Hisense S7NQ CanvasTV vs Haier K85F

When it comes to the brightness of the television and how it handles bright elements while watching movies, it is just average—similar to contrast. The average brightness level of the Hisense S7NQ is around 500 nits. This is a value that allows you to feel the beginnings of true HDR, but it is definitely too little to speak of outstanding effects. However, the television deserves praise for color gamut coverage—movies look very colorful and vibrant. With the use of PFS LED (QLED) coating, the device can cover over 90% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and over 72% of the wider BT.2020 gamut. For a television in this class, these are truly very good results.

Now let's move on to one of the hottest topics in the world of televisions, which is the quality of HDR effect. In the case of the Haier K85F model, we must unfortunately make it clear: if you are looking for equipment to watch content in a wide dynamic range, you should steer clear of this model. The main issue is its very low peak brightness, which during our tests barely reached 250 nits. To give you a better idea of what this means – such a value is okay for watching standard SDR materials, but it is absolutely insufficient to show any real benefits of HDR. The image simply lacks the "power" to generate bright, striking bursts. All our measurements and tests on specialist patterns only confirmed this. As if that weren't enough, the television also struggles with color reproduction. In this budget model, we won't find any technologies that expand the color palette, such as quantum dot layers (known in marketing as "QLED"). As a result, the coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, which is crucial for HDR materials, is only about 80%. In practice, this means that the image will not only be dark but also devoid of vibrant, saturated colors that the director wanted to show us.

Let's now check how the Hisense S7NQ CanvasTV performs in color reproduction in the best factory mode, which is Filmmaker. Right from the start, it is evident that it is definitely better than in dynamic or standard mode, but there are still a few things to nitpick. In terms of image quality from the HD signal, the colors are slightly inaccurate – there is a dominance of cooler shades of blue and a lack of red. Because of this, the image appears somewhat too cool.

A similar effect occurs with 4K content, but it is more noticeable there. The excessive exposure of blue tones and the lack of red make the image seem distinctly cold. However, the biggest issue with this television is not the colors themselves but rather the way brightness is managed. The tested unit slightly boosted the brightness compared to the reference value. The result is indeed better visibility of details, but at the cost of significantly brightened black – which makes the entire image seem more "flat."

A similar phenomenon was noticed in the 4K signal – the slightly inflated curve at the beginning of the EOTF graph shows that the television has a tendency to excessively expose certain scenes. Fortunately, this effect can be improved with professional calibration, which we will discuss in the next point.

Well, how does the television perform with colors straight from the factory, without any intervention from our side? The Haier K85F offers a full range of picture modes, such as Dynamic or Eco, but for anyone who wants to watch movies according to the creators' intentions, only one really matters: Film mode. This is the mode we focused our tests on, and unfortunately, its name has little to do with reality. The picture in the factory settings is far from what we could call cinematic fidelity and requires many adjustments. Let's start with the white balance, which has a clear lack of red color. In practice, this means that the whole picture has a cool, bluish tint. The situation is even worse when it comes to brightness management, specifically gamma curves (for SDR) and EOTF (for HDR). Their graph resembles a real rollercoaster, which has a disastrous effect on the viewing experience. This results in unnatural dimming of SDR content, causing details in the shadows to get lost, and in the case of HDR – excessive brightness, which further exacerbates the issue of highlights. This combination, meaning too cool white combined with chaotic brightness and excessive blue color saturation, causes enormous errors in color reproduction. Our measurements on a specialized ColorChecker chart showed errors (Delta E) regularly reaching and exceeding values of 8-9. In simpler terms: errors above the threshold of 3 are easily noticeable to the naked eye, so such a result means that the colors on the screen are simply heavily distorted.

The results we achieved after calibrating the Hisense S7NQ are really very good. Thanks to the calibration, we were able to eliminate the excessive exposure of blue tones and the lack of red in the HD signal. A similar, although slightly weaker effect was also achieved with 4K HDR content. Brightness management in HD material has also improved – the television no longer has problems with overall image brightness issues.

However, there are things that cannot be overlooked. The characteristic of the EOTF curve has practically not changed, and the lack of local dimming means that the smallest elements on the screen will always be slightly overexposed. One simply has to accept this when choosing a television with a similar type of backlighting. Nonetheless, the final result is very good and should fully satisfy the vast majority of users.

Well, is there anything we can do about this image? Can professional calibration save the situation? The answer is: both yes and no. It must be clearly stated that there are certain things we cannot overcome. The limitations of the construction itself, namely a poor panel and its narrow color coverage, mean that you can forget about achieving meaningful HDR – we won’t sugarcoat it for you. The biggest beneficiary of our adjustments is undoubtedly the SDR mode, and it is precisely for watching such content, after calibration, that this television begins to make sense. We managed to tame the white balance in our own way. Although the TV only offers basic 2-point adjustment (instead of precise 20-point), it’s not perfect, but we successfully eliminated that unpleasant, cold "chill" in the image. Above all, however, we recorded a significant improvement in brightness management. The gamma curve, which previously resembled a rollercoaster, looks like an almost perfectly straight line after calibration. This is a sign that the TV can finally display images without artificially dimming or brightening them. The conclusion is simple: even in the case of such a cheap television, professional adjustment of the settings can achieve a lot and draw out its maximum potential.

