Hisense U7S / U77SE vs Philips PQS9011 / PQS9001 (The One 2026)

The Hisense U7S has considerable HDR potential, but it can’t make full use of it in every scene. On a test pattern it reaches about 1100 nits, so the backlight is genuinely strong. In our brighter film scenes we measured around 640 to 745 nits. That’s still enough for the sun or bright highlights to have a distinct bloom and to show an advantage over SDR material. When the TV needs to light a larger portion of the image, it handles it quite well.

The problem appears with small lights on a dark background. Each of the 192 zones covers an area considerably larger than a tiny point on the screen. If the TV were to drive such a zone strongly, it would brighten the surrounding area along with the light. Hisense tries to avoid that and dims the whole zone. Blacks look better as a result, but a small bright object that should draw the eye also loses intensity. That’s why in two tougher scenes we recorded only 297 and 154 nits. The difference is large: in one shot HDR can impress, and in the next small highlights are noticeably muted. The U7S therefore prioritises keeping deep blacks, even at the expense of bright details. With this number of zones it’s an understandable compromise, but it’s worth remembering that the peak 1100 nits tells us about the backlight’s capability, not how brightly the TV will show every element of a film.

Colours

Hisense markets the U7S as ULED, but that’s a marketing name; the wider colour gamut here is achieved by a PFS phosphor backlight. In our measurements the TV covered about 91% of the DCI-P3 space and 71% of BT.2020. Those are good results, though a little short of the best screens on the market. The biggest shortfall is in green — the TV doesn’t even reach the DCI-P3 boundary there, so the most intense green hues will be less saturated than they should be. Most colours in HDR films and series still look suitably vivid, however. A positive is the repeatability of the results: gamut coverage on test patterns and in film scenes is practically identical.

The Philips PQS9000 is a moderately bright TV — in our HDR scenes it reached roughly 450 to just over 500 nits. That’s enough to notice a difference compared with SDR. Sun reflections, lamps or flares have a bit more punch than on basic TVs, whose brightness often tops out around 300 nits. It’s not, however, a level where bright elements look especially striking. The biggest limitation remains contrast. Without local dimming, brightening a bright object also lifts the black level around it. So there’s no clear separation between strong highlights and a dark background, and it’s that kind of pairing that really shows what HDR can do. The PQS9000 offers more than the cheapest models, but despite decent brightness the effect remains fairly basic.

Colours

Philips deserves praise for the colours. Although the manufacturer markets this model as QLED, it actually uses a PFS phosphor instead of quantum dots. The solution itself doesn’t prevent good results. On test patterns and in measurements of film scenes we recorded about 94% DCI-P3 coverage and 75% BT.2020. For this class of TV that’s really good. In practice this means the vast majority of colours used in HDR films and series will have appropriate saturation. Lush greens or intense reds aren’t a problem and add appeal to the picture. Limitations are easier to notice in some games and rarer content that use the most saturated shades of the wide BT.2020 gamut. In those situations, displays with wider colour coverage, such as SQD or RGB LED, can show more. At its price point the PQS9000 has nothing to be ashamed of.

Factory colours on the Hisense U7S are decent, but there are a few things to fix. In SDR the white balance favours red, so the image looks too warm, in places with a slightly pink tint. You can see this on faces and bright, neutral surfaces. Gamma also runs below the target, so the TV brightens the image, especially in darker areas. That makes it easier to see shadow detail, but the scene loses some of its depth.

In HDR the white balance is a bit more even, but not completely neutral, with midtones lacking blue and the brightest parts lacking red. A bigger problem is the way brightness is reproduced. The EOTF curve shows that a large portion of the midtones is boosted, making the image appear brighter than the source material intends. Color Checker measurements also fare worse than in SDR: many errors are around 3 to 4, and individual ones reach as high as 8. Colours can therefore look attractive, but they're not always faithful to what we should be seeing. There’s room for improvement and we’ll see how much can be corrected with calibration.

The factory picture settings for Movie mode on the PQS9000 unfortunately need tweaking. In SDR the biggest problem is an excess of red in the white balance, which makes whites, greys and skin tones too warm, in places even slightly pink. Gamma runs below the reference across most of the range. The TV therefore brightens midtones and highlights, making the image look flatter than it should.

In HDR the white balance itself performs significantly better. Apart from minor deviations the components sit close together, so there isn’t the same obvious tint as in SDR. The EOTF curve, however, shows a slight brightening of parts of the image, and the biggest issue appears when measuring the wide colour gamut. Many shades deviate substantially from the target, with errors reaching ΔE 8–9. The good gamut coverage we praised earlier therefore doesn’t mean the TV hits specific colours accurately. It can display a wide range of colours, but out of the box it doesn’t use that range very precisely.

Calibrating the Hisense U7S did the most for SDR content. We managed to even out the white balance, so the earlier warm tint is gone and whites and greys look neutral. Gamma now sits very close to the reference, so the TV no longer brightens the image unnecessarily and darker scenes have regained depth. Color Checker measurements confirm the improvement: most errors are below 2. For watching regular TV and SDR films, this delivers a really well calibrated picture. Calibration in HDR wasn’t as smooth. The TV lacks an effective way to correct the EOTF curve, so Hisense still interprets the film’s brightness a bit on its own. It brightens parts of the image and, depending on the scene and local dimming, can tone down the brightest elements. That couldn’t be eliminated by calibration. This also shows up in the Color Checker results, where many errors remain around 3–4 and some exceed 7. In SDR the result is therefore very good, but in HDR we have to accept that the TV adds its own interpretation of brightness to the image.

