Hisense UR9S vs LG MRGB85B

Hisense UR9S is without doubt a show of force from the Chinese manufacturer when it comes to luminance. On a synthetic test pattern the panel hit as much as 2600 nits, which is an impressive result. But it’s important to clearly separate laboratory results from filmic realities. In real-world content the UR9S behaves much more restrained. Peak brightness in balanced scenes hovers around 1500 nits. In demanding, dark shots, where algorithms must both preserve deep blacks and precisely light small details, brightness can fall drastically, even to around 400 nits. The discrepancy between the chart and reality is therefore huge. This is a direct consequence of conservative local dimming behaviour. When a bright object occupies a large part of the frame, the system can easily maintain a high brightness level. However, in night scenes the priority becomes protecting blacks and fighting halo artefacts (unsightly glows around bright edges). To avoid contrast degradation the TV drastically limits light output. Even so, the UR9S can still produce a very powerful, engaging HDR effect that impresses in bright, spectacular sequences.

Colour gamut coverage

On test patterns the Hisense UR9S performs excellently in terms of colour. DCI-P3 coverage is almost 100%, and the wide BT.2020 as much as 93%. Those are figures even the best QD-OLED TVs don't reach. But again, synthetic measurements are one thing, films and series are another. In real-world scenes the figures dropped to 93% for DCI-P3 and 81% for BT.2020. That’s still a great result, but the advantage of RGB Mini LED is no longer as dramatic as manufacturers promise in marketing materials. One could even say their capability is now close to that of quantum-dot-equipped TVs, the so-called QLEDs. So why is that? To a large extent, colour reproduction here depends on the way the backlight zones operate. When a strongly saturated colour appears next to white or another, more complex element, a single zone must handle both parts of the image at once. Under such conditions the backlight can't maintain extreme saturation of a given colour on the screen, because the emitted light takes on a character closer to white. In the UR9S this has been refined quite well, but still not enough for the TV to maintain such high colour saturation in every situation.

LG MRGB85 offers moderate brightness. On test patterns it reaches around 700 nits, which is a decent result in itself. In real movie scenes, however, values are lower and most often fall in the 400 to 600 nits range. Bright, wide shots look best. In scenes with large areas of black the TV noticeably reduces luminance, attempting to keep contrast as high as possible. The HDR effect is therefore visible, but it is far from the level offered by more advanced Mini-LED designs. Particularly in darker parts of films, the limitations of the edge-lit backlight and imprecise local dimming become apparent again.

HDR colours

A much stronger suit of the MRGB85 is its colour. The TV covers around 95% of the DCI-P3 colour space and 74% of BT.2020, so HDR content can look vivid and impressive. Colours are well saturated, and the difference compared with basic LCD TVs is clearly noticeable. It is worth noting, however, that this is not a classic RGB backlight, where each of the three primary colours is generated by a separate diode. Red is produced by a PFS phosphor, which expands the palette and achieves more saturated red tones. This solution performs well for colour reproduction, but it does not change the limitations of the local dimming. The diodes are not driven independently in the way the series name might suggest... so it turns out that Mini RGB is not the same as Mini-LED RGB!

We tested the Hisense UR9S in Filmmaker Mode, which out of the box provides the best image reproduction. In HDR content the TV performed quite well in that regard. The white balance didn't show major errors, and the brightness response, while following Hisense's typical curve, was kept at a reasonable level. The picture therefore wasn't overly brightened or noticeably colour-distorted. The same mode fared much worse with SDR content, the kind we watch most often, like broadcast TV or YouTube. The white balance was strongly shifted toward red and blue, giving the image a slightly pink tint. This also affected the gamma curve. Instead of approaching the reference value of 2.4, it was closer to 2.0, which made the image look too bright, especially in midtones and darker areas. Filmmaker Mode therefore remains the best out-of-the-box choice, but it's not without flaws.

We tested the TV in Filmmaker Mode because, of the available presets, it produced the image closest to reference. The out-of-the-box colour reproduction wasn’t perfect, though. The biggest deviations were in the white balance, with too much red and not enough blue in the image, so the overall picture shifted noticeably towards warmer tones. Whites took on a slightly yellowish tint, and skin tones and bright areas didn’t always look natural. It wasn’t a fault that ruined the viewing experience, but in a direct comparison with the same panel after calibration the difference was clearly visible.

After calibration, the biggest improvement was in SDR, although we also refined the HDR picture. Hisense offers plenty of calibration controls in the menu, so we were able to precisely correct the white balance and other picture errors. The most important change was removing the pink cast that had been clearly visible in SDR material. After calibration the image looks much more natural, especially in everyday content like TV and YouTube. Colour reproduction errors on the ColorChecker chart are very small after calibration. The vast majority of colours fall below values of 2–3, which is at a level very hard for the human eye to detect. The only thing we couldn't completely eliminate is the way Hisense TVs map tones in HDR. It affects how brightness is distributed in films and can subtly 'beautify' the image, rather than strictly following the creators' intent. For less experienced viewers this can create a stronger 'wow' effect, but it won't always fully match how the material should look.

