Philips OLED910 vs Hisense E7Q / E79Q

The OLED910 is simply an absurdly bright television for an OLED. All thanks to the new panel from LG Display, the Tandem RGB OLED, which Philips has dubbed its "META OLED." It is this panel that allows for over 2000 nits of brightness in films, which not long ago was completely unattainable in OLEDs. The television also deserves high praise for how it handles full-screen scenes drenched in bright light. Generally, in OLEDs, brightness drops significantly during such scenes, but here it remains at an excellent level – around 1400 nits. These are almost reference values, and combined with the excellent colour reproduction at 99% DCI P3 and 82% BT.2020, it gives us an HDR effect that can confidently be called one of the best in the world.

The Hisense E7Q / E79Q is a television with average brightness, with a peak luminance level of around 350-380 nits. This is an absolute minimum that allows for HDR content to be viewed in a way that is close to the creators' intentions, although without a distinct "wow" effect. Synthetic test results on white screens have been confirmed in practice – in film scenes, the bright parts of the image are stable and quite uniform, but it's hard to speak of a true "light punch." In everyday use, for example, when watching Netflix or YouTube, the HDR effect is acceptable and is perfectly sufficient for most users. However, it must be stated clearly – this is not the level of top-end screens, and one should not expect that in this price range. Fortunately, the Hisense E7Q / E79Q has an advantage that allows it to gain quite a few points: it features a PFS LED QLED panel, utilising an additional phosphor layer that improves colour reproduction. The measured range of the DCI-P3 colour gamut is about 92%, which means that colours in most scenes are vibrant, well-saturated, and pleasant to the eye, particularly for this price bracket.

Unfortunately, when it comes to colour reproduction straight out of the box, the Filmmaker mode on the OLED910 performs really poorly. The television overemphasises the blue colour, and at times it looks almost like a shop display mode. This gives the impression that the manufacturer hasn’t quite tuned the device properly. The effect is that the colours look unnatural, and the whole thing resembles a somewhat exaggerated display from a market exhibition. HDR content is presented much better, where, apart from a slight loss of detail in the blacks, there’s not much to complain about. The problem is that in everyday viewing, it’s the SDR materials that matter the most – and on the OLED910, they simply look poor and fall well short of what we would expect from a television of this class.

In Filmmaker mode, the Hisense E7Q / E79Q television was truly impressive. After the first measurements, it became clear that the white balance was quite well tuned, with the only minor deviation being a slight tendency towards a purple tone, which we mentioned earlier. However, this did not significantly impact the overall character of the image – it remained coherent and pleasant to view. A much larger issue turned out to be the brightness characteristics (gamma) in SDR content and the EOTF curve in HDR films. The television noticeably brightened the image, flattening the contrast and diminishing its depth. Gamma values could drop from the reference 2.4 to around 1.9, making the image look as if it were covered with a thin, milky layer. Fortunately, this is a problem that can be relatively easily corrected through calibration.

Fortunately, it quickly turned out that it was not the panel causing the problems, but rather the way Philips factory-calibrated the OLED910. After calibration, the television displayed its full potential, and only then could we see what the new panels produced by LG Display were truly capable of. We primarily adjusted the white balance and brightness characteristics, successfully taming the excessive blue and giving the image a natural appearance. The final effect can be described as excellent. Errors on the Color Checker palette rarely exceeded a value of 3, which in practice means an image close to perfection and colours presented in accordance with the creators' intent. In SDR content, the effect was outstanding, and in HDR, the improvement was even more noticeable – gradients became cleaner, and colours fuller and more accurate. After calibration, the OLED910 transformed from a disappointing television into equipment that can confidently be referred to as a reference in terms of colour quality.

The biggest beneficiary of calibration in the case of the Hisense E7Q / E79Q was undoubtedly the SDR mode. It managed to achieve an almost perfect image – most errors in the Color Checker test dropped below a value of 3, and often even 2, which is an outstanding result for this class of equipment. The greatest improvement came from equalising the brightness characteristic (gamma), which meant the image no longer appeared washed out and regained its natural depth. In HDR content, it was also possible to improve colours and eliminate the purple tint mentioned earlier, but errors in the Color Checker measurements were still noticeable. This is due to the fact that – as is often the case with Hisense televisions – the screen manipulates brightness quite heavily, overemphasising some colours. This was also indicated by the EOTF curve, which was slightly above the reference values, suggesting these minor issues with excessive brightness. Despite this drawback and the design limitations that emerge with HDR content, the Hisense E7Q / E79Q gained quite a lot after calibration. In everyday use, the television presents a consistent, natural, and pleasant image, and the difference compared to the factory settings is enormous.

