I love projectors – but this super advanced 163-inch TV trend I have spotted at IFA has me torn

We’re in awe, overwhelmed and more than a little sweaty. In other words, I and my colleague Lewis Epson are on the ground at IFA 2025.

All the major technology brands are here to show off their latest products, from laser projectors to budget speakers.

But one product category that has caught my eye in particular is the premium ultra-large Micro LED TVs on display.

The first of these that I saw was at TCL’s booth, where the brand was showing off a 163-inch RGB Micro LED TV. If you couldn’t tell from the photo below, it is blooming massive and is by far the biggest TV screen I have ever seen.

Instead of using organic light-emitting diodes, which is what OLED TVs do, Micro LED TVs use tiny, non-organic LEDs – three per pixel.

Each pixel can be turned on or off individually, or can display a completely different colour to the one next to it. The result is essentially perfect contrast and colour control.

Standing before such a massive screen really felt like having my own private movie screening, with impressive levels of brightness and vividness oozing from the picture.

The sound is more difficult to give a first impression of, as the acoustics are less than ideal in the convention space, and there was a lot of noise going on around me.

I also got a chance to see Hisense’s 163-inch UX MicroLED at its booth. It is using ASIC, which the brand says is a picture quality solution for precision dimming and controls each LED pixel to accurately provide a bright picture.

While this model did not seem to go quite as bright as the TCL entry, it did seem to focus more on the detail of the image.

We are yet to scope out all the offerings from the various brands in attendance at IFA, but it’s likely there are even more of these ultra-large models lurking somewhere.

It doesn’t look as though either of these 163-inch TVs will be available in the UK any time soon, so it’s difficult to say how much one of these models would set you back. We can assume it would take quite the chunk out of your bank account, though.

At this point, it’s fair to say that this size of TV is not for your average punter – it’s an ultra-large premium way to experience films. But who’s to say we won’t be seeing more models around this size with a more achievable price tag in the future?

And that really got me thinking about what this could mean for the world of projectors...

Competition for projectors?

Most premium projectors can go up to 150 inches, with our favourite performance-per-pound projector, the Sony VPL-XW5000ES, able to project an image up to 200 inches in size.

Of course, that is larger than the 163-inch TVs on display at IFA, but the Micro LED technology means there is a level of vividness there that is very difficult (if not impossible) to achieve with a projector at that size.

TVs also typically offer a wider range of physical connections, such as 4K/120Hz-compatible HDMI 2.1 sockets.

There are unique features to projectors as well, of course. For instance, the majority of projectors are relatively portable, so you can take your movie experience from room to room without having to lug a giant screen around.

There's also something almost intangibly cinematic about a projected image when compared with one displayed on a TV.

Still, if your budget and your house can stretch to having one of these premium screens as part of your home cinema setup, it could easily be a trend to keep your eye on.

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