Hisense and TCL are heading down two very different paths thanks to RGB Mini LED – but I think there’s a wider issue

I’ve spent the week on the continent scouting the very latest Mini LED TVs from the two biggest Chinese AV brands.

Hisense and TCL have always been arch-rivals, but their respective lineups have always been fairly closely aligned.

While LG, Sony, Philips and Panasonic have traditionally sung OLED's praises, TCL and Hisense have championed Mini LED as the “superior” panel technology.

That usually manifests in a lineup with a flagship and various step-down QLED TVs; take last year’s TCL C8K and Hisense U8Q, which were direct competitors at the top of each company’s respective ranges, and the C7K and U7Q Pro, which were equivalent step-down models.

However, it’s looking like that’s all changing in 2026, and it’s all thanks to the latest innovation in Mini LED panel tech.

I began my week with Hisense in Munich, where I was exposed to the blindingly bright and lusciously colourful UR9 and UR8 RGB Mini LED TVs. Hisense made it very clear that it wants to be the brand that people think of when they consider an RGB Mini LED TV, and it even claimed its stake as the originator of the panel technology.

The UR9 and UR8 boast claimed peak brightnesses of 4000 and 3500 nits, respectively, alongside Pantone-verified colours and refresh rates up to a staggering 180Hz. I think it’s fair to say that these are on the bleeding edge of backlit TVs right now.

But TCL, which I met up with in Paris for its Nxt Home event, begs to differ. It’s touting the latest generation of “traditional” QLED-equipped Mini LED as the champion.

It’s calling this technology Super Quantum Dot Mini LED – or SQD-Mini LED for short – and it brings more dimming zones and higher brightness figures to the table compared to the previous generation of Mini LED TVs we've seen.

TCL claims that its flagship, the X11L, sports up to 20,736 local dimming zones and 10,000 nits peak brightness on the 98-inch variant.

And this panel tech isn’t just reserved for the flagship spot, as the upcoming C8L and C7L (successors to the five-star C8K and Award-winning C7K, respectively) will also get a version of this tech (albeit with fewer dimming zones and lower brightness figures), meaning there’s a full lineup of SQD-Mini LED TVs on the horizon.

On paper, that blows Hisense’s RGB out of the water, but the plot thickens when we look at TCL’s RM9L and RM7L. These TVs sit in a slightly confusing, somewhat vague place in TCL's lineup, and they both feature RGB Mini LED panels; TCL is even calling them "Premium RGB Mini LED TVs".

Interestingly, TCL states that the RM9L uses a more advanced version of RGB Mini LED, with each colour having two LEDs rather than just one. Other manufacturers may already be using this technology, but if they are, they've certainly kept quiet about it.

That being said, TCL doesn’t seem all that bothered by the new panel technology, and it almost seems to be launching RGB Mini LED TVs out of a sense of obligation.

You’d think that TCL, which has previously done everything in its power to offer cutting-edge Mini LED technology in its TVs, would be chomping at the bit to bring TVs with this highly anticipated panel tech to the market, and yet it’s taken the very opposite approach to Hisense.

In fact, during a demo in which it placed two of its TVs (the X11L and RM9L) against a Samsung Neo-QLED, a Sony QD-OLED and a Hisense RGB Mini LED, it maintained the position that the SQD-Mini LED is the superior panel tech thanks to its richer, purer colours and higher brightness capabilities.

While that was technically true for full-screen colour demo content, when it came to actually playing some proper video demo content – in this instance, a reel of Las Vegas landmarks against the night sky – the QD-OLED was clearly the best of the bunch.

But I digress. The real surprise is how differently these companies are approaching RGB Mini LED. One sees it as the future, whereas the other sees it as a lesser alternative to the latest version of QD-Mini LED.

This extends into other brands, too. Samsung is leveraging RGB Mini LED for its premium TVs, whereas LG is positioning it below its OLEDs. Philips is taking a closer approach to LG, whereas Sony is somewhat of a mystery, as it's remaining tight-lipped about its RGB Mini LED TV plans.

This is creating quite a rift in the world of TV. One company tells me that it’s the future and should be used in pricey top-of-the-range models, whereas others tell me it’s “just another LCD TV at the end of the day”.

That quote comes from LG Display, which has an understandable bias towards OLED, but it’s an interesting perspective to take when its sister company, LG Electronics, is primed to launch its own RGB Mini LED TVs.

This inconsistency is what worries me, as it likely won’t inspire confidence in prospective TV buyers.

OLED’s position is clear; it's reserved for premium TVs at the top end of most manufacturers’ lineups, but even I’m starting to doubt whether RGB Mini LED is being touted as the new top dog, or if it's destined for mid-range models.

MORE:

Read our Hisense UR8 hands on review

As well as our TCL RM9L hands on review

Check out our picks for the best Mini LED TV