Hisense E7Q / E79Q vs LG OLED C6 (WOLED)

The Hisense E7Q / E79Q is a television with average brightness, with a peak luminance level of around 350-380 nits. This is an absolute minimum that allows for HDR content to be viewed in a way that is close to the creators' intentions, although without a distinct "wow" effect. Synthetic test results on white screens have been confirmed in practice – in film scenes, the bright parts of the image are stable and quite uniform, but it's hard to speak of a true "light punch." In everyday use, for example, when watching Netflix or YouTube, the HDR effect is acceptable and is perfectly sufficient for most users. However, it must be stated clearly – this is not the level of top-end screens, and one should not expect that in this price range. Fortunately, the Hisense E7Q / E79Q has an advantage that allows it to gain quite a few points: it features a PFS LED QLED panel, utilising an additional phosphor layer that improves colour reproduction. The measured range of the DCI-P3 colour gamut is about 92%, which means that colours in most scenes are vibrant, well-saturated, and pleasant to the eye, particularly for this price bracket.

The HDR performance of the LG C6 is really very good. LG Display's new WOLED panel has primarily brought a considerable increase in brightness. In our unit we measured around 1,500 nits and, importantly, the TV can deliver similar values in many typical film scenes. That gives the HDR the necessary impact. Bright highlights, lamps and sunlight can be really intense, and most HDR films simply look very impressive. Of course it's still an OLED, so brightness falls in scenes with a lot of white. This is well illustrated by the fifth scene in the film The Meg, where the C6 reached around 600 to 700 nits. That's still a very good result, but it also shows that the new panel hasn't shed all the limitations typical of OLEDs.

Colours

When it comes to colours, there is also little to complain about. The C6 covers about 99% of the DCI-P3 gamut and roughly 75% of BT.2020. In practice the colours are very saturated and, importantly, stable across different scenes. This is worth emphasising, because not every TV behaves the same in this respect. In some RGB Mini LED models colour saturation can depend more strongly on image brightness. A wider colour palette is nowadays offered mainly by QD-OLED TVs and new SQD models with a new generation of quantum dots. However, the C6 still performs very strongly here and is able to produce suitably saturated colours in most film scenes.

In Filmmaker mode, the Hisense E7Q / E79Q television was truly impressive. After the first measurements, it became clear that the white balance was quite well tuned, with the only minor deviation being a slight tendency towards a purple tone, which we mentioned earlier. However, this did not significantly impact the overall character of the image – it remained coherent and pleasant to view. A much larger issue turned out to be the brightness characteristics (gamma) in SDR content and the EOTF curve in HDR films. The television noticeably brightened the image, flattening the contrast and diminishing its depth. Gamma values could drop from the reference 2.4 to around 1.9, making the image look as if it were covered with a thin, milky layer. Fortunately, this is a problem that can be relatively easily corrected through calibration.

Right out of the box the LG C6 is pretty well set up, especially if you choose Filmmaker mode. In SDR material the white balance is decent, although as brightness increases it starts to lack a bit of red. The picture becomes a little cooler as a result, but it’s not such a big difference that it stands out during normal viewing. More happens in the brightness response itself. Gamma is a bit low and instead of holding at 2.4 it sits closer to 2.1–2.2 over much of the range. In practice the C6 slightly brightens midtones. Shadows are therefore more readable, but the image loses some depth compared with how it should look in a dark room. In HDR the situation is a bit more interesting. The start of the grayscale looks very good, but from about 20–30% brightness the white balance starts to drift more and more. As brightness rises there’s more red and a noticeable lack of blue. In the brightest highlights the difference is already significant and also affects reproduction of some colors. The EOTF curve itself is handled fairly well over most of the range. The C6 only has a tendency to slightly brighten the image, which we also saw during our film comparisons. The largest deviation appears around the brightest highlights, where the TV begins to adapt the signal to the panel’s capabilities. So the out-of-the-box Filmmaker mode in HDR isn’t perfect, but overall it performs well. The biggest room for improvement is the white balance, especially at high brightness.

The biggest beneficiary of calibration in the case of the Hisense E7Q / E79Q was undoubtedly the SDR mode. It managed to achieve an almost perfect image – most errors in the Color Checker test dropped below a value of 3, and often even 2, which is an outstanding result for this class of equipment. The greatest improvement came from equalising the brightness characteristic (gamma), which meant the image no longer appeared washed out and regained its natural depth. In HDR content, it was also possible to improve colours and eliminate the purple tint mentioned earlier, but errors in the Color Checker measurements were still noticeable. This is due to the fact that – as is often the case with Hisense televisions – the screen manipulates brightness quite heavily, overemphasising some colours. This was also indicated by the EOTF curve, which was slightly above the reference values, suggesting these minor issues with excessive brightness. Despite this drawback and the design limitations that emerge with HDR content, the Hisense E7Q / E79Q gained quite a lot after calibration. In everyday use, the television presents a consistent, natural, and pleasant image, and the difference compared to the factory settings is enormous.

