insurmountable technological moat.
With the support of this systematic R & D ability, in August 2023, TCL took the lead in releasing the world's largest 115 - inch QD - Mini LED TV, the X11G Max. This product was equipped with an astonishing 20,736 zones, becoming the first TV in the industry with more than 20,000 backlight zones at that time.
Moreover, with a ten - fold improvement in zoning performance, TCL always kept the cost at an absolute advantage compared to OLED, far lower than the industry's expectation.
On the basis of 20,000 zones, TCL also launched the fourth - generation "Condensing Microlens" with a 46.9% improvement in light - control ability, making the light in each single zone more uniform and non - interfering between zones.
Market data also confirmed the value brought by technological breakthroughs. According to omdia data, in 2024, TCL's Mini LED TV shipments ranked first in the world; TCL's Mini LED TV sales ranked first in China for five consecutive years; in 2024, TCL's shipments of 85 - inch and above TVs ranked first in the world; in 2024, TCL's shipments of 98 - inch TVs ranked first in the world.
These achievements laid the best foundation for the birth of the subsequent flagship TV, the X11L.
03 Acceleration: Industrial Chain Collaboration behind Extreme Brightness
Based on the omni - zoning, the ultimate goal in the field of light control was set at an aggressive figure - 10,000 nits.
To date, the peak brightness of flagship mobile phones is still hovering around 3000 nits. TCL directly targeted the highest standard of Dolby, 10,000 nits, bringing an unparalleled visual impact. This has also reached the limit of human eye perception, and further increasing the brightness will bring limited improvement in visual experience.
This means that whether you are watching "The Harry Potter" with a "missing lighting designer" at noon with the curtains open or watching the Winter Olympics, you can not only restore the environmental details of the forbidden forest at night in the magic world; you can also perfectly present the pure texture of the snow and the transparent reflection of the ice surface in high - light scenes such as ice and snow, clearly capture the subtle trajectory of flying snow particles and the clear lines of the ice blade sliding on the ice surface; without over - exposure in the bright areas and blackening in the dark areas, enjoying an ultimate on - site experience in the living room.
Achieving 10,000 nits is not a story of a so - called single - point breakthrough out of the blue in the traditional sense but a systematic battle involving the entire industrial chain.
The luminous efficiency of lamp beads, the load of driver chips, the stability of the power supply, the accuracy of algorithm control, and the computing power support of chips all need to be upgraded simultaneously; at the same time, heat dissipation and product aesthetics need to be considered. After all, the living - room scenario has extremely high requirements for the appearance design of TVs.
In this battle, TCL, leading the entire industrial chain forward, made all its partners both love and hate it.
What they love is that TCL really understands technology and industry and can give professional and feasible suggestions, collaborating with the industrial chain for progress. Many suppliers of quantum dot materials, PCB boards, etc. have had similar experiences: TCL's R & D team will first figure out the technical parameters and process requirements by themselves, form a mature solution, and then hand it over to the industrial chain partners for large - scale mass production, which not only reduces the R & D risk of suppliers but also improves the mass - production efficiency.
What they hate is that TCL understands too well and often puts forward some "tricky" requirements that exceed the industry's norms.
The "front - line" attack on the screen layer was "the first to bear the brunt".
The screen's tolerance became the key bottleneck: to achieve a screen brightness of 10,000 nits, the backlight brightness needs to reach 200,000 nits. Such strong light will change the characteristics of the liquid crystal and even affect the optical performance of the transistor circuits in the screen, and there is no ready - made solution in the industry.
Fortunately, the partner is TCL CSOT, a panel enterprise under TCL Technology. For a long time, TCL CSOT has maintained high - frequency collaboration with the TCL Industrial's Pan - Smart Screen R & D Center, holding monthly technical joint - adjustment meetings to synchronize R & D progress and requirements.
In response to the problem of TFT circuit performance, TCL CSOT immediately organized a team to optimize the process, added a light - proof layer to the screen; at the same time, it developed a targeted strong - light irradiation experiment and established a new testing standard, filling a gap in the industry.
The advantage of this in - depth collaboration lies not only in the immediate response when encountering difficulties; more importantly, while many competitors can only choose a cost - performance balance solution in the final finished product, TCL Industrial can explore the most suitable screen planning direction and real industrial needs for SQD with its partners in advance.
The attack on the chip link is also full of the wisdom of game - playing and cooperation.
As the leading enterprise in LED chips, Sanan Optoelectronics has a cooperation foundation of more than ten years with TCL, and the communication is often so efficient that "the chip layout can be determined in the morning, the driving requirements can be updated at noon, and adjustments can be made in the afternoon".
To meet the brightness requirement of 10,000 nits, Sanan Optoelectronics was required to make an adjustment to one layer of the epitaxial structure of hundreds of layers of deposition in the chip manufacturing process. Unfortunately, chip manufacturing has extremely high requirements for purity and stability, and a slight structural change may affect the performance. From front - line operators to technical leaders, everyone at Sanan Optoelectronics' first reaction after seeing the plan was: the technical direction is good, but I can't decide this.
TCL's solution was direct and straightforward: for two consecutive months, the R & D director regarded Sanan Optoelectronics' factory as home, and gradually found the engineers, department heads, and finally the general manager.
Fortunately, the result finally advanced as TCL envisioned. And this "hard bone" has become the trump card for TCL, or even the entire Chinese TV industry, to win the global flagship product - technological improvements are usually proposed by a single enterprise, but the optimization results of the final product can be shared by the entire industry.
04 The Final Push: Restoring True Colors
The omni - zoning solved the accuracy of light control, and the 10,000 - nit brightness broke through the limit. TCL was on the verge of creating a flagship product. At this time, the last key piece of the puzzle was