Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled its 2026 home theater lineup, aiming to cement its position as the leading TV maker amid intensifying competition and what it described as a shift toward jumbo televisions.
The company’s latest LCD-based 4K televisions make use of new display backlighting technology to reproduce a wider range of colors than previous models could manage, it said in a statement Sunday. Samsung is also debuting its next series of high-end OLED TVs as it continues chipping away at LG Electronics Inc.’s position as the leading global brand in that category, which offers deeper blacks and punchier contrast than LCDs.
Some of Samsung’s new televisions are larger than what was once considered standard, with a few measuring around 100 inches or more. “Super big screens continue to be the fastest-growing TV segment and the market is expected to double in 2026,” the company told reporters last month ahead of Sunday’s announcement.
Samsung unveiled the lineup at an event in Las Vegas for the CES technology conference, where most major TV makers will also be showing off their next-generation products this week. The South Korean company already revealed a portion of its CES lineup late last month, including new Wi-Fi-enabled speakers with bold designs that set up the brand to compete more directly with Sonos Inc.
Micro RGB
In what’s certain to be a prevailing trend at CES, Samsung is hyping a technology known as Micro RGB, which rejiggers the backlighting system in LCD TVs to improve color accuracy. “Typical LCDs rely on either a white or blue backlight limiting color purity and realism,” the company said in the media briefing.
“Samsung Micro RGB employs an entirely new structure with individual red, green and blue backlights that are smaller in size,” it added, claiming that the tweak meaningfully improves color reproduction.
Samsung introduced a 115-inch Micro RGB TV in September, but its $30,000 price is well outside most consumers’ budgets. For 2026, the company is bringing the same display technology to smaller sizes ranging between 55 inches and an enormous 130-inch set — though it’s not sharing pricing yet. All of them are still destined to cost significantly more than Samsung’s more mainstream OLED sets and “Neo QLED” models, which use conventional Mini LED backlighting.
OLED
For many home theater enthusiasts, OLED TVs are still unrivaled when it comes to black levels and contrast, since each individual pixel can be shut off for dark scenes. Samsung returned to the OLED segment in 2022 after many years of focusing exclusively on LCD sets — a move that ratcheted up competition with LG, the long-running leader in the OLED category. Samsung has tried to differentiate from its Korean rival with what it calls “Glare Free” displays that dramatically reduce reflections and “quantum dot” OLED panels manufactured by Samsung Display, which allow colors to remain lush even at peak brightness.
For 2026, Samsung made some minor exterior design changes to its latest flagship OLED model, the S95H OLED. It’s also once again dialed up the brightness over the previous generation — this time by 35%, it said. This has been a recent area of focus for TV makers: Even a few years ago, premium OLED televisions generally weren’t bright enough for sunny rooms.
Meanwhile, the step-down S90H series now includes a low-glare screen and has 15% improved brightness, according to Samsung.
AI
Artificial intelligence will continue to play a key role across Samsung-branded TVs : Like last year’s models, the new sets will be compatible with multiple AI agents — assistants that can help users find something to watch, summarize past episodes, plan a weekend getaway or answer random questions. That includes Samsung’s own Bixby assistant, plus rival offerings from Microsoft Corp. and Perplexity AI Inc.
Samsung is also continuing to expand on software features that automatically adjust picture and sound settings without making consumers delve into advanced menus. For example, a new AI Sound Controller tool will let users independently adjust the volume of dialogue, music or sound effects on this year’s TVs.
Lifestyle TVs
Samsung also announced some tweaks to The Frame, its wall art-style TV, and the higher-priced Frame Pro that first debuted at last year’s CES. Neither introduces any notable image quality upgrades this year even as the company faces a growing wave of competition that now includes LG.
Instead, Samsung is dramatically up-sizing The Frame with a new 98-inch version. The standard Frame will also now have its HDMI inputs and other hardware built directly into the TV set. Previously, Samsung included something called the One Connect Box to hide those wires, with one thin cable running up to the screen.
Welch writes for Bloomberg.
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