This is where the greatest advantage of the VA panel version begins. A contrast ratio of around 6000:1 means that during evening viewing, the image gains depth, and darker scenes in films look natural and do not wash out to grey. It is clear that the blacks are much better than in the IPS panel version, and it is this difference that defines the character of the television. Of course, one must remember that the UA7500 lacks local dimming, so one shouldn't expect miracles. The darkest scenes cannot compete with more expensive televisions, but at least the contrast is stable and sufficient for evening screenings to be convincing.
Let's get to the point, which is what is most important in the Mini LED panel: black levels and contrast. The Xiaomi S Pro 2026 is built on a VA matrix, which already promises deep blacks from the start. Adding to that is the Mini LED backlighting with a very large number of local dimming zones. In the 65-inch variant we tested, we counted as many as 532. This is a solid number that should provide precise control over the backlighting. It should be noted that this number is proportional to the size – by choosing the smaller 55-inch variant, there will be correspondingly fewer zones, and in larger models, more.
So, how does the black level perform on the S Pro 2026? The answer is complex.
Overall, it is really quite good, and we see a clear improvement compared to the problematic model from 2025. As you can see from our measurement charts, the results are sometimes spectacular. In most of the film scenes we measured in SDR (standard dynamic range), the contrast could be confidently described as very good and even comparable to designs three times as expensive. Well, it could be... and here we come to the paradox of this model. The issue is how the television manages the zones in scenarios other than SDR. As soon as we feed the television a higher-quality signal, such as an HDR series or Dolby Vision from streaming platforms (Netflix, HBO Max or Disney+), something strange happens. We have the undeniable impression that the television suddenly... forgets that it has been equipped with local dimming zones at all. As can be seen in our video below, the black levels in such scenes resemble more shades of dark grey or navy blue. Additionally, there is a subtle flickering of the entire screen. This is a level we would expect from televisions entirely devoid of a local dimming system. It seems that Xiaomi decided to fix one, but key, flaw of last year's 2025 model over the course of a year. And they succeeded – we no longer have the annoying "zone disco", the image is stable. It's just a shame that when consuming content of the highest quality (HDR), this entire advanced system becomes completely useless.