Hisense S7NQ CanvasTV vs Panasonic W95B

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.

The Panasonic W95B is truly a bright screen, capable of achieving peak luminance levels of around 1400 nits. In brighter, well-lit movie scenes, this value translates into spectacular HDR effects that can leave a big impression. However, knowing our test setup, you probably see that in very demanding shots – such as the moon in the distance or the lights of a helicopter in a scene from Sicario 2 – the television doesn’t impress. In such situations, brightness drops to around 200 nits, making the HDR effect much less noticeable. This happens because Panasonic focuses on maintaining deep blacks, not illuminating the background – which shouldn’t be a concern for many users. However, it’s important to remember that in such moments, the picture starts to resemble SDR content. The coverage of the colour palette also deserves praise, as it reaches around 93% of the DCI-P3 space thanks to the use of the PFS filter (also known from QLED technology). This means that most films look very good in terms of saturation and colours, maintaining a cinematic quality to the image.

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.

In Filmmaker mode, the Panasonic W95B offers an image with quite accurate colour reproduction, although it is not without minor imperfections. The white balance slightly leans towards red, which can cause a subtle warm tint to the image, and the gamma curve is slightly elevated, making the screen appear a bit brighter. It's good that the manufacturer has included this mode – even in its factory configuration, it provides a fairly natural look for films. However, knowing how susceptible Panasonic televisions are to calibration, we decided to check how much the image could be improved after professional tuning.

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.

After professional calibration, the Panasonic W95B shows what it’s really capable of. Colour errors have mostly dropped below values of 2–3, making them practically invisible to the human eye. The excess red in the white balance has also been corrected, which means the image is no longer slightly tinted pink, and details in dark areas no longer get lost due to excessive dimming in the gamma. The improvement in HDR content is also noticeable – colour saturation is now more stable and doesn’t lean towards blue as distinctly as it did before. It’s truly a fantastic television for watching movies and series in the highest possible quality. While we know that Mini LED screens are not always perfectly suited for this, the W95B is a prime example that with proper tuning, a result close to OLEDs can be achieved.

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.

In terms of image processing, the Panasonic W95B performs exceptionally well. The proprietary processor responsible for digital image processing effectively upscales lower resolution content to 4K, maintaining a high level of detail and a natural look to contours. The end result is impressive – the upscaling is truly top-notch, and Full HD content can look surprisingly good. Also noteworthy is how the TV smooths tonal transitions in low-quality materials. The algorithm doesn’t operate as aggressively as in some competing models, which helps avoid the loss of detail or the blurring of film grain.

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 144 Hz panel used in the Panasonic W95B offers excellent smoothness, although in practice, given how television content looks or how new-generation consoles are limited, it’s worth looking at its performance when refreshing at 120 Hz. In this mode, the television performs exceptionally well – despite being a VA panel, which is not known for the fastest pixel response times, motion blur is minimal and difficult to detect with the naked eye.

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".

Aside from the previously mentioned issue related to VRR mode, where local dimming does not work, the Panasonic W95B is a true gaming beast. The TV offers practically everything that gamers could expect – perhaps apart from four HDMI 2.1 ports, as there are only two available. On board, we find automatic low latency mode (ALLM), correctly implemented HDR modes for gamers, including HGiG, as well as support for Dolby Vision in games. The whole package is complemented by an interestingly designed Game Bar, presented in the form of circles. It may not be the most visually attractive, but it fulfills its purpose – allowing quick access to key game parameters and adjusting settings without diving into the system menu.