Hisense U7K user review thread

[lightgamer]

Reason for a new thread

Creating this new thread to share the reviews of U7K. I know there's an existing thread about the overall TV, but given the extreme amount of interest and misinformation about the TV, I thought a thread just for user reviews and experiences might help future buyers more by them not having to navigate through pages of FOMO and speculation about the TV on the other thread. I'll start out with my own review to kick off the thread, but I do expect other FMs to chime in with their own comparisons, settings and opinions. Anyway, let's begin the review, shall we?

Context

I have a 65" Sony A95K QD-OLED as my bedroom TV since last year and while I've been (obviously) super happy with its performance, I was looking for a rough and tough, big bright TV for the living room. I wanted something that could handle abuse like sports, TV channels, gaming, and guests for hours and hours on days and days without fear of burn-in, and something that handles the relatively bright living room just fine too. Overall, I was more keen on getting a bright LCD FALD TV rather than another OLED.

However, given the horrendous pricing of FALD TVs in our country, I was thinking of giving up on that and was looking to get an S90C OLED, and then the U7K dropped which fit my needs perfectly. It was cheap(1.4 lakhs for 85" mini LED), bright (1000 nits) and the overall reviews were positive. I pre-ordered it, got it last week and have been playing with it since then.

The size and first impressions

85" is a BIG TV, especially for my 11' viewing distance. I'm going to move to a new place in a couple of months where the viewing distance will be even smaller at1' and it will look even bigger, in a good way.

The TV is immersive and the first TV I've seen that gives a proper HT vibe. Everything looks life-size or bigger and the TV takes over your field of vision like a projector screen would, assuming that your viewing distance is around 10 feet.

The TV is so immersive that 90% of the time we prefer watching on this than my A95K, despite the A95K being a better TV. As long as the quality is adequately good for you, I've been convinced that going for as big of a screen size as you can is an amazing decision

Local dimming

I've counted 36 horizontal and 36 vertical dimming zones, giving a total of 1296 zones. This gives an impressive dimming performance and is the first miniLED screen I've seen that gets very close to giving an almost-perfect dimming performance with virtually no blooming and almost-perfect blacks.

In terms of dimming performance, the 1296 dimming zones and the high-quality VA panel on this TV deliver performance comparable to the MacBook Pro miniLED screen that I have. I never thought a consumer TV would match the performance of the 2500 zone miniLED of Apple, but this TV surprisingly has.

You need to see it to believe it. In terms of dimming and black-level performance, this TV has far surpassed my expectations. I didn't expect it to be so good.

I'll give you an example. For most TVs with low dimming zones (50-100) you can't set local dimming to high when watching sports or content with lots of uniform colours as the dimming causes splotches on the screen causing haloing and smearing. This is true of my 56 zone U7980 and the 128 zone TCL C825. However, on this TV you can set local dimming to high on every piece of content because the number of dimming zones are so high and it won't even be visible, you'll just get pure high contrast.

Brightness

This TV is very bright. I belive the 85" is a brighter panel than the rest of the lineup as the panel seems to be shared with the U8K (same 1296 zones).

I took my pixel 6A's lux meter app and measured some brightness on panels:

MacBook pro 16" (supposed to be 1600 nits): 1690 lux on 10% window, 1400 lux on 25% window, 1100 lux on 100% window.
Odyssey neo G7 monitor (supposed to be 1300 nits): 1440 lux on 10% window, 1130 lux on 25% window, 390 lux on 100% window
85U7K: 1190 lux on 10% window, 1440 lux on 25% window, 650 lux on 100% window.

In real-world content, I found this display to be slightly brighter than my Odyssey Neo G7 and slightly dimmer than the Macbook Pro miniLED. Also for small specular highlights, the Macbook is significantly brighter but causes more blooming.

Comparing to the A95K is tough. This TV gets much brighter in high APL scenes where there's a lot of brightness over a wide area of the screen, however the A95K still hits much better when it's small specular highlights. Overall, I would take the A95K in a dark room for HDR impact but in a living room with more ambient light the miniLED will do better.

While it's not eye-searing bright as Samsung's neo QLEDs it's still plenty to give a good HDR impact, especially with how good the blacks and the local dimming are.

Picture quality and accuracy

Overall, I've been very happy with the PQ of this TV. It doesn't quite get on the same level as the A95K, but it's around 90% there. And it gets 99% there with the MacBook pro in most HDR scenes.

