Special resolution: the first Russian TV for gamers will be cheaper than foreign ones

In Russia, sales of new domestic-made televisions are starting, which are noticeably cheaper than their foreign counterparts: the difference with products from China reaches 20-30 thousand rubles. Leading manufacturers have already begun to develop similar solutions. How the Mini-LED technology works and what are its strengths compared to basic LED solutions — in the Izvestia material.

Who will benefit from the new technology

Yandex has introduced its new TV line, TV Station Pro Mini-LED, which uses the first domestic Mini-LED displays with integrated AI assistant and a high refresh rate of 144 Hz. As noted in the company itself, Alice's AI assistant has learned how to help gamers complete difficult levels in games. The video game assistance feature is in beta testing and essentially turns the TV into a full-fledged device for gamers.

The new TVs are equipped with voice control of the interface and third—party applications, but their strongest feature is an AI assistant that will help gamers play video games. When playing on such a TV, you can ask the voice assistant for recommendations on the optimal "assembly" of the hero, ask him to translate the names in the frame in foreign languages and provide background information on what is happening on the screen. According to the authors of the technology, the innovation will help a wide audience of amateur players and make video games more accessible entertainment. Another plus: Mini-LED backlit displays last longer, and they consume less energy than conventional LCD technologies.

— A carpet of tens of thousands of miniature LEDs is installed behind the matrix of liquid crystals. Most often, they are not managed individually, but in groups — the so-called zones of several square centimeters. Under the dark areas in the image, these areas glow dimmer or turn off completely, and under the bright ones, they turn on at full power. This allows you to achieve an almost perfectly deep black color without sacrificing the brightness and saturation of other shades," said Nikita Boguslavsky, editor—in-chief of Technologies in TJ.

Interest in these technologies is really growing, in June of this year the total share of QLED (including Mini-LED) exceeded 35% in money and 20% in units, said Larisa Senina, director of the Department of Large household Appliances at Marvel Distribution.

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According to Denis Kuskov, editor-in-chief of TelecomDaily, the new technology allows you to adjust the backlight and improve the image literally by pixels.

— Switching to Mini-LED also depends on the price of the issue, but Russian analogues have already shown that they are often cheaper than Chinese ones. So, prices for similar TVs from the Hisense brand, for example, are on average 15-20 thousand higher than for products of similar parameters from a Russian company, the expert specified.

People are not buying technology, but a specific product. Yandex solutions are quite cheap and at the same time have premium Mini-LED technology, said Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group.

— This is a victory of a cheaper product over more expensive competitors, and it needs to be positioned that way. The premium segment of TVs is huge in money, but small in units. The popularity of Mini-LED, including in the Russian Federation, is provided by budget devices, that is, those that are cheaper than their nearest counterparts. But when buying, people think about the Mini-LED last, it is far from being such an important factor," added Eldar Murtazin.

Strengths and weaknesses of Mini-LED

As the editor of the IT portal told Izvestia Ferra.ru Evgeny Kharitonov, the share of Mini-LED abroad has grown to 15%, and in Russia it ranges from 8% to 10% of the total market. At the same time, the vast majority of devices are still made in foreign countries.

Now Mini-LED is the main driver of TV sales growth in Russia: if the transition to large diagonals with IPS/VA matrices occurred in 2020-2022 (covid and sanctions hype), now it is this technology that closes the demand for high—quality images. Buyers are striving for devices with OLED/QD-OLED, but Mini-LED provides comparable quality cheaper than Android smartphones versus iPhones, and after OLED becomes cheaper, many will remain on Mini-LED due to the chronic problem of pixel burnout in organic displays, says Evgeny Kharitonov.

— In Russia, the transition to Mini-LED is proceeding moderately: the technology is poorly advertised, the majority of buyers use IPS /VA, purchased recently. But by 2026-2027, sales will grow sharply: Mini-LED will become cheaper, it will become the "default" option, as IPS/VA once replaced TN-matrices in the cheap segment," the expert concluded.

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Among the key advantages of the Mini-LED are its high brightness, which works even in bright sunlight, and contrast ratio, which provides high-quality HDR content. Mini-LED is better suited for gaming than budget IPS/VA: local dimming reduces ghosting around moving objects, and HDMI 2.1 (4K 120 Hz), VRR, and low output latency (10-20 ms) technologies are included as standard.

— When people watch high-quality content, they want to do it on a high-quality TV. Mini-LED technology gives a good immersion effect, but you need to understand that people buy TVs for a fairly decent number of years, more than the same smartphones, where the replacement time is three years. The share of Mini-LED TVs will grow, but not at an astronomical rate," Denis Kuskov added.

Such TVs are gradually becoming more accessible. For example, the Samsung QN85D Neo QLED with a Mini-LED backlight of only 160 zones cost about 150 thousand rubles for a 65-inch model. And this year, a Mini-LED TV Station of the same size with 504 independent zones and significantly higher total brightness costs about 120 thousand rubles. And for the same 150 thousand, you can purchase a 75-inch version with 640 independent zones, significantly saving on the difference with foreign analogues, Nikita Boguslavsky recalled.