Hisense S7NQ CanvasTV vs Hisense UR8S

When it comes to the brightness of the television and how it handles bright elements while watching films, it's just average – similar to the contrast. The average brightness level of the Hisense S7NQ is around 500 nits. This is a value that allows you to feel the hints of true HDR, but it's definitely not enough to speak of remarkable effects. However, the television should be praised for its colour gamut coverage – films look very colourful and vibrant. Thanks to the use of a PFS LED (QLED) coating, the device is able to cover more than 90% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and over 72% of the wider BT.2020 palette. For a television of this class – these are really very good results.

UR8S is a higher-end Mini-LED, so you could expect plenty of brightness. Indeed, on a synthetic test pattern peak brightness reached about 2200 nits. That’s a very good result, but as always what the TV does in normal film scenes matters much more. Here the results are a bit more mixed. In bright scenes with lots of light on screen, the UR8S can deliver very strong HDR. Brightness then gets up to around 1500 nits, so the image is very intense and has a lot of punch. It’s worse with small bright elements on a dark background. The TV noticeably dims them to preserve deep blacks and avoid excessive blooming. As a result, things like single stars or small specular highlights can be only around 200 nits. And here HDR is no longer as impressive. So the local dimming algorithm works effectively, but it comes at a cost — sometimes it sacrifices the brightness of small details too much in favour of contrast.

Colours

For RGB Mini-LED TVs, colours should be evaluated a little differently than usual. If we look only at the panel’s capabilities, the UR8S performs excellently. We measured about 94% coverage of BT.2020 and virtually full DCI-P3. Those are among the highest figures currently seen in LCD TVs, and this is where the potential of the RGB backlight is most apparent. The problem is that this potential isn’t always used in real scenes. When we ran the same measurements on patterns overlaid with a film-like background, saturation of some colours started to fall noticeably. Individual zones can’t always control the three RGB components with the same precision when the scene becomes more complex. It’s most noticeable with blue and magenta. On simple test patches they can look very strong, but in tougher scenes samples of those colours clearly shrink. In other words, the UR8S has huge potential, but the TV can’t always take full advantage of it in every scene.

Let's check how the Hisense S7NQ CanvasTV performs in terms of colour reproduction in its best factory mode, which is Filmmaker. Right from the start, it’s clear that it’s definitely better than in dynamic or standard mode, but there are still a few things to nitpick. In terms of image quality from HD signals, the colours are slightly skewed – there’s a dominance of cooler blue tones and a lack of red. This makes the image seem a bit too cool.

A similar effect is noticeable in 4K content, but it’s more pronounced there. The excessive exposure of blue tones and lack of red makes the image appear distinctly cold. However, the biggest issue with this TV isn’t the colours themselves but the way brightness is managed. The unit we tested slightly increased brightness compared to the reference value. The result of this is indeed better visibility of details, but at the cost of significantly lighter blacks – which makes the entire image seem more "flat."

A similar phenomenon was observed in the 4K signal – the slightly inflated curve at the beginning of the EOTF graph indicates that the TV has a tendency to overexpose certain scenes. Fortunately, this effect can be improved through professional calibration, which we will discuss in the next point.

For evaluating the factory colours we used Filmmaker mode, which is supposed to show the image as close as possible to how the content was prepared. And if you look at the white balance alone, the UR8S performs quite well. There’s no strong tint that immediately jumps out, although as brightness increases a bit too much blue and red start to appear, with a corresponding lack of green. Colour errors are therefore visible in measurements, but the image itself doesn’t look bad.

We have much bigger reservations about how the UR8S manages image brightness. In SDR the gamma stays around 1.9–2.0 for most of the range instead of the target 2.4. In practice this simply means the image is too bright, especially in the midtones. Shadows are lifted too much, so the picture loses some depth. A similar tendency is visible in HDR. The EOTF curve sits above the reference value for a large part of the range, so the UR8S again brightens the image more than it should. This isn’t a case of the TV lacking brightness, because it has plenty, but of how it manages that brightness. As a result, HDR material can look very striking, but not always exactly as it should.

The results we achieved after calibrating the Hisense S7NQ are really very good. Thanks to the calibration, we managed to eliminate excessive blue tone exposure and deficiencies in red with HD signals. A similar, albeit slightly weaker effect was also achieved with 4K HDR content. Brightness management in HD materials has also improved – the television no longer struggles with brightening the image "overall".

