With impressive brightness and black levels and out-of-this-world color accuracy, the Hisense U7H is a formidable challenger to its more expensive sibling.
I’ve given the Hisense U8H a lot of praise and recommended it as a top pick in its price class. But the ever-so-slightly lesser Hisense U7H reviewed here surprised me so much that I’ve had to spend some time re-evaluating my recommendations. The U7H is so much better than I expected that it has me wondering if it might actually be the better TV pick for most people.
Before we dig in, there are two important things to keep in mind. First, I want to point out that the 65-inch Hisense U8H sells for around $900 as of the latest update to this review, while the 65-inch inch U7H is going for about $750. That price gap is worth keeping in mind as we go forward. I also need to point out that this review is for the U7H as sold in North America; the U7H in other international markets is a completely different TV.
Also, in conjunction with its recently formed partnership with the NBA, Hisense ULED TVs will now be prominently featured at Best Buy stores across North America, where comparing ULED models will now be made much easier. Video reviewSeries and size details
While we reviewed the 65-inch 65U7H model, our review also applies to the 55-inch and 75-inch models.Picture qualityGood enough to surprise you
If you’re about to upgrade from a non-HDR TV, be it 4K or 1080p, the Hisense U7H’s picture quality is going to impress you. It offers sufficient brightness to deliver impactful HDR highlights and higher color brightness than non-HDR TVs while maintaining deep enough black levels to pull off impressive contrast. The U7H’s out-of-box color accuracy on the sample I received for review delivered shockingly good color accuracy with no adjustment. And while motion resolution was not quite as smooth as, say, the more expensive TCL 6-Series TV, it is still better than most low- to mid-lier televisions. Dollar per dollar, the U7H is one of the most impressive TVs you can buy this year. Below, I’ve detailed some of the measurements I took on the U7H and placed the in context with other TVs I’ve reviewed this year.Brightness and black levels
I measured the Hisense U7H’s peak brightness in SDR at just over 800 nits. This was in Filmmaker mode with the backlight setting maxed out. In HDR, I measured sustained peak brightness at around the same 800-nit level, 819 to be exact, with peaks coming in just under 1,000 nits. The U7H comes in well under the more expensive U8H in terms of peak brightness performance, and in a side-by-side comparison, it’s clear the U7H doesn’t have quite as much punch in bright highlights and color brightness, but that speaks more to the U8H’s insanely bright picture quality for its price than the U7H, which remains one of the brighter TVs in its price segment.
Bear in mind that I believe 1,000-nits peak brightness is the bar for whether an LCD-based TV really delivers a meaningful HDR experience.
