Philips PUS7000 vs Hisense U7S Pro

Unfortunately, the PUS7000 is not suitable for watching HDR content. The screen is simply too dark. A brightness level of 200 nits is insufficient to properly display such a format. Even if a HDR signal message appears on the screen, the image will resemble a standard SDR recording. Therefore, it is better to stick with the latter format to avoid errors in displaying bright scenes, as discussed below. The situation is not improved by the fact that this is a classic LCD model without additional layers enhancing colours, such as QLED or PFS. As a result, colours in HDR may appear washed out. Ultimately, this gives a worse effect than in the standard SDR format, which is simply better suited to the capabilities of this panel.

Let's start with the fact that the U7S Pro is an impressively bright television – in calibrated mode, our measuring equipment indicated a staggering 2200 nits of peak brightness! This is an absolutely remarkable result, considering that this model is positioned rather as a mid-range option.

However, as we know, peak brightness on test patterns is one thing, and actual film scenes are another. Unfortunately, in real video materials, the backlight power clearly drops. Although in the most demanding moments, the television can still exceed the 1000-nit barrier – which is still an excellent result, perfectly aligned with the mastering standards of most HDR films – the real challenge comes from the aggressively tuned local dimming algorithms. Because of this, small, bright details such as stars or the moon in the night sky are noticeably dimmed. The television tries at all costs to maintain deep blacks, which is of course understandable, but unfortunately, this comes at the expense of the dynamics and brilliance of the HDR effect itself.

One must commend the colour reproduction. The new U7S Pro is a QLED design that provides very wide coverage of the colour palette. Unlike last year's model (U7Q Pro), this year's variant is a "true" QLED, rather than a solution based on a PFS filter. As a result, the colour saturation has clearly increased, and coverage of the most demanding BT.2020 colour space has surpassed the 81% barrier.

We tested the television in movie mode, which theoretically should provide the best and most natural colours. And indeed, this mode is quite correct; however, after connecting the calibration equipment, its biggest flaw came to light. The PUS7000 has significant shortcomings in displaying red. Poorly tuned white balance and overly low saturation of this colour cause the image to appear too cool. As a result, one may get the impression that the displayed content is simply lacking in vibrant colours. The situation is worsened by the fact that both SDR and HDR content are excessively brightened. This is confirmed by the gamma curve and EOTF graphs, which show that the television displays the image brighter than it should. This causes scenes to lose their depth and may appear somewhat washed out. Fortunately, in the Philips menu, we find quite a few functions to improve these aspects, so we immediately proceeded to calibration to see what could be squeezed out of this screen.

We tested the U7S Pro model – as we always do – in the best factory-calibrated picture mode, namely Filmmaker Mode. We can evaluate the displayed colours in two ways. The most disappointing was the profile designed for viewing SDR content, that is, traditional television, YouTube, and other less demanding materials. The picture was clearly yellowed, which turned out to be a direct consequence of a poorly set white balance. As our graphs show, there is a significant deficiency of the blue component, which drastically affected the overall colour temperature. This is clearly visible on the ColorChecker charts as well as on the graphs of the colour palette itself, where most samples leaned towards yellow. Fortunately, the factory HDR mode fared much better – there, the colour errors were around a Delta E value of 3, which is already a really solid result.

After professional calibration, it is evident that the PUS7000 responds well to image adjustments. In this price range, this is not at all a given. The effects should be evaluated in two scenarios, depending on what content we plan to watch. SDR performs the best. After our adjustments, the picture looks really good. Most colour errors have fallen below level 3, which is the threshold at which distortions usually begin to be visible to the naked eye in measurements. Films, series, sports, and regular television look natural, without unpleasant deviations. If someone mainly watches classic channels or streams in HD quality, the difference after calibration will be noticeable immediately. However, it must be clearly stated that the PUS7000 is still not a television suited for reasonable HDR, and calibration changes very little in this regard. The reason lies in the hardware: the colours remain too unsaturated. The television lacks solutions to expand the colour gamut, such as PFS filters or a quantum dot layer, so the panel simply cannot display the intense colours required by HDR. This is most apparent in reds, which still look pale. This limitation cannot be bypassed with menu settings, as it stems from the design of the backlighting and the panel itself.

