What's Next for Premium TVs Now That 8K Is Fading?

Michael Bennett · 2026-08-30

It's funny, I've written so much about 8K TV over the years. Looking back, it feels strange to have invested so many words in a format that never really took off. Maybe hope really is the thing that gets you. TV brands poured so much energy into showcasing that 8K future. They built it up, only to slowly retreat and chase other paths to better picture quality. Nobody's officially driven a stake through 8K's heart, but the silence around it has become downright deafening. It popped into my head again recently while updating our best buys list. Over the past few years, the options have just dwindled. Every time I open that page, I'm not adding something new. I'm usually removing a model that's been discontinued, or tweaking the language to reflect that 8K is now a 'was' rather than an 'is.' With brands now focused on things like RGB TVs, I can't help but wonder... where do we go from here? ### The Endless Hunt for the Next Big Thing I've said it before: 8K arrived way too early. It tried to do too much without the content to back it up. Sure, you'll still find folks on internet forums convinced it's just around the corner. But if the big studios and streamers were serious about it, they'd have made that move years ago. The feeling around 8K isn't excitement anymore; it's apathy. Even Samsung, the format's biggest champion, has gone quiet. So, TV makers keep searching for the next frontier. Honestly, so far, it's been a series of false starts. Let's rewind. - It started with 3D back in the 2010s. A cool idea, sure, but nobody ever quite figured out how to make it work comfortably at home. That kicked off a pattern: the industry would latch onto a 'shiny' new thing, pour resources into it, struggle to make it mainstream, and then let it languish while chasing the next shiny object. QLED is a perfect example. It launched as a premium tech for TVs priced well over $2,000. Now? You can find a QLED TV for under $500. The marketing still touts brighter, more colorful pictures, but here's the problem: QLED *is* the standard now. At the budget level, the technology itself hasn't seen real progress in years. Then we dabbled with MicroLED. Rightly so, everyone quickly realized the cost was just prohibitive. It's more of a B2B or custom-install product, really only for the ultra-wealthy. The dream of a 55-inch MicroLED for your living room? That's all it ever was—a dream. ### The Current State of Play We've seen some fascinating designs, like LG's rollable OLED-R. But those kinds of concepts come and go without leaving much of a mark. Then came Mini-LED (or Quantum Dot Mini LED), and it's following a familiar path. Another panel tech that started as a luxury item for the few has quickly become affordable. Samsung's entry-level M80H Mini LED TV is a prime example, now priced under $900 when it would have been a $2,500 set just a few years back. RGB Mini LED felt like it could be the magic bullet for a minute. Now that the launch dust has settled, it doesn't feel world-changing. Don't get me wrong, some RGB TVs are very good. But the initial buzz has faded fast. At its core, it's still an LCD TV, carrying all the same inherent strengths and limitations. And let's not forget OLED. It's the one TV technology stubbornly resisting the plunge into true budget territory. But it has its own issues, mainly a serious lack of real competition. > Sony dabbles in it. Brands like Hisense and TCL largely avoid it. Panasonic struggles to gain a foothold. Without more players in the game pushing each other, innovation can stall. The question for professionals like us in the review and rating space is this: what are we even evaluating next? When the next 'premium' feature becomes commonplace in two years, how do we articulate value to consumers? The chase continues, but the destination feels less clear than ever.