Image credit: Hisense
Hisense has built an empire on overdelivering on its features without gouging your wallet. But that doesn't mean the company doesn't have more premium systems in its arsenal. Case in point, the U7SG series of televisions. Targeting sports fans, gamers, and movie buffs, the U7SG focuses on performance, but still manages to hit the sweet spot in many consumer budgets.
I had the opportunity to see the U7SG in action earlier this year, and with its captivating color and suite of features, I'd absolutely love to see more. The U7SG comes in several flavors, starting with the 55-inch, which costs $749.99 at Amazon. Next up are the 65-inch and 75-inch models, priced at $999.99 and $1,299.99. And if you want to go really big, there are the 88-inch, 100-inch, and 116-inch models. However, pricing for those hasn't been announced yet.
This is a TV, so the screen is obviously the star of the show. The U7SG is outfitted with a 4K Hi-QLED MiniLED Pro display. Since it combines two technologies, namely quantum dot technology that ensures more vivid color and more LEDs that make for more precise backlighting, Hi-QLED MiniLED can give OLED a run for its money. And since both technologies use older LCD technology as their backdrop, they're cheaper than OLED.
Other key advantages lie in the brightness, with Hisense claiming up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness as well as up to 3,000 local dimming zones, depending on the size of the TV. That brightness ensures color won't be washed out when viewing in direct sunlight. And the local dimming means smaller lighting zones, which translate into better black levels, contrast, and decreased light bloom around bright objects.
I saw two flavors of the U7SG: one screen played an action movie while the other played a replay of a soccer game. During the action sequence, I watched the grizzled protagonist run into danger, guns blazing. A well-placed shot to a fuel barrel created a glorious ball of reddish-orange flames with thick plumes of black smoke that were clearly visible despite an inky black sky.
But where the movie was dark and gritty, the soccer match was an explosion of vivid hues. The energy was frenetic, with flags from PSG and Real Madrid flying furiously throughout the stadium. Details were so crisp that I saw the sweat trickling down the brow of one player. And during an instant replay, I saw individual blades of grass. It was an impressive showing. The display's 165Hz refresh rate was on full display, ensuring there wasn't a hint of blur when blink-and-you'll-miss-it moves like a feint or a meg were executed.
To keep things looking this good, Hisense has implemented plenty of tech to create the optimal viewing experience depending on the scenario. First up is Hi-View AI Engine Pro, Hisense's proprietary AI processing technology, which uses AI algorithms to adjust brightness, detail, color, motion, and depth in real time. The TV also has Dolby Vision support to ensure movies look their best no matter the scene. Hisense also included Filmmaker Mode and IMAX Enhanced. The former is designed to show movies and TV shows the way the creator envisioned, with accurate color, accurate frame rates, and disabled post-processing. The latter is the opposite, creating a more cinematic experience with brighter colors and immersive audio.
For the gamers among us, the U7SG also has a number of gaming-centric technologies baked in. There's Dolby Vision Gaming and HDR10+ Gaming, which use dynamic metadata to adjust HDR in real time for better highlights, contrast, and color accuracy. AMD FreeSync Premium Pro reduces screen tearing and input lag by ensuring the frame rate of the display and GPU sync up.
And speaking of the display, that 165Hz refresh rate doesn’t just provide ultrasmooth motion for sports and action movies. It also comes in clutch for gaming too. It helps keep breathtaking moments like perfectly drifting through a hairpin turn in Forza Horizon 5 as clean as your expert steering. Think of it as a highway with more lanes: a conventional 60Hz or 120Hz TV can display the same content, but the 165Hz panel has more capacity to show additional frames when the source provides them. Gamers with a compatible PC can push performance further with Game Booster 330 by lowering resolution in favor of higher frame rates.
There's also Game Bar, an onscreen overlay that monitors settings such as FPS, VRR, and HDR in real time. When enabled, Game Bar can make quick updates to the image frame by frame to keep everything looking good and running smoothly.
The U7SG has 2.1.2 multi-channel surround sound, which features a left and right speaker, a subwoofer, and a pair of upward-firing speakers. Combined with Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X, both audio technologies designed to simulate surround sound, the built-in speakers should produce powerful sound even without a soundbar. The 116-inch model has 6.2.2 channel audio, which breaks down into six directional speakers, a pair of subwoofers, and two up-firing speakers, all built into the television.
The U7SG has plenty of ports, including four HDMI 2.1 ports (4K@165Hz VRR, eARC and CEC), Ethernet, two USB ports (USB 3.0 and USB 2.0), an RF antenna, and an optical digital audio output. It's more than enough to fully trick out your A/V entertainment setup.
It's a foregone conclusion that modern TVs are smart; it's just a matter of which platform is driving everything. In the case of the U7SG, it's Google TV with Gemini. Google TV allows you to search for entertainment across your streaming apps, and with Gemini onboard, you can use Google's AI to search for movie and TV recommendations, tap into other smart home devices, or ask about the weather.
The Hisense U7SG offers a premium suite of features designed to create optimal visual and audio experiences. The screen is a showstopper, with colors so vivid that you could almost get an afterimage if you stare too long. Hisense has loaded up the TV with a compelling suite of gaming-centric utilities designed to make your games look and play at optimal levels whether you're playing on a console or PC. And the cherry on top might be the integrated speaker system, which sounds good without the aid of a soundbar. But outside of everything the U7SG offers, the best thing is the price. It's sticker shock in the best way. Hisense has mastered the art of premium offerings at midtier prices.
