LG OLED B5 vs Hisense U7Q PRO

The LG B5 is a moderately bright OLED television. Regardless of the scene, it can generate around 500 nits of peak brightness. Interestingly, it achieves this even in full-screen shots saturated with white, where most OLEDs typically struggle. So is this screen suitable for HDR films? Indeed – and very much so, because such brightness allows you to truly feel the magic of HDR effects. However, it is worth noting that compared to last year's B4 model, the new B5 is darker – by about 100 nits. It may seem like a small amount, but at such average peak values, it makes quite a significant difference. Fortunately, the television compensates with another advantage – excellent coverage of the DCI-P3 and BT.2020 colour gamut. As a result, HDR films look really colourful, vibrant, and impress even in more demanding scenes.

U7Q PRO is truly a bright television. In synthetic tests, it achieved over 1500 nits, which is an outstanding result for this price range. Such brightness – at least in theory – allows for HDR content to be displayed as intended by the creators, even in more demanding scenes with strong lighting. In practice, it is often very good, but not always perfect. In bright scenes with large areas – like the test chart with intense sunlight from the movie "Pan" – the U7Q PRO makes a huge impression. It can almost dazzle with its brightness, which is definitely an advantage in the context of HDR content. Unfortunately, it doesn't always manage to maintain this when many small bright details appear on a dark background. In such moments, the local dimming algorithms choose to dim some bright elements to maintain good black levels – and the side effect is that some details simply disappear from the frame. This is a classic compromise in mini-LED televisions – and the U7Q PRO is no exception. However, with such a large number of dimming zones, one could have hoped for a slightly more mature algorithm responsible for their control. Fortunately, the overall perception of HDR content is decidedly positive. The U7Q PRO is not only bright but also colourful, thanks to the PFS LED (QLED) coating, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour palette is at 95%, while BT.2020 is around 73%.

We tested the B5 in Filmmaker mode and... we would love to see more TVs like this straight out of the box. Truly. The white balance is set very well – there's practically nothing to complain about. Well, if one were to nitpick, one might notice a slight deficiency in blue, which makes the overall image seem slightly yellowish. But that’s just our editorial quibbling. Most of you probably wouldn’t even notice it. We also have minimal reservations about brightness management in HDR format. The EOTF curve – which is responsible for how the TV distributes brightness in a scene – is slightly below ideal. In practice, it may happen that the darkest parts of the image are displayed too dark and simply… disappear. But these are details that only come out in measurements. Generally: we are impressed. However, we also know that LG TVs respond very well to professional calibration. You can achieve almost reference-quality picture from them, so – while it's already very good out of the box – we allowed ourselves to go a step further and refine everything to perfection.

We tested the U7Q PRO in the best possible picture mode offered by this model – Filmmaker Mode. And indeed, this mode performs the best in terms of colour reproduction. However, that doesn't mean it's perfect. In our test unit, both in SDR and HDR content, the image had a slightly cooler tone. The white balance was skewed towards blue, giving the overall impression of being a bit "colder". It may not be glaring, but it is definitely noticeable – especially on white backgrounds, which seemed slightly bluish rather than neutral. Additionally – as we mentioned earlier – the television has a tendency to slightly brighten and oversaturate the image, which is also confirmed by the gamma and EOTF graphs. All this together means that without calibration, the image can appear somewhat unnatural – too cool, with slightly exaggerated dynamics. Therefore, we decided to carry out our own calibration – and you can see its effects and graphs below.

We must admit that we didn't have much work with the LG B5. It's one of those televisions that look good right from the start, but after calibration… they can really impress. The white balance was brought to almost perfect levels – to the point of errors that are invisible to the human eye, unless you are a professional colourist with a magnifying glass at the screen. We also managed to master the tendency of the television to slightly dim the darkest details, particularly in HDR scenes. After proper tuning, everything looks cohesive: black remains deep but does not consume information. Highlights maintain their natural sparkle, and colours align with the director's vision. This is truly one of those models that shows you don't have to spend a fortune to have an almost reference-quality picture. If you can opt for professional calibration – it’s definitely worth it in the case of the B5.

Thanks to the calibration, we managed to tame the white balance in SDR and HDR content. In the case of SDR materials, the effect is really very good – the image becomes neutral, cohesive, and simply pleasant to take in. Everything looks as it should.

HDR performs a bit worse. Although the white balance appears correct and the image overall gains in naturalness, unfortunately, the delta E errors remain noticeable. Why? Because Hisense does not give us full control over how the television manages brightness in HDR mode with the U7Q PRO model. This is where the limitation comes into play. When we look at the EOTF curve for HDR content, we can clearly see what we mentioned earlier – at the beginning of the graph, there is a distinct drop, meaning the television darkens the smallest areas more than it should. On the other hand – the brightest elements can sometimes be overly bright. As a result, some details get lost, others are too aggressive, and overall control over brightness does not always match what we are trying to achieve during calibration.

