Mini LED process: dismantling of 10 companies including TCL, Hisense, and Skyworth

In 2026, Mini LED backlight technology has surpassed the market introduction period and entered a critical stage of rapid growth and pattern formation.

Industry consensus is increasingly clear: in the next 3-5 years, Mini LED will be the deterministic technology path for high-end LCD and OLED to compete for dominance in the high-end market. Behind the consensus, an industry competition regarding "the right to define the next generation of peak image quality" has quietly begun.

At this turning point of the industry, the expert white paper team surveyed 10 core enterprises in the industry chain, focusing on the progress, challenges and market layout of the two most popular technical routes of RGB-Mini LED and SQD-Mini LED, and sorted out the following core context and trend judgment:

1. Competition has shifted from parameter involution to image quality synergy, that is, brands focus on the iron triangle of high contrast + high peak brightness + high color gamut, with the user's real experience as the core, saying goodbye to single partitions and brightness competition;

2. In 2026, SQD-Mini LED and RGB-Mini LED will enter the stage of head-on competition and layered penetration. The two are not simple substitutes, but jointly squeeze the OLED market share, covering different levels of demand;

3. Hisense and TCL take the lead, Samsung and Sony are accelerating their entry, and the supply chain is accelerating response and cooperation. 2026 will become a key year for the scale and volume of the two major technologies;

4. RGB-Mini LED technology continues to make breakthroughs, but it still faces three major industrialization challenges: mixed light crosstalk, red light life, and high cost. The industry chain predicts that the global RGB-Mini LED TV market size will be between 400,000 and 500,000 units in 2026;

Of course, there are differences in the consensus. The following are some corporate opinions:

Hisense: With the trend of the average size of TV screens continuing to increase, LCD technology has made great progress in the early stage based on QD and Mini LED.

RGB-Mini LED has brought a new round of development opportunities to Mini LED and has become the focus of the industry. This technology is based on the "International Standard IEC 62595-1-2:2016" and its development is evolving from 2D dimming to more advanced 3D dimming. On the basis of inheriting traditional Mini LED, RGB-Mini LED further integrates industry chain resources, improves synergy efficiency, and is deeply integrated with existing RGB direct display technology to jointly promote industrial upgrading.

In March, Hisense launched the UX 2026 RGB-Mini LED TV, equipped with an "Exquisite 4-core true color backlight" system. Based on the three-color chips of red, green and blue, this system adds azure chips, which solves the long-standing "cyan fault" problem in the 480-520 nanometer band in the industry.

In recent years, domestic and foreign display companies have actively deployed RGB-Mini LED in the field of large-size displays, hoping to achieve important breakthroughs. Whether it is technical problems such as "cross-color, red light life" that the industry is concerned about, or the cost constraints that are generally faced, the entire industry chain needs to work together to gradually promote technological breakthroughs and reproduce the early rapid development trend of Mini LED.

In addition, as a continuous improvement in the Mini LED field, SQD has clear industry impacts and challenges.

TCL: In 2026, the focus of the evolution of Mini LED backlight technology has shifted from competition on a single parameter to achieving a more collaborative and robust combination of high contrast, high peak brightness and high color gamut. The improvement of image quality ultimately comes back to the user experience - users don't care about the parameters and only rely on the visual experience: bright parts are transparent, dark parts are clear, and colors are vivid and natural. Behind this is the collaborative support of the "iron triangle of image quality": high contrast to build light and dark levels, high peak brightness to restore highlight details, and high color gamut to give color vitality. Only the collaboration of the three can achieve top-notch picture quality.

Looking at different technical routes, SQD-Mini LED has completed initial popularization, extending from flagship models to mainstream price points. Its full-link advantages have been verified, and more and more brands have followed up, and the industry chain has become increasingly mature. We are promoting this technology from "peak" to "inclusive", so that more consumers can enjoy the improved picture quality brought by SQ-Mini LED at a reasonable price. Taken together, with the physical advantages of quantum dot materials such as precise wavelength, stable color gamut coverage, and mature full-link collaboration, SQD-Mini LED will remain the mainstream technology path for large-size Mini LED TVs in the future.

In March, TCL released three new SQD-Mini LED products, including a light flagship with a specification of 10,000 yuan, an affordable family model, and a mainstream price replacement model. It creates differentiated product solutions for different consumer levels and continues to promote the penetration of SQD-Mini LED technology.

In the field of RGB-Mini LED, TCL is taking the lead in tackling the three challenges facing its scale: first, the requirements for light mixing control accuracy are high, and cross-color and color gamut fluctuations are prone to occur; second, the current cost is still high, and the cost-effective window has not yet been fully opened; third, the red core attenuates quickly, and there is color drift after long-term use. At present, TCL has achieved substantial breakthroughs and is promoting this technology towards large-scale mass production.