We know, however, that the company Hisense is capable of much more – as previous generations have demonstrated – which is why we couldn't simply overlook the factory shortcomings of the U7S Pro model in everyday content. As is often the case, the television underwent professional calibration. The conclusions? This process brought about a colossal change. After manually adjusting the white balance and supplementing the deficiencies in the blue component, the annoying yellow tint disappeared as if by magic. White became naturally pure, and skin tones gained the appropriate, healthy hue. Importantly, calibration not only tamed the capricious SDR mode but also allowed us to extract the maximum potential from the panel, reducing average colour reproduction errors to levels nearly imperceptible to the human eye. The only thing we must criticise after the whole process is the very nature of the Mini-LED backlight and its specific interaction with the HDR signal. The aggressively tuned local dimming algorithms significantly interfere with the EOTF brightness curve. As a result, the backlight does not always work perfectly with the creator's intention – depending on the scene being viewed, the curve can noticeably deviate either above or below the reference, which at times disrupts the ideal dynamics of HDR imagery.

The PUS7000 handles digital image processing quite well. The distortion reduction feature deserves praise, as it effectively smooths out unwanted tonal transitions even at low settings. However, it has a drawback: if applied too aggressively, it can introduce undesirable artifacts on the screen. Therefore, it would be a good idea to experiment with this setting to find a happy medium between a smooth image and detail clarity.

The upscaling, or enhancing the quality of lower-resolution materials to 4K, is adequate. The image after processing is very "soft," which is typical for nearly all Philips televisions. The edges are plastic and smooth, making the image look cohesive. If it feels too soft for someone, the sharpness slider in the menu can always be adjusted to achieve a more pronounced effect.

The digital processing of lower quality signals is at a very high level here, thanks to the MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor used in the U7S Pro. The upscaling performance is equally impressive, meaning the television’s ability to enhance lower resolution signals to 4K. We did not notice any unnatural, sharp contours on the screen, and our test image featuring the model simply looked attractive.

In this respect, we actually have no good news. It might seem that the biggest downside is the lack of a 120 Hz panel, but in this price range, that is actually the norm, and it is hard to expect anything more. However, the worst part is that the television does not have any features to improve motion smoothness. There is a lack of any supporting systems, both in films and in sports. We must come to terms with the fact that the image on the PUS7000 is processed "raw". This means that during dynamic scenes or fast camera movements, the motion can appear choppy or unclear. We do not have the option to enable any smoothers that would reduce this effect.

The Hisense U7S Pro uses a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz in 4K, and in game mode, it can reach up to 330 Hz at Full HD resolution. However, it is important to remember that these highest figures do not significantly matter in everyday use, as most content is still limited to a maximum of 120 Hz (for example, when gaming on a console). Nevertheless, the television handles motion quite well and performs really decently for an LCD construction.

There is little to criticise about the fluidity itself. In the menu, we find a motion smoother called "Motion Enhancement", which hides two sliders: blur reduction and judder reduction. These allow for manual configuration of the smoother, which works well in both films and sports, effectively enhancing the raw television signal.

Although the PUS7000 is not marketed as a gaming television, it does not perform as poorly in this category as one might expect. While it is true that we won’t find support for 120 Hz refresh rates, which is understandable at this price point, the manufacturer has ensured several important features that genuinely enhance the gaming experience on consoles. The most important of these are the VRR and ALLM technologies. VRR is responsible for synchronising the screen with the number of frames generated by the console. This prevents the image from tearing and keeps it consistent even during sudden drops in frame rate while gaming. In contrast, ALLM is a solution that automatically switches the television to the lowest latency mode as soon as it detects a signal from the console. All these parameters are easily accessible thanks to the Game Bar feature. This is a special control panel for gamers that can be summoned on screen at any time. It allows for a quick preview of the current settings and connection status without interrupting gameplay, which is a very convenient solution.

If you plan to connect a console or PC to the U7S Pro, you will be more than satisfied – this television is excellent equipment for a gamer. Hisense has not spared any expense and has included as many as 4 HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps. You won’t need to juggle cables as each port will handle the full set of features. We have an automatic game mode (ALLM) and VRR, which operates in a wide range from 48 Hz to an impressive 330 Hz. Of course, that 330 Hz is currently a gimmick for owners of powerful PCs, as consoles will be limited to 120 Hz, but it’s good to have that buffer for the future. The Game Bar also works very well during gaming. It’s a handy menu bar for gamers, where you can quickly change the picture mode, enable a crosshair in the centre of the screen, and even change the display aspect ratio to ultra-wide without having to exit to the main television settings, which will be appreciated by fans of PC simulators. The only downside worth mentioning is the improper implementation of the HGiG format in games. The issue is that the television ignores instructions from the console regarding the image generated in HDR10 and continues to forcefully interfere with the image it produces, trying to "enhance" it in its own way. This makes proper HDR configuration in the console menu (where you set brightness on symbols/checkerboard) somewhat difficult.