What's more impressive is that out of the box you don't have to do much to get colour accurate settings out of the TV. You just make minor adjustments to brightness, dimming and dark level performance and white to warm 1 and you'll be immaculate in terms of colour performance.

The display without any calibration matched my MBP 1:1 which is regarded as well calibrated. And I did the Apple TV calibration on it which found that my display was calibrated and it couldn't improve it further (attached picture here)



Conclusion

As someone who owns a master series QD-OLED as well as various other miniLED displays with 1000+ dimming zones, I'm still impressed by this TV. It's so good that for most of our viewing we prefer the U7K over the A95K because the size difference is bigger than the PQ difference.

At around 1.5 lakhs, it's a must buy and a great value for money in India. I highly highly recommend it.

Images for comparison

Since MBP is the only portable display I have of high quality, I put down a comparison with it to see how good it can get. Keep in mind the macbook is closer to me so might appear slightly brighter but if we put it away they'll look about the same.

This should also give an idea about how the TV performs. Attaching those pics in a subsequent comment.

 

[lightgamer]

Comparisons with MBP 16" and a general idea of black levels and HDR performance of this TV.

 

[Onkst]

Amazing work...
Really appreciate your time and efforts..
Thank you so much

 

[lightgamer]

What the TV doesn't do well

1. The speakers aren't as good as you get on flagship TVs. The clarity and depth is not even in the same category as the A95k, though it's better than budget TVs out there. So somewhere middling. Get a soundbar or an HT.
2. It's a VA, so please keep in mind that the viewing angles won't be as good as an IPS panel or especially an OLED panel. Though as far as VA panels go the TV has pretty decent viewing angles and is watchable up to 40 degrees, after which it starts deteriorating fast for bright colours.
3. Don't expect the upscaling or processing to be at the same level as a Sony. It's decent and according to rtings fairly close to Samsung TVs, so keep expectations in check.
4. <1080p content looks absolutely bad on 85" screen size. Hotstar in their infinite wisdom is streaming India matches at 3 Mbps 1080p (actually closer to bad 720p in terms of quality) and it looks rough. Decently high bitrate 720p and 1080p content looks decently good though.
5. VIDAA is well, vidaa. It's improved but not there yet. Hotstar is 1080p only, plex lacks some features, jio cinema isn't there.
6. Smaller sizes might not be as good as the 85". Significantly less dimming zones and supposedly less bright as well.
7. The TV gives you a lot of control, but very easy to mess up settings. Indian YT reviews already have messed up the settings already, so for normal people even more caution is advised. For example the brightness setting changes the black level and backlight setting changes brightness.

 

[tinny9]

Excellent work brother. Thanks a ton for your efforts. I really appreciate. Bought this tv only because of you. God bless.

P.S. Please share detailed settings of the tv here also.

 

[ilar]

Thanks for the exclusive writeup @lightgamer. You helped me make a quick decision on this TV as well, though 75". Appreciate your suggestions.

 

[SudipBasu]

excellent review by @lightgamer . we usually hangout on Telegram group. This guy is genuine and not some YouTube washing machine TV reviewer or techy aunty who don't even know how to set brightness/backlight.

But please note one thing This review is for 85" inch TV. which has different panel than 75". VA panel always have better black level and poor viewing angle. but surprisingly U7K 85" viewing angle is better than any other similar price range TV. I request @lightgamer to post some viewing angle test also.

75" has IPS ADS panel. viewing angle is extremely good. I have posted a video below. if you want you can watch the video for viewing angle test.

Hisense U7K 75" Viewing Angle Test


LEON

 

[amangupta93]

Any reviews for the 65" version? I'm looking for my bedroom.

 

[AVcrazy]

My review:
I was one of the people who preordered the 85U7k. Got the delivery on time and installed next day too.

After installation I observed white patches on the screen, predominantly on the corners which was indicative of backlight bleed. I conveyed this to the technician who had come to install the tv too but the excitement of large tv overcame me and I didn't raise alarms that day. Overnight and into the next day I couldn't help but notice this problem in dark scenes. I immediately tried to contact amazon and I was offered a return since replacement was not in stock. Since I wanted to retain my unit I called up hisense to arrange for a repair or a replacement. This is what I was told:
1. The main technical team is never available to take calls. The sales or whatever group takes the calls and raises a service request.
2. If you live in a metro city then maybe your service request is answered in a day or two, for me there was no communication for 4 days.
3. 5th day again I called and after quite a lot of to and fro was transferred to a tech representative. After hearing my complaint he asked me to either ask replacement from amazon or wait for technical team visit which he said he'll arrange in a day or two.
4. I also made calls and dropped emails for the firestick and 4yr warranty. Email was replied to after 3 days saying warranty of 4 Yr will be there and firestick code will be given after return period over.

