Hisense S7NQ CanvasTV vs Hisense E7Q PRO / E79Q PRO

When it comes to the brightness of the television and how it handles bright elements while watching films, it is simply average – similar to the case with contrast. The average brightness level of the Hisense S7NQ is around 500 nits. This is a value that allows one to feel the beginnings of true HDR, but it is definitely too little 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 PFS LED (QLED) coating, the device is capable of covering over 90% of the DCI-P3 colour palette and over 72% of the wider BT.2020 palette. For a television of this class – these are really very good results.

When it comes to the quality of the HDR effect, the E7Q PRO is unfortunately not a television that can impress with brightness alone. In real film materials, we measured around 250–300 nits, which is simply too little for HDR to look spectacular. There is a lack of that "spark" in bright details, highlights, and light effects, and in many HDR scenes, it can resemble good SDR more than true cinematic HDR. The consolation in all this is the colours. We managed to confirm that the E7Q PRO is a PFS-type television, meaning it has an additional filter that improves colour gamut coverage. As a result, even if the brightness does not deliver, the colours in HDR content can be appropriately saturated and pleasing to the eye, without the feeling of a "washed-out" image.

Let's now check how the Hisense S7NQ CanvasTV performs in colour reproduction in the best factory mode, which is Filmmaker. Right from the start, it is clear that it is decidedly better than in dynamic or standard modes, but there are still a few things to nitpick. Regarding image quality from an HD signal, the colours are slightly inaccurate – there is a dominance of cooler shades of blue and a lack of red. This makes the image appear somewhat too cool.

A similar effect can also be observed with 4K content, but there it is much more noticeable. The excessive exposure of blue tones and the lack of red result in the image appearing distinctly cold. However, the biggest problem with this television is not the colours themselves but the way brightness is managed. The tested unit slightly boosted brightness compared to the reference value. While this results in better visibility of details, it comes at the cost of significantly brightened blacks – causing the entire image to seem more "flat".

A similar phenomenon was noticed in the 4K signal – the slightly elevated curve at the beginning of the EOTF chart shows that the television has a tendency to overexpose certain scenes. Fortunately, this effect can be improved with professional calibration, which we will discuss in the next point.

In terms of colour reproduction, we tested the Hisense E7Q Pro in Movie mode, which turned out to be the best built-in preset without a doubt. This mode, unlike the Eco, Standard or Dynamic settings, offers the most natural colours straight out of the box. Although no factory mode is completely free of flaws, the E7Q Pro deserves high praise for its colour rendering in standard SDR content. The colour palette is very well tuned here, and the errors in the Color Checker tests often did not exceed a value of 3, which is an outstanding result rarely seen in such affordable televisions. The only drawback we noted in SDR is the tendency to darken some elements of the image, as indicated by the slightly raised gamma graph. The television performs slightly worse with colours in HDR mode. Here, colour errors become noticeable to the naked eye, mainly due to a lack of blue in the white balance. This causes the colours on the screen to be too warm, and for some viewers, they may even seem “too cinematic.” Of course, to improve these parameters, we proceeded with professional calibration.

The results we achieved after calibrating the Hisense S7NQ are really very good. Thanks to the calibration, we managed to eliminate the excessive exposure of blue tones and deficiencies in red with HD signal. A similar, albeit slightly weaker effect was also achieved with 4K HDR content. Managing brightness in HD material has also been improved – the television no longer has issues with brightening the image "across the board."

However, there are things that cannot be bypassed. The characteristic of the EOTF curve has practically not changed, and the lack of local dimming means that the smallest elements on the screen will always be slightly overexposed. One simply has to come to terms with this when choosing a television with a similar type of backlighting. Despite this, the final effect is very good and should fully satisfy the vast majority of users.

In the case of materials with a standard dynamic range (SDR), our actions in Filmmaker mode turned out to be largely cosmetic 😉. We mainly focused on a subtle adjustment of the white balance and equalising the gamma curve, which allowed us to recover details in the darker areas of the image that previously tended to get lost. However, it is worth noting that the E7Q Pro unit we tested was exceptionally well-made at the factory. We remind you that these parameters depend on the specific unit – with mass production, factory calibration can be random, so your unit may require slightly different intervention. The biggest beneficiary of professional calibration was undoubtedly HDR mode. This is where we did the most work, which brought spectacular results. We managed to effectively tame the excessive warmth of the image, caused by a factory deficiency in blue colour. After calibration, the colour errors were reduced to a significantly lower level, which will certainly please those who watch a lot of streaming content in HDR format, expecting faithful reproduction.

Equally important is how the television handles tonal transitions on a poor signal – for example, in older films, television, or on YouTube. Unfortunately, despite the presence of the "Smooth and Gradient Picture" feature, which was supposedly meant to improve this aspect, its performance is truly poor. It's barely noticeable that it has any real impact on the visibility of colour transitions.

The image scaling is also lacking. Yes, it can be observed that the television tries to "enhance" 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, causing subtitles in news items or finer details in the image to be missed.

When it comes to upscaling and digital image processing, the E7Q PRO deserves praise. The scaling performs really well and does not dramatically fall behind much more expensive, advanced televisions. Lower-quality materials can look clean and sensible, without the impression that the image is artificially "enhanced." However, the smoothing function presents a bit worse. Indeed, it can be effective and improve tonal transitions in poor quality materials, but at the same time, it can introduce undesirable effects. It sometimes removes grain or adds unwanted artefacts, giving the image a more "digital" character. Therefore, we mainly recommend it to those who prefer a smoother, less cinematic style of image.

When it comes to motion fluidity, the television performs remarkably well. Although the S7NQ was designed primarily for displaying static elements – such as images – the manufacturer has implemented a 144 Hz refresh rate matrix. As a result, sports and games look really good on it.

For materials that are 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 "judder reduction" operate on a 10-point scale, allowing you to choose 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 matter – we leave the decision to you.

In the category of smearing and motion fluidity, the E7Q PRO has one very strong argument. At this price, Hisense has included a 120 Hz panel, and in PC mode, it can even operate at 144 Hz. This immediately provides greater possibilities in motion settings, as the menu offers more options for smoothing the image. Among other things, we have frame interpolation options, which allow us to adjust the fluidity for sports or films, depending on whether we prefer a more cinematic character or a "theatrical" smoothness.

Although the S7NQ is a "picture" type television, it can indeed be used for gaming. Really. Here you can find almost everything (except for the HGiG mode) that a modern gaming television needs. The 144 Hz panel and two full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports allow for the hassle-free 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), with no stuttering or issues. It also handles displaying high frame rates at lower resolutions without any trouble. Hisense deserves praise for a very attractive Game Bar – it displays all available picture 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 a proper implementation of the HGiG mode. It is specifically responsible for automatically adjusting the picture in games as the creators intended. It's a shame, because that’s the only thing preventing the Hisense S7NQ from being a full-fledged gaming "beast".

The E7Q PRO is a phenomenal screen for gamers. Aside from the typical "ache" of Hisense, which is the lack of support for the HGiG format due to permanently active tone mapping, we get practically everything one can expect from a television that is to have a gaming label. There are two HDMI 2.1 ports, along with a full set of key features. We have variable refresh rates, automatic switching to game mode, and support for 4K at 120 Hz. Additionally, all the most important settings are at hand in a clear Game Bar. This tool not only looks modern but also has a typically "gaming" edge and truly makes life easier while gaming.