Hisense UR9S vs Philips PQS9011 / PQS9001 (The One 2026)

Hisense UR9S is undoubtedly a show of strength from the Chinese manufacturer when it comes to luminance. On a synthetic test pattern the panel reached as much as 2600 nits, which is an impressive result. However, it is important to clearly separate laboratory results from filmic realities. In real material the UR9S behaves much more... restrained. Maximum brightness peaks in balanced scenes hover around 1500 nits. In demanding, dark shots, where algorithms must at once maintain deep black and precisely light small details, brightness can fall drastically, even to around 400 nits. The discrepancy between the chart and reality is therefore huge. This is a direct consequence of the conservative behaviour of the local dimming system. When a bright object occupies a large part of the frame, the system can easily sustain a high brightness. But in night scenes the priority becomes protecting black and combating the halo effect (unsightly glows around bright edges). To avoid contrast degradation, the TV drastically limits light output. Even so, the UR9S can still produce a very powerful, immersive HDR effect that impresses in bright, spectacular sequences.

Colour gamut coverage

On test patterns the Hisense UR9S performs excellently in terms of colour. Its coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut is almost 100%, and the wide BT.2020 as much as 93%. Those are results even the best QD-OLED TVs do not achieve. But again, synthetic measurements are one thing, films and series another. In real-world scenes the figures fell to 93% for DCI-P3 and 81% for BT.2020. That's still a great result, but the advantage of RGB Mini LED is no longer as dramatic as manufacturers claim in their marketing materials. One could even say that currently their capability is similar to TVs equipped with quantum dots, the so-called QLED. So why does this happen? To a large extent colour reproduction here depends on the specifics of how the backlight zones operate. When a strongly saturated colour sits next to white or another, more complex element, a single zone has to handle both parts of the picture at once. Under those conditions the backlight cannot maintain extreme saturation of a given colour on screen, because the emitted light takes on a more white-like character. In the UR9S this has been refined quite well, but still not enough for the TV to maintain such high colour saturation in every situation.

Philips PQS9000 is a moderately bright TV. In our HDR scenes it reached roughly 450 to just over 500 nits. That's enough to notice a difference compared with SDR. Reflections of the sun, lamps or flares have a bit more sparkle than on basic TVs, whose brightness often tops out around 300 nits. However, it is not a level at which bright elements make a particularly strong impression. The biggest limitation remains contrast. Without local dimming, when the TV brightens a bright object it also raises the black level around it. There is therefore no clear separation of strong highlights from a dark background, and it is that contrast that can show what HDR can do. The PQS9000 offers more than the cheapest models, but despite decent brightness the effect remains fairly basic.

Colours

Philips deserves praise for the colours. Although the manufacturer calls this model QLED, in reality a PFS phosphor is used here instead of quantum dots. That choice does not prevent the TV from achieving good results. On both test patterns and in measurements of film scenes we recorded about 94% coverage of DCI-P3 and 75% of BT.2020. For this class of TV that is really good. In practice this means that the vast majority of colours used in HDR films and series will have appropriate saturation. Vibrant green or intense red are not much of an issue and add appeal to the picture. Limitations are easier to notice in some games and in rarer content that use the most saturated shades of the wide BT.2020 gamut. In such situations, displays with wider colour coverage, such as SQD or RGB LED, can show more. In its price bracket, however, the PQS9000 has nothing to be ashamed of.

We tested the Hisense UR9S in Filmmaker Mode, which out of the box provides the best image reproduction. With HDR material the TV performed quite well in this regard. The white balance showed no major errors, and the luminance response, although it had the characteristic Hisense profile, was maintained at a reasonable level. The picture was therefore neither excessively brightened nor noticeably colour-distorted. The same mode performed much worse with SDR material, the kind of content we watch most often, such as broadcast television or YouTube. The white balance was strongly shifted towards red and blue, giving the picture a slight pink tint. This also affected the gamma curve. Instead of approaching the reference value of 2.4, it was closer to 2.0, making the image look too bright, particularly in midtones and darker areas. Filmmaker Mode therefore remains the best out-of-the-box choice, but it is not a mode without faults.

Unfortunately, the factory picture settings for Film mode on the PQS9000 need refinement. In SDR the most noticeable problem is an excess of red in the white balance, which makes whites, greys and skin tones too warm, sometimes even slightly pinkish. On top of that the gamma runs below the reference across most of the range. The TV therefore brightens midtones and highlights, making the overall image look flatter than it should.

In HDR the white balance itself is much better. Apart from minor deviations the RGB components track closely, so there is no pronounced colour cast as in SDR. However, the EOTF curve shows a slight brightening of parts of the image, and the biggest issue appears in measurements of the wide colour gamut. Many hues deviate significantly from the target, with errors reaching levels of 8–9. The good gamut coverage we praised earlier therefore does not mean the TV hits specific colours equally well. It can display a wide colour range, but out of the box it does not use it very precisely.

After calibration the biggest improvement was in SDR mode, although we also refined the HDR picture. Hisense offers a lot of calibration settings in the menu, so we were able to precisely correct the white balance and the remaining image errors. The most important change was removing the pink tint that had previously been clearly visible in SDR material. After calibration the picture looks much more natural, especially in everyday content such as TV or YouTube.

