Unlike previous years in what TV nerds like me call the “brightness wars,” the U7SG doesn’t outblast its predecessor, but it’s not a problem. It gets around three times as bright as anything you can stream (which is naturally capped due to compression), and has enough firepower for all but the flashiest 4K HDR Blu-rays. Its color processing shows a little more restraint than in previous models. It’s not quite what I’d call “accurate to the director’s intent,” like the best TVs I test, but it does keep itself from blasting your eyeballs most of the time.

The high brightness is matched by deep black levels, without much of the “blooming” or “haloing” around bright objects that can dilute the contrast of many budget-friendly TVs. It’s not as striking as OLED TVs, which can control each of their millions of pixels on demand, but it’ll wow you in deep space scenes just the same. I was pleased that the TV’s odd local dimming issue didn’t crop up in real-world content, but the picture does tend to flatten shadows in dark scenes more than expected, even as the matte-like screen does a good job keeping reflections at bay.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

There are some other notable flaws. Moving off to the TV’s side in my easy chair led to dimmer colors, washed-out contrast between the brightest and darkest images, and uneven backlighting, aka the “dirty-screen effect.” That stood out most in the green backdrop of the Masters on Sunday as Rory McIlroy held on for the win. It wasn’t an issue when viewing head-on, but even then, I noticed some dingy yellow lines along the screen’s left and right sides with light backgrounds. (I may not have noticed them much if I hadn’t been bombarding this TV with test content first.)

The U7SG still doesn’t feel quite like a premium model. But it’s a very clear, bright TV, and will feel more like it’s worth the money once RGB shows up on other Hisense models and the price on this one drops. If you want something brighter than a similarly priced OLED like the LG B5, the U7 is a great buy and has a few good upgrades over last year’s U75QG.

We’ll know more about the 2026 TV landscape once the new RGB TVs have landed, but if you need a powerful, classy-looking TV before then, the U7SG should be on your list.