Sony has taken the wraps off a brand new backlight tech for LCD panels generally known as RGB LED. In actually easy phrases, it is much like present mini-LED backlight tech, similar to that provided by the BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX, however with colored RGB lighting zones versus monochrome blue LEDs moderated by a quantum dot layer. Sony claims the outcomes embody a lot wider color rendering, plus elevated brightness.
How significantly better? Sony says color house protection is elevated to 90% Rec.2020, whereas peak brightness jumps as much as 4000 nits, all whereas delivering improved viewing angles.
To put that into context, these sorts of numbers are much like knowledgeable video grading monitor costing tens of 1000’s of {dollars}. So, in at the least some respects, this know-how seems very spectacular certainly. The colors are prone to be outrageous, as is the height brightness and total visible pop and punch. However, there’s a catch.
According to FlatpanelsHD, the demo display Sony confirmed off had 3,840 dimming zones. That’s a rise over most present mini-LED shows. Sony’s present high-end 75-inch Bravia 9 TV has 2,800 dimming zones and the BenQ monitor talked about above has 1,152 zones.
However, it nonetheless implies that the show tech shares one dimming zone throughout 2,160 pixels on a 4K panel. In different phrases, if you wish to mild up only one pixel, you additionally need to drive a backlight zone masking one other 2,159 pixels.
Of course, few picture particulars are only one pixel. But some extent of sunshine like a star is likely to be simply tens of pixels, which continues to be a lot, a lot smaller than the two,000-plus pixels of an RGB LED dimming zone.
Likewise, accurately rendering the sting of a shiny object on a darkish background requires per-pixel precision. So, this new tech does little to unravel the essential lighting precision downside of mini-LED in comparison with a per-pixel know-how like OLED.
The distinction right here is that as an alternative of uniform white halos round small, shiny particulars, the halo color will differ in response to the color of the thing being rendered. Sony says it has a brand new superior backlight management chip to assist compensate for the inherent shortcomings of low-resolution native dimming. But the basic points stay.
How a lot all of it is a downside will depend on each private desire and the picture being proven. For a very shiny film or recreation scene, one thing sunny and outside, this new panel tech will most likely be completely wonderful. But for darker scenes, or pictures with a mixture of very shiny and really darkish objects, it would retain main points.
Of course, OLED tech has its personal points. The finest present OLED monitor tech, such because the Dough Spectrum Black 32 OLED, can solely hit a feeble 275 nits for full-screen brightness. And even next-gen OLED panel know-how from LG and Samsung is just promising to extend that to round 400 nits, miles wanting the 1000’s of nit mini-LED and certainly Sony’s new RGB LED can obtain.
All of which suggests for the foreseeable future, there might be no single display tech that excels all over the place. But given how shiny and vivid mini-LED tech already is, I can not assist feeling Sony is fixing the incorrect downside right here. What backlit LCD panels want greater than something is extra lighting precision, not much more outright punch.
Anyway, as for whenever you would possibly see this new RGB LED tech in a display you should buy, that is not completely clear. Sony says the know-how will go into mass manufacturing later this yr, so it would most likely be in TVs a while in 2026. Whether it involves PC displays is one other matter. But if it really does provide clear benefits, you’ll be able to most likely anticipate one thing much like seem in PC displays earlier than lengthy.
