Hisense 65U7H

Hisense has knocked it out of the park with its 2022 TV lineup thus far. The U8H ($1,399.99 for the 65-inch model) is an incredible value as the company’s 4K flagship, while the U6H ($899.99 for the 65-inch version) offers a very good picture for a much lower price. Meanwhile, the Hisense U7H ($1,199.99 for the 65-inch version we tested), as its name implies, sits between those two Editors’ Choice award winners. We like the U7H's vibrant picture quality, useful gaming features, and ATSC 3.0 support, but it isn't as affordable as the U6H or as bright as the U8H, which makes it slightly less compelling even though it's still a very good TV.

A Bit of Stylish Flair

Surprisingly, the U7H might be the most stylish Hisense TV we've tested recently. It has the same bezel-free design on the sides and top, and just a 0.75-inch bezel on the bottom edge. The bezel consists of a brushed metallic strip with a thinner, beveled black strip underneath. It’s a minor detail, but it gives the TV more flair than the flat bottom bezels on the U6H and U8H without distracting from the picture. It ditches the thin metal band that runs along the sides and top of the U8H, instead electing for a more visually interesting dark plastic border. 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. The TV sits on two wide, V-shaped, gunmetal legs, and it supports VESA wall mounts.

The power cable plugs into a port on the right side of the back and faces right. All other connections sit on the left side and face left, including four HDMI ports (two 4K120, one eARC); a USB 3.0 port; three 3.5mm ports for composite video input, headphone output, and service; and an antenna/cable connector. An Ethernet port, a USB 2.0 port, and an optical audio output face directly back, which makes them slightly less convenient to access.

The remote is the same one you get with the U6H and U8H. It’s a rectangular black wand with a large, white, circular navigation pad near the top. Google Assistant, Input, Menu, Power, and User buttons sit above the pad, along with a combination pinhole microphone and LED indicator. Playback controls, volume and channel rockers, Back and Home buttons, and dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, Peacock, Tubi, and YouTube reside below the pad.

Google TV With Hands-Free Google Assistant

Like the U6H and U8H, the U7H uses the Google TV interface. It’s a powerful smart TV platform that covers all major streaming services including Apple TV+, Hulu, and Twitch. It also supports Google Cast for streaming video from your Android device or Chrome tab. Hisense plans to add Apple AirPlay support in the future.

Google TV enables the Google Assistant voice assistant, and the U7H’s far-field microphone lets you use it without hands. Google Assistant can control both the TV and any compatible smart home devices on your network. It can also help you find content to watch, provide general information (such as the weather forecast), and perform a variety of other tasks. If you don’t want your TV to always listen for a wake word, you can turn off hands-free Google Assistant via the settings or manually toggle the privacy switch on the microphone array. In either case, you can still use Google Assistant by pressing its button on the remote and speaking into it.

Potent Picture Performance

The Hisense U7H is a 4K TV with a 120Hz refresh rate. It supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and hybrid log gamma (HLG). This model also features an ATSC 3.0 tuner—a rarity in this price range.

We test TVs with a Klein K-80 colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman software. The U7H’s contrast performance falls squarely between the U6H and U8H, almost at the halfway point between the two other models. With an SDR signal in Filmmaker mode, the 65U7H shows a peak brightness of 491 nits with a full-screen white field and 555 nits with an 18% white field. With an HDR signal, peak brightness jumps to 622 nits for a full-screen white field and 1,056 nits for an 18% white field, which, combined with an 0.01cd/m^2 black level, results in an excellent 105,600:1 contrast ratio. 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). Hitting 1,000 nits with HDR is excellent because most consumer HDR10 content is mastered with that light level in mind, though the U8H and the much pricier Samsung QN90B (with a peak brightness of 1,726 nits) are more eye-catching and show greater contrast.

Color performance is excellent, and in line with the similarly impressive range and accuracy from the Hisense U6H and U8H. The above charts show the U8H’s color levels in Filmmaker mode with an SDR signal compared against Rec.709 broadcast standards, and with an HDR signal compared against DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. SDR colors are nearly perfect, with greens just a touch oversaturated. Magentas and yellows also run just slightly warm, but not to a significant degree. HDR colors cover almost the entire DCI-P3 color space. Greens fall just slightly short, while cyans and magentas skew a bit green and red respectively. In both cases, the white balance in Filmmaker Mode is just about perfect. Out of the box, the colors on the U7H are excellent, with whites that are more spot-on than the U8H but with a slightly lower color range.

The greens of plants in BBC’s Planet Earth II look natural and varied, as do the blues of the sky and water. Fine detail like fur comes through clearly in a variety of lighting situations, with direct sunlight looking properly bright and shade looking dark and clear. Colors stay fairly accurate when you view the TV from off-angles, but the contrast visibly diminishes and causes the picture to look a bit washed out. The U8H also has some color fade with off-angle viewing, but this effect isn’t quite as prominent.

In the overcast opening scenes of Deadpool, the red of Deadpool’s costume looks well saturated and accurate when you view it straight-on and stays balanced when you view it from the side. In the burning lab fight, the flames look bright and relatively varied with different yellows and oranges, while shadow details come through clearly in the same frames as the fire.

In the starkly contrasting party scenes of The Great Gatsby, the cuts and contours of black suits come through clearly against the stark whites of balloons and shirts; they show strong detail without appearing washed out. They aren’t as dark as they are on the U8H, but they look quite good. Skin tones also appear accurate and nicely saturated against the various white and black elements in the frame.

Low Lag, Good Gaming Features

Gamers should be pleased with the U7H. Besides its 120Hz refresh rate, it features auto low latency mode (ALLM), variable refresh rate (VRR), AMD FreeSync Premium, and Dolby Vision Gaming. It’s quite responsive as well; using an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix, we measured an input lag of 7.8 milliseconds in Game mode, just slightly lower than the U8H’s 8.1ms latency. Both models fall under the 10ms threshold we require for consideration for our best TVs for gaming roundup.

If you want much better input lag, you need to spend substantially more. The LG C2 and Samsung QN90B have 1.5ms and 1.4ms latency, respectively, but they can also easily cost twice as much as the U7H.

A Good TV That's Stuck in the Middle

The Hisense U7H is an excellent TV and a fantastic value, especially if you can find it for below its suggested retail price. However, it sits in an unenviable space between its two Editors' Choice-winning siblings. 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. The U8H, meanwhile, is much brighter than the, offers even better picture quality, and retains all of the features from the U7H. TCL’s 4K Google TV 6-Series ($949.99 for the 65-inch variant) remains another strong alternative. And if you want to splurge, the LG C2 ($2,499.99 for the 65-inch version) isn’t nearly as bright as the U7H, but its OLED technology offers an incredibly lifelike picture.