From super-bright OLED TVs to stretchable screens, CES 2025 has showcased some impressive new display tech and I'd count Hisense's TriChroma mini-LED TV among the best innovations I've seen in the space.
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As it stands, the Hisense 116UX is the world's largest mini-LED TV from any TV maker, making it quite the spectacle when I went to see it at the Las Vegas Convention Center – it even overshadowed the 163-inch micro-LED TV behind it for me.
That was down to the dazzling spectrum of colors being produced on such a large screen. Indeed, what's so groundbreaking about the 116UX mini-LED TV isn't its size (although it's the largest mini-LED TV at the show), but rather the new RGB backlight tech inside of it, which strengthens the color spectrum.
It's this new backlight that helps the set to achieve such a boost in color gamut coverage, and to power this tech Hisense has added a new Hi-View AI Engine X processor, which it says is faster than the one used in its 2024 range.
Like the rest of Hisense's 2025 lineup, the 116UX mini-LED TV uses Google TV as its operating system, meaning you can access all of Google's Smart Home features. There's also a ATSC 3.0 tuner so that you can watch next-generation digital TV broadcasts, making it one of the most advanced sets in its range.
What is RGB Local Dimming Technology?
Hisense calls its new backlighting tech 'RGB Local Dimming Technology' and says that it helps to optimize the picture and sound quality in the mini-LED TV in combination with new AI functions on the more powerful processor.
RGB mini-LED backlights are new in 2025, with concepts using it also being unveiled by TCL and Samsung (though Samsung is calling its version a 'RGB micro-LED backlight'), but Hisense is the only one to announce a real product. So, how does it work?
Current mini-LED backlights use a grid of blue LEDs to create the light, which then passes through a color filter to create the color on the screen. This new panel instead uses blue, red and green LEDs in the backlight, which is what 'RGB' stands for, so it creates a lot of the color before it ever hits the pixels.
By creating colors in the original light of the TV, the 116UX mini-LED looks so much richer and can achieve 97% of the BT.2020 color space, according to Hisense. This backlight tech also individually dims each of the mini-LED's colors, so there's incredibly strong control of the picture.
Peak brightness hits 10,000 nits, according to Hisense, because you now lose less light to color filtering and thanks to the improved processing power in the TV, it's claimed to be 10% more energy efficient than other equivalent backlights from the company.
On the wellness front, Hisense also says that its 'RGB Local Dimming Technology' also reduces the intensity of harmful blue light by 40%, making it a much more comfortable watch by protecting your eyes and ability to fall sleep after movie night.
It's incredible tech to see in person that really does give the Hisense 116UX mini-LED TV an eye-catching boost in color. It's promised to launch later in 2025, though there's no official price being announced. We'll get it straight onto our review bench when we can, though.
