Samsung S90F QD-OLED vs Hisense U7S / U77SE

The biggest difference between the 65-inch S90F and the other versions is brightness. The QD-OLED panel can reach up to 1700 nits in laboratory tests, which is over 500 nits more than the variant with a WOLED matrix. This translates to a decidedly stronger and more engaging HDR effect. In most scenes, bright parts of the image look fantastic, and we must admit that we were positively surprised, as we expected results more similar to the WOLED version, but we got an effect that makes a great impression even in films. Just like with every OLED, there are moments when the panel needs to limit its brightness a bit. This mainly refers to full-screen, very demanding scenes – for example, in the last test frame from the film "The Meg," the brightness drops to around 800 nits. However, it is hard to consider this a disadvantage, as it is still an excellent result, unprecedented in OLED televisions in this price range. Everything suggests that the 65-inch S90F could be one of the best choices this year for those looking for a strong OLED at a reasonable price. Another advantage of the QD-OLED matrix in HDR content is its colour gamut coverage. Thanks to quantum dots, the television achieves almost a full 100% of the DCI-P3 colour space and nearly 90% of the BT.2020 colour space. These values place it alongside much more expensive models and make it exceptional in its class.

The Hisense U7S has considerable potential for HDR display, but it cannot exploit that potential in every scene. On a test pattern it reaches around 1,100 nits, so the backlight itself is very strong. In our brighter film scenes we measured about 640 to 745 nits. That is still plenty for the sun or bright highlights to have a clear bloom and to show an advantage over SDR material. When the TV needs to brighten a larger portion of the image, it handles it fairly well.

The problem appears with small highlights on a dark background. Each of the 192 zones covers an area much larger than a tiny point on the screen. If the TV were to light that whole zone strongly, it would also brighten the area around the highlight. Hisense tries to avoid that and dims the entire zone. This makes blacks look better, but a small bright object that should attract the eye also loses intensity. That is why in two more demanding scenes we recorded only 297 and 154 nits. The difference is large: in one shot HDR can impress, and in the next small highlights are noticeably muted. The U7S therefore prioritises preserving deep blacks, even at the expense of bright details. With that number of zones it is an understandable compromise, but worth bearing in mind — the peak 1,100 nits tells us about the backlight’s capability, not how brightly the TV will show every element of a film.

Colours

Hisense describes the U7S as ULED, but that is a marketing name, and it is a PFS phosphor backlight that expands the colour palette here. In our measurements the TV covered about 91% of the DCI-P3 colour space and 71% of BT.2020. Those are good results, though they fall short of the best screens on the market. The largest shortfall is in green — the TV does not even reach the DCI-P3 boundary here, so the most intense shades will be less saturated than they should be. Most colours in HDR films and series still look suitably vibrant. A positive is the repeatability of the results. Gamut coverage on test patterns and in film scenes is practically identical.

Samsung S90F, like most modern televisions, offers several picture modes, but in line with our tradition, we tested it in the most important one, which is Filmmaker. This setting makes the image look much more natural than in the default, often overly saturated modes. It is neither excessively vivid nor artificially subdued – just closer to what one should actually see. However, this does not mean it is perfect. The S90F had noticeable shortcomings in white balance, mainly in the blue range, which gave a slightly yellowish filter effect on most scenes. One might argue that it looks more "filmic" because it is warmer, but let’s not kid ourselves – George Lucas didn't shoot Star Wars in sepia 😉 (a comparison with the scene can be found, as always, below). In HDR materials, there was also an issue with brightness management. The EOTF curve clearly showed that the television brightens the picture more than it should, leading to some effects appearing too intense and deviating from the reference. Fortunately, a large part of these shortcomings can be eliminated through professional calibration – we will discuss the effects of this procedure further on in the test.

Out-of-the-box colours on the Hisense U7S are decent, but there are a few areas to improve. In SDR there is a red bias in the white balance, which makes the picture too warm and, in places, slightly pink. You can notice this on faces and on bright, neutral surfaces. The gamma also runs below the target, so the TV brightens the image, particularly in darker areas. That makes shadow detail easier to see, but the scene loses some of its depth.

In HDR the white balance is somewhat more even, but not entirely neutral, with a shortage of blue in the mid-tones and a lack of red in the brightest parts. A bigger issue is how brightness is rendered. The EOTF curve shows a large portion of the mid-tones being lifted, causing the picture to look brighter than the source intends. Color Checker measurements are also weaker than in SDR: many errors are around 3 to 4, and some reach as high as 8. Colours can therefore look attractive, but they are not always faithful to what we should see. There is room for improvement here and we will see how much can be corrected through calibration.

Calibration quickly revealed that the S90F has a significant margin of capability. The image in SDR immediately gained a natural quality – classic films no longer looked as if someone had applied a yellowish filter to them, and the colours regained their proper character. It is a return to the atmosphere of the original, without the impression that someone tried to "age" it forcefully. In HDR content, the difference was even more pronounced. The EOTF curve was managed almost to a reference level, and any deviations are so subtle that most viewers won't even notice them. In practice, the S90F shows an image very close to perfection after calibration. Compared to the WOLED version, it performs even better – mainly due to the wider colour gamut coverage, which makes the colours appear fuller and more intense.