Colour reproduction errors on the ColorChecker chart are very small after calibration. The vast majority of colours fall below values of 2 to 3, which is at a level very difficult to discern with the human eye. The only thing we could not completely eliminate is the tone-mapping approach characteristic of Hisense TVs in HDR. It affects how brightness is distributed in films and can subtly 'enhance' the image, rather than sticking exactly to the creators' intent. For less experienced viewers this can produce a stronger 'wow' effect, but it will not always fully match how the material should look.

Calibration brought a significant improvement, especially in SDR material. We managed to even out the white balance and remove the previous colour cast, and the Color Checker measurements now look really very good. Colours are much closer to what should be on screen, so with ordinary TV or SDR films we can be satisfied with the outcome. Unfortunately HDR somewhat spoils that result. On the one hand it is limited by the panel itself, because calibration won't improve contrast or replace local dimming. On the other hand there remain colour errors that we couldn't correct because the CMS settings, that is the colour management controls, were greyed out and inactive. That costs Philips points with us. The white balance can be fine‑tuned, but without access to wide‑gamut adjustments it's not possible to order HDR colours equally well. It's a shame, because the SDR results show the potential is there, but we weren't allowed to make full use of it everywhere.

For the past two years digital picture processing has been one of Hisense's strengths, and the UR9S is no exception. The manufacturer uses the Hi-View AI Engine RGB processor, which in practice is built on the well-known MediaTek Pentonic 800 platform, previously used, among others, in the U8Q model. The TV handles upscaling lower-resolution material to 4K very well, and copes with low-bitrate content where compression artefacts are common. Thanks to a feature called "Smooth and Gradient Picture", the image remains detailed without appearing over-sharpened or artificially smoothed. When watching regular broadcast TV or older, lower-quality material, the UR9S can get a surprising amount out of them. In terms of digital picture processing, this is one of the most refined LCD TVs we've had the chance to test.

Digital picture processing in the Philips PQS9000 performs well, though we have a few reservations. The "Distortion Reduction" function helps to smooth tonal transitions in lower-quality material, but it works rather unevenly. It can improve one part of the image, only to seem to lose its effect a moment later, still in the same scene, and show banding between shades again. A plus is that it doesn't remove film grain or fine noise, so the image retains its texture. We found the 'Medium' setting worked best and we recommend it. The upscaling to 4K itself is acceptable, although the image is very soft. Edges are heavily smoothed, which may leave some viewers feeling the picture lacks definition. In that case, it's worth slightly increasing the sharpness in the TV's menu, as this will make edges appear more defined. However, don't overdo the sharpening slider, otherwise artificial halos may appear instead of an improvement.

The Hisense UR9S is one of the first televisions on the market with a 4K panel and a 170 Hz refresh rate. In the larger sizes, 75 and 85 inches, this goes up to 180 Hz. However, such a high refresh rate will be useful mainly to owners of very high-performance PCs. Most films and TV series are still watched at 24 fps, and sports broadcasts at 50 fps, so for everyday use panel response time and the operation of the motion smoothing are more important. In that respect the UR9S performs very well. Panel smearing is minimal, as confirmed by our UFO test. Moving objects do not leave a pronounced trail, so the picture remains clear even in fast scenes.

In terms of motion handling the Philips PQS9000 performs exceptionally well for an LCD TV. It's not just the 144 Hz refresh rate, but above all how quickly the panel itself responds. At 120 Hz there are virtually no typical trailing smears behind moving objects. What is particularly pleasing is that this also applies to darker scenes, where many VA panels clearly struggle. Here motion remains clear and, in this respect, Philips pleasantly surprised us.

The "Motion Styles" feature lets you adjust how motion is displayed. It includes two sliders: "Smoothness" and "Blur Reduction", allowing you to tailor the effect to the content you're watching and your own preferences. Our suggested settings are shown in the photo. Treat them as a starting point and try to find the level of smoothing that suits you best.

Hisense UR9S is very well prepared for gaming. All three HDMI ports are HDMI 2.1 and offer the full 48 Gb/s bandwidth. The TV supports 4K at 170 Hz, and on larger screen sizes even 180 Hz. It also includes VRR, ALLM, NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync, so in terms of basic features there is little to criticise. PC gamers can additionally enable DLG mode. After switching the resolution to Full HD the refresh rate can increase to as much as 330 Hz. That's probably an option for a relatively small group of users, but it shows how much headroom the panel has. Hisense has also added a Game Bar that lets you quickly change key settings, check the refresh rate or enable an on-screen crosshair and minimap zoom.

The biggest drawback remains the lack of a properly working HGiG. The TV still uses its own tone mapping, which makes configuring HDR on a console a bit more difficult. In our case values around 1500 to 2000 nits worked best, but it's worth checking which setting keeps all the detail in the brightest parts of the image.

Gaming features

In terms of gaming features, the Philips PQS9000 has a lot to offer. Four HDMI 2.1 ports let you connect several devices without having to choose which one gets the full-capability port. Consoles can use 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p and 4K, while a PC can also make use of 144 Hz at 4K or 240 Hz if you drop to Full HD. There's also VRR, which matches the refresh rate to the frame rate and prevents screen tearing. Its range is 48 to 240 Hz, with the upper limit applying in Full HD mode.

ALLM is present, so the TV automatically switches to game mode, and HGiG works properly, which is useful when setting HDR on a console. There's also a Game Bar for quick access to settings and signal information. The list even includes Dolby Vision gaming, but it's hard to enjoy this option because of very high input lag. Aside from that caveat, the feature set is really solid.