Not sure if it fits in this forum, but thought would be of interest to HT crowd. After all we do need video for HT. If not the right forum, perhaps mods (sorry for the trouble) can move to other forum (News, reviews, and other info you can use?).
So we have CES 2026 almost behind us and there were big TV announcements from major brands like LG, Hisense and TCL. Sony as usual was absent and will do their 2026 announcement later in the year. The expected theme for flagships was RGB mini LEDs that is a new tech that was supposed to shine bright on the video future. Hisense and Samsung released first RGB mini LEDs last year. Not following Samsung due to lack of DV support, but Hisense kind of embarrassed themselves with the $30K TV release. Tech was not ready and 3K dimming zones for 116" TV were, well, a disaster for such "flagship" TV.
We are getting some first insights into limited time reviewers had with new sets (not yet full reviews) and I found review of TCL's flagship model TCL X11L very interesting. It comes in 75, 85 and 98" sizes. I am linking to another site, and will in line with the forum policy provide some details as to the substance of the article so that people don't have to click if not interested in content, or just want to double check if I got it right.
www.whathifi.com
TCL decided not to badge their RGB mini LEDs as flagship model (even though they have several models with that tech), but rather decided to perfect the existing quantum dot tech based on mini LEDs that were flagships in the past, with some notable enhancements. Interestingly enough, last year TCL made a similar decision and did not include its new WHVA panel that was used in lower C series in the flagship X series. Good to see that they are experimenting with the new tech but don't put all of the eggs in that basket.
Some of the underlying reasons were that traditional mini LED technology could accomodate more dimming zones, prevent light leakage in RGB tech, and provide more brightness. They also slimmed down the thickness of the flagship model to 2cm (which would not be possible with RGB tech), which is a double edge sword. Looks great but might give you a heart attack trying to wall mount 98" unit that will not be looking that sturdy.
So they ended up with peak brightness of 10,000 nits, 20,736 dimming zones (on 85" model) and new quantum dot system that apparently reproduces 100% of the world’s most extreme BT2020 colour gamut space. TV's became a bit like audio in chasing specs. Nothing is mastered in 10K nits. Some titles are mastered in 4K nits and Hollywood is remastering their library to 4K nits so they can sell us HDR2 version of the same titles. To be seen from reviews how bright it is without the limited time burst - and for EU they will need to have special firmware to comply with max power consumption so 10K nits probably out of the question.
Color gamut coverage is TBD as there is even less info about how titles are mastered for color coverage. How well (if at all) will the video processing expand the master is to be seen. Dimming zones are a real thing, and this one must be controlling the screen almost to perfection. I do have flagship TCL 98x955 which is now two generations behind and its 5K zones are working really great. 20K won't be 4x better, but even last year model with 11K+ dimming zones was improvement to my TV.
These are the highlights, some further discussion in the article as to differences between the highly expected mini RGB LEDs and this one that turned to be built as enhancement of more traditional tech that debuted 2 years ago. So looks like after all mini RGB LED is not really what we expected though. Will be interesting to see what Sony does with their implementation as apparently they have been working on it for a while. But good as Sony is, would not expect it to be competitive in pricing. 98" TCL flagship is listed for $10K which might be a bit more than previous models, but their last year's flagship model in 98" is $6K in EU, which is IMO a fair price. TCL has many TV's in their lineup to cater to various budgets.
So we have CES 2026 almost behind us and there were big TV announcements from major brands like LG, Hisense and TCL. Sony as usual was absent and will do their 2026 announcement later in the year. The expected theme for flagships was RGB mini LEDs that is a new tech that was supposed to shine bright on the video future. Hisense and Samsung released first RGB mini LEDs last year. Not following Samsung due to lack of DV support, but Hisense kind of embarrassed themselves with the $30K TV release. Tech was not ready and 3K dimming zones for 116" TV were, well, a disaster for such "flagship" TV.
We are getting some first insights into limited time reviewers had with new sets (not yet full reviews) and I found review of TCL's flagship model TCL X11L very interesting. It comes in 75, 85 and 98" sizes. I am linking to another site, and will in line with the forum policy provide some details as to the substance of the article so that people don't have to click if not interested in content, or just want to double check if I got it right.
Hands on: I've already seen TCL's flagship 'SQD' TV for 2026, and I'm seriously impressed
TCL’s new flagship TV rows against the RGB Mini LED tide
TCL decided not to badge their RGB mini LEDs as flagship model (even though they have several models with that tech), but rather decided to perfect the existing quantum dot tech based on mini LEDs that were flagships in the past, with some notable enhancements. Interestingly enough, last year TCL made a similar decision and did not include its new WHVA panel that was used in lower C series in the flagship X series. Good to see that they are experimenting with the new tech but don't put all of the eggs in that basket.
Some of the underlying reasons were that traditional mini LED technology could accomodate more dimming zones, prevent light leakage in RGB tech, and provide more brightness. They also slimmed down the thickness of the flagship model to 2cm (which would not be possible with RGB tech), which is a double edge sword. Looks great but might give you a heart attack trying to wall mount 98" unit that will not be looking that sturdy.
So they ended up with peak brightness of 10,000 nits, 20,736 dimming zones (on 85" model) and new quantum dot system that apparently reproduces 100% of the world’s most extreme BT2020 colour gamut space. TV's became a bit like audio in chasing specs. Nothing is mastered in 10K nits. Some titles are mastered in 4K nits and Hollywood is remastering their library to 4K nits so they can sell us HDR2 version of the same titles. To be seen from reviews how bright it is without the limited time burst - and for EU they will need to have special firmware to comply with max power consumption so 10K nits probably out of the question.
Color gamut coverage is TBD as there is even less info about how titles are mastered for color coverage. How well (if at all) will the video processing expand the master is to be seen. Dimming zones are a real thing, and this one must be controlling the screen almost to perfection. I do have flagship TCL 98x955 which is now two generations behind and its 5K zones are working really great. 20K won't be 4x better, but even last year model with 11K+ dimming zones was improvement to my TV.
These are the highlights, some further discussion in the article as to differences between the highly expected mini RGB LEDs and this one that turned to be built as enhancement of more traditional tech that debuted 2 years ago. So looks like after all mini RGB LED is not really what we expected though. Will be interesting to see what Sony does with their implementation as apparently they have been working on it for a while. But good as Sony is, would not expect it to be competitive in pricing. 98" TCL flagship is listed for $10K which might be a bit more than previous models, but their last year's flagship model in 98" is $6K in EU, which is IMO a fair price. TCL has many TV's in their lineup to cater to various budgets.
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