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Sony RGB Mini-LED Explained
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Jun 30, 2025
Kate went to Sony HQ to get a preview of Sony's future TV product roadmap, namely, a RGB Mini-LED display prototype that innovates one of today's leading TV technologies. Although she wasn't able to film or photograph the demo, in this video, she'll break down what she saw and the benefits of RGB Mini-LED over Mini-LED TVs like the Sony Bravia 9 and OLED TVs like the Sony A95L QD-OLED. Make sure to drop your questions about RGB Mini-LED below!
View Video Transcript
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Hey guys, I just got back from Tokyo where I had a semi-exclusive look at Sony's latest display
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technology that's in the pipeline for 2026. And as you probably already guessed by the title of
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this video, it's RGB mini LED. And while Sony isn't the first TV manufacturer to announce
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development for RGB mini LED TVs, from what I've seen with my own eyes, it could be a game changer
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for large screen displays. Let's break it down, though I do have to clarify outright that I really
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wasn't allowed to film anything, but I could take one photo and you'll see it on later in this video
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Otherwise, everything else is imagery provided by Sony for reporting purposes. So put this in the
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context of traditional QLED displays. Those rely on a white LED backlight that passes through
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the quantum dot sheet to produce color. But Sony's RGB mini LED system takes a different approach
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Each pixel doesn't just get brightness, it gets color directly from the backlight itself. Instead
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of relying on a single white light source, it uses red, green, and blue LEDs within to control
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colors independently across all the dimming zones. This means that in a perfect world where all the
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LEDs are controlled properly, a larger color volume, sharper color peaks, limited blooming
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purer reds, and hopefully dramatically improved color accuracy. I mentioned color volume. Sony is
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saying that the color volume of its RGB mini LED backlight prototype they demoed is four times
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larger than Sony's A95L QD OLED, which is considered by pretty much everyone to be the
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best OLED TV on the market. Actually, having had the chance to see both side by side, I could see
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in real time the RGB mini LED tech, keeping colors rich and saturated even in darker areas of the
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screen, maintaining detail in those shadows where traditional displays tend to lose it
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I so wish I could show you the way Sony had it set up, especially the one demo where the backlight
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was switching between just using white versus the RGBs, and the difference was very significant especially when it came to off angle viewing and limiting color distortion They again something that usually considered to be a benefit of OLED But one of the biggest advantages over OLED no screen size limitations Because this technology isn constrained by
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organic materials, it can scale up to massive displays over 100 inches with apparently no loss
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in quality. Again, however, that has to do with control. Sony is claiming that the precision of
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this backlight is next level. The prototype I saw has 66-bit backlight control. That's just wild
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compared to even the 22-bit control on Sony's current Bravia 9 mini-LED TV, powered by that
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next-gen driver I showed you the last time I went to the HQ. I know I've been complaining about how
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I can't show you much, but Sony actually did bring out a very small, condensed version of an RGB mini-LED
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backlight, and threw up my initials. I'll show it here. It's really not as effective as the demos I
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saw of the backlight in action with actual footage, but at least you can see a little bit of those
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colored LEDs. It doesn't feel totally appropriate to call what I saw a concept. Sony has clearly
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been working on this for many years, and I definitely expect we'll see more to come
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A lot of people, maybe more specifically TV enthusiasts, are definitely tracking RGB mini
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LED as one of the next big innovations, so there is a lot at stake for which manufacturer manages
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to do it best. Bottom line, Sony's RGB Mini LED isn't just another incremental upgrade. It's a
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completely new way of handling backlight technology that could finally bring OLED-level contrast
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viewing angles, and color accuracy to massive screen sizes. It's still in development
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again, Sony isn't assigning it to any actual product for the time being. But if what I saw
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in Tokyo is anything to go by, we'll be paying attention. So make sure you subscribe to this
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channel, hit that like button, and let me know what you think about what Sony is up to in the
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TV labs. Otherwise, that's it for me. Thanks for watching, you guys. I'll catch you next time
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