Hisense A6N vs Philips PUS7000

Unfortunately, the HDR effect quality on A6N is not impressive. A peak brightness of 250 nits doesn’t allow for spectacular highlights, and HDR looks rather muted, more like ordinary SDR. This will not satisfy more demanding users who want to enjoy high-quality movie content. Additionally, the color gamut coverage is not very impressive either: DCI-P3 at 82% is an average result that doesn’t let you fully enjoy vivid colors in HDR material.

Unfortunately, the PUS7000 is not suitable for watching HDR content. This screen is simply too dark. A brightness level of 200 nits is not enough to correctly display such a format. Even if a HDR signal message appears on the screen, the image will resemble a regular SDR recording. Therefore, it's better to stick with the latter format to avoid issues in displaying bright scenes, which you can read about below. The situation is not improved by the fact that this is a classic LCD model without additional layers to enhance colors, such as QLED or PFS. As a result, colors 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.

In the color reproduction category, the Hisense A6N in Filmmaker Mode leaves much to be desired. Although the mode's name suggests we should expect faithful movie color reproduction, the reality is different. The TV has significant picture quality problems. The white balance issue is particularly noticeable for both HD and 4K material, as it is heavily skewed by a dominance of blue. This results in artificial, cool tones, clearly visible in the comparison photo below. The ColorChecker test further confirms these errors, which are compounded by low color gamut coverage.

The gamma luminance curve shows a serious problem maintaining the 2.4 level, with the plot well below the reference value. That leads to excessive image brightening and washed-out blacks. The EOTF curve for 4K material also indicates brightness problems. At the low end there is a pronounced bump caused by the TV's excessive brightening, which negatively affects picture quality. This image behavior prevents fully enjoying movies and requires manual correction.

We tested the television in movie mode, which theoretically should provide the best and most natural colors. And indeed, this mode is quite correct; however, after connecting the calibration equipment, its biggest flaw became apparent. The PUS7000 has significant deficiencies in displaying red. Poorly tuned white balance and too low saturation of this color cause the image to appear too cool. As a result, one might get the impression that the displayed content is simply lacking in vibrant colors. The situation is exacerbated 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, the Philips menu offers many functions to improve these aspects, so we immediately proceeded to calibration to see what could be squeezed out of this screen.

Hisense A6N offers in its settings options and tools to adjust many picture parameters, which we used. As for the white balance, we managed to remove the excess blue; this is clearly visible in the comparison photo below, where the boy in the image practically "comes to life". A large improvement can also be seen in the gamma brightness response, as the TV no longer has serious issues with overbrightening the entire picture. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for 4K content, where the EOTF curve could not be fully corrected due to this model's exceptionally low brightness. For HDR content we use dynamic tone mapping, which allows recovery of many details despite lifting the midtones. For this TV that brings more benefits than drawbacks. The errors that remain visible in the color gamut test and the ColorChecker for 4K content stem from the low color gamut coverage and are difficult to eliminate because of the TV's characteristics. Even so, the image tonality is much better, so we recommend calibrating the factory settings, which are far from ideal.

After professional calibration, it is clear that the PUS7000 responds well to image adjustments. In this price range, this is not a given. The effects should be assessed in two scenarios, depending on what content we plan to watch. SDR performs the best. After our corrections, the image looks really good. Most color errors fell below level 3, which is the threshold at which distortions typically become visible to the naked eye in measurements. Movies, series, sports, and regular television present themselves naturally, without unpleasant deviations. If someone primarily watches classic channels or streaming in HD quality, the difference after calibration will be noticeable immediately. However, it must be made clear that the PUS7000 is still not a television suitable for sensible HDR, and calibration does not change much here. The reason lies in the hardware: colors remain too undersaturated. The television lacks solutions that expand the color gamut, such as PFS filters or a quantum dot layer, so the panel simply cannot show the intense colors required by HDR. This is most evident in reds, which still look pale. This limitation cannot be bypassed with menu settings, as it results from the design of the backlighting and the panel itself.

Let's see how A6N handles low-quality material. When it comes to smoothing tonal transitions, the lack of a function to reduce posterization or smooth tonal transitions in low-quality sources, such as broadcast TV or DVD, may be noticeable to more demanding viewers. As for digital processing, the model was rendered correctly and the branches were free of the typical jagged edges. The image has a pronounced sense of plasticity and is soft, which may appeal to those who prefer that kind of picture style.

The PUS7000 handles digital image processing quite well. The distortion reduction feature deserves praise, as it effectively smooths out unwanted tonal transitions even at a low setting. However, it has a flaw: if the action is too aggressive, it can introduce undesirable artifacts on the screen. It’s a good idea to experiment with this setting to find the sweet spot between a smooth image and detail clarity.

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

The 60 Hz panel in Hisense A6N will likely please people who enjoy watching movies, because the TV offers an "ultra motion smoothing" feature that lets you adjust the image's motion, making it choppier or smoother and more cinematic. As for motion blur, it is rather average. You can see quite noticeable blur, especially on dark backgrounds, which is a common trait in this class of TVs.

In this regard, we don't really have any good news. It might seem that the biggest downside is the lack of a 120 Hz panel, but in this price range, that's actually standard, and it's hard to expect more. However, the worst part is that the TV does not have any motion smoothing features. There are no supporting systems for either movies or sports. We have to accept that the image on the PUS7000 is processed "raw." This means that during dynamic scenes or fast camera movements, the motion may appear choppy or unclear. We have no way to enable any smoother that would soften this effect.

Hisense A6N is a TV that will likely appeal to casual gamers, mainly because of its 60 Hz panel, which may not satisfy more demanding players. Still, it offers several features that can make gaming more enjoyable. The TV supports functions such as ALLM (automatic low-latency mode), VRR (variable refresh rate) and Dolby Vision, which let you enjoy better picture quality and smoother motion in games that support those technologies. Moreover, the low input lag means in-game reactions are fast, which is crucial, especially in fast-paced titles. Thanks to these features, although the TV isn’t the ideal choice for demanding gamers, it provides solid support for those who value comfortable gaming without complicated settings. It’s an ideal solution for people who want to enjoy gaming without high hardware demands while still having access to modern technologies that enhance gameplay quality.

Although the PUS7000 is not marketed as a gaming TV, it does not perform as poorly in this category as one might expect. While there is no support for 120 Hz refresh rates, which is understandable at this price point, the manufacturer has included several important features that genuinely improve the comfort of playing on a console. The most significant of these are VRR and ALLM technologies. VRR is responsible for synchronizing the screen with the number of frames generated by the console. This prevents the image from "tearing" and keeps it consistent even during sudden frame drops in the game. In turn, ALLM is a solution that automatically switches the TV to the lowest latency mode right after detecting a signal from the console. All of these parameters are easily accessible thanks to the Game Bar feature. This is a special control panel for gamers that can be brought up on the screen at any time. It allows for a quick overview of current settings and connection status without interrupting gameplay, which is a very convenient solution.