Hisense 75U9DG Review | PCMag

It’s easy to think that OLED or MicroLED / DVLED is the future of TV technology, as most major manufacturers focus on this, but Hisense is moving in a different direction to offer the best possible picture on its flagship screen. The 75U9DG uses what the company calls “dual cell” technology, which lays two LCD displays on top of each other on an LED matrix backlight system to control how much light comes out much more accurately than a single LCD and LED array can. The results are impressive, with near-OLED contrast levels, while offering peak brightness far higher than an OLED panel can reach, and supporting a lot of detail across the board, at a much lower cost than any MicroLED or DVLED TV. Hisense 75U9DG is still quite expensive at $ 2,999.99 and only available in 75 inches, but there is no denying that its picture quality is fantastic, winning the award for choosing editors for large screen TVs and our TechX Award for its innovative dual panel technology.

Big beauty

75U9DG takes its stylish designer replicas from Hisense U8G. The top and sides of the screen are framed by a barely black band, just like the U8G, and the screen is placed on identical gray triangular metal legs. The big addition to the design of the 75U9DG is the beveled silver bar at the bottom of the screen. It’s more perfect than the U8G’s narrower panel and complements the look of the TV without looking distracting, although it doesn’t seem to have any purpose. As long as the frame is covered with holes in the grille, no sound actually comes out of them; a speaker and a full-range speaker for each channel are mounted internally near the front of the panel, while two subwoofer drivers sit exposed on the back. A narrow black bar below the silver bar holds the microphones in the far field of the TV, along with a switch to deactivate them.

(Photo: Will Greenwald)

In addition to the right power cord port, all connections on the 75U9DG are located on the left side of the back of the TV. Four HDMI ports (one eARC, two 4K120), two USB ports (one USB 3.0), 3.5 mm composite video input, 3.5 mm headphone jack and antenna / cable connector on the left. Optical audio output, Ethernet port and 3.5 mm ports for serial and service face directly on the back. A four-way joystick for navigating menus, adjusting the volume, and using the remote search function is located in the lower left corner.

The remote is identical to the one included in the U8G. Instead of using a little metal or a thinner profile to give the remote a more superior feel, this is a plain black plastic rectangle covered with rubber buttons. This is not a big loss; it is still thoughtful and easy to use without looking at it, thanks to a prominent, easy-to-find round navigation button at the top. The power, login, and Google Now buttons are located above the pad, while the menu buttons, volume and channel keys, and special service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Disney +, Netflix, Peacock, Tubi, and YouTube sit below it. At the top of the remote there is a hole with a microphone, a bell for the Remote Finder function and an LED indicator. It connects to the TV via Bluetooth, so you don’t have to point it directly at the screen when using it.

(Photo: Will Greenwald)

Android TV with Google Handsfree Assistant

The 75U9DG runs on Google’s powerful and feature-rich Android TV platform. It has a large application ecosystem with almost all major ones streaming services including Amazon Prime TV, Apple TV, Disney +, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Twitch and of course YouTube. Android TV also has Google Cast, so you can reflect the screen of your Android phone or tablet or any Chrome tab to your TV.

In addition, Android TV includes Google Assistant, Google’s voice assistant. The 75U9DG’s far-field microphones allow you to call Google Assistant just by saying “Hey, Google” and then a command without touching the microphone (although you can deactivate the TV’s hands-free microphone and access the voice assistant by press and hold the Google Now button and talk on the remote if you are concerned about privacy). Google Now lets you control your TV directly, search content across multiple services, get general information like weather and sports forecasts, and control smart home devices. This is a powerful and easy-to-use voice assistant, and the 75U9DG’s hands-free function allows you to treat the TV as smart display.

However, Android TV is not Google’s latest smart TV platform. Google TV was introduced on Chromecast With Google TV and is used on current Sony TVs. It provides a more streamlined, content-oriented, but Google regularly updates Android TV to make its own interface more intuitive. However, Android TV and Google TV have exactly the same features and you don’t really miss anything but a little more attractive menus.

The power of two-cell technology

75U9DG is an LCD TV with LED backlight and 4K native resolution and refresh rate 120Hz. It maintains a high dynamic range (HDR) content in Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10 + and hybrid registration range (HLG).

We test TVs with a Colorimeter Klein K-80, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Calman software for portrait displays using a methodology based on Imaging Science Foundation calibration techniques.

