Hisense U7Q vs Haier Q80FUX

Since the algorithms responsible for blacks are performing quite well, we expected a similarly good effect regarding brightness and overall HDR quality. Unfortunately – here we have to disappoint you a bit.

The U7Q is a sufficiently bright television – under the best conditions, it can achieve around 800 nits, which indeed impresses on some scenes, especially in scenes like those from the film The Meg. Bright areas can shine, and the HDR effect is noticeable. The problem arises when there are very small, bright elements on a dark background – for example, in Sicario 2 or in the second scene from the film Life of Pi. In such moments, the dimming algorithms work too aggressively. Yes, the blacks look great then, but the brightest points can almost completely disappear, causing the HDR effect to vanish and the details to be barely visible. It's just the nature of this technology in this price segment.

As a consolation, it's worth mentioning that the U7Q is marketed as QLED (in practice, a PFS layer is used, which works very similarly), and it is indeed capable of displaying a wide colour palette – a DCI-P3 coverage of around 94% is a very good result for this class.

Alright, let’s move on to the topic that stirs up so much discussion, namely the capabilities of the television in HDR mode. Let’s state it clearly right away: the Haier Q80FUX is certainly not a brightness demon. The panel of this receiver can generate about 350 nits at peak, which in today’s terms is the absolute minimum to even talk about the presence of High Dynamic Range (HDR). On the positive side, this power is at least stable – regardless of which test pattern or film scene we used, the measurements consistently oscillated in the range of 300-350 nits. These are therefore results that are at best sufficient, definitely far from the dazzling display of capabilities we are accustomed to with more expensive models. Fortunately, there is one aspect in which the Q80FUX compensates for these shortcomings and does so impressively. After all, we are talking about a QLED television (more precisely PFS LED), which means that thanks to the quantum dot filter applied to the panel, it can generate really juicy, vibrant colours. These are not empty promises – a DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage of nearly 95% is an impressive result and directly translates into colours that are very pleasant to the eye and saturated.

We tested the U7Q in the best possible picture mode, which is Filmmaker Mode. This is the mode that is supposed to provide the most "filmic" and creator-intended experience – right out of the box. Unfortunately… even this professionally sounding name does not guarantee a perfect picture.

In our unit, the problem lay in the incorrectly set white balance. Both in HD and 4K content, the picture had too much blue and red, which caused the screen to take on a slightly rosy tint. It didn't look terrible, but it was noticeable – especially in bright scenes and white backgrounds. This alone could perhaps be forgiven, but the biggest problem is managing brightness in HDR content. The EOTF curve from measurements confirms what we saw earlier during scene tests: the television can overly darken the smallest bright elements, causing them to nearly disappear, or on the contrary – excessively brighten the brightest ones, which affects the naturalness of the picture.

Factory settings for movie mode are rarely perfect, but in the case of the Q80FUX, we were confronted with a noticeable imbalance. In SDR content, the image was decidedly too warm, a result of excessive red in the white balance, giving the whole a slightly sepia tone. Ironically, in HDR materials, the television fell into the opposite extreme – an excess of blue caused an unnatural, cold effect in perception. However, it was not the capricious white balance that was the biggest problem with this television. The real culprit, responsible for the aforementioned issues, was hiding deeper. It turned out that the Q80FUX has completely miscalibrated gamma values and, crucial for HDR, a poorly executed EOTF curve. It was these erroneous factory settings that caused persistent clipping of the brightest parts of the image, overlaying them with that characteristic milky filter. Thus, we found the source of the problem. This state of affairs led to general, significant colour errors, which were easy to catch even for an untrained eye. Like every television we tested, we decided to calibrate this model as well, and the results of these adjustments can be found in the next paragraph.

Thanks to specialised tools, we managed to correct the colour quality in SDR content to nearly perfection. In materials with lower dynamic range, the delta E errors dropped below 0.5, which can be regarded as an almost reference result. The picture on television, YouTube, or classic Full HD looks really very good after calibration. Alright – but where did we not manage to improve the image so easily? Primarily, it concerns HDR quality content. Although we managed to somewhat 'tame' the white balance and eliminate pink tints in most scenes, unfortunately, we no longer had full control over brightness management. We set the local dimming settings according to the best observations – SDR: Medium, HDR: High – but the U7Q still did everything a bit its own way. There were still cases of excessive dimming or brightening of details that calibration simply could not eliminate. And although the overall reception of the content is significantly better, one must reckon that the U7Q will always have something to say at the end with an 'but'.

The results of our calibration procedures must, regrettably, be acknowledged as twofold. Generally speaking, the picture is undeniably better than before the corrections; however, the biggest winner of this process turned out to be SDR content. It is precisely there, after correcting the gamma and white balance graphs, that we achieved results that can confidently be called very good. After adjustment, the Q80FUX truly shines in standard dynamics, showing only slight errors in the most difficult skin tone reproductions. Unfortunately, the weakest link remains HDR content. Here lies the paradox: despite having calibrated the white balance to nearly perfection, the overall colour errors still remain at quite a high level. The reason is that the television continues to interpret static HDR10 metadata "in its own way," stubbornly enforcing that unfortunate image burn-out effect, which inevitably leads to significant distortions. Although we have successfully eliminated the factory excess of blue, it is precisely due to this interference of electronics that the screen still tends to stray into somewhat overly cold tones. That is just how this television is.

