UPDATED · News · 30 May 2026 · MTW Editorial Team
The Samsung Micro RGB TV is the loudest part of Samsung’s 2026 television range, which has now reached the UK with the R85H starting at £1,599 for the 55-inch. Samsung confirmed the full line-up on 15 May 2026, spanning Micro RGB, OLED, Neo QLED, Mini LED and UHD, with the range now available to order in the UK ahead of the first sets rolling out at the end of the month. For most UK rooms, though, the headline panel is not automatically the right buy, and the rest of the ladder deserves a harder look before you commit.
- R85H Micro RGB UK prices: £1,599 (55in), £2,399 (65in), £3,099 (75in); 85in and 100in to follow.
- The 55-inch R85H is listed at £1,599.00 on currys.co.uk and samsung.com/uk, with larger sizes on the latter.
- Full 2026 range confirmed by Samsung on 15 May 2026: Micro RGB, OLED, Neo QLED, Mini LED, UHD.
- Vision AI Companion (Bixby, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot) expands across the 4K-and-up sets.
What Micro RGB actually changes on the panel
Micro RGB is Samsung’s name for a Mini LED backlight whose individual diodes are red, green and blue rather than the usual white or blue LEDs paired with a colour filter. Controlling colour at the backlight is meant to widen colour volume and tighten accuracy, and the flagship R95H carries Samsung’s “Precision Color” certification for it. The R85H brings the same idea down a rung: it keeps the Micro RGB AI Engine Pro but drops some of the higher-end processing the R95H reserves for itself. That is the first thing to register before the price tempts you, because the technology and the tier are not the same purchase.
The practical question is whether you will see the difference in a normal sitting room. Micro RGB’s gains show up most in bright scenes with saturated colour, and the Glare Free coating keeps reflections off the panel near a window. If your living room is bright, that is a real argument. In a darker room where black levels matter more than peak colour volume, an OLED panel still has the structural advantage.
The £1,599 entry point and what it sits next to
Lead with the number that matters in the UK: the 55-inch R85H is £1,599.00 at Currys, with the same set listed at £1,599 on samsung.com/uk, where the 65-inch is £2,399 and the 75-inch is £3,099. The 85-inch and 100-inch sizes are confirmed but not yet on sale, so a Micro RGB set above 75 inches is a wait, not a purchase. At launch the Samsung UK pages list these sizes as available to order rather than in stock for immediate dispatch, so check the basket date before you count on a delivery week.
That £1,599 is the figure to anchor against, because rivals from LG and Sony crowd the £1,200 to £1,800 band hard. If you are spending £1,599 on a 55-inch, the honest comparison is not “Micro RGB versus nothing”; it is a 55-inch Micro RGB against a similarly priced OLED that may suit your room better. Our best OLED TVs under £1,500 comparison is the sanity check to run alongside this.
Why the OLED tier is the real decision for most rooms
Samsung’s 2026 OLED stack runs S99H, S95H, S90H and S85H, and for most UK living rooms it is the tier that should win the most consideration. OLED’s per-pixel light control gives perfect blacks a backlit LCD cannot fully match in a dim room. The S90H is the value pick, mixing QD-OLED and WOLED panels by size; the S95H is the flagship with the external One Connect box. If you watch films in the evening with the lights down, this is where your money goes furthest.
The trade-off is brightness in a sunlit room, which Micro RGB answers directly: a backlit LCD pushes more sustained brightness than OLED, and the Glare Free layer handles reflections. So the split is room-led. Bright family room with daytime sport on: Micro RGB or Neo QLED. Darker corner for evening films: the 2026 OLED line is the stronger buy at a matching price.
Neo QLED is where the value actually lives
Below the headline panels, the refreshed Neo QLED and new Mini LED sets give a lot of UK buyers the most television for the money. The QN80H Neo QLED spans 50 to 100 inches with the Mini LED backlight, high refresh rates for gaming and the same Vision AI software, without the Micro RGB premium. If your priority is a big, bright, fast panel for daytime viewing and console gaming rather than reference colour, this is the rung to price first, and it slots into a Matter and Thread smart home setup through SmartThings.
The Vision AI Companion ties the whole 4K-and-up range together, folding in Bixby, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot for conversational questions alongside AI Upscaling Pro and an AI Football Mode aimed squarely at a UK sport audience. As Hun Lee, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics, put it on 15 May, “Samsung AI TVs will go beyond entertainment to deliver practical benefits to everyday life.” That software lives on the Neo QLED tier too, so you are not buying it solely by reaching for Micro RGB.
How to check stock and price before you order
Order the 55-inch R85H and you pay £1,599 whether you go through Currys or Samsung direct, so the deciding factors are delivery date, finance and aftercare rather than headline price. Currys lists the set at £1,599.00 with its own CarePlan; Samsung’s UK store runs finance and often pairs launch sets with trade-in or soundbar offers, so price the full basket on both. Under the Consumer Rights Act you keep the usual protections on a faulty set, and a 14-day cancellation window applies to a distance purchase, worth noting given some sizes ship after you order.
One concrete check before you commit: confirm the exact size you want is in stock for the delivery week you need, not just “available”, because the 85-inch and 100-inch Micro RGB sets are still listed as coming later. If you need a screen now, a 2026 OLED or Neo QLED at the same size is likelier to dispatch immediately than a brand-new Micro RGB panel. Our full 2026 line-up overview lays out how the rest of the range is priced.
Our verdict
The Samsung R85H Micro RGB at £1,599 for the 55-inch is the easiest set to recommend here, but only for the right room: a bright, daytime-heavy space where its sustained brightness and Glare Free coating earn their keep. For most UK buyers we would still weigh the 2026 OLED tier first, because the Samsung S90H OLED gives perfect blacks and better evening-film performance at a comparable price, and the QN80H Neo QLED carries the same Vision AI software for less. Buy the Micro RGB R85H if your room is bright and you want the newest panel tech; choose the S90H OLED if you watch in the dark; choose the QN80H Neo QLED for the most screen per pound. The one thing that would flip our advice is stock: if the size you want is weeks out on Micro RGB while an equivalent OLED ships now, take the set that arrives.
Samsung Micro RGB TV UK: frequently asked questions
How much is the Samsung Micro RGB TV in the UK?
The R85H Micro RGB starts at £1,599 for the 55-inch, rising to £2,399 for the 65-inch and £3,099 for the 75-inch on samsung.com/uk, with the 55-inch also listed at £1,599.00 on currys.co.uk. The 85-inch and 100-inch sizes are confirmed but listed as coming later, and the flagship R95H Micro RGB series sits above the R85H.
Is Micro RGB better than OLED?
Not universally. Micro RGB is a backlit LCD that can push more sustained brightness and resists glare, which suits bright rooms. OLED, including Samsung’s 2026 S90H and S95H, gives perfect blacks and better off-angle and dark-room performance. The right answer depends on your room rather than a single “better” panel, so match the technology to your lighting.
When can I get a Samsung 2026 TV in the UK?
Samsung confirmed the full 2026 line-up on 15 May 2026, and the sets are available to order now from Samsung UK and retailers including Currys, with the first deliveries rolling out from late May. Some larger sizes ship later, so check the dispatch date for the exact model and size before you order rather than assuming immediate delivery.
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