XIAOMI A PRO 2026 vs Hisense U7S / U77SE

If you are hoping for a cinema-grade HDR effect in the new Xiaomi A Pro 2026, you better cool your expectations quickly. This television is simply too dim to fully showcase the capabilities of contemporary films or series designed for the highest image quality. Our measurements showed brightness in the range of 200–300 nits, which is more akin to SDR content than ambitious HDR productions. In practice, this means that while most films may look fine, they certainly won't evoke that "wow" effect that other televisions are known for. Fortunately, not everything is lost – we must credit the PFS LED filter used here, which is a solution similar to the quantum dot technology found in QLEDs. Thanks to this, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour palette reaches about 94%, resulting in vibrant, saturated colours in the vast majority of materials.

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.

What we saw in Filmmaker mode took us by surprise – and unfortunately not in a good way. The mode advertised as Hollywood standard resembled more of a shop window display. The white balance was shifted towards blue, leading to significant colour mistakes and burnt-out scenes in SDR content. It was slightly better, though still not perfect, in HDR materials. There were also issues there – the colour saturation and the entire palette consistently drifted towards cooler tones, resulting in an image that had more of an artificial, cold tint instead of a cinematic character. In other words: even in Filmmaker mode, which should showcase this television, we got an effect far from expectations.

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.

Although Xiaomi is not a brand associated with top-tier televisions, it must be acknowledged that even in a budget model like the A Pro 2026, the manufacturer left plenty of calibration settings. After a few adjustments, the SDR image gained a completely new look. Colours stopped drifting towards blue tones, whites took on a more natural quality, and most errors dropped to a practically invisible level. As a result, SDR content looked very good, surprisingly so for this price range.

It was somewhat different with HDR materials. Here, it was immediately evident what we had already mentioned – clipping in bright scenes and issues with balance control. Calibration helped only partly, as the limitations of the panel itself played a role. However, it must be emphasized that for SDR, the television had transformed beyond recognition and in a decidedly positive direction.

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.

Upscaling and digital image processing in the Xiaomi A Pro 2026 are not among the strengths of this model. One might expect that since the television was not designed to achieve record brightness levels, the manufacturer would focus on a more robust processor and a set of features that would "enhance" lower-quality images. Unfortunately – and here we are also faced with significant disappointment. On the positive side, we can note reasonably good upscaling, which handles HD materials and boosts them up to 4K in an acceptable manner. However, this is where the list of advantages ends. The television does not offer any features that improve tonal transitions or smooth out digital imperfections, so in most cases, we get a raw image, exactly as we deliver from an external source. On a large screen, such a lack of support makes lower-quality materials simply look bland. An additional problem is the phenomenon of overscan. When watching older materials, it happens that part of the image gets cut off, which only amplifies the impression that Xiaomi still has a lot of ground to make up in this category.

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.

The fluidity of motion in the Xiaomi A Pro 2026 is an interesting compromise that arises from the hybrid matrix used here. At its native 4K resolution, the maximum refresh rate is 60 Hz – sufficient for those who mainly watch films and series. It is precisely with them in mind that the manufacturer has added a motion smoother, allowing users to adjust the image to their own preferences – opting for greater fluidity or leaving more "cinematic" frames depending on the settings.

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.

Exactly – since Xiaomi has included the "Game Boost 120 Hz" feature, one might expect that they would follow up with a solid gaming package. Unfortunately, reality quickly dampens this enthusiasm. Aside from this mode (which, it must be admitted, is a great addition in a budget design), we only have a rather odd player panel. It's hard to call it a full-fledged "game bar" – it’s more of a simple overlay on the TV Menu with limited capabilities. And that would be about it. There’s a lack of ALLM, so the TV won’t automatically switch to game mode. There’s no VRR, so you can forget about smooth frame sync. We also won’t find support for Dolby Vision in games or the HGiG format, which are becoming increasingly standard on consoles. In short: besides the Game Boost 120 Hz, which actually allows for a more enjoyable experience at 1080p or 1440p, the Xiaomi A Pro 2026 offers nothing that could particularly attract gamers.

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.