Hisense U7N TV review: a great value, with one big concern

Hisense U7N

MSRP $1,000.00

“A brilliant bargain, if you can avoid getting a dirty panel.”

Pros

• High brightness
• Great contrast
• Vivid color
• Surprising accuracy
• Great for gaming

Cons

• Poor off-angle viewing
• Risk of dirty screen effect

After using the Hisense U7N for a little over two weeks, the most striking impression it has made on me is just how far TVs have come over the past four years. Just looking at the spec sheet and you very quickly think, “I can get all of that for how little money?”

This has got to be too-good-to-be-true situation, right?

So, is it? Let’s find out.

Start by flipping the calendar back to 2020 — a year in which many of us realized just how important a TV is not just for entertainment but for our sanity. (You know what happened that spring, right?)

That also was the year Hisense unleashed the H8G. You could get a 65-inch H8G back then for about $700. Adjusting for inflation, that’s about $825 in 2024 money.

If you look at the Hisense U8N today — which sits in the same spot within Hisense’s 2024 TV lineup as the H8G did back in 2020 — you’ll notice a 65-inch version of that TV is going to run you a little more than $1,000 on sale. That’s a big bump in price. I mention that because four years ago we talked about TVs like the H8G as being the pinnacle of value. You could spend a lot more, but TVs like the H8G performed so well it called into question whether you ever should spend more.

The U8N is no longer that kind of TV for Hisense. Granted, you can’t draw a straight line between the old H8G and the U8N. The newer U8N is a far more advanced TV. Hisense simply raised its game in a big way.

No, that slam-dunk value proposition TV for Hisense is now this — the U7N. The 65-inch version of this TV lands at about $1,000, give or take. And as I said in the intro, the spec sheet makes it look like sleeper hit in the making.

I’m talking about a promised 1,500 nits peak brightness for HDR, mini-LED backlight system broken down into 384 dimming zones at this 65-inch size, a built-in subwoofer, advanced gaming features, up to 144Hz refresh rate, Wi-Fi 6, and an ATSC 3.0 tuner. I mean, it’s got features that you couldn’t even get four years ago at a really attractive price.

So, is it too good to be true, or is this really the biggest bang-for-your-buck TV we’ve ever seen? Let’s find out.

Hisense U7N specs

Welcome surprises

During my whirlwind unboxing of this TV, I found just two surprises. One was the shiny silver finish on the remote — it’s plastic, by the way, not metal. The other was the stand, which comprises pigeon-toed legs — they’re stable, but not cute, and they include cable management clips, so thumbs up there. But the ugliness is covered by a plastic plate, which makes the stand a lot more attractive.

The TV’s thickness is about what I’d expect — middle of the road — and the bezels are virtually non-existent, which is par for the course these days. It’s definitely a decent-looking TV for the money.

The remote has one programmable button. So if your favorite streaming service isn’t already on here, you can map it to this button.

The operating system is Google TV, so you get a mic on the remote and built into the TV, which you can choose to turn on or off.

The initial setup takes a little while due to updates. But Google TV still does a really good job of speeding things along once you’ve given it your account credentials.

So far, so good!

Next step for my testing is to get it out of ECO mode, which fortunately just requires you to pick a different picture preset. There aren’t any hidden ECO settings that cap the TV’s brightness. I worked with both Theater Day and Filmmaker mode for SDR and HDR. I was sure to turn the automatic brightness sensor off, I made sure peak brightness and local dimming settings were on high, and I used Dolby Vision Custom with motion smoothing turned off and a couple of enhancement features shut down.

You can choose to apply these settings to all content sources, or just the one you’re using. That’s huge for me because it saves a bunch of time tuning the picture for every input.

I then proceeded to watch this TV every day for a couple of weeks. I have lots of good news to share, but there’s one thing in particular you need to know about before you buy this TV.

The nerdy nit bits

This is the segment I like to call Numbers for Nit Nerds. It’s where we dive into the measurements of this TV, check it against Hisense’s claims, and see how well it holds up to other TVs both at and above its price class.

Here’s what we’re working with:

SDR Peak Brightness with the default Filmmaker mode brightness setting of 45 came in at 531 nits. Theater Day with the brightness setting at 80 came in at 1,044 nits. If I maxed out the brightness setting, I got 1,317 nits.

If you pair that kind of brightness with the anti-glare screen on this TV, you have a television that can absolutely handle a bright room. So just remove that from your list of concerns.

Back to Filmmaker Mode. White balance came in looking pretty good with the 30% stimulus showing errors below a delta E of 2 and 100% around 4. That’s solid for a TV of this price.

The 20-point grayscale shows that the only real balance errors are in the brightest whites. Everything was at or below a delta E of 3, meaning not perceivable errors by the human eye.

For grins, I jacked up the brightness to 80 and the U7N actually measured a little better. The peak white balance got a little better — it dropped to about 3 — and the gamma stayed consistent, averaging about 2.5.

This is starting to look like a budget videophile’s dream TV.

Color performance in SDR Filmmaker mode was surprisingly good, with delta errors below 3 in the color gamut test. The color checker test though? This is a torture test, and the U79 gets a solid A. I didn’t expect such accuracy at this price point. I mean, compared to our Roku Pro Series review, this is starting to look like a budget videophile’s dream TV.