Calibration primarily corrected the white balance and removed the previously noticeable warm cast. After the correction, whites no longer had a yellow tint and colours became more neutral and natural. The biggest improvement was seen in SDR material, where the picture looked even and much closer to the reference. A similar effect was achieved in HDR. After calibration the image became more controlled, although not all of the TV’s limitations could be eliminated. The main issue remained intense reds, which were not always reproduced with sufficient precision. In practice the MRGB85 handles everyday SDR content very well, but in more demanding HDR material its limitations are still clearly visible.

Digital image processing has been one of Hisense's strengths for the past two years, and the UR9S is no different. The manufacturer uses the Hi-View AI Engine RGB processor, which in practice is based on the well-known MediaTek Pentonic 800 platform, previously used in models such as the U8Q. The TV handles upscaling lower-resolution material to 4K very well, and copes with low-bitrate content, where various compression artefacts can easily appear. Thanks to a function called "Smooth and gradient image", the picture stays detailed without looking overly sharpened or artificially smoothed. When watching regular broadcast TV or older, lower-quality material, the UR9S can get a surprising amount out of it. In terms of digital image processing, this is one of the most finely tuned LCD TVs we've had the chance to test.

Upscaling and digital image processing perform quite well in the LG MRGB85. The Alpha 8 AI 4K Gen7 processor efficiently upscales lower-resolution material, and you can easily turn off overscan regardless of the source. The TV also handles compression artefacts well. The "Smooth Gradation" function can effectively reduce visible banding and tonal unevenness, but it isn't always precise. At higher settings it can also smooth out fine details, such as the texture of materials. A plus is that it doesn't remove film grain. The safest option is the "Low" or "Medium" setting, which offers the best compromise between artefact reduction and preserving detail.

The Hisense UR9S is one of the first TVs on the market with a 4K panel and a 170 Hz refresh rate. In the larger sizes, 75 and 85 inches, that goes up to 180 Hz. Such a high refresh rate will mainly benefit owners of very powerful computers. Films and TV series are still most often watched at 24 fps, and sports broadcasts at 50 fps, so in everyday use the panel's response time and the behaviour of the motion smoothing are more important. In that respect the UR9S performs very well. Panel motion blur is low, as our UFO test also confirmed. Moving objects do not leave a pronounced smear, so the picture remains clear even in fast scenes.

The LG MRGB85 is fitted with a VA panel with a native 144 Hz refresh rate, so its motion handling is very good. The TV easily handles 120 Hz content from consoles and higher refresh rates when connected to a PC. That matters not only for gaming but also when watching sport, where camera motion is noticeably smoother than on basic 60 Hz panels. There’s also the TruMotion system, which lets you set the level of motion smoothing yourself. You can keep a more cinematic motion or increase smoothness, which works well for live sports and TV programmes. The adjustment range is wide, so you can easily tailor the motion smoothing to your own preferences.

The Hisense UR9S is very well set up for gaming. All three HDMI ports are HDMI 2.1 and offer the full 48 Gb/s bandwidth. The TV supports 4K at 170 Hz, and on larger screen sizes even 180 Hz. You also get VRR, ALLM, NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync, so it's hard to fault the basics. PC gamers can additionally enable DLG mode. After switching the resolution to Full HD the refresh rate can rise up to 330 Hz. That's more of an option for a narrow group of users, but it shows how much headroom the panel has. Hisense also added a Game Bar, where you can quickly change the main settings, check the refresh rate, or enable a crosshair and minimap zoom.

The biggest drawback remains the lack of a properly working HGiG implementation. The TV still uses its own tone mapping, which makes setting up HDR on consoles a bit awkward. In our case values around 1500–2000 nits worked best, but it's worth checking which setting keeps all the detail in the brightest parts of the image.

When it comes to gaming, the LG MRGB85 performs by far the best. The manufacturer hasn’t skimped on the kit and has essentially carried over the full suite of features from pricier TVs into this model. You get three HDMI 2.1 ports with full 48 Gb/s bandwidth. Each supports 4K 120 Hz from a console, and when connected to a PC also 4K 144 Hz. So you don’t need to worry which port to plug your console or PC into, as they all offer the same set of capabilities.

On board you’ll also find VRR, AMD FreeSync Premium, NVIDIA G-Sync Compatible, ALLM and HGiG. Dolby Vision Gaming is included too, allowing supported games to use high refresh rates and dynamic HDR simultaneously on Xbox. Rounding it off is Game Optimizer, a handy in-game menu. Without leaving the game you can change the picture profile, brighten shadow detail or check the current frame rate. In terms of gaming features, the MRGB85 therefore offers almost the same as significantly more expensive LG models.