Sony presents RGB LED: could this be the future of TVs?

Luca Fontana

4.9.2025

Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson

Sony’s presentation of their new RGB LED technology in Berlin whisked me away to a Martian landscape. Honestly, I think this might be the most exciting thing that has happened to LCD in years.

I’ve seen many presentations of new TVs. They usually involve a sterile conference room with the latest model taking centre stage. To the left and right, there’s usually the competition’s models as well as tangled cables scantily covered with tape. The setting is generally so sterile, you immediately forget about the room.

Not with Sony.

At the IFA in Berlin, we journalists are asked to step into a black box that would easily pass for the set of Ridley Scott’s film The Martian. There’s red sand on the floor, an orange mountain in the background and an astronaut mannequin in the middle. Next to it, Sony’s Venice 2 professional camera – the same one that was used to film Top Gun: Maverick and F1: The Movie – and two mastering monitors that cost about as much as a small car. In addition, there’s the current flagship, the Bravia 9.

The message is clear, Sony’s trying to sell more than just televisions. They’re presenting themselves as an end-to-end brand. From the film studio to the camera to the living room screen – all from a single source. «This sets us apart from other brands,» a spokesperson explains. And this is where I sense that Sony wants to create more than just a new marketing buzzword. The focus is on the new flagship technology RGB LED.

So what is RGB LED?

According to Sony, the name is still temporary. But the principle is clear: instead of blue LEDs with colour filters, the backlight contains tiny red, green and blue LEDs that can be controlled separately. What sounds simple is a real revolution for LCD TVs:

• Greater colour precision: Now that there’s no longer a phosphor layer in the way, the LEDs produce purer light. This means richer, more differentiated colours and wider coverage of the BT.2020 colour space.
• More natural brightness: Instead of simply increasing the brightness, Sony’s new backlight control distributes the light dynamically.
• Less blooming, more stable viewing angles: The combination of more dimming zones and finer signal processing reduces blooming, an effect which is typical with LCDs.

The idea isn’t entirely novel. Hisense presented its RGB Mini LED version at the CES in January. And I already spoke to Sony about the upcoming announcement of RGB LED back in March. Samsung even took things a step further by recently presenting Micro RGB – a 115-inch monster priced at 30,000 francs.

Meanwhile, Sony’s taking a different approach, as Shoji Charlie Ohama, Head of TV for Europe, tells me on site: «We don’t think RGB LED should be that expensive. Our goal is perfection you can afford and not being the first on the market.»

But that’s where the challenge lies. There used to be a single blue LED in the backlight, which glowed white because of a layer of phosphor around it. Now, there are three lights: red, green and blue. Each of them is controlled individually in thousands of dimming zones at the same time. This pushes the computing load to completely new dimensions.

And this is precisely where the wheat is separated from the chaff, according to Sony. The image quality depends on the panel as well as on the processor, which controls the thousands and thousands of microdiodes in real time. With decades of experience in building its own TV processors, Sony’s convinced it has the most expertise on the market in this field. And rarely has their importance been as crucial as here.

Living room instead of black box

Sony’s planning on launching RGB TVs next year. Not 115-inch models, but sizes that fit into the living room: 55 or 65 inches, for example. What about the price tag? «At the level of today’s flagship TVs,» we’re told. So not exactly cheap, but still miles away from Samsung’s luxury marketing giant. My guess is around 4,000 francs for a 65-inch model.

So what does this look like? We’re presented with a 65-inch demo that was previously hidden behind a black curtain. Snippets from Frozen 2, Life of Pi and a scene with a blacksmith in front of a blazing fire are played. We’re not allowed to take photos or videos, which is a real shame. Because honestly, it’s been a long time since I’ve been so blown away by a TV.

My verdict: just wow

The colours were incredibly strong, yet so bright they made me blink on numerous occasions. Watching the blacksmith hammering away at a glowing orange piece of metal, for example. You could see highlights clearly without them swallowing the details in the rest of the image. The black around the smith’s stove stayed deep, even when a white glow flared up right next to it.

Blooming? Barely there. I deliberately positioned myself at an angle to the TV – the acid test for any LCD panel – but the image remained surprisingly stable. Even in this incredibly challenging scene from Frozen 2.

In direct comparison, Sony’s Bravia 9 (mini LED) looked almost pale. Not even the two leaders of recent years, LG’s Tandem OLED and Samsung’s QD OLED, could keep up in terms of luminosity and colour dynamics. Although the difference was subtle, it was still noticeable precisely where the bar had previously been set.

The decisive factor being luminance. This doesn’t mean you just crank up the brightness of the colours, as that would make them look washed out like your favourite T-shirt. No, the colours truly shine. They remain rich, retain their depth and have a luminance I’ve never seen before. To date, QD-OLED has dominated this art, with Tandem OLED recently hot on its heels. But what Sony was presenting with its RGB LED was simply out of this world.

As I said, filming wasn’t allowed, which is a shame. But maybe it doesn’t even matter. A camera wouldn’t have been able to capture the magnitude of the image anyway. You have to see this level of radiance with your own eyes, otherwise you won’t believe it.

Not quite the Holy Grail, but almost

Of course, RGB LED isn’t OLED, and certainly no Micro LED. In the end, it’s still LCD with all its physical limitations. But what I saw that day was unlike anything I’ve seen LCD do before. It wasn’t just the significantly reduced blooming. It was the colours with their sheer luminosity that made even high-end OLEDs look unimpressive in comparison.

This level of luminance is the real game changer. Colours that aren’t just brighter, but radiant without washing out. Deep reds remain deep without losing their glow. Rich greens retain their fullness even when they shine in the brightest highlights. This is exactly what sets it apart from Sony’s Bravia 9, and even from the latest QD OLEDs and Tandem OLEDs from Samsung and LG.

For the first time, I’m tempted to say, this could be an LCD TV that not only challenges OLED, but could even surpass it. However, the key question remains: how close will the production model come to what we were shown in the black box? In the end, this will decide whether we were actually presented with the future of TVs or simply with a very well-staged fairy tale.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.» more

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