It’s just over half as bright as the U8H (1,982 nits with an 18% white field in HDR), but almost twice as bright as the U6H (588 nits). Motion is decent on the U7K with no obvious issues encountered playing 24fps material which is displayed with the correct pulldown applied, and 50Hz broadcast is also decent with no obvious frame skipping or micro stutters seen. Quicker access to your favourite content from Disney +, Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, Freeview Play, and more is made possible with the user-friendly and customizable VIDAA U7 Smart TV OS. There are also direct-access buttons for various VOD services at the bottom of the unit, which fits neatly in the hand and is easy to use. The U6H is far less expensive and offers strong performance, even if it doesn’t get nearly as bright as the U7H and lacks a 120Hz refresh rate.

Despite achieving some success last year, the Chinese manufacturer has opted to ditch OLED for 2020, but claims its cheaper ULED technology is more than a match, particularly when it comes to contrast. Of all the TV's sound modes, Theatre gives the best possible sense of space and, even if weightless and uninspiring, at least the dialogue and the rest of the audio is easy to hear. We didn’t notice any trailing of fast-moving objects and motion was also decent with only the odd frame skip visible when looking for it. This picture quality isn’t as good as what I’d imagined it would be after spending so much on a tv, leading my wife to question whether it was bot working properly. It promises over one billion colours through its Quantum Dot Colour system and claims a contrast performance equal to OLED.

In either case, you can still use Google Assistant by pressing its button on the remote and speaking into it. Bass performance was lacking as you would expect and there is no easy way to add an external subwoofer to the TV.

That’s a lot of screen real estate for affordable pricing, so the performance needs to live up to the promise, a promise last year’s UK units disingenuously squandered by carrying the same SKU numbers as more impressive global models from the company before revealing themselves as under-specced. com and PC Magazine are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. The Hisense U7K offers up good accuracy for SDR and HDR content but it is not for critical movie watching in a dark room due to the limitations of the LCD technology and the lack of real dynamic range for HDR. The Hisense U7K design is really quite surprising with a neat and tidy look that uses decent materials to give a more expensive feel.Watching SDR TV and film content on the U7K in a normal well-lit living room poses no problems at all and images look natural and colourful. Everything is tested by our dedicated team of in-house reviewers in our custom-built test rooms in London, Reading and Bath. The usual Gravity torture test (Sandra Bullock floating off into the darkness of space surrounded in stars) catches it out with lots of star crushing present, but we didn’t expect it to pass that test anyway. A trapezoidal protrusion under the bottom bezel holds the TV’s infrared sensor, far-field microphone array, mic mute switch, and four Google Assistant indicator LEDs. Ultra-precise variable refresh rate (VRR), and auto low latency mode (ALLM) come together at an astounding 144Hz for a smooth gaming experience that’ll remain competitive for years.

We have had issues in previous years with the software not being 100% and adjustments not being made correctly. As ever, it makes for a usable EPG and a decent set of catch-up services, however, the VIDAA U4 Smart TV operating system comes up short on apps. The TV uses a dynamic algorithm designed for moving objects to detect even the minute details and eliminate unwanted noise.

You have all of the major apps such as Netflix, Rakuten, Prime Video, Britbox and YouTube and in 4K HDR for those capable. We did encounter some very mild DSE (Dirty Screen Effect) on occasions and some banding when the image panned across a single colour background, such as with some shots in live football games. Additionally, the mini-LEDs emit light in a line, instead of a diffuse cone which also improves precision. However, the Hisense U7K does have too much brightness applied to any bright objects or backgrounds over a 10% area of the screen, so content then looks washed out, clipped and over-bright.