Hisense UR9S vs Samsung QN80H

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.

The Samsung QN80H is undoubtedly a bright TV. In synthetic tests it exceeds the 1000-nit mark, which on paper promises a solid HDR effect. In practice the screen really shows its teeth, although it can't fully spread its wings (or its backlight, if you will 🤔) in every condition. Bright, wide scenes make the best impression. Well-lit outdoor shots and brightly lit scenes look really good on it. Brightness then stays around 700 nits, which provides a noticeable step up in quality compared with standard SDR. Problems start in dark scenes with small, pinpoint highlights. The QN80H tends to dim these strongly, in order to protect black depth at all costs. On the one hand this gives better contrast, on the other... you lose dynamics and the brilliance of fine HDR detail. So the TV has considerable potential, but the dimming algorithm can be too restrictive.

Colour gamut coverage

When it comes to colours it's good as well. The QN80H uses quantum dot technology, and in our measurements it covered 93% of the DCI-P3 colour space and about 70% of BT.2020. Today those results aren't exactly jaw-dropping, but in real-world use they're more than sufficient to deliver a vivid, natural image for most films and TV series. Colours are suitably saturated, and after proper calibration they don't look artificial or overly aggressive.

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.

The factory settings of the QN80H performed really well, especially compared with the majority of TVs we receive for testing. Of course, our measurements were taken in Filmmaker Mode, and that's the mode we recommend turning on immediately after the initial setup. For SDR material, our sample was set up surprisingly well. The white balance was very even, colours looked natural, and errors were so small they were hard to notice without measurement equipment. The only weaker point was the gamma. In the brighter parts of the image the TV brightened them a little too much, which at times made the picture lose some depth. Still, we'd like most TVs to look this good straight out of the box.

It fared a little worse in HDR. The white balance was still set correctly, so the problem was not with the colours but with the way the QN80H managed image brightness. This was immediately visible on the EOTF chart. The TV brightened large parts of scenes too much, causing the brightest elements to clip. Interestingly, very small points were often dimmed too much at the same time. As a result, some fine details simply disappeared. So the factory Filmmaker mode in HDR is not bad, but it is definitely not as well calibrated as in SDR.

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.

We saw the biggest difference after calibration in HDR Filmmaker mode. SDR was already very good out of the box, so we didn't have much work to do there. In HDR, however, we managed to get to grips with the way the QN80H handled brightness, as it had been over-brightening most scenes. After calibration the picture is calmer, more natural and much closer to how a faithful image should look.

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 image processing in the Samsung QN80H is handled by the second-generation NQ4 AI processor. It's a chip we already know from the manufacturer's earlier models, and it still performs very well, especially with lower-resolution content. The image is effectively upscaled to 4K, but without excessive sharpening and without giving the impression the TV is aggressively trying to improve the source material.

The "Noise Reduction" function also proves useful. It can noticeably reduce posterisation and visible banding in lower-quality material, particularly in low-bitrate streaming. However, it's important to remember that it does not work without side effects. It can remove some film grain and slightly smooth the image. So with a high-quality source we'd leave this function switched off. If, however, someone is more bothered by banding and uneven tonal transitions than by the loss of some grain, "Noise Reduction" can be a really useful addition.

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.

Motion handling and motion clarity on the QN80H are really good, mainly thanks to the fast panel. In 4K the screen refreshes at up to 144 Hz, and when switched to Full HD and connected to a PC it can reach as much as 240 Hz. That's new for Samsung TVs and a useful addition for people who want to use the TV for PC gaming as well. We were more interested, however, in how the QN80H performs at 120 Hz, because consoles use that refresh rate. Here it performs very well. The panel does not suffer greatly from the smearing typical of VA panels, and light trails behind moving objects are mainly visible on dark backgrounds. That said, it's nothing that would interfere with normal watching of sport or gaming. The TV also has a motion smoothing system that Samsung calls "Wyrazistością obrazu". You can adjust judder reduction and blur reduction separately, so it's easy to tailor its behaviour to films, sport or your own preferences.

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.

The Samsung QN80H is a TV that stands out when it comes to gaming features. The biggest new addition for 2026 is DLG mode, which allows refresh rates of up to 240 Hz when the image is switched to Full HD. It's an option aimed mainly at PC users, but it also shows that Samsung is still heavily developing the gaming side of its TVs. However, the list of advantages doesn't end there. The QN80H has four full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, which is still not standard at this price point. So you can connect several consoles, a PC or a soundbar at the same time without having to wonder which port supports the full video capabilities. The TV also supports VRR, ALLM and HGiG, so it's hard to fault its basic feature set.

A downside is the lack of Dolby Vision, which may matter primarily to Xbox Series X owners. However, this is not a flaw that disqualifies the QN80H as a gaming TV. Samsung has a feature most manufacturers still lack: its proprietary motion smoothing, Game Motion Plus. It's a motion smoothing system that works in game mode too, allowing you to improve the smoothness of titles running at 30 or 60 frames per second without a drastic increase in input lag. In practice, Game Motion Plus can make a much bigger difference than the Dolby codec, especially in more demanding games that don't offer a 60 FPS mode. The image becomes noticeably smoother, while controls remain sufficiently responsive. So despite the lack of Dolby Vision, the QN80H remains one of the best-equipped gaming TVs in its class.