China beats everyone else to announcing an RGB Mini LED panel in a monitor.
(Image credit: HKC)
HKC Co. LTD has announced its plans to release the M10 Ultra, a 32-inch, 4K, RGB Mini LED computer monitor, in 2026. RGB Mini LED panel technology is the newest hot tech in the display world, and HKC has beaten the biggest companies in TVs and displays to become the first company to announce an RGB Mini LED monitor.
The M10 Ultra's secret sauce is its RGB Mini LED backlight system, which is said to possess "simultaneous light and color control" in a Chinese press release from HKC. This level of control is contrasted with standard Mini LED's "single light control", also per HKC. The panel developers also boast a whopping 4,788 independent control zones in the M10 Ultra's backlight, which makes this claim sound pretty believable.
RGB Mini LED, sometimes referred to as Micro LED, is the next step in LED backlighting technology. All display panels have their color-emitting diodes helped by a backlight, and backlight technology has been pushed forward in recent years by the Mini LED trend, which is defined by smaller backlight LEDs and more independently-controlled dimming zones for better lighting and color accuracy. But what if these mini LEDs were RGB — pushing panel backlights into full color, and creating the most color-accurate panels mankind has ever seen?
(Image credit: Sony)
Enter RGB Mini LED, a very new technology that has so far been accessible by the very wealthy. Panels that have shipped with RGB Mini LEDs so far have come from Samsung and Hisense, and both were around 115 inches and cost a staggering $29,999.
HKC's new M10 Ultra is the world's first RGB Mini LED monitor announced — and it's the first RGB Mini LED screen that can fit on a desk. The 31.4-inch, 4K screen will cover 100% of the BT.2020, sRGB, DCI-P3, and Adobe RGB color gamuts, according to HKC's spec sheet. The company also shared that the monitor will support 3840 x 2160 resolution at 165Hz native refresh rate, with a high refresh rate gaming mode that shifts the speeds to 330Hz at 1080p available.
HKC did not announce a release date or launch price for the monitor (hopefully less than $30,000), but given HKC's current market footprint, we're unlikely to see the monitor launch in the U.S. when it does arrive. HKC is probably a new name to most Western readers, but the semiconductor display company has been a major player in Chinese display tech for years. It was first established in 2001 and it recently won a slew of awards for its high quality — it's become one of the world's largest TV companies, in terms of shipment footprint.
While the M10 Ultra is unlikely to reach the US without importing, you can be sure we'll be testing it to see where it stacks up in our list of the best 4K gaming monitors if it does make it over here.
Sunny Grimm is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware. He has been building and breaking computers since 2017, serving as the resident youngster at Tom's. From APUs to RGB, Sunny has a handle on all the latest tech news.
Ermm.... having an RGB backlight is NOT the same thing as microLED.
EXACTLY. author apparently doesn't know much about monitor tech lol.. I'm waiting for a 40-45" microled 5k ultrawide (my dream monitor). MicroLED WILL be the tech to beat as soon as they get manufacturing costs way down.. MicroLED will rule all because those panels do not need a backlite at all. from the panels I've seen so far, they all are capable of 4000+ nits and every screen I've seen is absolutely gorgeous.
Ermm.... having an RGB backlight is NOT the same thing as microLED.
CaptRiker said:
EXACTLY. author apparently doesn't know much about monitor tech lol..
Phew. I was thinking that everything I knew about microLED was wrong, and that backlight and zones were somehow a part of it. Backlighting sucks. I'd love to have all the advantages of OLED without any of the disadvantages... microLED!
Phew. I was thinking that everything I knew about microLED was wrong, and that backlight and zones were somehow a part of it. Backlighting sucks. I'd love to have all the advantages of OLED without any of the disadvantages... microLED!
MicroLED will never get all the advantages of OLED tech. It will never be as responsive (GtG), fast (max hz), or per pixel lighting. Even then, if we can get a 480p+ amount of micro LEDs behind a 4k screen, anyone would be hard-pressed to see a halo effect if the tech is reasonable managed by the panel.