Calibration brought a big improvement, especially with SDR content. We managed to even out the white balance and remove the earlier colour cast, and the Color Checker measurements now look very good. Colours are much closer to what they should be on screen, so with regular TV or SDR movies we can be happy with the result. Unfortunately HDR spoils that a bit. On the one hand it's limited by the panel itself, because calibration won't improve contrast or replace local dimming. On the other hand there are colour errors we couldn't correct because the CMS settings, i.e. colour management, were greyed out and inactive. That loses Philips points with us. The white balance can be fine-tuned, but without access to wide gamut controls you can't as effectively sort out colours in HDR. It's a shame, because the SDR results show the potential is there, but we weren't allowed to fully make use of it everywhere.

The processing of lower-quality material in the Hisense U7S is fairly average. The Pentonic 700 chipset used here doesn't cope particularly well with the effects of heavy compression. There's a "Smooth and Gradient Picture" function in the menu, but its performance leaves a lot to be desired. At the low setting it's hard to see any improvement in tonal transitions, though at least the picture doesn't suffer. Medium and high settings still don't remove visible banding between tones and begin to blur details; in our clips parts of characters' faces even vanished. Interestingly, film grain remains untouched at every level. If you do use this function, stick to the low setting. Its current performance needs refinement, but that's mainly down to the processor used here.

Upscaling to 4K performs much better. Lower-resolution content gains clarity, edges are well reproduced and fine details look sharp. That doesn't mean the TV can recover details that weren't in the recording, but it makes good use of what's provided by the source. Another plus is the lack of edge cropping, even with an SD signal.

Digital image processing on the Philips PQS9000 performs well, although we have a few reservations. The "Distortion Reduction" function helps smooth tonal transitions in lower-quality sources, but it works rather unevenly. It can improve one part of the picture, only to, moments later and still within the same scene, lose its way and show banding between shades again. On the plus side, it doesn't strip away film grain or fine noise, so the image retains its texture. We found the "Medium" setting worked best and that's the one we recommend.

The upscaling to 4K itself is adequate, though the image is very soft. Edges are heavily smoothed, which may leave some viewers wanting more clarity. In that case, it's worth slightly increasing the sharpness in the TV menu, as this will help emphasise edges more. Don't overdo the sharpness slider, though, or you'll get artificial halos instead of an improvement.

Motion handling on the Hisense U7S is decent thanks to its 144 Hz refresh rate. For films there's also a motion smoothing option with adjustable judder and blur reduction. You can keep a more cinematic feel to motion or increase smoothness if choppy camera pans bother you. High refresh is also useful for sport and gaming, but unfortunately it doesn't solve the panel's biggest problem.

The issue is pixel response time. Fast-moving objects leave long, distinct trails, as our UFO test shows. It's worst on dark backgrounds, where the trail is particularly pronounced. So motion can be smooth, but the moving object loses sharpness, and that difference on the U7S is fairly easy to spot.

In terms of motion handling the Philips PQS9000 performs exceptionally well for an LCD TV. It's not just about the 144 Hz refresh rate, but above all how quickly the panel itself responds. At 120 Hz you can hardly see the typical trailing smears behind moving objects. What's particularly pleasing is that this also applies to darker backgrounds, where many VA panels clearly struggle. Here motion remains clear, and in this respect Philips has pleasantly surprised us.

The "Motion Styles" feature is used to adjust how motion is displayed. It includes two sliders: "Smoothness" and "Blur Reduction", allowing you to tailor the effect to the material you're watching and your personal preferences. Our suggested settings are shown in the photo. Treat them as a starting point and see which level of smoothing suits you best.

The Hisense U7S has plenty to offer gamers. You get two HDMI 2.1 ports and support for 120 Hz in Full HD, 1440p and 4K, so modern consoles’ capabilities are well utilised. When connected to a PC you can use 144 Hz at 4K or switch the resolution to Full HD and run 240 Hz. So there’s a lot of choice, although it’s worth remembering the motion smearing mentioned earlier, which the high refresh rate doesn’t eliminate. VRR and ALLM are present as well. VRR helps keep the picture tear-free when a game’s frame rate changes. ALLM automatically switches the TV into game mode, so you don’t have to go into the menu each time. VRR works from 48 to 240 Hz, with the highest refresh rate available in Full HD. Xbox users can also play in Dolby Vision at 120 Hz. Importantly, that format does not cause significant input lag here. The Game Bar also looks great. It’s clear and attractive, and lets you quickly check what signal the TV is receiving. Handy gaming settings are close to hand too, including shadow brightening. If it’s hard to spot an opponent in a dark game, you can improve visibility without digging through the whole menu.

Our biggest complaint is HGiG. Hisense keeps doing its own tone mapping, which makes setting up HDR on the console confusing. You adjust the checkerboard pattern, and the TV continually alters its appearance. As a result, the point at which the pattern disappears does not correctly indicate the display’s brightness limit, and it’s easy to set the value too high. For this model it’s better to set the target HDR brightness on the console to around 900 to 1000 nits, rather than rely on the configurator.

Features for gamers

In terms of gaming features the Philips PQS9000 has a lot to offer. Four HDMI 2.1 ports let you connect multiple devices without having to choose which one gets the full capabilities. Consoles can use 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p and 4K, and a PC can also run 144 Hz at 4K or 240 Hz if you drop to Full HD. There's also VRR, which matches the refresh rate to the frame rate and prevents screen tearing. Its range runs from 48 to 240 Hz, with the upper limit applying to Full HD mode.

It also includes ALLM, so the TV switches itself into game mode, and a properly working HGiG, which is handy when setting HDR on the console. There's a Game Bar for quick access to settings and signal information. The list even includes Dolby Vision gaming, but it's hard to enjoy because of very high input lag. Apart from that caveat, the feature set is really solid.