130-inch TVs vs the projector: 2026’s giant TV launches point to a new living-room battle
CES 2026 not only seemed like a victory lap for bigger, brighter TVs, it also made the whole “big screen at home” conversation a lot more interesting.
On one side, you have truly huge TVs going into the 130-inch range, with brands leveraging next-gen technologies like micro-LED, mini-RGB LED, or possibly mini-SQD LED to make the case that a giant panel is the way to get punchy, colorful, top-quality images in a normal room.
When demos of the latest user-friendly models talk about images up to 300 inches, it’s hard not to wonder whether the next upgrade is a larger TV on the wall or a projector that turns your entire wall into a screen.
Either way, this year’s CES highlighted a new battle for the living room, and it’s one where both sides – TVs and projectors – have real arguments.
Why 130 inches suddenly seems realistic
A few years ago, a 130-inch TV looked like something you’d only see in a showroom or high-end sports bar — impressive, but extremely impractical, not to mention astronomically priced.
CES 2026 suggested that this is starting to change, and not just because brands want a headline-grabbing centerpiece.
As our CES 2026 TV roundup made clear, the series’ big story wasn’t just “bigger,” but “better for being bigger,” with next-generation backlights touted as the path to higher brightness, stronger colors, and fewer expected compromises, such as screen uniformity issues.
Samsung’s 130-inch Micro RGB prototype is the clearest example: a giant TV positioned less as a novelty than as a direct challenger to why people buy projectors in the first place. It’s big, it’s immersive, and it’s realistically designed to fit into a home (if your house is large).
The key point is that display technology is now evolving with “real rooms” in mind, not just dark home theaters, and CES was full of signs that several brands were treating giant TVs as a real battleground in 2026 and beyond.
Hisense used CES to showcase its new direction in mini-RGB LEDs, including an “Evo” approach that adds a cyan element to red, green and blue light modules.
Meanwhile, TCL used the show to push its own next-generation mini-LED message – including its flagship TCL X11L SQD mini-LED – while at the same time signaling new RGB mini-LED models.
These two brands, along with Samsung and LG, also offer micro-LED TVs ranging from 130 inches to 160 inches, although these cost significantly more and are less designed for standard living rooms.
CES projectors: bigger and more flexible
If the giant TVs were the loudest at CES 2026, the projectors seemed to make the more relevant argument: “we can still go bigger and we’re easier to live in in most rooms.”
As we found in our CES 2026 projector roundup, there was a good mix of brighter portable models, gaming-friendly options, and even a more mobile home theater concept that highlights how far projectors have come.
Hisense has done the clearest job of framing the projectors as the natural rival to the 130-inch TV.
Ahead of CES, the company unveiled the
And then there’s the other trend that CES launches have continued to reinforce: convenience.
Samsung’s updated Freestyle+ portable projector doesn’t try to beat a home theater laser projector on impact alone, but it shows where the category is headed: higher brightness and smarter automatic picture optimization.
The battle for the 2026 living room: TV or projector?
This is where the giant TV vs. projector debate stops being about the CES show and starts about what your living room can realistically handle.
The biggest advantage of a huge TV is that it behaves like a TV: bright, consistent, and largely indifferent to media type or environment.
The push among the best TVs around next-gen backlighting (especially mini-RGB LEDs) is actually an attempt to extend that advantage to extreme sizes, keeping colors rich and highlights punchy, even if your room is well lit.
The best projectors are getting brighter, and the laser models shown at CES highlight how far they’ve come in performance, but they’re still more sensitive to the room and factors like ambient light, making them fade very quickly and making black tones look gray.
Although ultra-short throw projectors can make projection much more friendly in the living room in terms of setup, you buy into the idea that space is part of the system.
Highlights are the other unglamorous factor. The larger the screen, the more it can behave like a mirror in a bright room. This is why premium TV makers continue to promote glare reduction approaches alongside gains in raw brightness and color.
Projector screens don’t reflect light at all, but they do suffer from ambient light in the ways mentioned above, which can be more detrimental to the viewing experience, depending on your setup.
What CES Really Reported
If CES 2026 proved anything to us, it’s that “the biggest screen for your home” is no longer a settled question.
Giant TVs enter the 130-inch category with a new argument: not only are they huge, but also that next-generation backlights like mini-RGB LEDs can deliver premium quality at scale.
At the same time, projector manufacturers are making exciting improvements to their latest models. Hisense’s XR10 and PX4-Pro are explicitly built around living room practicality, while still sporting that headline-grabbing 300-inch screen.
So the battle for home theater isn’t really about a TV versus a projector in the abstract: it’s two competing versions of convenience.
Right now, the question comes down to: do you want the certainty of a wall-sized TV, or the flexibility of projection, where the room is part of the system, but the payoff can be truly theater-scale?
The best TVs for every budget
The best projectors for every budget
Follow TechRadar on Google News And add us as your favorite source to get our news, reviews and expert opinions in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube And TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp Also.