LG TVs have been very receptive to calibration for years and the C6 is no exception. After adjustment the white balance was set almost perfectly, and most colour errors dropped to values below 3, often even around 2. In practice this means very accurate colour reproduction, both in SDR and HDR. An interesting quirk only appeared with the luminance response in HDR. On a standard EOTF chart everything looks almost ideal and at first glance it would be hard to criticise. Only when we measured the TV's behaviour with filters based on actual film scenes did it become clear that the C6 has a slight tendency to artificially boost image brightness.

This is not a huge difference and many people may even view it positively, because HDR consequently looks a little more striking. From the perspective of fidelity to the source material this is not ideal, however, as some scenes are simply a touch brighter than the filmmaker intended. Interestingly, this is rather unusual for LG. In previous generations the brand's TVs typically stuck very closely to the reference picture characteristic after calibration. With the C6 we are still very close to the standard, but this subtle brightness boost is indeed noticeable in films and TV series.

In the case of the Hisense E7Q / E79Q, upscaling and digital image processing are not the strongest aspects of this television. It is evident that the manufacturer has opted more for simplicity rather than advanced image processing algorithms. The television does not offer any features to smooth tonal transitions or systems to improve image clarity, resulting in lower resolution materials looking simply very raw. On the screen, you can notice subtle compression edges that better processors in other models can effectively hide.

During the HD material tests, we noticed that the E7Q tries to artificially enhance detail, which sometimes works, and at other times has the opposite effect – the image becomes soft, slightly blurred, at times even “watery.” There is no aggressive sharpening that ruins naturalness, but there is also no finesse in the detail integration that better image converters offer.

Here the LG C6 has taken a real step forward. The TV uses the same processor found in the flagship G6, and in terms of image processing the two models are very similar. That's a considerable plus, because in this area LG's processor this year performs excellently. The "Smooth Gradation" function in particular works very well. With heavily compressed material it can effectively hide ugly banding and artefacts that often appear, for example, in lower-quality streaming. It's best to leave it set to "Low". That way the improvement is clear and the TV does not yet start blurring fine details. Higher settings smooth the image more aggressively but can already remove some of the natural texture of objects on the screen. Upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is sharpened correctly, edges look clean, and the processor quite effectively reconstructs fine details. In this respect the C6 is already very close to LG's best TVs and the differences compared with the G6 are small.

Hisense E7Q / E79Q is a television with a 60 Hz screen, so fans of 4K sports may feel a slight disappointment – we simply won’t see such smooth images here as in more expensive models with higher refresh rates. Fortunately, the situation is much better for films. Cinematic materials recorded at 24 frames per second can be displayed here using a motion smoothing feature, allowing the user to tailor the picture to their own preferences – either more cinematic with visible frames or smoother, in a theatrical style.

LG C6 received a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz, which is great news above all for gamers using a powerful PC. In films, sport or on consoles we will of course make use of up to 120 Hz, but even then it is hard to fault the motion clarity. As befits an OLED, the panel's response time is almost instantaneous. Moving objects therefore do not leave the characteristic smearing or trails that we can still see on LCD televisions. This is especially noticeable in sport and fast-paced games, where the picture remains very clean even during dynamic movement.

For films and television LG has also prepared the TruMotion motion smoothing system. In the user settings you will find two separate sliders. De-Judder primarily addresses low frame-rate content, that is mainly films and TV series at 24 fps. You can use it to slightly reduce the characteristic judder or set a higher value if you want a very smooth image. De-Blur is useful for higher frame-rate material, chiefly sports broadcasts and 50/60 fps television.

Hisense E7Q / E79Q is truly a successful television for gamers, even though it does not support 4K signal at 120 Hz. The manufacturer, however, has ensured a set of features that until recently could only be found in more expensive models. There is ALLM, meaning automatic switching to low latency mode, allowing the television to activate game mode with very low input lag by itself. We also have VRR, functioning up to 60 Hz – while this may not look impressive on paper, in practice it is fully sufficient, as most games on consoles do not exceed this limit. All these settings can be quickly found in the Game Bar panel, a convenient menu created specifically for gamers. From this interface, one can change picture modes, enable a frame counter, or even... an on-screen reticle – humorously named "target point" in the Vidaa system, which is a result of awkward translation from the Chinese manufacturer.

Special praise should be given to the ability to play in 1080p at 120 Hz, which significantly improves the fluidity and responsiveness of the image. Therefore, if someone wants to play a few titles at a higher refresh rate, they can simply lower the resolution and enjoy much smoother motion. Despite the lack of 4K@120Hz, the Hisense E7Q / E79Q performs really well as a gaming television – especially for those who are not looking for perfection but rather a solid and fast screen for everyday gaming.

LG has long focused heavily on gamers, and the C6 really lacks nothing important. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz from consoles, and when connected to a PC it can run at up to 165 Hz. There is also VRR from 40 to 165 Hz, ALLM and a properly working HGiG. A big plus is support for Dolby Vision in games, so the Xbox Series X can use that format without giving up Game Mode. It's rounded off by a Game Bar, from which you can quickly check key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. In terms of features, the C6 is therefore one of those TVs that is really hard to fault. Whether you're gaming on a PlayStation, an Xbox or a PC, practically everything you could expect from a modern gaming TV is available here.