It is equally important how the television handles tonal transitions on a poorer signal – for example, in older movies, television, or on YouTube. Unfortunately, despite the presence of the "Smooth and Gradient Picture" feature, which was supposedly intended to improve this aspect, its performance is truly lacking. It is barely noticeable that it has any real impact on the visibility of color transitions.

Image scaling also performs poorly. Yes, one can observe that the television tries to "stretch" the quality, but the final effect is far from ideal. The image often appears slightly jagged, which is especially noticeable in the case of tree branches in the background. Additionally, the Hisense S7NQ has a clear tendency to crop the image at lower resolutions, which can cause us to miss captions in the news or finer details of the image.

Let's move on to digital processing and image scaling, that is, how the Haier K85F handles lower resolution signals, for example, from standard television. Right from the start, we encounter an extremely annoying and completely incomprehensible issue – the overscan feature is enabled by default. This means that the television artificially enlarges the image, cropping its edges, and this occurs on every source, even 1080p. To see the full frame, you have to dig into the screen settings every time and manually switch the format to "stretch to 16:9." It's a detail, but incredibly frustrating. The scaling of content to 4K resolution can be described in one word: acceptable. And that's basically it. The image processor does not strip the image of details, nor does it generate jagged edges or other artifacts. It simply does its job, without any fireworks. It's fine, but nothing more. The biggest and most noticeable shortcoming in the digital processing section is the absence of a banding smoothing function. This is an algorithm that could significantly reduce the annoying banding effect we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not implement such a solution, condemning us to watch the imperfections of the panel and low-quality materials in all their glory.

When it comes to motion fluidity, the television performs really well. Although the S7NQ was mainly designed for displaying static elements – such as images – the manufacturer has utilized a panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. As a result, sports or games look really good on it.

For materials that are not recorded at a high frame rate, the manufacturer provided two features that allow you to adjust the picture to your own preferences. "Motion blur reduction" and "motion smoothing" operate on a 10-level scale, allowing you to choose between a more cinematic image – with characteristic frame jumps – and a smooth effect reminiscent of a "soap opera." How to set this up? That's a personal matter – we leave the decision to you.

The panel in the K85F model operates at a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, which already sets certain expectations for smoothness of the image right from the start. However, we must admit that we were very positively surprised when we found not one, but two separate sliders for motion control in the settings menu: one labeled "Blur Reduction" and the other "De-Judder." Such generosity in this price segment is an absolute rarity, as usually manufacturers offer at most one common option. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm quickly dwindled as fast as it appeared. It soon became clear why Haier was so "generous" – the slider responsible for blur reduction is simply a dummy. Moving it does not produce any visible effect on the screen; thus, only one of the two options actually works.

Even though the S7NQ is an "image" type TV, you can actually play games on it. Really. It has almost everything (except for HGiG mode) that a modern gaming TV needs. The 144 Hz panel and two full-fledged HDMI 2.1 ports allow for seamless connection of two consoles, such as PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S.

The TV supports automatic game mode (ALLM) and frame synchronization (VRR) without any stuttering or issues. It also handles high frame rates at lower resolutions without a hitch. We must commend Hisense for the very attractive Game Bar – it displays all available picture options, and additionally, we have the ability to zoom in on the mini-map or enable a crosshair (because sometimes someone might actually want to "aim" 😉).

The only missing element – as we mentioned earlier – is the lack of a proper implementation of HGiG mode. It is responsible for automatically setting the picture in games as the creators intended. It's a shame because that’s the only thing separating the Hisense S7NQ from being a full-fledged gaming "monster."

Let's move on to the features for gamers, although we must point out right away that this is more of a proposal for "casual" players. The manufacturer boasts in the specifications about the presence of HDMI 2.1 ports, which looks impressive on paper, but in reality, it is largely a marketing gimmick. What good is a modern port when the heart of the television is a panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz? It physically cannot display a signal at 120 frames per second, even at lower resolutions, which takes away HDMI 2.1's most important advantage. That's a shame. (That’s why we mark it as HDMI 2.0 ports in our tests). Another oddity is the television's response to attempts to calibrate HDR from the console. Changes in brightness settings cause very unnatural behavior of the image, which might suggest an incorrect implementation of the HGiG standard. To be honest, however, you shouldn't worry too much about this, because as we have mentioned multiple times, we simply do not recommend using any HDR content on this screen. However, to make it not so bitter, the Haier K85F also has two significant and unexpected advantages. The first is the presence of ALLM, or Auto Low Latency Mode, which switches the television to low latency mode as soon as it detects a connected console. The second, even bigger surprise is support for VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate. Although it works in a very modest range of 48-60 Hz, its very presence is commendable. Thanks to this, the image in games can stutter less, which truly improves the gaming experience.