Skyworth: 2026 will be a key year of competition between the two major technology routes of SQD Mini LED and RGB Mini LED. The two types of technologies will accelerate penetration into the mid-range market, while continuing to improve the color gamut in the high-end field, such as RGB upgrading to RGBB, and SQD optimizing glass substrates and quantum dot materials. High-end products will still compete around parameters such as partitioning and brightness, and the price of ordinary LEDs will continue to drop. The penetration rate of Mini LED TVs throughout the year is expected to exceed 30%. All mainstream brands have entered the market. The maturity of the supply chain continues to improve. Coupled with the release of production lines and improvements in equipment and materials in 2025, the scale of the industry is steadily expanding. However, RGB Mini LED is limited by challenges such as low manufacturer participation, high technology and chip thresholds, and problems such as red light life, cross-color, and insufficient chip utilization. Annual shipments are expected to be about 500,000 units.

At AWE 2026, Skyworth demonstrated the wallpaper TV A10H Pro equipped with SQD-Mini LED backlight technology; and released a natural light display technology system, which adds independently controllable full-spectrum white LED lamp beads to the backlight system, forming an innovative architecture of "RGB lamp beads + full-spectrum white lamp beads", achieving a breakthrough in independent control of WRGB four colors; new Skyworth products equipped with this technology will be officially launched in August 2026.

Currently, Skyworth is focusing on promoting ultra-thin Mini LED TVs with wallpaper, strengthening home integration and AI application scenarios, and improving the ease of use and serviceability of TVs. Although these directions have become industry consensus, homogeneity still exists and there is obvious room for progress. In addition to upgrading the existing two major routes in terms of high color gamut and eye protection performance, new backlight technology solutions may also appear in the industry. In the future, Skyworth hopes to explore technological paths that combine the advantages of SQD and RGB, further strengthen the concept of eye protection and health, and continue to improve the overall performance of Mini LED backlight TVs.

Zhaochi Technology: The penetration rate of RGB-Mini LED continues to break through, competing for the core technology route of mid-to-high-end displays. The demand for simultaneous light and color control and high color gamut in the high-end display market has surged. RGB-Mini LED can accurately match the demand and promote its penetration from flagship products to the mainstream mid-to-high-end market. RGB-high partitioning further penetrates the MNT e-sports display market through fine backlight control and wide color gamut color performance, bringing players a more immersive gaming visual experience. In terms of TVs, we will focus on promoting RGB-Mini LED solutions this year. The company has been recognized by major brand manufacturers and has clear market demand, which is in line with the trend of high-end display upgrades.

Xinruida: Mini COB RGB technology will become a mature and stable solution for the mid-to-high-end TV backlight market. This year, the yield and cost of COB packaging technology will reach a stable critical point, overcoming the bottleneck of early mass transfer and repair. Its advantages of seamlessness and high reliability will comprehensively surpass the traditional POB solution. COB RGB (using RGB three-color Mini LED chips) can achieve extremely high brightness and a wider color gamut (close to OLED). At the same time, the cost on large-size screens will be better than OLED, becoming the ultimate weapon for "high-end LCD TVs" to fight against OLED. It will be downgraded from the current flagship model to a mainstream high-end model. The industry chain collaboration around COB among chip factories, packaging factories, equipment manufacturers and panel factories will be fully connected to form standardized and large-scale supply capabilities. This year, we have segmented the multi-color backlight projects such as Mini COB RGB, BG, etc. to create different technology platforms.

Nationstar Optoelectronics: It is estimated that RGB-Mini LED backlight TV shipments will increase by more than 150-200% year-on-year, and the high-end market penetration rate will exceed 10-15%. There are three main reasons: First, the technology maturity has been met. Leading manufacturers such as Hisense and TCL will release RGB-Mini LED mass production models at CES 2026 to solve industry pain points such as cross-color and halo. The product strength comprehensively surpasses traditional Mini LED and some OLED models. The second is betting on leading brands. Foreign brands such as Samsung and Sony have accelerated their entry into the market, forming a two-wheel drive of technology and market with Chinese brands. Third, the cost has accelerated. The current process yield has increased to more than 95%. The driver IC has been replaced by localization. The cost of RGB chips has dropped by 30% year-on-year. The overall cost has dropped, increasing demand in the mid-range market.

