Hisense has hit its stride and its 2024 televisions proceed to be a premier instance of worth for the greenback. The U7 sequence (additionally known as the U7N in some markets) is supposed to sit down a tier beneath the U8 sequence, which I already reviewed extremely earlier this yr. It’s finest described as a “lower-mid-level” tv, nevertheless it sits within the tier that’s the lowest I might advocate a tv for critical avid gamers. It makes use of miniLED expertise and options full-array native dimming.
The factor is, whereas sure, there are definitely causes to spring for the higher-end U8, I’ve to confess that the majority common tv patrons aren’t going to note the distinction. Both get very vibrant, each have nice coloration accuracy, each assist gaming nicely, and each look nice in the lounge.
Sure, the U8 brings higher brightness and extra dimming zones, however the U7 is shockingly competent for a tv in its class. There is room for enchancment, to make sure, however the Hisense U7 is a good 4K tv for multipurpose use.
Hisense U7 (2024) – Design and Build
The Hisense U7 is a smart-looking tv. It’s comparatively skinny for an LED and really light-weight. Without the stand, it might be fairly tough to inform it aside from the U8 sequence tv it sits beneath since they share a lot of their design in frequent.
Where they differ is within the stand, the place Hisense selected to go together with a dual-foot, center-positioned stand that has a big piece of plastic that sits between them, giving it the phantasm of 1 large foot.
It is a really low profile design and situates the show extraordinarily near your stand, so when you have a soundbar, you may discover that even when it is rather skinny, it comes up and blocks both the IR reader for the distant or leaks up and blocks the show itself. While the distant could be paired to the TV in order that it would not want a transparent line of sight to the IR reader to function, that solely applies as soon as the tv is on. That means I needed to go as much as the tv and purpose it behind my soundbar with a view to flip the U7 on earlier than sitting again on my sofa and navigating usually.
Luckily, the stand could be very sturdy, if not a bit oddly designed with the twin foot and plastic cowl system it has. That plastic cowl additionally takes up priceless vertical actual property, so if you happen to do have a sound bar you might need to take away it. It would not serve any stability goal so far as I can inform – it is simply aesthetic.
Cable administration is satisfactory. Cables are routed by means of a set of plastic hooks on both facet of the TV after which again behind the dual-foot stand. When you’ve got the plastic cowl in place or a soundbar up entrance, cables are nicely hidden.
Looking on the U7 from the entrance, the facility cable plugs into the suitable facet whereas all the opposite ports sit on the left. That contains 4 HDMI ports, two of that are HDMI 2.1 appropriate and have as much as 4K at 144Hz. The different two cap out at 4K at 60hz however a type of is the eARC enter. I recognize that Hisense put eARC on one in every of these lesser ports as a substitute of mixing it with a high-performance port like Sony does on the Bravia 7, because it lets me use a number of gaming programs concurrently and while not having to plug or unplug them.
Of word, this solely applies to the bigger choices. For the 55-inch model, Hisense did take a type of high-bandwidth ports for eARC.
The U7 additionally contains a record of different ports: one USB-A 2.0, one USB-A 3.0, an optical digital audio enter, a LAN connection, and composite video. The U7 additionally helps WiFi and Bluetooth 5.3 in addition to ATSC 3.0.
Finally, Hisense helps voice management with its televisions and this may be bodily turned off by way of a change on the base of the TV. When you do that, an orange LED seems and doesn’t flip off. This is definitely an enchancment versus the three brighter LEDs of earlier years, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an irritation that I would like Hisense take away solely.
Hisense U7 (2024) – The Remote
The Hisense distant is without doubt one of the bigger you may discover on a contemporary tv, though it would not actually need the area since there aren’t a ton of buttons. At the highest are 5 pre-programmed shortcut buttons and one customizable shortcut button. My mannequin got here with Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Disney+, and Tubi because the choices.
Aside from the usual fare of buttons, Hisense put a Menu button within the decrease left which is how one can rapidly entry tv settings and in addition the Game Bar, which I’ll get into beneath.
It’s a superbly effective distant that will get the job executed.
Hisense U7 (2024) – Software and UI
Hisense, like Sony and TCL, makes use of Google TV which is without doubt one of the best to handle and customise, and has assist for principally each streaming service you may need. While sure, it does pack numerous promoting onto the entrance web page within the type of “suggestions,” you may flip most of them off by going to Apps Only mode. There, solely the primary promotions banner exhibits and it often is themed to new releases or seasonal content material on in style platforms. I discover it comparatively simple to disregard.
There is typically a slight delay between a button press and seeing that request mirrored on display, nevertheless it’s not a very obtrusive delay and it is not constant. Once the TV is on and fired up, it is often a fairly clean navigation expertise.
If you want customizing your viewing expertise, Hisense provides you a fairly strong menu to take action. You can choose image profiles and regulate brightness, distinction, power of the dimming zones, and extra. Brightness truly does imply brightness within the interface too – it would not simply make the content material on display lighter however truly raises the facility of the backlights.
There is one nitpick I’ve with Hisense TVs and it is not simply on the U7: I do not like that if I flip the quantity right down to zero, it exhibits a mute icon on-screen. Sometimes I similar to on-screen content material however no sound and I do not like seeing that icon up there. I perceive it if I truly hit “mute,” however I would like no indicators on display for when the quantity is about to zero.
