Hisense 55E7NQTUK Pro

Verdict

Not the brightest HDR performance for the money but the Hisense E7N Pro offers good value (at its discounted price) with its gaming features, interface, and overall specification. It does face tough competition from the likes of TCL and Samsung.

Introduction

In terms of price, the E7N Pro is one of Hisense’s less expensive Mini LED screens but it’s not skimming on features as it backs plenty of value into its 55-inch frame.

The 55E7NQTUK is a QLED TV with a full array local-dimming panel, premium gaming features, wide-ranging HDR support, as well as one of the first TVs to include Freely.

If you’re looking for a TV that covers a wide range of bases, the E7N Pro is one to inspect closer, especially if you find it at its discounted £699 asking price.

Design

• Quick to assemble
• Smart looks

The 55E7NQTUK has feet at either side of the TV, which aren’t adjustable so you’ll need a wide berth to plant this TV on. It’s relatively easy and quick to set this Hisense up, so it passes in terms of accessibility.

It’s a smart-looking TV despite its plastic chassis with nicely thin-looking bezel that edges the screen. Its backside is a fairly chunky one, presumably to accommodate its built-in subwoofer.

Sizes start at 43-inches and go as big as 100-inches.

Operating System

• Freely support
• Paid for and free apps
• Responsive interface

The interface is the same as the one found on the Hisense U7N. Content is organised into rows and you can scroll down to see the many other rows that populate the VIDAA interface (including a new section called VIDAA Kids). Whether it’s a premium subscription-based app or a free one, there’s a huge amount of content to peruse and lag is barely noticeable if apparent at all.

The 55E7NQTUK is one of the first TVs to hit the UK with the Freely service, which effectively replaces Freeview Play on a number of sets. Unlike Freeview Play, you don’t need an aerial as Freely gets its content direct from the Internet.

All the UK catch-up and on-demand apps are covered, with the main apps served by being integrated into the EPG. You can jump from the TV guide into the app, but you’ll need to sign-in/have an account first. Weirdly, even though Freely doesn’t need an aerial for set-up, it still perfoms an autoscan as if it were connected to an aerial and you need to sign up to terms and conditions before you can start viewing.

The remote control isn’t the same solar-charging one that comes with the U7N. In fact it’s the same one as on the 2023 U6K, which means it’s big and on the chunky side but the buttons are laid out well enough, and it’s nice enough to use.

Features

• Full HDR support
• 144Hz refresh rates
• HDMI 2.1 support

Like the U7N, the E7N Pro carries all the HDR formats you need. There’s Dolby Vision IQ, HLG, HDR10 and HDR10+. From the apps I used, all were covered for Dolby Vision and Atmos support, plus there’s Filmmaker mode with automatic switching in Prime Video.

The 40W sound system can decode Dolby Atmos and DTS: Virtual:X soundtracks. It can output Atmos sound but you’d be better off having an external sound system for a spatial audio experience.

For gamers, the feature-set is practically a mirror of what you get on the U7N. ALLM is available across all HDMI inputs, plus VRR support on a couple of HDMI inputs, with AMD FreeSync Premium (not the Pro version) supported. Input lag is the same as the U7N at 13.1ms, so you are getting a similar spec for less. Obviously picture and audio will vary.

All the HDMI inputs are rated to the 2.1 standard – but you’re only able to get higher refresh rates on a couple of HDMI inputs.

Otherwise there are two USB inputs (2.0 and 3.0), Ethernet, two RF inputs, CI+ 2.0 slot, digital optical out, 3.5mm audio output, sub-out, headphone out and an AV composite input. Wi-Fi (AirPlay 2) and Bluetooth complete the connectivity options – it’s exactly the same as on the U7N.

Picture Quality

• Steady upscaling
• Good motion processing
• Limited brightness

So far it’s been a case of following in the footsteps of the U7N for the E7N Pro, so if you were a betting person, you might wager picture performance to be similar. For better and worse, that’s the case with the Hisense E7N Pro.

The panel is, again, not the best quality. There’s visible backlight bleed in a stream of Mr Robot on ITVX; viewing angles aren’t the widest and fade as soon as I move about.

The E7N Pro doesn’t escape the Dirty Screen Effect either, so there’s a lack of uniformity to colours. The screen is very reflective in a bright room too, which distracts with dark scenes.

Dark room viewing doesn’t inspire much confidence – blacks are grey and lacking depth. Night time scenes in Mr Robot can look rather hazy in a manner that makes me wonder whether this is necessarily a FALD panel. I counted about 28 dimming zones (possibly more), so this isn’t the most advanced backlight.

Peak brightness is limited with Standard mode registering 194 nits on a 5% window, and full screen brightness tilting at 391 nits. A TV needs around 500 nits to give HDR its due, and the lack of outright brightness hampers the array of colours that the QLED screen can show.

There are moments where bright scenes can pop, for a lack of a better word – the red, orange, and yellow hues of explosion in The Girl in the Spider’s Web looks very nice in terms of colour range, while the red hues in nightclub scenes stand out well, but highlights don’t shine, making for a flat-looking image.

With Dune: Part Two, the E7N Pro struggles to fully describe the richness of the rust red desert – there’s a slight washed out look to its image and when off-axis, blacks tend to veer towards magenta. There are also moments where the sand dunes carry a slight green tone to them.

When it needs to go deep black, the Hisense leans to a black/grey appearance which hampers contrast, but for a 55-inch screen its levels of sharpness and detail satisfy.

At least with lower resolution content it boasts a healthy upscaling performance. In a Blu-ray of Pacific Rim the Hisense conjures up good levels of clarity, detail, and sharpness. The colour performance is well-judged and balanced – it’s perhaps not the punchiest performance but colours look good in Cinema mode and feel true to what was intended.

The TV offers good fine detail levels with textures and character’s faces without looking fuzzy or edgy – it’s a good overall image, very solid as far as upscaling 1080p content goes.

In a DVD of Sherlock Holmes, the Hisense E7N Pro handles black levels well enough though there’s not much detail in those blacks, which suggests the TV might be crushing them. But there are good levels of detail with clothing and environments, the clarity of the upscaling means it’s not too blurry with low resolution content – edges are solidly defined and there’s a satisfying level of detail in close ups of faces. Yes it lacks overall sharpness, but that’s par for the course. The Hisense is a pretty good TV for upscaling.

And the good news continues with its motion performance. With the Smooth setting there’s some slight judder and the Soap Opera Effect is prominent – the image loses its sharpness though it remains stable. Standard offers a nice balance between Smooth and the step down Clear preset with more stability and less judder.

I have no problems with the Clear setting whatsoever, and if you were to use the Ultra Smooth Motion setting, this is the one I’d vouch for. Film offers a 24fps style performance for the home cinema devotees eyeing this TV.

Sound Quality

• Dolby Atmos support
• Clear dialogue

Like the U7N, the Hisense E7N Pro proves to be good with vocal clarity in a series like The Acolyte. Given the wide range of different voices in the series, it reproduces dialogue cleanly and places it in the appropriate position on screen. In its Theatre mode it sounds a bit thin and lacking weight but I’d accept that over a lack of clarity.

The soundstage is solidly wide and there’s decent dynamism and detail that the TV can output. Tracking sounds across the soundstage is fine too, though again there’s a lack of weight and punch to the TV’s sound.

There is some bass and while it sounds hollow and lacking in depth, I don’t find it too bad for a screen of this size, especially with a film such as Dune Part Two. At the top end of the frequency range there’s clarity and detail. It’s a better performance than I had expected.

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