Color Saturation and Luminance tests also looked amazing. There were some more significant errors in some of the lower luminance reds and blues, but nothing outrageous. On balance, still surprisingly good.

In HDR Filmmaker mode, peak brightness on a 10% window was just over 1,300 nits. If I bumped the window size up a bit, we actually saw brightness performance go 1,500 nits. This is as promised, but the Hisense TVs I’ve tested have often exceeded claimed brightness.

This TV follows the EOTF curve well for the most part (the lower end tracked a bit low) so blacks and dark grays came in dimmer than they were supposed to. But the high end is spot on as was the RGB balance across the board.

HDR Color performance was, frankly, exceptional, with one color swatch tipping barely above a delta E of 3, and the rest of them down around 2. A huge thumbs up here, because HDR color performance, especially with luminance errors, is where most TVs falter.

The U7N covered 96% of DCI P3 color space and 76% of Rec. 2020. We see the TV hitting its limits in the brightest colors of that Rec. 2020 space, which is not a surprise.

By the measurements, this TV far exceeds my expectations. As far as accuracy goes, I think it’s as good as I’ve seen from a TV in this price class and even beats more expensive models like the TCL QM8. Between its brightness power and anti-glare screen, it’s a great bright-room TV, too. So not only is it accurate for cinephiles, it’s bright enough for the average TV buyer who just needs an awesome family TV.

But measurements only get you so far. So, how does the TV do with other important stuff, like motion handling, blooming and halo, and upscaling? What’s the gaming experience like?

Upscaling was surprisingly good. It’s not the best on the market, but you have to spend significantly more to get better from the likes of Sony or LG. You get decent detail without a bunch of noise. If you get up on it real close you can see where it fails. But at this 65-inch size? I’m perfectly satisfied with the upscaling and cleanup of low-res broadcast and streaming content, from old 1970s TV shows like CHiPs to bit-starved YouTube videos. Everything looked pretty clean, and I think most folks will be very happy with this TV for cable and satellite content.

Blooming and halo? Well, that’s one area where the U7N could stand a little improvement. It’s by no means poor. But if we’re comparing this TV to the competition, TCL’s backlighting system is a little more tightly controlled, even with non-mini-LED models. Don’t let that fool you into thinking the black levels are poor, though. The black levels are great, and that results in some seriously dazzling contrast.

And as long as we’re talking about the backlighting: On the very rare occasion, the more eagle-eyed among you may see some lighting zone transitions, but most folks will never notice.

I did notice some color banding in rare instances when watching HDR content, but not nearly as much as I expected from a TV at this price. Hisense has made some important tweaks to its processing, and it shows.

As for the gaming experience, Hisense is punching right up there with the best of them. Using the PC/Game mode, I couldn’t detect any lag whatsoever.

The TV supports up to 4K 144Hz in for PC gamers, and it of course does 4K 120Hz with VRR. It can even go up to 240Hz at 1080p, but you have to turn off VRR. But 240Hz on a TV? I’d take that compromise.

The gaming dashboard has all the fun stuff, too, but really I think the picture quality this TV maintains in its game mode is the real seller. So thumbs up on this TV for gaming.

The sound quality on this TV is also a pleasant surprise. The built-in subwoofer not only prevents the TV from having a thin and tinny sound but adds some force to the sound. It can’t beat a decent soundbar, but it’s definitely among the better-sounding TVs you can buy at any price.

The downsides

At this point, if you’re keeping score, the Hisense U7N is probably sounding like it is the GOAT when it comes to value. And in many ways, that’s true. But, there are a couple of negatives with this TV, one of which might be a deal-breaker for you.

The first is something that we have come to expect with less-expensive LCD TVs — poor off-angle viewing. Sit too far off to the side and you lose contrast and color saturation, and you can really see the backlight bleeding through in dark scenes. This TV has a very narrow viewing angle. And the more you move off to the side, the more faded and milky it looks.

But the big issue for me is panel uniformity. Unfortunately my review unit had some of that dirty screen effect. It’s not so bad with darker colors. But the lighter the color, the more obvious it becomes. And it is especially noticeable for me with grays, greens, and whites. I watch a lot of YouTuber golf for lighter viewing, and with all the green grass on the screen, it’s just too distracting. It’s pretty obvious.

Now, to be clear and fair, dirty screen effect is something that you get with LCD-based TVs — the brand doesn’t matter. The more expensive the TV, the less of it I can tolerate. The less expensive the TV, the more of it I can put up with.

The U7N? Even at its price there was just too much dirty screen effect in my review unit. But that last part’s important. If you buy a U7N there’s a very good chance you won’t see anything like this. But my unit was not good.

The biggest bummer is that everything else this TV has to offer is just stellar. That makes this blemish just that much harder to stomach.

But you know what? This TV is just too excellent to not take a chance on. If you’re willing to make a product exchange on the chance that you do get some dirty screen effect? I say pick it up. The U7N really is the best-performing TV overall both for enthusiasts on a budget and for the average buyer. In fact, I think anyone upgrading from a TV that’s four years old or older is in for a shock when they see what they’ll get for their money.