When Samsung renamed its LCD televisions to backlight LED TVs a few years ago, the Korean manufacturer misled many users. The expected difference was not present in LCD TVs; Both variants used a liquid crystal as the imaging layer, illuminated by an (LED) backlight.
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At CES, Samsung has now put another name into vogue that is likely to confuse users unnecessarily: The company calls LCD televisions with dimmable micro-LEDs in the backlight “RGB micro-LED TVs.” Until now, “Micro-LED TV” has been reserved for “real” LED televisions, which have neither a backlight nor an LCD or OLED layer. Instead, each pixel contains tiny inorganic light-emitting diodes, i.e. micro-LEDs. We usually speak of “micro” when diodes are smaller than 100 nm in diameter.
Samsung also has genuine micro-LEDs in its range; In Las Vegas, the Korean manufacturer is showing off one such self-illuminating display with a new, extra-wide form factor.
(Image: Ulrike Kuhlmann, Heise Online)
very colorful
The picture quality of the said Micro-LED TV is reassuring. Because instead of “white” or blue backlight (as for quantum dots), red, green and blue light-emitting diodes are illuminated from behind through the liquid crystal layer, very rich colors with extreme brightness are created on the display. There are still RGB color filters on the LC layer, but these can filter the red, green and blue light components more specifically for the RGB subpixels and therefore with less loss. The color saturation and impressive brightness of the new television is a sight to behold.
Additionally, the direct LED backlight’s RGB diodes are dimmed locally for each color channel, which in turn reduces black levels and increases in-image contrast. How well it works also depends on the number of dimming zones. Samsung did not want to comment; The device shown, a 98-inch device with 8K resolution, was a prototype.
Small LEDs on large diagonals
You still need to decide what size, resolution, and number of zones the final product will be. Samsung said, its sales should start at the end of the year. Electronics experts have also not commented on the price yet. However, this will be higher than a traditional LCD TV, because even if you don’t need eight million LEDs, the transfer of tiny micro-LEDs from the wafer to the backlight substrate is expensive.
Hisense offers televisions with RGB backlighting in which the red, green and blue color channels can be dimmed independently of each other.
(Image: Ulrike Kuhlmann, Heise Online)
Chinese manufacturers Hisense and TCL are also showing LCD televisions in Las Vegas whose RGB backlights can be dimmed locally per color channel, like Samsung’s RGB micro-LED TVs. At Hisense the devices are called Trichroma LED TVs, at TCL they are called Mini LED TVs – although both use LCD technology.
On the stand, TCL will be showcasing the remarkable developments that dimmable backlights have undergone in recent years. From what was previously quite difficult segmentation, to resolution in backlight, where object shape can be easily distinguished. The demo still lacks the implementation of micro-LED, which should be further refined.
Because backlight dimming technology has improved significantly in recent years, LC displays also achieve greater contrast in images. In these examples only the white LED is dimmed locally, but TCL, like Hisense and Samsung, shows local dimming separated by RGB color channel.
(Image: Ulrike Kuhlmann, Heise Online)
Heise Median is the Official Media Partner of CES 2025.
Note: Samsung paid for the author’s travel expenses to CES 2025. There is no consensus on the type and scope of our reporting.
(UK)