Jinko Electronics: In 2025, we will achieve large-scale mass production in the two major technical directions of Mini COB and Mini POB. The proportion of Mini LED backlight business in overall sales has increased to more than 20%. In 2026, we will continue to increase investment in research and development of new display technologies, further consolidate the production capacity advantage of Mini LED, focus on increasing the scale of RGB Mini LED, and continue to promote technological innovation and market application in collaboration with terminal brands.

Ruifeng Optoelectronics: Mini LED technology will further enhance its market share and technological leadership in the TV field. It is expected that the cost reduction of TV products in 2026 will be within 10%, which is due to the coordinated cost reduction of the industry chain and the improvement of the whole chain cost control system. At the same time, the application of Mini LED in the TV field continues to grow rapidly, benefiting from the release of technological advantages, cost reduction and increasing user demand. In particular, the trend of standardization of TVs has further promoted the popularity of this technology. In 2026, Ruifeng Optoelectronics will continue to iterate the core competitiveness of the overall solution for Mini LED backlight products as its core goal, focusing on promoting OD0 series products and ultra-thin series overall solutions; COB white light solutions, COB RGB series solutions, etc.

Xingenuo: We believe that in 2026, the mass production of RGB backlight TVs will expand to medium and low sizes, such as 85, 75, 65 inches, etc., RGB backlight monitors will be mass produced, and the price of RGB backlight TVs will drop by 20%. Because RGB backlight has been widely recognized in the industry, 2025 is the first year of RGB backlight TV, reshaping high-end LCD TV with visual effects comparable to OLED TV. Domestic and foreign head terminal manufacturers (Hisense, TCL, Xiaomi, Samsung, Sony, etc.) are actively participating in the game. The shift of Samsung and Sony is essentially an active choice for the "next generation form" of display technology, and is a key path to meeting users' needs for "ultimate picture quality."

In the field of RGB Mini-LED backlight, CIGNO has innovatively built a new development platform, including a series of chips such as image quality enhancement, TCON, BCON, 8/12-channel driver, etc. This series of chips can accurately control the color and brightness of each area to avoid backlight cross-color phenomenon, thereby ensuring color stability and accuracy. This also allows the advantages of RGB-Mini LED (color gamut, contrast, color depth, uniformity) to be fully utilized, further improving the accuracy of color performance and the contrast of the picture.

Hanbo High-tech: RGB-Mini LED technology will establish its "new flagship" status in the high-end display market, and global shipments will reach a new level. The reason is that the inflection point of technology iteration has appeared. The traditional white Mini LED backlight solution has made huge breakthroughs in contrast and brightness. The next generation RGB-Mini LED technology uses three-color chips to directly emit light, which has fundamentally improved the color gamut and color purity. In 2025, Chinese brands will be the first to break through and gain the right to define the market. In 2026, mainstream brands will collectively place their bets, and a matrix of mature products will enter the market in an all-round way. Industry data shows that the global RGB-Mini LED TV sales target in 2026 is expected to reach 400,000 to 500,000 units, forming consumer traction. This is a victory of technology and market choice.

■ Summary

Overall, 2026 is a critical year for the continued evolution of Mini LED backlight technology, large-scale penetration, and the stabilization of the industry structure.

From the perspective of industrial competition, the industry has shifted from parameter competition to full-link image quality collaboration. Chinese brands and supply chains dominate. Global leading brands have collectively entered the game. Mini LED has become a certain track for the extension of high-end LCD in the next 3-5 years.

From the perspective of technological progress, RGB-Mini LED relies on three primary colors to emit light directly, locking in the ultra-high-end color track, and will open up room for growth after solving color cross-color, red light, and cost; SQD-Mini LED relies on the mature quantum dot industry to continue to penetrate, and is followed by more and more brands. In the long term, RGB will reduce costs and SQD will improve image quality. The two-pronged progress will continue to reshape the high-end display landscape.

From the perspective of industry chain cooperation, most key supply chain manufacturers such as Zhaochi, Xinruida, Nationstar Optoelectronics, Jinko Electronics, Ruifeng Optoelectronics, Xingenuo, Hanbo High-tech, Sanan, Qianzhao, etc. have also clearly included RGB-Mini LED technology in key strategic plans and product layouts in 2026, and are actively cooperating with terminal brands to promote.

In this context, it is particularly important to gain insight into the nature of technology and industrial collaboration models. On September 8, 2026, experts say that Display will hold an annual event [Mini LED Backlight Image Quality Advancement and Micro AR Glasses Trend Analysis Meeting]. We sincerely invite colleagues from upstream and downstream of the industry chain to gather together to clarify the evolution of technology, grasp the core needs of the market, and explore your growth path in the wave of certainty of "multi-dimensional advancement of image quality" at a time when display technology is flourishing and seeking practical results.