Hisense U7N Mini-LED ULED 4K TV (VIDAA) Review

The Hisense U7N aims to improve what Hisense almost perfected last year with its U7K model. Last year, the U7K was an incredible TV with a bright panel, a fantastic set of features and some great gaming features. Of course, it also marked the move to Mini-LED and the tech performed fairly well.

Watch the Hisense U7N review below:

While the local U7K almost matched its international counterpart, it wasn’t perfect. Issues aside, the fact that you can spend much less on the Hisense U7K and get high-end features was still impressive.

The Hisense U7N carries on that tradition with a feature-packed TV. This year’s improvements are more modest than before. If you hide away the cool new stand and fiddle around on the TV panel alone, it would be hard to distinguish the difference between the two.

Before I dive into the nitty gritty let’s get pricing and panels out of the way. The Hisense U7N comes in 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch and 85-inch. It is priced at R14,999, R17,999, R24,999 and R34,999. However, I have already seen some retailers discounting the entire range. I spotted the 55-inch for R11,999, the 65-inch for R14,999, the 75-inch for R22,999 and the 85-inch for R29,999.

Even at their standard RRP, the U7N is a great price. The discounted prices are even better and I guess that’s the joy of purchasing a locally-built and assembled product.

When it comes to the panel technology, the U7N includes a VA panel across the 55 and 65-inch models. 75-inch model includes an ADS Pro panel which is a fancy-named IPS panel. I am not sure what panel the 85-inch includes but I gathered it is also an ADS Pro panel due to its size. These panels benefit larger TVs due to their improved colour and viewing angle compared to VA.

Dimming zones on these models then span between 240 on the 55-inch, 384 on the 65-inch and 512 on the 75-inch. I am not entirely sure how many zones the 85-inch model packs.

Hisense also doesn’t include any specs for these TVs on their website at all. Their site just has some retailer links and images. It would be helpful if Hisense could perhaps brush up their website to include detailed specs for these expensive products.

I mean even the most basic HDMI port specs aren’t listed there. If you’re buying a Hisense TV, you really need to go and search for all this information and hope the retailer has correctly listed it. I just think the official Hisense website should have a specification page for these TVs that accurately lists dimming zones, panel type, speakers etc. Especially considering there are still minor differences between the US and South African models.

All that aside, the U7N sits between the U6N and U8N. For many, this is the go-to model without looking at the higher-end “pro” 8N and without skimping on features by picking up the U6N. I have already done a full unboxing and set up of the TV, the link is in the description below. But in short, the TV includes a cool new stand that comes with two metal legs that are attached to the bottom of the TV and covered by a plastic plate.

I could not use the plastic plate with my setup because my Samsung Q990C soundbar blocked the infrared sensor on the TV. I removed the cover and it left “just” enough space for the remote to detect the sensor. But for those worried about the height of the TV, the sensor sits 5.5cm above the legs.

The plastic cover adds half a centimetre to the height of the legs. So if your soundbar is 6cm thick, you won’t be able to use the cover and if it is 6.5cm thick, not even removing the cover will help as the sensor will be blocked regardless. You might get away with moving your soundbar more to the front of the legs. It just means reaching up over it to use the remote.

The legs include cable management grips on the back. One of my legs had a piece snapped off out of the box but it still held the cables neatly. Overall, the Hisense U7N is a sexy-looking TV. It is chunky in terms of its thickness and the Hisense logo is subtly hidden on the left-hand corner of the panel. There is a slight bit of wobble if you touch the TV but nothing worrying.

Speaking of the panel, it is reflective, of course, but it handles its back-facing reflections very well. The panel is semi-gloss and this helps reduce the shine you’ll usually get from back-facing windows and lights. It is great in a bright room.

The ports are pretty ordinary on the Hisense U7N. They are all on the left-hand side. You get four HDMI ports of which, 2 are 4K 144Hz HDMI 2.1 ports and 2 are 4K 60Hz. eARC is on HDMI 3 which is also a 4K 144Hz HDMI 2.1 port. Hisense has not moved the eARC port on this model to HDMI 1 as the US model has. I wish this was the case because it would free up an extra high-speed HDMI port. I find myself constantly swapping HDMI cables from my PS5 and PC as a result.