There are situations where we would like to smooth out tonal transitions a bit, especially in older materials – those with limited source quality. The U7Q is equipped with a feature called "Smooth and Gradient Image," but unfortunately... it works very poorly. In the "Low" option, the effects are practically unnoticeable, and other settings smooth details but do not improve tonal transitions. The only positive aspect is that the feature does not interfere with film grain, so it does not ruin the natural structure of the image.

Fortunately, upscaling content performs quite well. The image is not excessively sharpened, and there is no artificial clarity – and although it is known that this is not the level of high-end televisions, the U7Q handles displaying really old content in a completely acceptable manner without any issues.

If there is one area where Haier clearly shows it still has a long way to go compared to the market leaders, it is digital image processing. The upscaling, well... is just alright. And that’s really about all that can be said about it. It does what is expected of it: it ensures that lower resolution signals do not scare us with harsh pixelation on the screen and do not look like a forcibly enlarged postage stamp. However, it is far from the finesse and “intelligent” sharpening that more experienced players in this market have developed over the years. The biggest shortcoming of the Q80FUX software is the almost complete lack of any additional "cleaning" and smoothing functions for the image. The receiver does not offer any noise reduction or gradient improvement mechanisms. This means that with older or heavily compressed materials, we simply have to come to terms with the fact that any imperfections in tonal transitions or blending of colours, which we mentioned earlier, will continually accompany us during the viewing.

U7Q is indeed a very fast television, just like its more powerful version "PRO". At a resolution of 4K, it supports up to 144 Hz refresh rate, and if someone wants even more – in Full HD, you can achieve up to 240 Hz! This will mainly benefit PC gamers, but it is worth appreciating – it is a rarely seen feature in this price segment. Right from the start, it is clear that the U7Q has been designed with dynamic content in mind, such as games or sport. In films, we are not left "out in the cold" either – the U7Q offers an "Ultra Motion Smoothness" feature, where using two sliders you can adjust whether you prefer a smoother, theatrical image or something closer to a cinematic style with a visible film frame. It is good that, as with most manufacturers, we have a choice here as well and can adjust it to our own preferences.

The issue of motion fluidity and blurring is largely predetermined by the use of a 60-hertz panel, which naturally makes it difficult to recommend this receiver to enthusiasts of very dynamic content. Fortunately, in the Q80FUX, we find a few options (although, as we shall see shortly, in reality only one) that are supposed to improve the experience with older film productions. There is a "De-Judder" slider available, which actually controls the smoothness of the image and allows us to adjust it to our preferences: from raw, cinematic frame rates to a more theatrical, smoothed presentation. However, a true surprise awaits us just beside it in the menu. There is also a second slider, supposedly dedicated to removing blur – a feature we typically encounter in 120Hz panels to combat motion blur in sports. However, as we expected, recalling memories from the tests of the K85F model, this slider here is merely a façade. Its adjustment does absolutely nothing to the image and it simply appears to be an oversight by the product engineers who left a non-functional option in the software for this type of panel.

The Hisense U7Q is a television designed with gamers in mind – and this is immediately evident from its gaming capabilities. It has practically everything you could wish for: variable refresh rate (VRR) – check, automatic game mode (ALLM) – check, and on top of that, high refresh rates of up to 240 Hz in Full HD and support for various resolutions, not just 4K. This is truly a great set of features that makes the U7Q perform well both in fast-paced first-person shooters on consoles and in more demanding titles on PC. Of course – as with most Hisense models – there is a lack of proper implementation of the HGiG feature. It's a shame because HGiG allows console brightness to be matched to a specific television, which in practice makes displaying HDR games according to the creators' intent much easier. Without this, you simply have to reckon with certain limitations in the final HDR image in games.

Stepping into the realm of gaming, the Haier Q80FUX proves to be quite a decent companion for the "casual gamer". Onboard, we find highly desired features such as VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode). However, the biggest surprise is something else altogether. Although we are not dealing with a 4K@120Hz panel here, the television is capable of accepting and displaying a 120Hz signal at a lower resolution (Full HD). This is a very useful feature that allows for a conscious switch of the console to a lower resolution mode in exchange for significantly higher smoothness, which is a compromise entirely acceptable in the gaming world.

We won’t particularly complain about the lack of extras like the "Game Bar", as it's merely a nice addition. The most concerning issues arise when we delve into the world of HDR in gaming. Due to the television constantly adapting the signal "in its own way", setting the brightness on the console according to the HGIG standard is nearly impossible to achieve as per instructions. Worse still, in the Dolby Vision mode for gaming, the input lag increases to around 50 ms, which is a value high enough to render this mode practically unusable. However, in general, we would not recommend gaming on this television in HDR mode, so these are not such grave shortcomings. What is most pleasing is the presence of 120Hz in Full HD, which makes the Q80FUX a rather nice television for the occasional gamer.