HISENSE 65U7QFTUK Quantum Series 65-inch 4K UHD HDR Smart TV with Freeview play, and Alexa Built-in (2020 series), Operating System VIDAA

Product Information

Watching football with the Sports mode, it comes across like an amorphous blob, the fake crowd noise not helping the overall flatness to the point where it’s difficult to decipher everything the commentators are saying. Their voices rarely sit above the crowd noises. It does, at least, refrain from harsh or shrill tones. The interface is separated into several sections, but apps is where the action is. The app selection is focused rather than bountiful; Netflix has pride of place on the top row and all the UK catch-up apps are covered (as Freeview Play), with Disney+ and Britbox available also. There’s VIDAA Free, which rounds up a selection of free content from the likes of Plex, Vevo, YouTube and Facebook Watch for more options.

Let’s start with the issue that caused the most grief with previous Hisense sets: motion. Initially the U7Q’s motion remained awkward and in Dolby Vision films there was smearing at the slightest of movements. The top-left app on the home screen is Netflix, and it’s rather odd that it’s the only app whose position you can’t change. During setup, we were even presented with a prompt to watch Netflix, making it abundantly clear that the dominant TV streaming service had paid a premium to maintain pride of place on 2020 Hisense TVs. The shape of the stand isn’t conducive to placing a soundbar in front of the unit, unless it’s a compact one. Attaching the stand is easy – simply a case of uniting the three pieces together and screwing the top panel into the TV. There’s a slight give; but the stand isn’t one for swivelling to and fro.If you are an enthusiast you will be aware of the downfalls with LCD technologies and using them in a dark room, and there is no difference here, but as a living room workhorse the Hisense is very good indeed. The vast majority of consumers will never push the U7QF hard enough to really find all the niggles we did and as such it will be a perfect choice for many. Viewing angles do mean it isn’t really suited to those sitting well off-axis, but when sat head on the image performance is very good and on a par with some much more expensive peers. As you can imagine, pricing is one of the most important factors of any purchasing decision. We can find the perfect product for our needs, that fits the brief in every single way. But if it doesn’t fit our budgets, we simply can’t (or at least shouldn’t) buy it.

The first is brand. Looking at the brand of the product is often a really good indicator for judging product quality. For example you’d expect a much higher quality product from a brand known for providing excellent quality than you would from an unknown or even a budget brand. It could be manufacturing them more cheaply. The more efficient a company is at producing a TV, the more cheaply it can sell them while turning a profit. That's why the price of high-end technologies gradually drops. QLED and OLED display were frighteningly expensive at launch, but several years later they are easier to make and more affordable as a result. Practice makes perfect (and cheaper).We watch Spider-man Homecoming on 4K Blu-ray, and even small movements are blurry. There’s smearing in action scenes, but the effect is actually worse during close-up shots. Slight movements of a head, the type of which are frequent in any film or TV show, cause this TV issues. It's a trait that was fairly common of cheaper LCD sets a few years ago, but that we haven't seen for quite a while. The A7GQ also features Hisense’s propriety smart TV system, VIDAA U5.0, as well as Freeview Play with all the UK terrestrial catch-up apps and services. The VIDAA system is intuitive to use and runs at a decent speed from button press to app opening and playing, plus there is Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube in 4K HDR. There is a content discovery feature along with direct one-press buttons on the remote and there is also compatibility with Alexa for voice commands. Whether looking at the dim bulbs of a pub, car headlights gleaming after dark, or the daylight cascading through an office window, this Hisense set was fully able to focus up to 700 nits peak brightness where it mattered, without notable blooming in surrounding pixels. 700 nits isn’t incredibly high, of course, compared to the 1,000-2,000 nits of some new Samsung TVs, but the U7QF knows what to do with what it’s given. Information about the maximum horizontal viewing angle, within which the image on the screen is of acceptable quality.

We’re now onto VIDAA U 5.0 and if there’s a difference between this version and previous one, then I’m not seeing it. That said, despite its plain appearance, there’s no argument about navigation and operation. The VIDAA interface is easy to use and there’s something to be said about an interface that settles for that level of simplicity. Hisense's most high-end TVs have OLED displays - this is where each pixel in the display creates its own light. It tends to mean better contrast and motion control.The ratio between the horizontal and the vertical side of the display. Some of the standard and widely used aspect ratios are 4:3, 5:4, 16:9 and 16:10. Hisense has been making inroads in the UK market with its affordable and feature laden TVs over the past few years, and its latest range is its most ambitious set. As a TV brand with broad market coverage, the company offers an impressive range of models, with everything from premium 8K and OLED sets (both not available in the US) to ultra-affordable basic LED ones with 4K or regular HD resolution screens. The bulk of its offerings are at the budget end of the Smart TV spectrum, however, with the Google, Roku, Android, and Fire TV platforms all represented. Assembly is easy and, like before, there’s a cable clutter system to route cables through the protruding ‘feet’ of the stand for a tidier area. The stand supports the TV well, just like it did on the older model, but it takes up a lot of space.