Earlier this week, Samsung unveiled what it claims to be the world's first Micro RGB TV. While its name may sound quite similar to Micro LED, it's not the same technology. Surprisingly, despite the significant advancement Micro RGB brings to the TV segment, Samsung decided to announce it without much fanfare. We think the TV deserved a much bigger launch.

Let us see how Samsung's Micro RGB TV works and explore why it deserved a launch on a big stage.

There are two types of displays: emissive and non-emissive. OLED/QD-OLED, Plasma, and Micro LED are emissive display technologies in which each pixel generates its own light rather than relying on a separate backlight component. LCD, LED-backlit LCD, and Mini-LED backlight LCD (Neo QLED) are non-emissive display technologies where each pixel relies on backlight produced by a separate layer.

Wider color gamut and higher color volume

A Micro RGB TV is close to a Mini-LED TV rather than a Micro LED TV. Unlike Mini-LED panels where the backlight is provided by mini LEDs that produce white or blue light, the panel used in Samsung's Micro RGB TV has LEDs with individual red, green, and blue components, which can produce more accurate backlight colour, thereby resulting in a wider color gamut and more accurate colors.

Tighter control over local dimming

Moreover, the size of each such LED in the Micro RGB TV is much smaller than LEDs used in regular Mini-LED TVs. So, a Micro RGB TV has even better control over local dimming, thereby producing deeper blacks and virtually eliminating the blooming issue usually found in full-array local dimming (FALD) LED-backlit LCD TVs and Mini-LED TVs.

Higher brightness for better HDR

Since there are millions of RGB LEDs in a Micro RGB TV's panel, they can collectively create more light than regular FALD and Mini-LED backlit LCD TVs, resulting in higher brightness. It offers a more impactful HDR video performance compared to other non-emissive display panels.

However, calculating and processing the colors and brightness levels of each red, green, and blue sub-pixel in an LED requires a lot of processing power.

Samsung isn't the only brand to use this type of RGB LED backlight in TVs. TCL's TriChroma TVs and Sony's RGB LED TVs use the same kind of display panel used by Samsung's Micro RGB TV. However, the size of each LED chip used in Samsung's new TV is less than 100µm, resulting in much tighter control over the backlight compared to the competition.

As a result, Samsung's Micro RGB TV offers almost OLED and Micro LED TV-like control over local dimming, resulting in significantly less blooming than regular Mini-LED TVs. Its color reproduction is also more accurate than Mini-LED TVs. The TV can also produce much higher brightness than OLED TVs.

While Micro LED TVs are even better, as each pixel in its panel can produce color and light, they are quite costly. A 115-inch Micro LED TV from Samsung costs $150,000 in the USA. In comparison, a similar-sized Micro RGB TV costs just KRW 44.9 million (approximately $32,325) in South Korea. That is nearly one-fifth the cost of a Micro LED TV.

People are increasingly buying bigger TVs with each passing year. Earlier, a 55-inch 4K TV used to big enough. However, over the past few years, people are preferring 65-inch or 75-inch 4K TVs. If someone wants better performance than Mini LED TVs without sacrificing the brightness and local dimming performance, they have to spend upwards of $100,000 for an 89-inch Micro LED TV. Needless to say, there are no OLED TVs bigger than 97 inches.

In comparison, a Micro RGB TV costs just $30,000 for a 115-inch version. It presents consumers with a good middle ground between Mini-LED/OLED TVs and Micro LED TVs, both in terms of performance and pricing. Hence, Samsung should have announced its Micro RGB TV on the stage.

Samsung should have waited until the upcoming IFA 2025 expo in Berlin, Germany, to announce the Micro RGB TV during its keynote event on stage. This would have given it much more attention than what the press release announcement gave it.