Xiaomi S Pro 2026 vs Hisense U7S / U77SE

When it comes to HDR quality, the Xiaomi S Pro 2026 is undoubtedly a very bright television. On our synthetic measurement patterns, we were able to generate peak brightness of around 1400 nits. This result is not only very good but truly spectacular, considering the price of this model. However, as we always emphasise, for our editorial team, measurements and the experiences from the content viewed on a daily basis - from films and series - are more important. So let's analyse how the Xiaomi performs with film material. The result is, unfortunately, quite mixed. When very bright scenes appear on screen, the S Pro 2026 really shows its full potential and can achieve a real 800-1000 nits in bright elements. Moreover, even smaller objects can "burn" the eyes - in scenes from the film Sicario 2, small metal elements of the helicopter were truly vivid. The problem is that - and here the story comes full circle back to our contrast assessment - in such scenes we cannot count on absolutely cinematic black. In our opinion, this compromise is too great; high visibility of details in bright areas should not come at the cost of such a significant boost to black levels. And although the HDR effect itself can make a stunning impression here, it is essential to remember that when very challenging, mixed scenes appear on screen, we might feel a slight disappointment. Exactly the one we mentioned in the previous paragraph regarding issues with dimming in HDR mode. As a consolation, it is worth adding that the S Pro 2026 has been equipped with an additional PFS filter (similar in function to a QLED layer), which effectively broadens the colour gamut coverage. As a result, measurements showed DCI-P3 coverage reaching up to 94%. This gives us confidence that in most colourful scenes, the image will appear rich and appropriately saturated.

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.

Of course, all our measurements were carried out in "Film" mode, which is typically the best and most accurate choice we get straight out of the box. It needs to be said plainly: although it is the best mode, it is still very far from ideal. Firstly, the television has a clear tendency to impart a cool, bluish tint to the image – this is due to a poorly set white balance. Additionally, there is the issue of how the S Pro 2026 manages its brightness straight out of the box, which results in an overly vivid image. These two flaws contribute to truly significant colourimetric errors (Delta E). In HDR content, they were able to exceed our anticipated error scale of "10" by twofold (meaning values close to 20). As a reminder – the threshold for perceivable error by the human eye is a Delta E value of around 3. Results at the level of 20 indicate that the image significantly deviates from what the director intended.

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.

So how does the S Pro 2026 perform after our calibration procedure? We have to admit that after calibration, the television becomes a really very pleasant device for watching everyday content. As you can see in the graphs, in HD (SDR) materials, both white balance and gamma values have been brought to nearly perfection. Most importantly, colourimetric errors have become practically unnoticeable to the human eye. In this scenario, the S Pro 2026 is simply an excellent television that, after professional calibration, can provide a lot of enjoyment from watching. However, it is worth clearly noting – our efforts have not helped much in 4K HDR mode. Despite the calibration, the television still interprets the image quite strongly "in its own way," which is clearly visible in the measurement of the EOTF curve (brightness tracking). It’s a bit of a shame, as it shows that the problem lies not in the panel itself, but in the software. Underdeveloped image management algorithms in HDR content can, unfortunately, rule out this television for many more discerning users.

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.

Let's start with the issue we raised in the previous paragraph: can the television actually fix the problem of dreadful tonal transitions in dark scenes? Theoretically, yes – in the menu, we find a feature with the promising name "Colour Contour Removal." Well, "theoretically." Unfortunately, in practice, this setting – regardless of which of the three power levels is chosen – yielded absolutely no real results. So we are dealing with a feature that, in practice, only exists in the menu. Moving on to the quality of upscaling (scaling the image from a lower resolution to 4K), unfortunately, we have more bad news for you. The S Pro 2026 performs very poorly at this task. Interestingly, the phenomenon of "overscan" (slight cropping of the image) is not a major issue here. The fact is that the television simply displays a very raw, unprocessed image. Its attempt to upscale the signal to a higher resolution looks simply lacklustre and lacks any form of "intelligent" improvement. There is no denying it – the entire digital image processing is the real Achilles' heel of this model.

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.

On paper, the S Pro 2026 specification looks impressive. The television is equipped with a native 144 Hz panel, with the ability to display images at up to 288 Hz in a dedicated gaming mode. These are amazing results, but what interested us most, in the context of everyday use, was how the television handles motion blur and how the image looks at 120 Hz. After all, this is the frequency used by consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and it is desired by sports fans. Generally, the panel "holds up". The matrix is sufficiently fast to meet these challenges, and objects displayed at native 120Hz fluidity are shown correctly. As for the software, the television is equipped with motion smoothing technology; however, with a key caveat – it works only for input signals up to 60 Hz. This means it is primarily suitable for traditional television, films, and series. Thanks to this, we can adjust the fluidity of the image to our own preferences – from a very smooth, "theatrical" approach to setting the slider to "zero" and maintaining a fully cinematic character.

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.

For gamers, the Xiaomi S Pro 2026 is almost an ideal proposition on paper. It is equipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports, which allow us to unlock (although these options are somewhat hidden in the menu) the full package of features: ALLM, VRR and, crucially, the ability to work in 4K at 144 Hz. This last feature should particularly please the owners of powerful PCs. The television also has something resembling a gamer panel – and although it's hard to call it a fully-fledged "Gamebar", it serves its purpose by displaying key information. It’s just a shame that in its default form, it obscures a relatively large portion of the screen.

The biggest issue we have with this model, however, concerns how the S Pro 2026 handles games in HDR mode. To put it bluntly: it doesn’t handle it well at all. Due to the television having a poorly implemented HGiG feature (the HDR tone mapping standard for games), it is very easy to "overexpose" the image during initial HDR calibration on the console. If someone is unaware of this software flaw and follows the on-screen instructions, they will simply set the image incorrectly, resulting in burnt-out details in the bright areas. Another major problem is the Dolby Vision mode for games. While it does work, it generates such a high input lag that it becomes noticeable in dynamic titles. (You can check all our lag measurements in the paragraph below). In summary: Generally speaking, this is a really very good screen for gamers, but with one small caveat. We would rather avoid using HDR mode on it – unless we decide to manually set the brightness bar on the console "by eye", completely ignoring the instructions from the console’s pictogram.

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.