There are two USB ports, one 2.0 port at the back and one 3.0 port on the side. You’ll also get an RF Turner, AV combo port, Digital Audio Out and LAN port. The TV is then powered by a kettle plug and the port is on the right-hand side.

As for the remote, we aren’t getting the pretty new silver remote with the backlit keys that come with the US model this year. Hisense has thrown in that same old black remote which has been around for I think 7 years now. It really looks like the most generic remote ever made and I wish the brand would try something new now.

Considering how mainstream Bluetooth remotes are now, I do hope Hisense moves to using them on these TVs. It also gets away with having to point the remote at the TV all the time. Also avoids the worry of having your soundbar block the IR sensor on the TV.

The Hisense U7N comes with VIDAA and it is still a great OS. New additions this year include Crunchyroll. VIDAA is packed and everything you need is found on the platform. That is if you don’t use Kodi or Stremio. DStv is here, Showmax, Netflix, Disney+… you name it. For the average user who hasn’t discovered the world of IPTV and server media, VIDAA is perfect. I recently picked up an Onn 4K TV Pro device which is now my new favourite media box. So if you’re not a fan of VIDAA, you can always look into an alternate media box.

But if you are a fan, the entire experience is smooth and hassle-free. No apps lag and stutter when launching. Menus are fluid and intuitive too. There simply isn’t a TV OS as responsive as VIDAA.

For my review, I want to tackle the general picture experience on the TV first before getting to the numbers and technical stuff. So viewing angle, brightness, dimming and all the frame rate talk is coming up later on.

The VIDAA system powers the way you’ll engage in the TV. This means menus are easy to get around and toggle through. Out of the box, the Hisense U7N needs some minor calibration. Backlight should be increased from 65 to 90 or 100. Colour to Standard to avoid the blue whites, and of course, you’ll want to enable Local Dimming.

The U7N comes with a new HDR Enhancer mode that tries to turn SDR content into HDR content. It works quite well and pumps up the brightness and saturation on the SDR signal.  Clarity and Super Resolution then act as the TV’s upscaling features. These settings enhance low-resolution content. I watch a lot of Judge Judy and the show is quite old. Episodes looked noticeably sharper, brighter and more vivid with these settings enabled. In short, the U7N works well with SDR content and upscales content well too.

HDR content was also exceptional. Colours popped and the brightness across the TV stood out when it came to specular highlights. Anything I threw at the TV was delivered in incredible detail but more so when scenes were bright and reached every corner of the panel. I could just sit and watch HDR demo reels all day on this TV. It is magic.

For those sports fans, the Hisense U7N handles its motion very well. I disable all smoothing immediately on a TV and so should you. Motion Smoothing is also best disabled when watching sports such as football. You might prefer to turn it down rather than off. The custom mode also let me reduce the judder slightly which helps a bit with camera pans. But the motion handling on the TV is good. You won’t notice ghosting on fastballs either.

Gaming on the Hisense U7N is great. The TV did have a local dimming bug where it would be disabled if you turn on VRR but Hisense has since fixed this in an update. Be sure to update your TV when this is available so you can use both VRR and local dimming at the same time.

You’ll want to enable local dimming because it helps improve not only the black levels but it cleans up the panel’s rough edges. The 75-inch model I reviewed, for example, had some issues with uniformity. More so than other LCD TVs I have seen.

This is called the Dirty Screen Effect. It had a backlight bleed on the left corner and the entire top of the TV was noticeably dirtier. This isn’t as visible when local dimming is enabled, and to be honest, a common issue with ADS Pro and IPS panels. So it is quite important to have local dimming enabled so you can’t see these flaws.

