Forget invisible TVs. Here’s the display technology that will be important at CES 2026

Every year, the TV category is one of the most glamorous at CES Huge video TV walls And innovative features such as Transparent screens. CES 2026 will undoubtedly see more exotic and completely unobtainable prototypes, but will they end up being a prototype? A “Worst Gadgets” tour.? Time will tell.

In previous years, we’ve seen everything from battery operation TVs that stick to the wall For OLED displays that is Roll up like a treasure map. I’m not a TV designer, so I can never anticipate the weird stuff companies are cooking up now. However, while these cutting-edge devices make headlines, our focus will remain on the products that actually matter.

Read more: CNET picks the best CES 2026 awards

We know that gimmicks aren’t what people buy TVs for. Picture quality is the most important aspect of any TV, and I expect we’ll see advancements in this area, especially at the affordable end of the market. Along with computers and phones, TVs have a 12-month shelf life and are updated every year – usually with picture and feature improvements. Here’s what this year promises.

Mini LED streams down

Two TVs from 2025 point the way forward – the Hisense QD7 and the Hisense QD7 TCL QM9. Both models have it Mini LED technologybut they’re at opposite ends of the market – Hisense is a budget TV, and TCL is a flagship. Both were important for their improvements in image quality, especially QD7. Hisense’s mini LED backlight was a cut above the budget TV competition this year, and I hope it’s the start of a new trend. Local dimming positively affects LCD image quality, and being able to do so at an affordable price is the best of all.

Mini-LED is an evolution of traditional LCD TV backlight technology, using thousands of tiny light-emitting diodes to improve picture quality. It was one of the first small LED TVs to become available 2019 TCL 8-SeriesIt is a technology that is becoming more widely available with each passing year.

Improvements in display technology can sometimes seem incremental, almost glacial, but this year, mini LED backlighting has helped make LCD TVs eye-wateringly bright. This is a good thing. For example, in 2025, TCL changed their technology to “corona control,” which was designed to reduce LCD fringing, and it worked!

The brightest TV I reviewed last year was QM9Kand it took full advantage of this upgrade: it was bright and capable of great contrast. You can expect to see this technology implemented on more TVs across the company’s range. Competitors like Samsung and Hisense will no doubt be taking notes as well.

Evolution of Micro RGB backlighting

The brightest TVs I’ve seen in 2025 were the most difficult to test in a laboratory setting. This was mostly because it was huge—over 100 inches diagonally—and included Hisense 116UX TV and Samsung Micro RGB TV.

The key to their success was micro RGB backlighting, which is different from backlighting Display type MicroLED. These taillights are made of small red, green and blue LEDs, and have two main benefits: they do not need a color filter, either Quantum dot Or else, and they can create brighter displays. At CES, we’ll see a whole host of TVs based on this – led by both Samsung the LG. What we’ll see are TVs of all sizes — from 55 inches and up — at prices much lower than the cost of a car.

OLED’s bright future

Although OLED technology has always had an advantage over LED technology in terms of contrast, this gap has narrowed. Although OLED can’t improve on the already great black levels, one way the technology has shown progress is in brightness, and I expect this trend to continue into 2026. LG G5 For example, it was the brightest OLED TV I tested this year, and it was brighter than LCD TVs produced just a few cycles ago. It effectively did this by placing two OLED panels on top of each other in what the company called a “four-stack.”

I’d like to see improvements on the “less expensive” end of OLED, which hasn’t seen any real upgrades in a long time. the LG C5, priced at $1,400For example, it is not particularly different from LGC4LG C4 was based on LG C3 etc.

If OLED displays are to compete with the new threat of mini-LEDs, manufacturers must make them more attractive to a wide range of buyers. By this I mean that OLED TVs need brighter panels across the board, starting with entry-level models. While doubling the number of panels is obviously expensive, there are other modifications OLED manufacturers can make, including voltage adjustment and improved filters.

Other things to consider

Thanks to developments such as Dolby Vision 2 and Samsung HDR10 Plus Advanced, the TVs announced at CES will be brighter than ever, and that brightness will actually come in handy for compatible HDR movies and games.

While TV companies never talk about budget models at CES, the cutting-edge technology we’ve seen this year — and in 2026 — will undoubtedly move to the budget end. What does this mean? Better image quality for less money.

Customs tariffs on imported products and resulting inflation It was a wild card for tech products in 2025, and it is still unknown what impact this will have on next year’s prices. Most of the TVs shown at CES are unlikely to come at a reasonable price. Some basic pricing discussions may take place during the show, given the international nature of the conference, but actual prices won’t be revealed until months later.

Bottom line

We don’t have long to wait for the latest goodies in TV. CES 2026 starts on January 6, so stay tuned to see what’s new. I’m visiting CES in Las Vegas for the first time in a while, and I’ll be more interested in the real benefits to you, the reader, rather than the attention-grabbing gadgets. I’m optimistic to see better, brighter, more affordable TVs than ever before.