The Hisense UR9 is a brilliant first shot towards OLED’s bow

RGB LED TVs were the controversy of the TV global this yr, with fashions coming from all of the producers, and the primary one among 2026 is right here — the Hisense UR9. It’s the primary have a look at the viability of the brand new backlight generation outdoor of demo rooms, and it’s a step above the normal mini-LED TVs of years previous. HDR is colourful and correct, it has nice brightness, and it’s able to appearing colours past the P3 colour area for films and TV displays that experience wider colour. However at $3,500, the 65-inch style I reviewed is priced comparably to high-end OLEDs from LG and Samsung, which is hard festival.

Hisense launched the first actual RGB LED TV ultimate yr, the $30,000 116-inch Hisense 116UX, so it’s no longer too unexpected that its top-end fashions, the UR9 and UR8, are RGB LED TVs and no longer conventional mini LED (you want to step right down to the U7SG for that). It’s additionally the primary corporate to free up a extra reasonably priced 2026 style, but it surely’s nonetheless costlier than the flagship mini-LED TVs of ultimate yr, just like the TCL QM9K.

The Hisense UR9 is to be had in 4 sizes: 65 inches ($3,500), 75 inches ($5,000), 85 inches ($6,000), and 100 inches ($9,000). This places it in direct festival with flagship OLED presentations from LG and Samsung, and is a excessive bar for the UR9 and another RGB LED TV. I were given a have a look at the 65-inch selection.

The 65-inch UR9 is 1.8 inches thick throughout the entire chassis and makes use of a pedestal stand. Just like the U8QG ultimate yr, the Hisense UR9 has handiest 3 HDMI 2.1 inputs. Its fourth enter is a USB-C DisplayPort connection, which is positioned alongside the left fringe of the TV as a substitute of with the opposite connections at the again. I’m no longer keen on this placement as a result of if you wish to have your laptop regularly attached to the TV, the cable is obviously visual. The TV helps 180Hz local refresh fee, AMD Freesync Top class Professional, HDR 10+, and Dolby Imaginative and prescient. A long term replace will allow Dolby Imaginative and prescient 2, however we’re no longer going to look any Dolby Imaginative and prescient 2 content material to be had for some time.

One of the vital touted advantages of RGB LED TVs is their skill to succeed in one hundred pc of the BT.2020 colour area. That’s speaking about chromaticity, which is in accordance with saturation and hue and is unbiased of brightness (or luminance). You could have noticed colour area triangles on a CIE 1931 diagram. However what this chart doesn’t display us is how colours carry out throughout other brightness ranges, or in our residing rooms. (For a deep dive in this, Caleb Denison launched a very good video a pair weeks in the past.)

Additionally, nearly all of HDR content material makes use of the P3 colour area, which is smaller than BT.2020. So even supposing a TV is able to extending past P3 and into BT.2020 colours (which the UR9 completely is), with maximum films and TV displays it doesn’t topic. It’s additionally a little bit of a chicken-or-the-egg scenario — we want TVs that may appropriately show BT.2020 earlier than the colour area is absolutely followed via TV and film creators, but when there’s no content material, why get a BT.2020 TV?

Now, whilst it’s relatively no longer so much, there’s some nice video in the market that extends past the P3 colour area and into BT.2020 colours. One instance is the BBC documentary collection Planet Earth II, which I watched with a Kaleidescape Strato E participant. Episode 3 seems to be on the jungles of the sector, and the vegetables of the bushes specifically regarded extremely colourful at the Hisense UR9. There’s additionally a section about hummingbirds in Ecuador that displays off the dazzling colours of the tiny creatures, which the UR9 treated rather well. It’s on par with what I noticed at the $7,000 TCL X11L, and a extra colourful image than I’ve noticed from OLEDs just like the LG G5 or Sony Bravia 8 II. With none movement repayment, there used to be some judder because the digicam panned during the jungle. Converting the movement environment to Movie helped to easy that out with out giving it an unnatural impact.

One of the vital attainable problems with RGB LED TVs is colour crosstalk, one thing that LG Show — significantly a maker of OLED panels — made a video about again in December. An instance might be when any individual is strolling previous a colourful mural and the purple from the art work reasons the individual’s face to appear a little bit purple, which then adjustments to be reasonably blue once they cross the blue a part of the mural. I didn’t see this occur at the UR9 with any of the fabric I watched.

The rationale at the back of this might be one among two chances: very good processing and colour clear out efficiency able to deftly delineating side-by-side colours, or the backlight as a substitute the usage of white gentle and depending only at the colour clear out when the onscreen colour data will get too difficult. The second one possibility principally negates the advantage of having person purple, inexperienced, and blue diodes, with the TV functioning as a blue or white backlit mini-LED TV, however the one option to know evidently is to take the TV aside and glance simply at what the backlight is doing. When it comes right down to it, regardless that, what issues is how the image seems to be, and the UR9 seems to be in point of fact just right in HDR.

OLED nonetheless has a large merit over RGB LED with some of the essential specifications: distinction. Distinction is extra essential to our eyes than colour (it’s one of the vital first belongings you be informed right through calibration coaching). It permits us to understand intensity, motion, and form, and has been essential to our life as a species — and to our enjoyment of films, TV, and artwork. RGB LED TVs nonetheless use LCD panels, handiest the backlight machine has been progressed, and with that comes the inherent LCD drawbacks of sunshine blooming and extra restricted viewing angles. The UR9 handles either one of those problems neatly (despite the fact that I feel TCL nonetheless has a slight merit with blooming keep an eye on), however OLED nonetheless wins. And on account of its pixel-level keep an eye on, OLED nonetheless delivers higher total image high quality.

Then there’s worth. With the 65-inch UR9 beginning at $3,500, Hisense has situated its flagship without delay towards top-end OLEDs from Samsung and LG — either one of that are priced at $3,400 for a similar 65-inch measurement.

Hisense has traditionally been more cost effective than Samsung, LG, and Sony for like applied sciences, in order that may imply that costs on similar RGB LEDs from the ones firms will are available above the UR9, however I don’t assume so — excluding Sony, which nearly definitely would be the costliest of the bunch, and feature the most efficient processing to fortify the associated fee. If the flagship RGB LED TVs from LG and Samsung are equivalent to or costlier than the Hisense UR9, it manner the ones firms are striking RGB above their very own OLED TVs. Particularly with LG, the chief in OLED gross sales for greater than a decade, it will be a shocking transfer.

And there’s nonetheless the step-down fashions from Hisense and Samsung, the Hisense UR8 and Samsung R85H, which can be within the $2,000-or-under vary for the 55-inch measurement. However that once more places them up without delay towards midrange OLED fashions just like the LG C6, which gained’t get as vibrant because the RGB LED TVs, however nonetheless has pixel-level keep an eye on and very good distinction.

The sector of TVs in 2026 is beautiful thrilling. The accuracy of presentations throughout worth levels and manufactures is nearer than it’s ever been, and we’re proceeding to get new inventions like RGB LED. That crowded marketplace manner it’s arduous to suit RGB LED TVs someplace that is sensible. They carry out higher than common mini-LED TVs and can completely overtake them (OLED continues to be out of achieve), but it surely gained’t be till 2027 on the earliest.

For now, I’d nonetheless simply purchase an OLED. However the way forward for RGB LED TVs is taking a look vibrant.

Images via John Higgins / The Verge