Haier M95E vs Hisense U7S Pro

If there is one category in which the Haier M95E absolutely shines, it is the HDR effect, driven by the raw power of the backlighting. This television cannot be denied the fact that it is a truly bright device. In both most film scenes and during our synthetic measurements, the panel easily achieved, and often even exceeded, the threshold of 1200-1500 nits. This has a direct impact on the viewing experience – the image has a punch and genuinely allows one to feel the magic of materials recorded in this format. However, one must be aware of a certain compromise. When exceptionally demanding scenes appear on the screen, full of small but intense points of light, the M95E does not lose its resonance or dim, but pays a different price for it. A very strong and noticeably distracting halo effect is generated around these bright elements. It is clear here that the algorithms controlling the dimming have been programmed to prioritise brightness and the visibility of the smallest details, even if this comes at the expense of pristine blacks. We are not entirely convinced that this is the healthiest approach; nonetheless, it must be acknowledged that the overall capabilities of the M95E in this regard are indeed significant. A huge advantage is the fact that we are dealing with a Mini LED QLED type construction. The use of a layer of quantum dots brings measurable benefits in the form of wide coverage of the colour palette, which in our tests reached nearly 96% of the DCI-P3 space. This guarantees that the television has full predispositions for displaying vibrant and properly saturated colours.

Let's start with the fact that the U7S Pro is an impressively bright television – in calibrated mode, our measuring equipment indicated a staggering 2200 nits of peak brightness! This is an absolutely remarkable result, considering that this model is positioned rather as a mid-range option.

However, as we know, peak brightness on test patterns is one thing, and actual film scenes are another. Unfortunately, in real video materials, the backlight power clearly drops. Although in the most demanding moments, the television can still exceed the 1000-nit barrier – which is still an excellent result, perfectly aligned with the mastering standards of most HDR films – the real challenge comes from the aggressively tuned local dimming algorithms. Because of this, small, bright details such as stars or the moon in the night sky are noticeably dimmed. The television tries at all costs to maintain deep blacks, which is of course understandable, but unfortunately, this comes at the expense of the dynamics and brilliance of the HDR effect itself.

One must commend the colour reproduction. The new U7S Pro is a QLED design that provides very wide coverage of the colour palette. Unlike last year's model (U7Q Pro), this year's variant is a "true" QLED, rather than a solution based on a PFS filter. As a result, the colour saturation has clearly increased, and coverage of the most demanding BT.2020 colour space has surpassed the 81% barrier.

Each television is primarily evaluated based on its default cinema mode – in this case, "Movie" – which theoretically should be the "best" and most faithful upon being taken out of the box. Unfortunately, in the case of the Haier M95E, the word "best" is certainly not synonymous with the word "good." Already during SDR viewing, the picture revealed evident problems: white balance skewed too much to red, and excessive, unnatural colour saturation led to visible colour deviations. What’s worse, the M95E also struggles with brightness management (gamma curve), excessively darkening the entire scene. Such behaviour is hard to commend, as it directly leads to details merging into shadows that are irrevocably lost in a black blob.

However, the real disaster occurred after switching to HDR material, while still remaining in "Movie" mode. It’s hard for us to guess who came up with such a fantastic idea – or perhaps it was simply a complete oversight of this stage by Haier's engineers – but instead of cinematic fidelity, the picture began to resemble a garish "Dynamic" mode. The white balance exposed immense problems with the blue colour, which in turn resulted in unnatural sharpening and artificial over-saturation of the entire scene. As if that weren’t enough, the EOTF curve characteristics mercilessly revealed that the television also has fundamental issues with local dimming management in this setting. We have not calibrated many Haier models in our career, but we already know for sure that the M95E definitely needs such calibration.

We tested the U7S Pro model – as we always do – in the best factory-calibrated picture mode, namely Filmmaker Mode. We can evaluate the displayed colours in two ways. The most disappointing was the profile designed for viewing SDR content, that is, traditional television, YouTube, and other less demanding materials. The picture was clearly yellowed, which turned out to be a direct consequence of a poorly set white balance. As our graphs show, there is a significant deficiency of the blue component, which drastically affected the overall colour temperature. This is clearly visible on the ColorChecker charts as well as on the graphs of the colour palette itself, where most samples leaned towards yellow. Fortunately, the factory HDR mode fared much better – there, the colour errors were around a Delta E value of 3, which is already a really solid result.

The calibration process left us with extremely mixed feelings. On the one hand, we noted considerable success in the area of colour accuracy. By using the available options in the menu, we managed to tame the white balance and bring it down to an acceptable level. As a result, SDR content finally freed itself from the irritating red dominance, and the HDR image no longer resembled a vibrant, shop display mode. We also succeeded in clearly adjusting the entire colour palette and its saturation – perhaps not perfectly, but as much as the software allowed, and the difference was visible to the naked eye.

And unfortunately, this is where our list of improvements essentially ends, as the M95E simply did not allow for more. As we indicated earlier, most settings related to image brightness do not respond to our commands at all. This means that we were unable to grasp its fundamental characteristics in any way – neither the gamma curve nor the EOTF. In practice, the television in SDR content still tends to darken details, as confirmed by the elevated gamma, merging details in the shadows. Meanwhile, the EOTF curve in HDR mode still ruthlessly exposes all the aforementioned problems with chaotic local dimming management. And although the calibration process itself yielded a lot, removing most of the colour issues, in the end, we had to capitulate.