Does the image look better after calibration? Definitely yes, in terms of colour. But when it comes to managing brightness in HDR, we have to accept that the Hisense U7Q PRO will do it in its own way.

LG B5 really positively surprised us in terms of handling lower quality content. Thanks to the enhancement and smoothing features, materials in HD resolution or even SD gain a second life. Importantly – when this option is activated at the "low" or "medium" level, we do not feel that the image is artificially softened or smoothed out unnecessarily. Details remain intact, film grain does not disappear, and the edges of objects do not look washed out 😉. This is truly a useful tool – especially if you are watching terrestrial television, archival materials, or content from YouTube in lower resolutions. The image is clear, coherent, and simply pleasant to the eye.

Scaling as such works very well – even content of poor quality is reproduced with surprising fidelity. Unfortunately, there was a slight hiccup. Although the menu contains the option to disable overscan, the television still has issues with correctly displaying images of very low resolution. It may seem like a detail, but when watching older materials – it can be irritating.

If someone happens to come across older materials where the colour banding issue occurs – Hisense has a solution for that. In the U7Q PRO, we find a function called "Smooth and Gradient Image". Set to the "Medium" level, it works really well – removing most issues with gradation while not smoothing out the entire image, like blurring in Photoshop. 😉 Film grain remains, details do not disappear – this is exactly how it should work. Well done on the implementation!

As for upscaling weaker materials, it is simply good. It is not at the level of the most expensive televisions with advanced upscaling, but older content looks good. There is minor aliasing at very low resolutions, but this is completely normal and hard to avoid. On the plus side – even with the oldest materials, there is no overscan effect, the image is neither cropped nor artificially stretched.

LG B5 is a television with a 120 Hz OLED panel. It may not sound as impressive as the marketing claims of “144 Hz” or “165 Hz” found in gaming monitors, but honestly? The smoothness is excellent nonetheless. The picture is sharp, fluid and simply enjoyable to watch – even when there is a lot happening on screen. The organic panel does its job – the pixel response time is almost instantaneous, meaning there’s no sign of smearing or blurring that can spoil dynamic shots. Sport, fast-paced games – everything looks clear and distinct.

We also have the classic LG smoothness enhancer, TruMotion. This allows you to smooth out films shot at 24 frames per second – which, to put it bluntly, is most of what you watch on Netflix or from Blu-ray discs. If you set lower values on the “De-Judder” slider, you’ll get a picture closer to a cinematic look – with a slight judder, but without any artificiality. Higher settings? A soap opera effect is guaranteed. Fortunately, LG gives you the option to tune everything to your liking.

“Speed” – this word came up most often during our tests of the U7Q PRO. The television is equipped with a 165 Hz panel, which is impressive in itself – especially since we are talking about a model in the mid-range price category. Of course, PC gamers will benefit the most from its full capabilities, but even with everyday viewing, it's clear that this is a fast and efficient panel. Like most modern televisions, the U7Q PRO can also enhance the fluidity of films that were originally recorded at 24 frames. In the menu, we find a slider that allows us to adjust the effect to our own preferences – from a more cinematic look, with subtle motion, to stronger smoothing with the characteristic “telenovela effect.”

There are already a few televisions on the market with the label “for gamers” that, in practice, don’t understand what that means. The LG B5 is not one of them. Everything here is spot on – there are four HDMI 2.1 ports, it has 120 Hz, VRR, and ALLM, and it even has a Game Bar that is actually useful, not just looks good in the brochure. You connect your console – it works. You set 4K at 120 Hz – it works. You have an Xbox and want to play in Dolby Vision – it works too. And this is not in the sense of “theoretically supports”; it really turns on, looks good, and you don’t need to fiddle with the settings for half an hour. Additionally, there’s the HGiG picture mode that LG implemented correctly – which means HDR in games doesn’t turn the screen into a flash lamp, but shows exactly what it should. There are no surprises here, no strange limitations, no “buts.” And you know what? That’s how it should be. Cheers to the LG B5!

The Hisense U7Q PRO is a television that seems almost designed with gamers in mind. It has practically everything one could expect from a gaming display: variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic low latency mode (ALLM), and as many as four HDMI 2.1b ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gb/s. Additionally, there is a clear and quite functional Game Bar, as well as a well-implemented Dolby Vision GAMING mode that works seamlessly with Xbox Series S and X consoles.

Sounds like perfection? Well, almost. Unfortunately, Hisense has still not implemented the HGiG feature, which means the system limitation of tone mapping on the television side. This means that when configuring HDR brightness on the console, we do it "by eye" or search for settings in online guides, as the display does not show the actual range of its brightness. It’s a pity – because HGiG indeed makes it easier to match the console to the television and helps avoid overexposure or overly dark scenes in HDR games.

Fortunately, the other features work very well. Input lag is low, responsiveness is excellent, and the handling of other functions is impeccable. And while not everything worked perfectly, the U7Q PRO can still be recommended to gamers without hesitation.