PHILPS PUS9060 vs Hisense UR8S

The One is bright enough to enjoy films recorded in HDR format. The average brightness of this model is around 500 nits, so we can easily expect a pleasant viewing experience for films from streaming platforms. Of course – it could always be better, because when it comes to brightness, you can never have too much for this type of content. Unfortunately, a disappointing surprise may be the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour palette offered by the PUS9060. Although the manufacturer boasts about using a QLED filter here (in reality, it’s PFS LED), it's hard to speak of any positive effects from its operation. 85% coverage of the DCI-P3 palette is certainly not a level to be proud of in 2025 – particularly in a television advertised as QLED.

UR8S is a slightly higher-end Mini-LED, so you could expect a lot in terms of brightness. And indeed, on a synthetic test pattern peak brightness reached around 2200 nits. That’s a very good result, but as always what’s much more important is what the TV does in normal film scenes. Here the results are a bit more uneven. In bright scenes, where there’s a lot of light on screen, the UR8S can deliver really strong HDR. Brightness then reaches about 1500 nits, so the image is very intense and has plenty of punch. It’s worse with small bright elements on a dark background. The TV clearly dims them to keep good blacks and to prevent excessive bloom. As a result things like single stars or tiny reflections can be only around 200 nits. And here HDR is no longer as impressive. So you can see that the local dimming algorithm works effectively, but it also has its cost: sometimes it simply sacrifices the brightness of small details in favour of contrast.

Colours

With RGB Mini-LED TVs colours should be judged a little differently than usual. If we look solely at the panel’s native capabilities, the UR8S performs excellently. We measured around 94% coverage of BT.2020 and practically full DCI-P3. These are among the highest values currently found in LCD TVs and this is where the potential of the RGB backlight is most obvious. The problem is that this potential is not always realised in real scenes. When we ran the same measurements on test patterns with a film background applied, saturation of some colours began to fall noticeably. Individual zones are not always able to control the three RGB components so precisely when the scene becomes more complex. This is most visible with blue and magenta. On simple test patterns they can look very strong, but in more demanding scenes samples of those colours visibly shrink. So the UR8S’s capabilities are enormous, it’s just that the TV cannot fully make use of them in every scene.

We tested the PUS9060 in the best factory mode available – of course, we are referring to the movie mode. Unfortunately, the best in this case does not mean good. The image in this mode was distinctly yellowish and shifted towards orange tones. The white balance on this television was definitely too warm, giving the entire scene an artificial, somewhat “tanned” appearance. This led to significant colour errors, which in the worst cases exceeded a delta E value of 6 – thus they were visible to the naked eye. The situation was reversed in HDR mode, where the image became too blue and too cool in perception. Additionally, there was a slight increase in brightness – the gamma curve and EOTF suggested that the television slightly brightened the image, which was also evident in the comparative photo below.

For assessing the out-of-the-box colours we used Filmmaker mode, which is intended to show an image that is as close as possible to how the material was prepared. Looking at the white balance alone, the UR8S performs quite well. There is no strong tint that immediately jumps out, although as brightness increases a little too much blue and red start to appear, with a simultaneous shortfall of green. Colour errors therefore show up in measurements, but the image itself does not look bad. We have far greater reservations about how the UR8S manages picture brightness. In SDR the gamma sits around 1.9–2.0 for most of the range instead of the target 2.4. In practice this simply means the picture is too bright, especially in the midtones. Shadows are lifted too much, causing the image to lose some depth. A similar tendency is visible in HDR. The EOTF curve is above the reference value for a large part of its range, so the UR8S again brightens the image more than it should. This is not due to a lack of brightness — the TV has plenty — but to the way it manages that brightness. As a result, HDR content can look very striking, but not always precisely as it should.

Thanks to calibration in film mode, we managed to completely eliminate the yellow-orange tint, which significantly improved the perception of the entire scene. The image has become much more visually pleasing, although it is still far from reference settings. It may now appear slightly bluish, but it is still a definite improvement compared to the factory settings.

Unfortunately, we were not able to significantly improve the brightness characteristics, but this is already a matter of the television's design - the absence of local dimming limits the ability to precisely manage brightness. The PUS9060 simply cannot dynamically adjust luminance as more advanced models do. Nevertheless, after calibration, the overall experience is much more enjoyable, especially with film material.