We know, however, that the company Hisense is capable of much more – as previous generations have demonstrated – which is why we couldn't simply overlook the factory shortcomings of the U7S Pro model in everyday content. As is often the case, the television underwent professional calibration. The conclusions? This process brought about a colossal change. After manually adjusting the white balance and supplementing the deficiencies in the blue component, the annoying yellow tint disappeared as if by magic. White became naturally pure, and skin tones gained the appropriate, healthy hue. Importantly, calibration not only tamed the capricious SDR mode but also allowed us to extract the maximum potential from the panel, reducing average colour reproduction errors to levels nearly imperceptible to the human eye. The only thing we must criticise after the whole process is the very nature of the Mini-LED backlight and its specific interaction with the HDR signal. The aggressively tuned local dimming algorithms significantly interfere with the EOTF brightness curve. As a result, the backlight does not always work perfectly with the creator's intention – depending on the scene being viewed, the curve can noticeably deviate either above or below the reference, which at times disrupts the ideal dynamics of HDR imagery.

Well, what happens to those colour connections when a lower quality material full of compression artifacts comes on screen? Unfortunately, we have some bad news for you. Although the menu contains an option responsible for smoothing tonal transitions in older content, we definitely DO NOT RECOMMEND using it. Its activation causes an avalanche of additional, hideous artifacts and noticeably blurs the entire image, and what's funniest – it often doesn't even remove those unwanted "jaggies" it was supposed to fight against. This function might as well not exist at all.

We can write many more positive remarks about the general upscaling process, which raises lower resolutions to the native 4K matrix. The image after upscaling looks really decent – it is neither overly jagged nor artificially smoothed. In this particular matter, the M95E simply performs well.

The digital processing of lower quality signals is at a very high level here, thanks to the MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor used in the U7S Pro. The upscaling performance is equally impressive, meaning the television’s ability to enhance lower resolution signals to 4K. We did not notice any unnatural, sharp contours on the screen, and our test image featuring the model simply looked attractive.

In terms of motion fluidity and blur, our feelings are quite mixed, as the M95E is a paradox of a television. Let's start with absolute admiration: at the heart of the device is a 144Hz panel, but what truly impresses is its performance with 120Hz content, which is crucial for sports and console gaming. We must state with full responsibility that Haier has equipped this television with one of the best VA panels currently available on the market regarding the minimisation of blur. It is rare to encounter an LCD panel that offers such clean, sharp, and ghosting-free motion. In this respect, the M95E is simply phenomenal.

And that is precisely why the unpleasant surprise that awaits us on the software side is so painful. It turns out that this fantastic hardware potential is completely underutilised, as the television practically offers no effective options for improving fluidity. The motion smoothing systems that should assist with lower frame-rate content can indeed be found in the Menu, but they essentially do not respond to our settings. The conclusion is brutally simple: if you intend to watch high-fluidity material, you must be sure that the source is broadcasting it at native 120. In every other case, you must accept a rather raw, stuttering image, as the M95E will do nothing to smooth it out.

The Hisense U7S Pro uses a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz in 4K, and in game mode, it can reach up to 330 Hz at Full HD resolution. However, it is important to remember that these highest figures do not significantly matter in everyday use, as most content is still limited to a maximum of 120 Hz (for example, when gaming on a console). Nevertheless, the television handles motion quite well and performs really decently for an LCD construction.

There is little to criticise about the fluidity itself. In the menu, we find a motion smoother called "Motion Enhancement", which hides two sliders: blur reduction and judder reduction. These allow for manual configuration of the smoother, which works well in both films and sports, effectively enhancing the raw television signal.

When it comes to features for gamers, the Haier M95E presents some very strong arguments. First of all, it is fully ready for the new generation of consoles and powerful PCs. It is equipped with two full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, which seamlessly handle 4K signals at 120Hz, and even allow for gameplay at 144Hz. This is the foundation that guarantees us the full use of the potential of our gear. Moreover, the key technologies work flawlessly here. The television flawlessly detects the console and automatically switches to low latency mode (ALLM), so we don’t have to fiddle with the settings. The frame synchronization (VRR) works just as efficiently, eliminating annoying screen tearing when game fluidity slightly drops. Considering the incredibly low motion blur of the panel, which we have already mentioned, the M95E creates a really comfortable and responsive gaming environment. Of course, this is not a perfect package. A dedicated "Game Bar," which is a handy menu for gamers, would be useful, but this is essentially just a nice addition. A more serious failing is the lack of support for the HGiG standard, which complicates the perfect HDR configuration on the console and may lead to overexposures. Despite these shortcomings, the basic "gaming" set that the M95E offers is really solid and fully functional.

If you plan to connect a console or PC to the U7S Pro, you will be more than satisfied – this television is excellent equipment for a gamer. Hisense has not spared any expense and has included as many as 4 HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps. You won’t need to juggle cables as each port will handle the full set of features. We have an automatic game mode (ALLM) and VRR, which operates in a wide range from 48 Hz to an impressive 330 Hz. Of course, that 330 Hz is currently a gimmick for owners of powerful PCs, as consoles will be limited to 120 Hz, but it’s good to have that buffer for the future. The Game Bar also works very well during gaming. It’s a handy menu bar for gamers, where you can quickly change the picture mode, enable a crosshair in the centre of the screen, and even change the display aspect ratio to ultra-wide without having to exit to the main television settings, which will be appreciated by fans of PC simulators. The only downside worth mentioning is the improper implementation of the HGiG format in games. The issue is that the television ignores instructions from the console regarding the image generated in HDR10 and continues to forcefully interfere with the image it produces, trying to "enhance" it in its own way. This makes proper HDR configuration in the console menu (where you set brightness on symbols/checkerboard) somewhat difficult.