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From www.digitaltrends.com
We’re gonna admit it. The new Hisense TriChroma LED TV took us by surprise here at CES 2025, and piqued our interest to high levels. The unveiling of the 116-inch 116UX introduces what looks to be a new step forward in mini-LED display technology, but we also do have questions. First, here’s what we know.
By this point, regular Digital Trends readers and YouTube followers are familiar with the basic setup of an LED TV — backlights of blue or white LEDs shine through a color filter (in 2025, often a quantum dot filter) to produce the colors we see.
That’s not how the TriChroma LED TV does it, though. Instead, it uses tens of thousands of RGB Local Dimming optical lenses that each contain a red, green, and blue LED. The lenses are controlled in clusters (much the way mini-LED dimming zones are controlled), but the dimming is at both the optical lens level and the RGB chip level.
Having individual red, green, and blue LEDs without a color filter allows for a much wider color gamut — much like Hisense is able to do with its TriChroma Laser TVs — and it achieves 97% of the BT.2020 color space (according to the Hisense test lab). The independent control over brightness and color allows Hisense to virtually eliminate blooming, with precise control over each pixel, according to the company.
It also allows the RGB clusters to only use the LEDs needed for whatever content the TV is showing, and therefore perform in a more efficient way, reducing power consumption. The use of RGB LEDs for backlight instead of white or blue LEDs means the blue light emissions are reduced by 32% as well.
This all sounds like it requires an incredible amount of processing. To make it all happen, the 116UX has Hisense’s flagship Hi-View AI Engine X. Hisense says the chip’s processing power “enables real-time optimization of every frame”by utilizing new AI enhancements called AI Peak Brightness, AI RGB Local Dimming, and AI Banding Smoother.
The Hisense 116UX will reach up to 10,000 nits of brightness (Hisense has a tendency to under-promise and overperform, so it’ll be interesting to see what that number is when we test it), and supports Dolby Vision, Dolby Vision IQ, and IMAX Enhanced. For sound, it includes a 6.2.2 CineStage X integrated surround sound system with Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual X support. It runs on the Google TV OS.
All of this feels like only part of the story for how the 116UX works, and leaves out some important information. How do the LCD cells line up with the RGB clusters? The LEDs aren’t pixel level like a MicroLED, so if one pixel needs to be yellow and the one next to it needs to be orange, how are the colors differentiated from one pixel to the next that’s within the same RGB cluster? We’re very interested to get answers to those questions (and more) to get a deeper understanding of how this new technology implementation gets the job done.
Alongside the 116UX, Hisense is also debuting the 136MX MicroLED display, its first consumer MicroLED. The display has 24.88 million microscopic LEDs, with a red, green, and blue LED in each self-emissive pixel. So like how individual pixels in an OLED can be turned off, the same can happen in a MicroLED, allowing for deep blacks and a near-infinite contrast ratio, but without the concern of any burn-in potential. Black nanocrystals also reduce reflectivity, which is especially beneficial for brightly lit spaces.
The 136MX MicroLED also uses the flagship Hi-View AI Engine X processor with AI-based algorithms. Hisense says it will reach up to 10,000 nits brightness and achieve 95% of BT.2020.
Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ are both supported, as is Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual X with a “thoughtfully designed audio system.” (There are no details on the speakers beyond that.) The TV uses Hisense’s Vidaa smart platform, and includes voice integration for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. As expected, it has HDMI 2.1 connectivity and eARC, as well as Wi-Fi 6E. For gamers, it includes a 120Hz variable refresh rate (VRR), Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), and FreeSync Premium Pro.
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