However, there are things that cannot be circumvented. The character of the EOTF curve has hardly changed, and the lack of local dimming means that the smallest elements on the screen will always be slightly overexposed. You just have to come to terms with this when choosing a television with a similar type of backlighting. Nevertheless, the final effect is very good and should fully satisfy the vast majority of users.

Hisense offers quite a lot of calibration options, and in SDR you can achieve a really good result with them. After adjustment the white balance is practically even across the whole range, and colour errors fall to very low values. The UR8S can be set very precisely here. HDR looks a little different. The white balance can also be noticeably improved, although at the highest brightness levels larger deviations start to appear. Most interesting, however, is the behaviour of the EOTF curve. Even after correctly setting it on test patterns, the UR8S can still interpret brightness in its own way when watching films. Depending on the scene, parts of the picture are slightly brightened and others darkened compared with how they should look. This shows that the algorithms controlling the backlight have quite a large influence on the final image. Calibration therefore allows colours to be improved very well, but we are not able to completely 'turn off' the way the UR8S manages brightness in HDR.

Equally important is how the television handles tonal transitions with a poorer signal – for example, in older films, on television, or on YouTube. Unfortunately, despite the presence of the “Smooth and Gradient Picture” feature, which was supposedly meant to improve this aspect, its functionality is really poor. It’s barely noticeable that it has any real impact on the visibility of colour transitions.

The image scaling is also disappointing. Yes, you can see that the television is trying to “pull up” the quality, but the end result is far from ideal. The image often appears slightly jagged, which is particularly noticeable in the example of tree branches in the background. Additionally, the Hisense S7NQ has a clear tendency to crop the image at lower resolutions, which could result in missing subtitles in the news or finer details in the image.

The big plus of the UR8S is its use of the MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor, and digital image processing is one of this model’s stronger points. The TV handles smoothing tonal transitions very well, especially with poorer-quality material. The feature responsible for this effect works effectively without overprocessing the picture. Even on a medium setting it can noticeably reduce visible banding and artefacts without heavily blurring details. Upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is displayed cleanly, edges look natural, and the image isn’t over-sharpened. The UR8S simply copes very well with weaker signals, and in that respect it’s one of its clear strengths.

When it comes to motion fluidity, the television performs really well. Although the S7NQ was primarily designed for displaying static elements – such as images – the manufacturer has used a panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. As a result, sports or games look really good on it.

For content that is not recorded at a high frame rate, the manufacturer has provided two features that allow you to adjust the picture to your own preferences. “Motion blur reduction” and “blur” operate on a 10-point scale, enabling a choice between a more cinematic image – with characteristic frame jumps – and a smooth effect reminiscent of a “soap opera.” How to set this up? That’s a personal choice – we leave the decision to you.

The UR8S is equipped with a panel that has a native 180 Hz refresh rate, so right away it offers very strong potential for smooth motion. The panel itself performs really well, although some limitations typical of VA panels are still visible. Smearing is relatively low for this type of screen, but during faster motion, especially on darker backgrounds, it can still be noticed, particularly if you compare the same image to OLED TVs.

Even though the S7NQ is an "image" type television, you can actually play games on it. Really. It has practically everything (except for HGiG mode) that a modern gaming television needs. The 144 Hz panel and two full HDMI 2.1 ports allow for seamless connection of two consoles, such as the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S.

The television supports Automatic Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) without any stutters or issues. It also handles high frame rates at lower resolutions without any trouble. A shoutout to Hisense for the very attractive Game Bar – it displays all available image options, and additionally, we have the ability to enlarge the minimap or turn on the crosshair (because sometimes someone might actually want to "aim" 😉).

The only missing element – as we mentioned earlier – is the lack of proper implementation of HGiG mode. This is the feature responsible for automatically setting the image in games as the developers intended. It’s a shame because it's the only thing that separates the Hisense S7NQ from being a full-fledged gaming "monster".

In terms of gamer features the UR8S stacks up really well. The TV supports virtually everything you'd expect from a modern console or PC display. It has ALLM, VRR, and 4K at 120 Hz. There's also Dolby Vision in game mode, so when using, for example, an Xbox Series X you don't have to give up that HDR format. PC gamers get even more options. The panel can run at 4K and 180 Hz, and dropping to Full HD can push the refresh rate as high as 330 Hz. There's also a Game Bar that lets you quickly view key info and change gaming-related settings. The only real shortcoming is a proper implementation of HGiG. When enabled, the TV still interferes with HDR brightness mapping, so we don't get the effect intended by that standard. Apart from that, the UR8S is very well equipped for both consoles and a powerful PC.