Now since I received a bad unit it would not be fair for me to review the tv. All I can say is that I cannot agree to the findings of the gentleman above at all. I don't want to get into argument with anyone but prospective customers should check out it's amazon reviews and wait for more unbiased reviews before buying.

Special note on amazon:
After my horrendous experience amazon refused to publish my 2 star review. I have tried 3 times and rejected thrice. Moreover it seems that so many people were unhappy and posting low star reviews that now amazon has clubbed the reviews of u7k with u7h. The rating for this clubbed group is now 4 stars avg. up from 3.5 for u7k when I last saw.

What adds insult to injury is that the tv was available to buy after I returned it and that too for a huge discount over the preorder price.

My advise for anyone looking to buy this series of tv should wait and watch. More reviews should come soon. Also I'm sure the cost will also go down when u8 series is launched. If image quality matters most and you need a tv urgently then I would suggest to buy a 65 inch oled from a good brand than 85 inch from hisense. The customer support and product quality is not upto mark.

 

[lightgamer]

What adds insult to injury is that the tv was available to buy after I returned it and that too for a huge discount over the preorder price.

This is so wrong I can’t even. The tv has never gone below 1.4 lakhs. SBI offer was present during pre-order window too if you’re referring to that.

Anyway won’t bother with your experience. I’m sure you have all the proof with the settings you’ve used.

 

[zhopudey]

I’ve been enjoying the 75u7k for couple of weeks. This seems to be the deal of the year here. Outstanding picture quality at mouth watering prices. Specially for the 75 and 85 which were simply out of reach for most people till now
I am playing via an Apple TV 4K. I’ve tried most ott platforms as well as plenty of downloaded media. I’ve played 1080p as well as 4k. Regular sdr and also hdr10, 10+ and Dolby vision. Everything looks gorgeous. This is my first tv with HDR and I am really impressed. The speculation highlights really pop! At the same time the blacks are also very dark. Contrast is excellent, viewing angles are superb and the tv can get really bright when needed. Reflections are very well controlled. I have a big window right next to the tv and PQ even during the day is very good.
I sit 8-9 feet from the tv and 75” from this distance is perfect to give the cinematic feel.
10/10 to hisense.

 

[Donivlapog]

What the TV doesn't do well

1. The speakers aren't as good as you get on flagship TVs. The clarity and depth is not even in the same category as the A95k, though it's better than budget TVs out there. So somewhere middling. Get a soundbar or an HT.
2. It's a VA, so please keep in mind that the viewing angles won't be as good as an IPS panel or especially an OLED panel. Though as far as VA panels go the TV has pretty decent viewing angles and is watchable up to 40 degrees, after which it starts deteriorating fast for bright colours.
3. Don't expect the upscaling or processing to be at the same level as a Sony. It's decent and according to rtings fairly close to Samsung TVs, so keep expectations in check.
4. <1080p content looks absolutely bad on 85" screen size. Hotstar in their infinite wisdom is streaming India matches at 3 Mbps 1080p (actually closer to bad 720p in terms of quality) and it looks rough. Decently high bitrate 720p and 1080p content looks decently good though.
5. VIDAA is well, vidaa. It's improved but not there yet. Hotstar is 1080p only, plex lacks some features, jio cinema isn't there.
6. Smaller sizes might not be as good as the 85". Significantly less dimming zones and supposedly less bright as well.
7. The TV gives you a lot of control, but very easy to mess up settings. Indian YT reviews already have messed up the settings already, so for normal people even more caution is advised. For example the brightness setting changes the black level and backlight setting changes brightness.

Amazon firestick 4k will solve the point number 5 right? Is wallmount provided by them? Have you table mounted it for some specific reason?

 

[lightgamer]

Amazon firestick 4k will solve the point number 5 right? Is wallmount provided by them? Have you table mounted it for some specific reason?

Yes, they provided a free firestick 4K to pre-order customers. I’m using an Apple TV though, so not using the free firestick as of now. Will keep it.

