You should wait on the Hisense U7SG

With all of the focus on RGB LED technology, it seemed like more affordable mini-LED TVs had been shooed to the side. But with the Hisense U7SG, we’re getting our first great midrange general-use TV of 2026. It gets bright, comes in a wide range of sizes, supports every HDR mode you’ll ever need, has great gaming support, and runs on Google TV — my favorite built-in OS, and much better than those from LG and Samsung.

It’s a great living room TV, but you shouldn’t buy it yet.

For years, the U7 series has been sandwiched between the U8 and U6 as a capable midrange option. But this year, the U8 moves into the RGB LED lineup as the UR8. This leaves the U7SG as Hisense’s top mini-LED TV and pits it against the upcoming TCL QM7 and QM8, both of which will use the super quantum dots introduced with the X11L. That’s going to be some tough competition, and it’s worth waiting to see how it shakes out. Plus, Hisense prices always go down significantly after a couple months. The 65-inch U75QG was released for $1,500 a year ago, but was down to $1,000 by the end of that May and now sells for $700. If that pattern holds, the U7SG will be a great deal — in a couple months.

The Hisense U7SG features many of the same specs of last year’s U75QG. It can reach 3,000 nits peak brightness, has up to 3,000 dimming zones (that number certainly goes down with screen size), has a 165Hz native refresh panel with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro adaptive sync, and supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ dynamic formats as well as IMAX Enhanced. It has four HDMI 2.1 ports and a backlit remote. I tested the 65-inch version that retails for $1,500; it’s available in sizes ranging from 55 to 116 inches with MSRP from $1,300 to $20,000 — although those prices will plummet by early summer.

The picture windows on one side of our living room let in lots of the year-round Los Angeles sunshine, and never once did I find myself straining to see anything I was watching on the U7SG. I measured a peak brightness of 2,992 nits from a measurement standard 10 percent window in Filmmaker mode (the most accurate on the U7SG), which is more than enough to allow specular highlights to pop. I expect the TCL QM7L will be similarly bright when it comes out in a few months. But the Hisense is brighter than last year’s TCL QM7K by more than 600 nits, as well as any of last year’s OLEDs, making it great for a room bathed in light.

The color on the Hisense, again in Filmmaker mode, overall is very good. The battle on The Sovereign during the opening credits of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is awash with bright fire, multicolored explosions, and a cacophony of color behind Groot’s dancing to Electric Light Orchestra. and it’s a visual assault in the best way possible. With more subtle, realistic scenes like those in Ford v Ferrari, I could see some minor issues in the yellows, oranges, and browns of the desert scenes, which aren’t quite as saturated as they should be. Most won’t notice or be bothered, but I’ve watched those scenes often enough to be able to tell they were a little off.

The color temperature is also a little too cool — or blue — with the default Warm1 setting, especially as the picture gets whiter. Usually I would switch to the next warmer option to move the color temp more toward red, but for some reason the Warm2 setting is cooler than Warm1 (I thought this was an issue with my review unit, but Hisense told me it’s intentional). The slightly cooler image didn’t bother me — and many people prefer it — but those intent on accuracy should take note.

Every mini-LED TV struggles with light blooming. Hisense has improved its blooming control quite a bit over the past few years, and the U7SG is less susceptible than last year’s U75QG, but there’s still a subtle glow around things like fireworks or subtitles with black backgrounds. This becomes more apparent when off angle, causing the blooming to look more gray. If reduced blooming or a wide viewing angle is important to you, the better choice is of course an OLED (the 65-inch LG C5 is a little less than the U7SG right now), but you will sacrifice overall brightness.

One of the most visible improvements is the U7SG’s reflection handling. Last year’s glossy anti-reflection panel did a pretty good job dealing with ambient lighting, but the TV now has a more matte panel. Light reflections from direct sources, such as lamps or ceiling lights, are noticeably dimmer and the light doesn’t spread much across the screen or cause rainbows. I didn’t see any significant black level raise — where the ambient light causes the black level of the display to get slightly brighter — which was an issue with early implementations of more matte anti-reflection designs.

For gamers, the U7SG has a native 165Hz panel and with a PC it supports that refresh rate at 4K. While playing F1 24 and Red Dead Redemption 2, motion was smooth and I didn’t see any screen tearing. With a few clicks of the remote, you can access the Game Bar overlay, which lets you adjust gaming-specific settings, including toggling FreeSync, checking the refresh rate, or adding an aim crosshair.

The Hisense U7SG runs on Google TV, and I didn’t run into any issues while using it. Apps loaded quickly (I primarily used YouTube, Disney Plus, and HBO Max) and there wasn’t any lag while navigating.

The Hisense U7SG is very similar to its predecessor, the U75QG, with the same level of brightness performance, color accuracy, and most supported features — such as dynamic HDR support, native refresh rate, and Google TV. Its improvements to its blooming control (while still far from OLED) and anti-reflection screen make it an even better TV for a bright room. If brightness isn’t a concern, at the moment both the LG C5 and Samsung S90F OLEDs are slightly cheaper than the Hisense and are more accurate. Don’t expect that price difference to last, though, as Hisense TV prices drop soon after release.

As great as the U7SG is, there’s good reason to wait a few months before buying. We don’t know how well mini-LED TVs such as the TCL QM8L and QM7L, both expected within the next couple months, will compare on price and performance, not to mention their upcoming RGB LED competitors. And right now, you can get last year’s U75QG at half the price. Even with its improvements to reflection and blooming control, the U7SG isn’t worth paying double. But once prices come down in a few months, and we get a better sense of how the Hisense stacks up to this year’s competitors, the U7SG could very well be the best bright-room TV you can get for the money.

Photography by John Higgins / The Verge