The previously visible colour banding can largely be mitigated thanks to a feature called "distortion reduction." Like in the OLED820, it is best set to a medium level, as it then produces fairly decent results – smoothing out unwanted tonal transitions while not taking away too much detail from the image. Although at times the effect may be slightly too aggressive, this function can be considered useful for everyday viewing.

As for image scaling, the OLED910 performs really well. The test material featuring a model had a soft look characteristic of Philips – at times almost too soft – but this can be easily corrected with the sharpness slider, allowing you to adjust the image to your own preferences. It's also worth noting that the television has no issues with overscan, which still occurs in some competitor models. It's a small detail, but it's pleasing because it means that all content, even the oldest, is displayed as it should be.

In the case of the Hisense E7Q / E79Q, upscaling and digital image processing are not the strongest aspects of this television. It is evident that the manufacturer has opted more for simplicity rather than advanced image processing algorithms. The television does not offer any features to smooth tonal transitions or systems to improve image clarity, resulting in lower resolution materials looking simply very raw. On the screen, you can notice subtle compression edges that better processors in other models can effectively hide.

During the HD material tests, we noticed that the E7Q tries to artificially enhance detail, which sometimes works, and at other times has the opposite effect – the image becomes soft, slightly blurred, at times even “watery.” There is no aggressive sharpening that ruins naturalness, but there is also no finesse in the detail integration that better image converters offer.

OLED910 is a television with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It’s a bit of a shame that Philips didn’t opt for 165 Hz, as we know that the panel used is capable of that. On the other hand, such a bonus would mainly benefit PC gamers, as in everyday use, the most important refresh rate is 120 Hz, which is fully sufficient. Combined with the advantages of the OLED panel – lightning-fast pixel response time and the absence of motion blur, the image is impeccably sharp and quick, even in dynamic action scenes. The traditional motion smoother from Philips, called “Motion Style,” also deserves praise. We can easily adjust it to our preferences: the “Fluidity” slider is responsible for films and allows you to choose between a more “filmy,” cinematic character and a smooth, theatrical image. Meanwhile, the “Motion Blur Reduction” slider is intended for sports, where it’s worth setting it to the maximum value to ensure that the image is clear and distinct during very fast shots.

Hisense E7Q / E79Q is a television with a 60 Hz screen, so fans of 4K sports may feel a slight disappointment – we simply won’t see such smooth images here as in more expensive models with higher refresh rates. Fortunately, the situation is much better for films. Cinematic materials recorded at 24 frames per second can be displayed here using a motion smoothing feature, allowing the user to tailor the picture to their own preferences – either more cinematic with visible frames or smoother, in a theatrical style.

The OLED910 is fantastic for gaming. It supports 144 Hz, so if someone has a powerful PC, they can comfortably utilise that potential. On consoles, the most important thing is still 120 Hz, and everything works perfectly here. There's VRR, an automatic gaming mode, and even Dolby Vision in games and HGiG mode, so we really get a full package of gaming features. Philips has also added a Game Bar, which is a quick menu that displays basic information and allows you to enable a few useful things. It may not look as modern as the competition, but it works and fulfils its purpose. The only downside is the number of HDMI 2.1 ports. There are only two, which can be quite disappointing for a TV in this class. If someone connects two consoles and something additional through eARC - like a soundbar (which doesn't make much sense in this model but I'll discuss that in the paragraph about sound) - they'll have to do some adjustments. Other than that, the OLED910 has everything we expect from a gaming television.

Hisense E7Q / E79Q is truly a successful television for gamers, even though it does not support 4K signal at 120 Hz. The manufacturer, however, has ensured a set of features that until recently could only be found in more expensive models. There is ALLM, meaning automatic switching to low latency mode, allowing the television to activate game mode with very low input lag by itself. We also have VRR, functioning up to 60 Hz – while this may not look impressive on paper, in practice it is fully sufficient, as most games on consoles do not exceed this limit. All these settings can be quickly found in the Game Bar panel, a convenient menu created specifically for gamers. From this interface, one can change picture modes, enable a frame counter, or even... an on-screen reticle – humorously named "target point" in the Vidaa system, which is a result of awkward translation from the Chinese manufacturer.

Special praise should be given to the ability to play in 1080p at 120 Hz, which significantly improves the fluidity and responsiveness of the image. Therefore, if someone wants to play a few titles at a higher refresh rate, they can simply lower the resolution and enjoy much smoother motion. Despite the lack of 4K@120Hz, the Hisense E7Q / E79Q performs really well as a gaming television – especially for those who are not looking for perfection but rather a solid and fast screen for everyday gaming.