Hisense has superb HDR assist along with a built-in filmmaker mode. The U7 helps Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG, which implies for nearly all the things, you may get a fantastic color-matched HDR expertise.
Hisense U7 (2024) – Picture Quality
The Hisense U7 could be very color-accurate and has good uniformity throughout the panel. The colours lean a bit blue, however that is simply corrected if it bothers you. In testing, the panel confirmed 99.5% protection of sRGB, 83.2% protection of Adobe RGB, and 93.5% of the DCI P3 coloration gamuts with a median delta E of lower than one. That’s a fantastic exhibiting for any tv, however for a show on this worth bracket, it is excellent.
Uniformity is nice too. Outside of the very far high corners, which dipped beneath nominal tolerances, the remainder of the panel carried out nice and it is best to count on nice coloration throughout the display.
I do need to level out that I feel Hisense has a “soiled panel” drawback, although. The final 4 Hisense televisions I’ve reviewed had small scatterings of gray pixel splotching in locations that, previous to this, I used to be prepared to chock as much as dangerous luck. However, it is develop into frequent and constant sufficient for me to level it out now: there’s a probability you may have these splotches in your show and they don’t come out. My U7 assessment unit has the biggest splotch I’ve seen but, positioned within the center higher third of the show. Most of the time, I can ignore it, however when gaming I undoubtedly see it.
The U7 has Hisense’s new Hi-View Engine PRO chip which is designed to make quite a lot of content material look higher. I can converse to the outcomes: films, video games, and tv look fairly darn good. The U7 will carry out higher if it has extra knowledge to work with, so which means larger bitrate content material goes to provide the finest outcomes and low-quality 720p streamed tv appears to be like fairly weak.
When it does have high-definition stream to work with although, I used to be very proud of the colour stability and distinction, though I’ll admit the U8 has the U7 beat with regards to deeper blacks.
Panels like this one sometimes carry out worse when not seen straight on, however I do not assume the off-angle viewing degradation is especially dangerous right here. Sure, some distinction falls off nevertheless it’s nonetheless completely serviceable for a lounge.
One weak spot for Hisense televisions is that they’re prone to bloom – when vibrant objects set in opposition to black backgrounds have a glow round them – and that is still the case right here. You’ll undoubtedly see it when you have subtitles in opposition to letterboxed content material. This could be very tough to eliminate on LED shows and actually the one answer is OLED, so seeing it right here shouldn’t be a shock.
Brightness is available in slightly below 1,000 nits, which is not practically as vibrant because the U8, nevertheless it’s nonetheless loads vibrant for a lot of rooms and can solely be challenged by massive, sunlit home windows straight throughout from the panel. I discovered the glare to be minimal on the U7, too and whereas reflections do seem, they are not overly distracting.
Hisense U7 (2024) – Gaming Performance
I like gaming on Hisense TVs, as I discover the stability of colours, saturation, and distinction to be very simple on the eyes and fairly true-to-life. That stays the case right here, as prolonged classes enjoying Risk of Rain 2 (PS5), Apex Legends (PS5), and Cyberpunk 2077 (PC) left me fairly glad with the outcomes.
Apex Legends and Risk of Rain carried out one of the best because the on-screen content material would not demand lots from the panel. Where the U7 was notably weaker than higher-end televisions was on Cyberpunk, the place the big selection of colours and deep shadows compound into an advanced distinction scenario that the U7 did not deal with as nicely. It wasn’t a lot worse than different LED shows, even these which might be dearer, however I undoubtedly observed a comparable lack of visible constancy.
But for prime body fee aggressive gaming, I do not need that a lot distinction and do not search out darkish shadows, and there the U7 did nice. The recreation bar is without doubt one of the higher iterations in the marketplace and exhibits not solely the present decision and body fee, but in addition provides you entry to gaming particular settings that anybody who spends numerous time on a PC or console will recognize.
Hisense U7 (2024) – Audio Quality
When you make televisions this skinny, you run up in opposition to physics and consequently, only a few (if any) firms are making televisions that sound good with no help. Don’t get me fallacious, the U7 will get loud and you may clearly make out audio, which is nice, however there may be nearly no low-end to it. Bass is weak and even mids really feel missing in locations.
Hisense tried by implementing a bass into the rear of the TV, however there simply is not a lot room for air to maneuver round in there, so the outcomes aren’t supreme. You’ll need some sort of exterior sound system for the U7, and my earlier notes about how limiting the stand is for sound bars additional complicates the scenario. You could also be finest served wall-mounting this show.
Hisense U7 (2024) – The Competition
The U7’s greatest competitors comes within the type of TCL’s QM7 and Hisense’s personal U8. TCL’s QM7 is a really good tv that has barely higher coloration accuracy and brightness, but in addition is available in round $100 dearer. For a pair hundred {dollars} extra, you are wanting on the U8 which is an improve with regards to brightness and distinction. All of those televisions are vying in your consideration and are inside a couple of hundred {dollars} of one another and so they all carry out fairly nicely, supplied you already know why one may cost a little greater than the opposite and if you happen to’re prepared to take that sacrifice to avoid wasting the money.
