TCL SQD Mini LED: how the brand plans to take the lead in the premium TV market against Samsung and Hisense

Holder of the largest market share in the Mini LED television sector ahead of Hisense and Samsung, with this leading trio alone accounting for 75% of global shipments, TCL confirms its shift in status. Until 2022, Samsung reigned supreme over this technology with around 75% market share. The joint offensive by TCL and Hisense in more affordable ranges eventually shook the Korean giant, with the two Chinese manufacturers overtaking Samsung as early as 2024. In an attempt to respond, Samsung decided in 2025 to launch Mini LED televisions equipped with [abc]Edge[/abc] backlighting (around the screen perimeter) aimed at budget buyers. In 2026, the battle takes a new strategic turn, where each player adopts a clearly distinct technological path.

 

2026: three giants, three visions of Mini LED While the market had until now relied on volume-driven strategies with heavily reduced prices, 2026 marks a clear technical divergence among the three leaders. On the one hand, Samsung chooses to shift its mainstream models from the QLED label to Mini LED. To achieve this at lower cost, the brand forgoes the Quantum Dot filter and uses white Mini LEDs. For its part, Hisense is betting on its early lead in RGB Mini LED to consolidate its leadership in this variant by rolling it out in the mid-range, even if that means drastically reducing the number of backlight zones. Finally, TCL is taking the opposite approach by placing its SQD Mini LED technology (SQD for Super Quantum Dots) at the very top of its lineup to deliver maximum color fidelity, while maintaining a full catalog combining QD Mini LED and RGB Mini LED.

 

 

SQD Mini LED: 100% of the BT.2020 gamut and industrial mastery Presented at CES 2026, TCL’s SQD Mini LED technology is not merely an additional Quantum Dot layer. It is an architectural overhaul combining three advances: an LCD panel with extended gamut equipped with a WHVA 2.0 Ultra colored filter (see photo above), the use of proprietary SQD materials ((see photos above) and an ultra-thin backlighting system (reduced optical distance) allowing highly precise zoning (see last photo in this news item). The result is full 100% coverage of the BT.2020 color space.

 

 

Beyond its image performance, the real advantage of TCL’s SQD Mini LED technology lies in its pricing flexibility. According to Omdia’s modeling, manufacturing a 4K 85'' TV panel in SQD Mini LED with 5,000 dimming zones costs about 1,400 dollars. That is 20% less than an equivalent RGB Mini LED module, the latter also having its 5,000 zones split among red, green, and blue (that is, only 1,700 effective white zones). Better still: for a 500-zone configuration, the production cost of an SQD Mini LED module falls below 750 dollars.

 

 

A market of more than 10 million units by 2030 This industrial competitiveness allows TCL to compete on two fronts: the very high end to go head-to-head with the best RGB Mini LED and Oled displays, but also the mass market. The launch of the C7L SQD Mini LED series at aggressive prices is the first concrete illustration of this.

 

For 2026, Omdia therefore estimates potential demand for SQD Mini LED TVs at 14.7 million units. By 2030, the cumulative Mini LED TV market (high-end and mass-market) should exceed 27 million units. Given that TCL is open to licensing its SQD platform to other TV manufacturers (for example Haier with its MS96 series planned for 2027), Omdia estimates that SQD Mini LED could capture more than 40% of this market by the end of the decade, surpassing the 10 million units sold mark.