Hisense U7Q vs Samsung S85H

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.

Interestingly, the new WOLED SE panel has brought a slight improvement in brightness to the S85 series. In the same movie scenes last year's model stayed closer to around 700 nits, while the S85H can reach roughly 800 nits. This isn't a change that completely transforms HDR perception, but that extra brightness is noticeable, especially with pinpoint highlights, specular reflections and stronger special effects. Around 800 nits is already a very good result for an entry-level OLED and in most films it's enough for HDR to have the proper impact. Bright elements can stand out clearly against perfect black, and it's still that contrast that does most of the work. You do need to bear in mind a typical limitation of organic panel technology. When a very bright scene covers a large part of the screen, brightness can drop by almost half. That's the effect of the panel's protection mechanisms, which limit its power with large bright areas.

Colours

The S85H can deliver very pleasing, saturated colours and in most HDR films it looks really good in that respect. We measured around 95% DCI-P3 coverage, so the palette most commonly used in movies is reproduced to a very high degree. Skin tones, greens and stronger reds still have the right intensity, and in normal viewing it's hard to fault them. Only when you look wider at BT.2020 do the limitations of the new OLED SE panel become apparent. Coverage was about 70%, a little less than previous-generation WOLEDs and noticeably less than QD-OLED panels. In films this is not a big loss, because most productions rarely use such highly saturated colours. You're more likely to notice it in games, where creators often opt for more intense colours.

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.

For colour evaluation we naturally chose Filmmaker mode, and in SDR our S85H sample was very well set up from the factory. The largest deviation is in the white balance, where, as brightness rises, there is a slight lack of blue. In practice this means whites and greys have a subtly warmer tint than they should. However, this is not a major fault and during normal viewing it is unlikely to be very noticeable. Gamma also stays close to the reference value, so the image is neither overly bright nor unnecessarily dim. The S85H’s SDR picture quality is therefore very good straight out of the box. A few more imperfections appear in HDR. Here the white balance drifts more with increasing brightness, blue starts to dominate and the red component is clearly lacking. This also translates into larger errors for some colours. They do not yet amount to shifts that completely change the character of the image, but in direct comparison with a reference the difference is easier to spot. Overall, Filmmaker mode is a very good starting point before professional calibration.

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'.

Calibration yields very good results on the S85H. First and foremost, it was possible to set the white balance almost perfectly, which removes the slightly too warm character of the image that was previously visible in SDR. Colour reproduction itself also improves markedly, with most errors falling to a very low level and in everyday viewing it is hard to speak of any noticeable inaccuracies. You can also make significant improvements in HDR, although some issues remain due to the TV's inherent characteristics. The S85H does not always hold the brightness curve perfectly; the darkest parts are slightly lifted, and as you approach the panel's limits small deviations are visible in the brightest areas. Added to this is the limited coverage of the wider BT.2020 gamut, which of course cannot be overcome by any calibration. Despite this, the end result is very good and, after calibration, the S85H can produce a really well-tuned, natural image.

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.

Samsung has fitted the S85H with the same proprietary AI NQ4 Gen2 processor used in last year’s S85F and, in terms of digital image processing, it performs quite well. Upscaling is one of the model’s stronger points. Lower-resolution material is well sharpened, edges look natural, and the picture does not feel overly artificial. One caveat is a typical Samsung trait: at very low resolutions you cannot completely disable overscan, so the TV may slightly crop the left edge of the image. The "noise reduction" function also works very well, smoothing weaker tonal transitions. The processor can effectively remove posterisation and other imperfections visible in lower-quality material. However, you need to be careful with the strength of this function, because Samsung can be quite aggressive here. When it is activated, small image details, such as the texture of skin or clothing, can start to disappear along with the unwanted artefacts.

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 S85H uses an OLED panel, so it performs excellently for motion blur. Pixels respond virtually instantly, so moving objects do not leave the characteristic trailing seen on some LCD TVs. This is especially noticeable in sport and fast-paced games, where the picture remains very clean even during rapid motion. The panel itself runs at 120 Hz. That is more than sufficient for films, TV series, sport and console gaming. It is a pity Samsung did not include a higher refresh rate aimed at PC gamers, as more and more TVs now offer 144 or even 165 Hz at 4K. However, that does not affect motion handling in films or sport.

You also have a classic motion-smoothing feature with two settings, blur reduction and judder reduction. So you can decide whether films should retain their cinematic 24 frames per second or whether you prefer to smooth them a little. The S85H gives plenty of freedom here, and the interpolation works well and, with sensible settings, does not generate too many artefacts.

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.

The Samsung S85H is very well prepared for gaming, essentially regardless of whether you connect a console or a PC. The manufacturer hasn't skimped on ports and all four HDMI ports support full HDMI 2.1. That means you can use 4K at 120 Hz, VRR and ALLM without worrying which input your console is plugged into. With multiple devices that matters a lot, because you don't have to choose between a console, a PC or a soundbar connected via eARC. The feature set itself is very comprehensive. The S85H supports VRR, FreeSync and automatic game mode switching, and Samsung also offers its extensive Game Bar where you can quickly check key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. The only notable omission is Dolby Vision, which will matter mainly to Xbox owners. This, incidentally, is typical of Samsung TVs. Game Motion Plus performs very well, and it's one of the features that have set Samsung TVs apart for years. It smooths motion in games running at 30 or 60 fps, but does so without as much increase in input lag as a conventional motion interpolator. In practice, with slower-paced games, racing titles or action games this can really improve the perceived motion, especially if you're sensitive to low frame rates.