ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, New Jersey—Micro LED is still years away, but the next best thing is taking shape right now. A $30,000 price tag and 114.5-inch diagonal size makes the Samsung "Micro RGB" TV that I demoed this week unattainable for most. But the unique RGB backlight and Micro LED-sized diodes it employs represent a groundbreaking middle ground between high-end Mini LED and true Micro LED, expanding the possibilities for future premium displays beyond the acronyms we know today.
Micro RGB isn’t the same as Micro LED
To be clear, Samsung's Micro RGB TV is not a Micro LED display. During Samsung's presentation, a representative described the TV as sitting "squarely in between" Mini LED and Micro LED.
Unlike true Micro LED TVs, Samsung's Micro RGB TV uses a backlight. The backlight is unique in that it can produce red, green, and/or blue light via tiny RGB LEDs. Most LCD-LED backlights create just blue or white backlighting, which is applied to color filters to create the different hues displayed on the screen.