But games looked great. Specular highlights popped and the TV delivered the quality I expected. The Game Menu provides a good overview of the current signal format and PC gaming supports smooth 1080p 240Hz and 4K 144Hz. Input lag was also very low. I measured 11ms at 4K 60Hz with HDR and 5ms at 4K 120Hz with HDR. This ADS Pro panel does a great job keeping input lag down.

Then there’s blooming, dimming and peak brightness. The Hisense U7N’s panel is bright. Hisense advertises it as 1500 nits bright and I measured 1300 nits in a 25% window. So not quite as bright as the advertised spec but still very bright. Keep in mind that advertised brightness on a TV usually relates to the highest measurement of nits the TV maker has reached in testing specular highlights. That is usually a smaller window. The testing environment also depends on the desired result. That doesn’t mean you’ll see 1500 nits in every scene. But this is a good measurement of the brightness of the panel.

In a 10% window in HDR, I measured just over 1100 nits. In 100% window, the TV measured 681 nits. This is very bright for a 100% window. Bright enough to meet HDR 500 standards and you’ll enjoy how great picture quality looks thanks to this peak brightness.

Blooming is present on the Hisense U7N. You’ll see halos around bright objects against dark scenes too. Local Dimming obviously helps here but I do wish it did a bit more work to reduce the bloom. It is especially noticeable in subtitles and in a dark room. I expected this and you should too. There’s no bloom-free mini-LED TV.

Where the Hisense U7N shines the best is in a bright room. Ambient lighting makes a huge difference in eliminating bloom and halo. During the day, this TV was spectacular. It is difficult to spot the blemishes. No joke, I had to often squint to try to spot the clouding and halo effect.

However, at night, things become a bit harder to ignore. Black bars above movies are no longer black and dark scenes in a game are quite cloudy. The ADS Pro panel dims very well, however. The bloom stems more from the glow let off by the bright objects. Again, this is expected. All Mini-LED TVs have this downside but the high peak brightness makes up for in this case.

I compared the bloom to my Sony Bravia. It isn’t a mini-LED and the experience is very much the same. While the bloom doesn’t get as bright on the Bravia, content causes the same black bars to brighten and dimming zones to cloud up. The U7N is only more prominent because the Mini-LEDs are about double the brightness of the Bravia.

Viewing angles on the U7N are decent. At just 25 degrees off-centre, the panel does start to lose its colour and clarity. Bloom is also increased from the side. There is definitely a sweet spot on this TV which provides the best image. As soon as you move to the side, things start to degrade. This is common with most LED TVs and you’ll need to keep this in mind for your sitting environment.

Essentially, The U7N needs you to be within its panel viewing range. Anything else will diminish the picture. Once you find these sweet spots, the image quality is incredible and blooming is easy to avoid.

The Hisense U7N also packs a subwoofer. This provides better sound from the TV than your standard TV set and it does a good job. Now before you toss out your soundbar or cancel your home theatre online order, don’t. The TV speaker is great for a TV speaker but if you want solid sound performance, surround sound or Dolby Atmos, you’ll need something better. The TV speaker is good for a TV speaker but it doesn’t come close to dedicated audio equipment.

The Hisense U7N is a solid TV with a great panel. Daytime viewing is phenomenal here. Blacks are rich and the panel’s brightness creates a brilliant image. Everything you watch during the day looks incredible.

In the dark, however, you will need to accept the downsides that come with LEDs. There is some blooming in darker content. It can’t be avoided. But even then, the TV handles this all to the best it can. You also need to set your expectations here. You’re getting a TV that comes with a very bright panel and some great features for much less than what you could get from competitor brands. That’s the big sell here.

For its asking price, the Hisense U7N is a no-brainer and one of the best TVs for gaming and entertainment. While it doesn’t offer a substantial jump over last year’s model, this is still one of the best displays on the market. I highly recommend it. Even the differences compared to the US model are at a point now where apart from VIDAA, these TVs are almost identical. Sure, the HDMI eARC port change is a bummer but it isn’t like we’ve been using TVs with two fully available HDMI 2.1 ports for the past decade anyway. You’ve survived up to now, and you’ll be okay here too.