Wall-mount and installation is provided by Hisense. I have wall mounted as the 50KG TV will not do great for health of my tv stand in long term

 

[lightgamer]

As promised, here are the settings. Please keep in mind that each unit is slightly different and what might work for me might not work for you. Especially if your TV size is different as they use different panels altogether. So please keep these settings as a baseline instead of final settings.

Highlighting the important stuff in bold, made the most difference.

SDR

Picture Mode: cinema night
Backlight > local dimming: high, backlight: 100, ambient light sensor: on, light sensor shift: 0, automatic Colour temp: off
Brightness: 50
Contrast: 80
Colour saturation: 55
Sharpness: 15
Adaptive contrast: off
Ultra smooth motion: film
Noise/MPEG noise reduction: low
Colour temperature: warm 1
Expert settings > colour gamut: auto, gamma adjustment: 2.4, dark detail: off, gradient: low


HDR10:

Picture mode: HDR night

Backlight > local dimming: high, backlight: 100, ambient light sensor: off, automatic Colour temp: off
Brightness: 49
Contrast: 80
Colour saturation: 50
Sharpness: 5
Adaptive contrast: off
Ultra smooth motion: film
Noise/MPEG noise reduction: low
Colour temperature: warm 1
Expert settings > colour gamut: auto, dynamic tone mapping: on, dark detail: off, gradient: low


Dolby Vision:

Picture mode: Dolby Vision custom

Backlight > local dimming: high, backlight: 100, ambient light sensor: off, automatic Colour temp: off
Brightness: 48
Contrast: 80
Colour saturation: 50
Sharpness: 5
Adaptive contrast: off
Ultra smooth motion: film
Noise/MPEG noise reduction: low
Colour temperature: warm 1
Expert settings > dark detail: off, gradient: low

HDR10+:

Picture mode: HDR10+ cinema

Backlight > local dimming: high, backlight: 100, ambient light sensor: off, automatic Colour temp: off
Brightness: 50
Contrast: 80
Colour saturation: 50
Sharpness: 5
Adaptive contrast: off
Ultra smooth motion: film
Noise/MPEG noise reduction: low
Colour temperature: warm 1
Expert settings > dark detail: off, gradient: low

 

[lightgamer]

My TV doesn't look right, which settings to change?
Blacks aren't deep enough: Set local dimming high. Still not deep enough? try adaptive contrast.

Grey looks lifted and the image looks flat in dark scenes: Try changing brightness from 50 to 49, 48, or 47 (below 48 is not recommended as it can remove dark details).

No dark details even with brightness set to 50: Try dark detail in expert settings.

Light detail getting blown out: Reduce contrast from 80 to 75 or even 70. Try dynamic tone mapping toggling in HDR.

Too yellow: Try colour temperature at warm 2 or standard, or even cool if that's still not enough. It's not accurate but will make things bluer

Too blue: Try warm 1 or warm 2.

I want smooth motion and can deal with a bit of soap opera effect, or watching sports: Try setting ultra smooth motion and play with settings.

Hope this all helps. Else post on this or the other U7K thread, I'm sure someone will help.

 

[lightgamer]

VA panel always have better black level and poor viewing angle. but surprisingly U7K 85" viewing angle is better than any other similar price range TV. I request @lightgamer to post some viewing angle test also.

Unfortunately my living room setup isn't conductive of a video with viewing angle test. However, there are some online:

The TV on the right is the U7K 85" VA panel and Vincent compares this to ADS pro which has the best viewing angles of any IPS-like LCD panel.

 

[amangupta93]

I ended up getting the 65" u7k for my bedroom and for my viewing distance, the tv looks great. I used the settings above and the PQ has improved. I will keep tweaking over the coming weeks to make it more adaptive to my lightening situation.

Overall, 9/10 great tv for the price. The sound is okay but it's better to pair with HT or a Soundbar.

 

[nitz_vision]

Hows(Hisense TVs) VIDAA operating system. Compared Sonys(Android), LGs(Webos) and Samsungs(Tizen)??

 

[nitz_vision]

 

[lightgamer]

Hows(Hisense TVs) VIDAA operating system. Compared Sonys(Android), LGs(Webos) and Samsungs(Tizen)??

I use Apple TV and completely ignore that VIDAA exists.

OS is one of the least interesting things about a TV. You can spend a small amount(3k for firestick to 15k for apple TV) and change the OS.