Hisense provides plenty of calibration options and, in SDR, these can yield a very good result. After calibration, the white balance is practically even across the entire range, and colour errors fall to very low values. The UR8S can be adjusted very precisely here. HDR is somewhat different. The white balance itself can also be noticeably improved, although at the highest brightness levels larger deviations begin to appear. The most interesting aspect, however, is the behaviour of the EOTF curve. Even after it has been correctly set on test patterns, the UR8S still tends to interpret brightness in its own way when watching films. Depending on the scene, parts of the image are slightly brightened while others are dimmed relative to how they should appear. This shows that the algorithms controlling the local dimming have a significant influence on the final image. Calibration therefore allows colours to be improved very effectively, but we are not able to completely 'turn off' the way the UR8S manages brightness in HDR.

In the PUS9060, we find yet another version of the image processor called by Philips the P5 Perfect Picture, which is designed to improve the image – especially the imperfect one. The television features a distortion reduction function, which serves to smooth tonal transitions, i.e., those "colour joins" we mentioned earlier. This function does this very effectively – there is no noticeable harsh gradation of colours, but unfortunately, it works so aggressively that it sometimes dulls desired elements, such as the textures of materials or film grain. So one can consider this a certain compromise. We would rather not recommend using this function for films, but for more casual content – e.g., YouTube or standard television – it is perfectly fine.

The P5 processor also aims to improve the quality of lower-resolution images and does so quite effectively. The test image with the model is very soft – sometimes overly so – but this can be easily adjusted with the sharpness slider to match personal preferences. It is also pleasing that the television does not cut off edges in SD materials – which unfortunately still occurs in some TV models.

A big plus of the UR8S is the use of the MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor, and digital image processing is one of this model's stronger points. The TV handles smoothing tonal transitions very well, especially with lower-quality content. The feature responsible for this effect works effectively without overprocessing the picture. Even on the medium setting it can noticeably reduce visible banding and unevenness without heavily blurring details. Upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is displayed cleanly, edges look natural, and the image is not overly sharpened. The UR8S simply copes very well with a weaker signal, and in this respect it is one of its most notable strengths.

PHILIPS PUS9060 is equipped with a 4K panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, so we can confidently say that it is suitable for both watching sports and playing games. And indeed, it is. But what about films that are most often recorded at 24 frames? As with most of the televisions we tested with a refresh rate of 120 Hz and above, the PUS9060 offers two sliders in the motion smoothness options. The “Smoothness” slider allows you to adjust the effect in films – you can set the image to be smoother, resembling a theatrical effect (higher settings), or more cinematic, with a slight "jump" in frame rate (lower settings). Additionally, there is a function called "Motion Blur Reduction," which limits blurring – and this is a very useful feature, especially when watching sports.

The UR8S is equipped with a panel with a native 180 Hz refresh rate, so right from the start it offers excellent motion handling. The panel itself performs really well here, although some limitations typical of VA panels are still visible. Motion blur is relatively minor for this type of screen, but with faster motion (especially on darker backgrounds) it can still be noticed, particularly when compared with the same image on OLED TVs.

PHILIPS PUS9060 is a true gaming monster – it has practically everything you could expect from a modern gaming television. There's VRR, there's ALLM, and on top of that, there's the implementation of HGiG, which helps to set HDR in games the way the developers intended. The television supports every possible resolution at 120 Hz, including 1080p, 1440p, and full 4K – so regardless of whether you're gaming on Xbox, PS5, or PC, everything works as it should. It also features a simple Game Bar, which is a special menu for gamers that allows you to quickly check if the ALLM mode is indeed working in low-latency mode.

And of course – Ambilight TV. Let’s be honest – without LED lights at the back, it’s not really a proper gaming setup. 😉 The multicoloured backlighting can really enhance the atmosphere, especially in the evening. It may not be to everyone's taste, but younger gamers will be thrilled – because it just looks impressive.

In terms of gamer features the UR8S performs really well. The TV supports practically everything you can expect from a modern console or PC display. It offers ALLM, VRR and 4K at 120 Hz. There is also Dolby Vision in Game Mode, so when using, for example, the Xbox Series X you do not have to give up that HDR format. PC gamers get even more options. The panel can run at 4K at 180 Hz, and dropping to Full HD can raise the refresh rate to as much as 330 Hz. There is also a Game Bar that lets you quickly check key information and change gaming-related settings. The only clear omission is a correct implementation of HGiG. With it enabled the TV still alters HDR brightness mapping, so we do not get the effect intended by that standard. Aside from that, the UR8S is very well prepared for both consoles and a powerful PC.