Sony makes a few of the finest TVs available on the market, however its most enjoyable but is not sure for debut till 2026 with a mannequin known as the Sony Bravia 10. This next-generation TV leverages RGB LEDs to ship thrilling efficiency enhancements over its rivals. It’s going to purportedly make the most of MediaTek’s MT9131 chip alongside Sony’s XR Backlight Grasp Drive algorithm to ship distinctive ends in colour dealing with, distinction, and brightness.
The particular RGB backlighting, which we noticed in individual at an occasion hosted at Sony’s Tokyo HQ, might be the key sauce wanted to raise Mini-LED TVs to ever-new heights. If that’s the case, the Sony Bravia 10 may far surpass even a few of the finest OLED TVs available in the market.
However with a lot hype swirling round it, can the Bravia 10 in the end ship subsequent yr? And, extra importantly, are RGB Mini-LED TVs actually the way forward for OLED killers, as claimed?
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What are RGB LED TVs?
(Picture credit score: Sony)
RGB Mini-LED TVs are gaining recognition quickly, however stay largely unknown at current. Hisense unveiled its personal model at CES 2025, calling its know-how TriChroma LED, and Samsung has additionally developed its personal RGB show, which kicked off its manufacturing almost two months in the past. However, they’re each basically the identical know-how Sony is working into its Bravia 10.
The way it works is a bit advanced should you’re not already accustomed to the make-up of a QLED TV. Each conventional QLEDs and Mini-LED TVs depend on an LED backlight, which frequently sports activities both white or blue LED lights together with quantum dot filters that produce colours on a show.
Sony’s RGB Mini-LED design drops these coloured filters and as a substitute makes use of tri-colored pink, inexperienced, and blue LED lights — therefore, “RGB LED” — constructed immediately into the backlight. These then act as the colour supply for content material displayed on the display screen, making certain colours (and brightness) will be managed throughout all dimming zones.
Because of this colours and brightness can each act uniformly. It is fairly a exceptional feat of engineering when you consider it, providing some spectacular outcomes with the assistance of Sony’s XR Backlight Grasp Drive algorithm and, purportedly, the MediaTek MT9131 processor. The latter is what is going to management the RGB Mini-LED backlight within the Bravia 10, which Sony confirmed in a press launch.
However what does this all imply for the buyer? And the way precisely does it relate to the long-standing OLED vs Mini-LED debate?
How the Bravia 10 may steamroll the competitors
(Picture credit score: Sony)
Sony defined to Tom’s Information throughout its occasion in Tokyo earlier this yr that the prototype Bravia 10 had a colour quantity 4 instances bigger than the Sony Bravia A95L OLED TV. Coloration quantity can finest be described by the lens of the colour gamut checks we strategy every TV with in our critiques, and the way properly these colours are maintained at numerous brightness ranges.
This implies the Bravia 10 couldn’t solely boast extra colours but additionally extra correct colours in each SDR and HDR content material. Managing editor Kate Kozuch, who was on the occasion and noticed Sony’s prototype RGB Mini-LED TV side-by-side with the A95L, explains it finest:
“…I witnessed in real-time how the RGB model retains colours wealthy and saturated even in darker areas. It additionally maintained element in shadows the place conventional shows are inclined to lose it.”
I witnessed in real-time how the RGB model retains colours wealthy and saturated even in darker areas. It additionally maintained element in shadows the place conventional shows are inclined to lose it.
Kate Kozuch, Managing Editor at Tom’s Information
It isn’t simply making colours extra reasonable and life-like. Sony additionally claims its RGB Mini-LED TV can have higher off-axis viewing, too. This has confirmed a serious boon for a lot of QLEDs through the years, typically being the make-or-break side in lots of our TV critiques, proper subsequent to glare mitigation.
Poor off-axis viewing can be most notable in bigger display screen sizes, which have ballooned in recognition over the previous two years. Manufacturers like TCL and Hisense have made a reputation for themselves within the 75-inch and up vary, providing price range costs on large-screen TVs with a few of the worst off-axis viewing potential.
Nevertheless, the Bravia 10 goals to place these woes to mattress by limiting the gradation of colour throughout the display screen. Sony defined it as a byproduct of the Bravia 10’s cell construction, which incorporates parts like its LCD panel, transistors, and the RGB backlight in query.
Herein is the promise not simply within the Bravia 10 itself however RGB Mini-LED TVs on the entire: bigger display screen sizes with improved off-axis viewing. However the greatest impediment these TVs, most particularly the Bravia 10, will face is pricing.
Sony Bravia 10: the TV to beat in 2026?
Sony Is Altering The Mini-LED TV Sport! RGB Mini-LED EXPLAINED! – YouTube
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It is extensively identified that Sony’s TVs take cinematic presentation significantly. Look no additional than the Sony Bravia 8 II, which simply secured the crown as king of OLEDs in Worth Electronics’ annual TV shootout.
However Sony TVs aren’t precisely identified for his or her price range pricing. In reality, Sony and “premium” go hand in hand.
Given its technological developments, it stands to cause that the Bravia 10 might be the TV to beat subsequent yr, and that comes with an unlucky facet impact. Pricing on this RGB Mini-LED TV may make it a troublesome promote, even when it is higher than most OLEDs.
It is a comparable drawback within the realm of MicroLED TVs, which had been additionally known as the “OLED killers” for the longest time. As we speak, main gamers within the MicroLED sector, primarily Samsung, have dramatically slowed manufacturing on these TVs, which frequently begin at over $100,000.
Hopefully, the Bravia 10 does not come anyplace near that, however realizing Sony, it might be within the $40,000+ vary, relying on dimension variations. For reference, the 116-inch Hisense UX RGB Mini-LED TV launched at a whopping $30,000— however, hey, no less than you may get it for $24,999 on Finest Purchase proper now.
We do not know if Hisense goals to make comparable TVs in smaller sizes, however that might show to be the thorn in Sony’s bottom subsequent yr. If Hisense can ship RGB Mini-LED TVs at an identical value to its extra standard Mini-LED TVs, Sony and Samsung can have loads to fret about.
That is all to say that Sony’s Bravia 10 can have its run of competitors, and its most debilitating side might be its breakout value.
We’ll simply have to attend and see how RGB Mini-LED TVs shake up the market subsequent yr, and CES 2026 is perhaps the place we’ll get our first style of those next-gen shows.
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