Hisense 116 UX RGB Mini-LED review – Could a 116 inch TV be worth $40,000?

$39,999 for a TV is a lot. I get it. Don’t come at me about it, I don’t set the prices. For the record though, LG has a TV on the market today for the same price and it’s only 97 inches, so compared to the Hisense 116UX RGB Mini-LED TV, if you’re style is “go big or go home”, Hisense has you covered.

This is the biggest TV you can purchase in Australia, by an inch. TCL and Samsung both have 115 inchers, and the number of 100 inch TV’s today is really quite amazing – I counted around eight when I last checked. Aussie’s love a big TV, the Hisense 116UX RGB Mini-LED is the pinnacle today.

At 116 inches and heavy enough to be a tough two man lift, this isn’t the kind of TV we’re getting shipped to the EFTM office to review. Instead, I spent the morning at a luxurious Eastern Suburbs home in Sydney where Hisense had it setup in what is basically its natural habitat.

I don’t think for a second that Hisense is hoping to sell these by the truckload, but they tell me their first shipment is all gone, so there’s definitely some wealthy people in search of a massive TV out there.

No no, this is a “Flagship” product that appears to set a new benchmark for premium in the Hisense brand, and it’s also a demonstration that Hisense can innovate and be first, and not just a follower when it comes to TV technology.

What is RGB Mini LED?

In a traditional LED TV there is a white (or Blue) LED light shining through to allow you to see the pixels on the screen. Over the years that light source has moved from the back of the TV to the edges, then into smaller areas behind the picture until the most recent technology “Mini LED” which saw far smaller LED’s used allowing smaller areas of light to match the brighter areas of the screen, thus enhancing the contrast between the black and coloured areas of the screen.

Hisense’s RGB Mini LED technology replaces those white LEDs with dedicated red, green and blue Mini LEDs so that the light coming through can be the colour of the pixels being illuminiated to further enhance the richness of the colour and also the brightness.

This also eliminates the need for colour filters like the “Quantum Dot” layer we’ve heard about so much over many years.

How does it look?

Epic, I really does. While you can watch a store loop and be mesmerised, I watched everything from Seinfeld through to Oppenheimer on the Hisense 116 UX RGB Mini-LED and of course, the lower quality content doesn’t give you the true sense of quality here, but it still comes across as an epic viewing experience thank to the sheer size of this TV.

What I found here was there really was an excellent contrast despite the enormous size of this TV. Scenes like the big blast in Oppenheimer are a challenge for a TV in any technology, with rich orange and yellow of the ball of flame mixed with the deep dark night around it you might expect at least a level of blooming from the backlights through the edges of the colour where the black meets the orange and red. I didn’t notice this.

Likewise with bold white text on the screen, often the first giveaway of a backlight’s size or ability to follow the content, at my viewing distance I saw a crisp white edge to the text.

This thing has a peak brightness of 8,000 nits, so you won’t be disappointed with it’s output in any way, even in a bright Aussie lounge room.

However, it should be noted that despite a level of anti-reflective coating on the screen, on an angle in which you can see your window reflections, you will most certainly see those windows. There’s no avoiding it. At $39,999 I’d have hoped frankly that Hisense would have found the same anti-reflective matte finish coating that Samsung has not opted for in all it’s premium TVs.

Positioned correctly, that can of course be avoided – but worth checking on your placement before assuming anything.

Supreme Sound

No expense spared on sound here either. A built-in 6.2.2 “CineStage X” surround sound system from Devialet ensures you really are immersed in the moment.

With speakers firing up, back and to the sides you will get a great sense of surround.

In the huge open space this was placed in I do think I lacked a bit of the side bounced surround sound, but it would be a true audiophile who notices that kind of thing. Though, at $39,999 perhaps that’s not a concession that should be made – again though, it comes down to placement.

Booming, loud, but still clear and defined would be the best way I could describe this TV’s sound.

But that price Trev? Wow.

Yeah, I hear you. I can’t afford it – neither can you. If you want the 100 inch version of this TV then that’s a bit less, at $22,999 ($19,999 today in retail).

Which is where you realise the utter expense of this TV.

At 97 inches you can also pay $39,999 for an LG OLED – unquestionably the best quality TV picture you can buy. But, 19 inches on top of that is a huge, huge difference in size.

Perhaps a better way to look at this is how the $20,000 100UX RGB-Mini LED Hisense compares to the “traditional” 100 inch TV.

You can get a Mini LED LG for $8995, A Hisense Mini LED for $7995, and a Samsung Mini LED for $7995. So is RGB Mini-LED worth double the price of traditional Mini LED? I’m not so sure.

I suspect in 2026 and 2027 as RGB Mini LED becomes a mainstream technology, likely in TVs from 65 inches up, it will quickly move closer to traditional Mini LED pricing, though it will always be a slightly more premium offering.

Sitting in front of a TV this size, I think we needed this new technology.

Do we need it at 65 inches, probably not. But at 85 inches and higher there’s a definite need for brightness and colour – something RGB Mini LED can deliver.

With the 116UX RGB Mini-LED Hisense has established two things. Firstly, they have the biggest TV in Australia. Secondly, they are first with an all-new backlighting technology which I’m sure will be the talk of TVs in 2026.

Would I buy one? No.

If I win lotto – yes.