At TCL, we’re focused on delivering joy to our customers through the latest technology.  And for TCL TV customers, nothing is more joyful than experiencing their favorite TV shows, movies or sports with the rich colors and striking contrast available with the latest TCL display technology.

With the new year ahead and lots of new technology that will be soon showcased at the all-virtual 2021 Consumer Electronics Show, it’s a good time to look at recent picture performance advancements and to consider how those trends will deliver even more joy to our valued TV customers in the year ahead.

One thing I am sure you will notice is that many competing brands have recognized the value and performance of using mini-LED backlights to improve the performance of televisions.  We expect all major brands to eventually try to embrace this powerful technology by introducing mini-LED technology to their TVs for the first time.  TCL led the way to deliver great TV picture performance by being the first to use mini-LED backlight technology in our TVs.  That’s great news for TV shoppers who will have more options for better display performance from more TV brands.  So that’s welcome news for so many of us that are relying more than ever on big-screen displays to keep us connected, informed and entertained at home. 

A little background for those of you wondering what I am talking about…

Today there are 2 kinds of TVs available in the world.  There are TVs with a display technology that hasn’t notably changed since it was first used in TVs in the early 2010’s and still only accounts for less than 3% of global TV sales.  That’s the self-emissive TV display technology known as WOLED (which is different than the popular AMOLED used in smaller mobile phone displays).  There may be some innovation coming to this type of self-emissive TV in the next few years that could deliver better performance for more TV shoppers, but that’s another blog post for another time.  For now, TCL isn’t investing in the niche older WOLED display technology, but stay tuned for news on newer and more powerful self-emissive display technologies coming in the years ahead.

In today’s TV market, the other kind of display technology available accounts for more than 97% of global TV sales – those are LED LCD TVs.  The overwhelmingly popular LED LCD TVs have seen lots of innovation in the past years to enable TVs to get bigger, brighter, sharper and more accessible.  Contrast Control Zone or local dimming technology, wide color with quantum dot technology and mini-LED backlight technology have been applied to LED LCD TVs in recent years with dramatically visible picture quality advancements.

TCL is and will continue to be a leader in deploying those impactful display technologies.  In fact, TCL launched the world’s first TV powered by over 25,000 micro-meter class mini-LED backlights here in the U.S. in 2019.  The TCL 8-Series TV received rave reviews as among the world’s best-performing LED LCDs when it debuted.  Since then, TCL launched it’s second-generation of mini-LED backlight on the 6-Series TV line here in the U.S. in 2020.  Featuring up to 240 Contrast Control Zones powered by mini-LED backlight technology, the 6-Series TV line was acclaimed for it’s smoothly brilliant luminance and precision contrast.

To those brands excited to introduce mini-LED in 2021, my only question is “What took you so long?”

What is it about mini-LED technology that delivers such great TV picture performance? Brilliant light. Smooth luminance. Precision contrast. Vivid color. All of those key elements of great picture performance are enhanced with mini-LED backlight technology.  

Thinking about the most basic components that make up a TV display, LED LCD TVs have 2 parts of the display that combine together to create an image.  The “LCD” (liquid crystal display) part of the display creates a picture and the “LED” (light-emitting diode) part of the display makes light that shines through the picture so your eyes can see it.  So the benefit of thousands of precisely controlled mini-LEDs in an active matrix backlight is more powerful light that is more smoothly distributed across the screen, more precisely controlled for sharp contrast and more effective in creating vividly saturated colors that dazzle the eye.  Mini-LED simply delivers dramatically better picture performance.

Now as we’re preparing to bring our 2021 TV lines to our customers, TCL’s innovation in mini-LED backlight technology will deliver even more powerful display performance to more customers.  At the 2021 virtual Consumer Electronics Show, TCL will reveal a third-generation mini-LED backlight technology.  This latest mini-LED backlight from TCL is possible because of TCL’s deep expertise in micro-meter class active-matrix LED backlights, skilled optical stack optimizations and TCL’s powerful vertically integrated supply chain that can more quickly iterate the most advanced display technologies on TCL televisions.  This unique set of display expertise and deep industrial integration allows TCL to be at the forefront of advanced display technologies like the extraordinarily precise, smoothly brilliant and strikingly slim next-generation of mini-LED technology from TCL.

We can’t wait to enable our customers to enjoy more with the best display technology in a brighter year ahead!