A New Kind Of TV Screen Is Coming, And It's Even Better Than QLED
Today, consumers in the market for a new TV are often dazzled by the sheer number of options available in the market. Alongside individual TV models, buyers are also expected to understand the complexities of different display technologies before committing to a purchase. Currently, buyers can choose from LED, QLED, and OLED TVs — but that's just the beginning. Each category branches into even more specialized variants, such as Mini LED, Edge-lit QLED, Full-Array QLED, Mini LED QLED, and QD-OLED, making things even more confusing.
Just as it seemed like things couldn't get more complicated, Sony introduced a brand-new display technology tech — one that promises to shake up the market and challenge even the most advanced current-generation displays.
While it doesn't have an official name yet, Sony's new technology uses an independent drive RGB LED and an LED backlight that can individually glow in all three primary colors — red, green, and blue (RGB). This RGB tech, according to Sony, offers better color reproduction, higher brightness levels, and sharper contrast compared to current-generation TVs. In fact, Sony claims that these new displays perform better than OLEDs in certain interesting circumstances.
How does Sony's RGB LED technology work?
The basic premise of Sony's new RGB LED technology appears to be derived from the good old OLED panels that have become common on smartphones and TVs these days. Instead of a traditional backlight that goes behind the LCD, Sony's new display tech uses an RGB LED backlight placed behind the LCD panel. OLEDs, on the other hand, get individually lit pixels.
Sony's approach with the new RGB LED tech is unlike traditional LED backlighting systems that usually employ zones or clusters of LEDs, adjusting their brightness collectively. While this system offers better contrast over older (and cheaper) edge-lit displays, it leads to compromises in color accuracy. In contrast, Sony's new RGB tech has individual RGB control of LED backlights, which promise great image quality and more vibrant colors.
Sony's new display tech also solves the annoying "black crush" issue that OLED owners must contend with. This issue crops up in dimly lit scenes and has often been cited as one of the most widely known issues that plague OLED panels.
Coming back to Sony's RGB LED technology, the company claims peak brightness levels of up to 4000 cd/m², making this upcoming display one of the company's brightest panels ever. With Sony's new RGB LED panel, the company can offer almost the same image quality as OLEDs, minus their traditional shortcomings.
Even though Sony announced the new RGB LED tech in March 2025, it could be a while before the first consumer-focused devices based on this technology make it to the market. Current projections by the company indicate that these displays will go into mass production later in 2025, with the first Bravia TVs based on the tech likely to launch in 2026-27.