The war between TV display types has only made things more complicated and more confusing. The Hisense U7 stands out, offering a solid mini-LED experience at a price that sits right in the middle of the pack, where it should be.
The Hisense U7 mini-LED TV offers a 4K viewing experience with a high-quality display. Where OLED is the high-end, mini-LED sits somewhere below it. Don’t let that fool you, though. The tech has come a very long way in a short period, and it’s often hard to tell the difference in day-to-day viewing between the two.
Going that route also means Hisense can price the U7 accordingly. It’s a mid-range TV among the company’s offerings, so it comes in at just over $1,000 for the 65″ model I’ve been using.
The price doesn’t just account for the display, but also some of the bells and whistles Hisense tends to pack into its devices. I found that a lot of the AI tools in the past have been a waste of time, and they get turned off. That isn’t to say the TVs themselves aren’t good, because they’ve been fantastic.
This one is different, though. Hisense has been working on its AI engine a little more fervently, and some of the new options seem to help rather than hinder. For instance, auto white balance and content detection are used for IMAX and Dolby Vision media, adjusting the picture accordingly. It appears to have worked well on the U7 this year, and I haven’t encountered any issues with keeping certain features enabled.
But even for those who want a no-nonsense Google TV experience, the Hisense U7 provides that.
The picture quality – again, from a mini-LED display – offers excellent contrast with deep blacks and extremely bright highlights. The display has a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, and it’s blatantly obvious when you forget to set the unit to adjust itself automatically. At 100% the TV is almost blinding, but it makes for incredible daytime viewing. Even at night, the blacks still have detail, and with the U7’s local dimming zone control, that can be fine-tuned even further.
Further, the one issue I had with brightness in previous models has been addressed. Hisense added a brightness offset that allows users to adjust the automatic brightness setting brighter or dimmer. This gives that little bit of extra control for those, like myself, who felt Hisense TVs always automatically set the brightness too low.
The TV also has a built-in subwoofer and upward-facing speakers. They’re still TV speakers, at the end of the day, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well I could get by if I never plugged in a dedicated audio setup.
The cherry on top of all of this, at least, for me, is Google TV. Hisense has done such a good job of melding Google TV into its own OS fragments that the experience ends up being seamless. I can work with every setting the Hisense U7 offers without feeling like I’ve been pulled out of what I’m watching or doing.
The “menu” button on Hisense’s remote – which hasn’t changed – pulls up a menu bar with customizable options. I use this for manual brightness adjustment on most Hisense units, and it’s just nice to have access to. It’s a nice little touch that doesn’t pull me from content, and I can make changes while watching a show or movie.
The U7 of this year also just feels more snappy. It may be the new NPU, but everything runs quickly and smooth. Even the setup felt shorter this time around.
All this to say, this is coming from a mid-range model. At its price point, it’s seemingly impossible to beat a TV like the U7, especially when it’s on sale. Even for someone like myself who shies away from AI controls on TVs, Hisense does a fine job of making that optional without making the user sacrifice a truly exceptional experience.
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