As mentioned, the 75U9DG is unique and intriguing due to its panel technology. Instead of using one LCD panel with LED backlight, it uses two LCD panels stacked on top of each other above the backlight. The top panel forms the 4K picture, focusing on color control at the pixel level, while the second layer serves as a filter for more precise adjustment of contrast and light than dimming LED arrays alone can do. According to Hisense, this means that the 75U9DG effectively has 2,000,000 local dimming zones, while single-panel LCD TVs have hundreds or thousands.

The design of the 75U9DG’s dual panel means it can become very bright, offering almost OLED levels in black. Outside the box, with an SDR signal in Theater Day mode, the TV shows a peak brightness of 352.374cd / m ^ 2 with a white field in full screen. This is not innovative, but explodes to 933.345cd / m ^ 2 with 18% white field and shows a black level of only 0.007cd / m ^ 2.

The numbers are even more impressive with an HDR signal in HDR Theater mode. The peak brightness of full screen is only 424.146cd / m ^ 2, but with a field of 18% the TV can reach a peak brightness of 1189.234cd / m ^ 2. With a black level of 0.006 cd / m ^ 2, for an effective contrast ratio of 198,206: 1. This is one of the best contrast ratios we’ve seen on a non-OLED TV, surpassed only by TCL 65R648 (600,000, but after hitting six digits, you encounter black levels so low and / or brightness so high that effective contrast differences become drastically harder to see). There was also no noticeable bright bloom with my 18% fields or other white boxes on a black background. This is a common problem for solid state backlit LED TVs and proves how well the two-cell concept works.

The 75U9DG also impresses with its color rendering. The diagrams above show the color levels of the TV with SDR signal in Theater Day mode compared to the standard Rec.709 color space and with HDR signal in HDR Theater mode compared to the DCI-P3 digital cinema color space. While whites deviate slightly to yellow-green and purples bend slightly to red, all primary colors, along with cyan and yellow, hit their targets almost perfectly in both cases. The TV almost flawlessly covers the DCI-P3 color space outside the box, only more accurate than the best white LG C1P.

BBC Planet Earth II looks great on the 75U9DG. The green plants and the blue of the sky and the water look rich and varied. Fine details such as fur and scales can be clearly seen both brightly lit by the sun and in a dark shade. The TV shows very strong contrast and a wide range of colors with this type of 4K HDR natural content. I will note that at first the picture looked a bit blurry in Theater Day mode, as Active Contrast mode is off by default; setting it to medium or high results in a much brighter, visually more attractive (if potentially less accurate) picture.

Deadpool looks similarly striking to the 75U9DG. The red of Deadpool’s costume looks bright and precise even in the relatively cool cloudy lighting of the opening scenes. Later, in the burning laboratory battle, the flames look very bright, while in the same frame many shadowy details can be seen.

The excellent contrast of the 75U9DG comes especially The Great Gatsby. The dark black and white from the party scenes also shines, with pop-up white balloons and jackets, while the cuts and textures of the black costumes are easily distinguished without looking washed out from a distance.

Good for games

75U9DG is not lazy when it comes to games. The 120Hz TV has an automatic low latency mode (ALLM), variable refresh rate (VRR) and AMD FreeSync.

Using an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix to measure input delay, the 75U9DG showed a lag of just 6 milliseconds in game mode. This responsiveness is sufficient to consider the 75U9DG as one of the the best gaming TVs. Just make sure you’re in the right mode when you’re playing, as the delay jumps to 114.3 ms in Theater Day mode.

The best LED TV

Hisense 75U9DG is a really impressive TV. It is large and bright, but can also produce deep blacks for exceptional contrast and many details. Its color performance is just as impressive, and Android TV means it has many features, including Google Handsfree Assistant. This is the best LED TV we’ve tested, and worthy of our editors’ choice for its fantastic picture quality, while its dual-cell panel has won our TechX Award for its innovative approach to technology display.

If you are looking for screen options beyond 75 inches, LG C1 and Sony A90J They are available in sizes from 48 to 83 inches, although they are more expensive and although their OLED panels produce infinite contrast thanks to the perfect black levels, they can not become almost as bright as 75U9DG. The Hisense U8G the series is also an excellent choice for a small part of the price, although its color and contrast do not reach the levels of 75U9DG. TCL 4K series 6 is another strong option for a reasonable price while 8K series 6 offers an even better picture and 8K resolution.