Calibration of the Hisense U7S brought the biggest improvements with SDR material. We managed to even out the white balance, so the previous warm tint has gone and whites and greys now look neutral. Gamma is also now very close to the reference, and the TV no longer brightens the picture unnecessarily, so darker scenes have regained depth. Color Checker measurements confirm the improvement: most errors are below 2. That means the picture is very well set up for watching regular TV and SDR films. It wasn't as smooth in HDR. There is no effective way to correct the EOTF curve, so the TV still interprets a film's brightness somewhat on its own. It brightens parts of the picture and can dim the brightest elements depending on the scene and the behaviour of the local dimming. Calibration could not eliminate this. This is also reflected in the Color Checker results, where many errors remain around 3–4 and a few exceed 7. So the result in SDR is really very good, but in HDR we must accept that the TV adds its own interpretation of brightness to the image.

The S90F performs really well here, although there are some comments that recur with most Samsung televisions. The noise reduction feature can effectively smooth out unwanted colour transitions in poorer materials, such as television or YouTube, making them simply look better. However, it should be noted that it operates quite aggressively and can also soften elements we wouldn't want to touch, like facial details. Therefore, if we want to use it, it’s best to set it to 'medium' and be aware of the compromise it entails. The upscaling itself is at a high level – low-quality materials are upscaled towards a 4K-like image. The only caveat is that the S90F can still struggle with so-called overscan, meaning it slightly trims edges with very poor materials like 576p and lower.

The handling of lower-quality material is fairly mediocre on the Hisense U7S. The Pentonic 700 chipset used here does not cope particularly well with strong compression artefacts. The menu includes a "Smooth and Gradient Image" function, but its performance leaves much to be desired. At the low setting tonal transitions show little improvement, although at least the image does not suffer. The medium and high settings still do not remove obvious banding between shades, and they begin to blur details; in our test material even parts of characters' faces disappeared. Interestingly, film grain remains untouched at every level. If you do use this feature, stick to the low setting. Its current behaviour needs refinement, but that is mainly down to the chipset used here.

Upscaling to 4K performs much better. Lower-resolution content gains in legibility, edges are well reproduced, and fine elements look sharp. That does not mean it recovers details that were never in the recording, but the TV makes good use of what it receives from the source. Another plus is that it does not crop the image edges, even with an SD signal.

S90F is an OLED with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, but in practice, it primarily indicates how it performs at 120 Hz, as this frequency is most significant when watching sports. The QD-OLED panel is no different in this regard from WOLED panels – the response of the pixels is nearly instantaneous, so motion is rendered with surgical precision. The result is predictable. The image is virtually devoid of motion blur, making gaming on consoles, matches, or other sports broadcasts incredibly enjoyable on the S90F.

Fans of films and series have not been overlooked either. Like every Samsung television with a refresh rate of 120 Hz and above, the S90F features a proprietary motion smoothing technology called "Image Clarity." Here, we find two sliders – blur reduction and judder reduction – which allow for improved fluidity of materials recorded at 24 frames and tailoring the effect to personal preferences.

Motion handling on the Hisense U7S is decent thanks to the 144 Hz refresh rate. For films there is also a motion smoother with adjustable judder and blur reduction. You can therefore keep a more cinematic motion or increase smoothness if jerky camera pans bother you. The high refresh rate is also useful for sports and gaming, but unfortunately it does not solve the panel's biggest problem.

That problem is pixel response time. Fast-moving objects leave long, clearly visible trails, as our UFO test shows. It looks worst on dark backgrounds, where the trail behind the object is particularly pronounced. So motion can be smooth, but the moving object itself loses sharpness, and that difference on the U7S is fairly easy to notice.

The S90F is a television that truly brings a lot of joy when gaming. To start, we have four full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports, which means you can connect all consoles and PCs without worrying about which device has priority. This is a convenient and practical solution that is by no means a given with other manufacturers. Additionally, there are key features such as automatic game mode (ALLM), which automatically switches the screen to low-latency settings, and VRR frame synchronization that operates in a wide range from 48 to 144 Hz. As a result, the picture remains smooth regardless of whether we're playing fast-paced online shooters or more leisurely narrative titles. The Game Bar also deserves a mention – a panel that allows quick access to several useful additions. For example, you can enable an additional crosshair in the centre of the screen, enlarge the minimap, or, in the case of PC, change the aspect ratio. Lastly, there is also the unique Game Motion Plus mode from Samsung. Its purpose is to smooth out older or poorly optimized titles, and it actually works pretty well. Thanks to this mode, even less polished games can look better and provide a more enjoyable gaming experience than on other televisions that theoretically offer the same technical specifications.

The Hisense U7S has a lot to offer gamers. You get two HDMI 2.1 ports and support for 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p, and 4K, so modern consoles’ capabilities are well used. When connected to a PC you can use 144 Hz at 4K or switch the resolution to Full HD and run 240 Hz. So there’s a wide choice, although it’s worth remembering the motion smearing mentioned earlier, which the high refresh rate does not eliminate. VRR and ALLM are also present. The first helps prevent tearing when frame rates in a game change. The second automatically switches the TV into game mode, so you don’t have to dig through the menu each time. VRR works from 48 to 240 Hz, with the highest refresh rate available in Full HD. Xbox users can also play in Dolby Vision, including at 120 Hz. Importantly, this format does not introduce significant input lag here. The Game Bar also looks very good. It’s easy to read, visually appealing, and lets you quickly check what signal the TV is receiving. There are also handy gaming settings at your fingertips, including shadow brightening. If it’s hard to spot an opponent in a dark game, you can improve visibility without digging through the entire menu.

Our biggest complaints concern HGiG. Hisense continues to do its own tone mapping, which makes setting HDR on the console confusing. You adjust a checkerboard test pattern and the TV continuously adapts how it looks. As a result, the moment the pattern disappears does not correctly indicate the screen’s brightness limit, and it’s easy to set the value too high. For this model it’s better to set the target HDR peak brightness on the console to about 900 to 1000 nits, rather than relying on the configurator.