The Hisense UR9 is a good first shot in opposition to OLED’s bow

RGB LED TVs have been the discuss of the TV world this 12 months, with fashions coming from all of the producers, and the primary considered one of 2026 is right here — the Hisense UR9. It’s the primary have a look at the viability of the brand new backlight expertise outdoors of demo rooms, and it’s a step above the standard mini-LED TVs of years previous. HDR is colourful and correct, it has nice brightness, and it’s able to displaying colours past the P3 coloration area for films and TV reveals which have wider coloration. However at $3,500, the 65-inch mannequin I reviewed is priced comparably to high-end OLEDs from LG and Samsung, which is hard competitors.

Hisense launched the very first RGB LED TV final 12 months, the $30,000 116-inch Hisense 116UXso it’s not too stunning that its top-end fashions, the UR9 and UR8, are RGB LED TVs and never conventional mini LED (you must step all the way down to the U7SG for that). It’s additionally the primary firm to launch a extra inexpensive 2026 mannequin, but it surely’s nonetheless costlier than the flagship mini-LED TVs of final 12 months, just like the TCL QM9K.

The Hisense UR9 is out there 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 competitors with flagship OLED shows from LG and Samsung, and is a excessive bar for the UR9 and another RGB LED TV. I obtained 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 final 12 months, the Hisense UR9 has solely three HDMI 2.1 inputs. Its fourth enter is a USB-C DisplayPort connection, which is located alongside the left fringe of the TV as an alternative of with the opposite connections on the again. I’m not a fan of this placement as a result of if you wish to have your laptop regularly linked to the TV, the cable is clearly seen. The TV helps 180Hz native refresh fee, AMD Freesync Premium Professional, HDR 10+, and Dolby Imaginative and prescient. A future replace will allow Dolby Imaginative and prescient 2, however we’re not going to see any Dolby Imaginative and prescient 2 content material obtainable for some time.

One of many touted advantages of RGB LED TVs is their means to realize one hundred pc of the BT.2020 coloration area. That’s speaking about chromaticity, which relies on saturation and hue and is unbiased of brightness (or luminance). You may need seen coloration area triangles on a CIE 1931 diagram. However what this chart doesn’t present us is how colours carry out throughout completely different brightness ranges, or in our residing rooms. (For a deep dive on this, Caleb Denison launched an excellent video a pair weeks in the past.)

Additionally, the overwhelming majority of HDR content material makes use of the P3 coloration area, which is smaller than BT.2020. So even when a TV is able to extending past P3 and into BT.2020 colours (which the UR9 completely is), with most films and TV reveals it doesn’t matter. It’s additionally a little bit of a chicken-or-the-egg scenario — we’d like TVs that may precisely show BT.2020 earlier than the colour area is absolutely adopted by TV and film creators, but when there’s no content material, why get a BT.2020 TV?

Now, whereas it’s comparatively not lots, there’s some nice video on the market that extends past the P3 coloration area and into BT.2020 colours. One instance is the BBC documentary sequence Planet Earth IIwhich I watched with a Kaleidescape Strato E participant. Episode 3 appears on the jungles of the world, and the greens of the bushes particularly regarded extremely vibrant on the Hisense UR9. There’s additionally a section about hummingbirds in Ecuador that reveals off the dazzling colours of the tiny creatures, which the UR9 dealt with very effectively. It’s on par with what I noticed on the $7,000 TCL X11Land a extra colourful image than I’ve seen from OLEDs just like the LG G5 or Sony Bravia 8 II. With none movement compensation, there was some judder because the digicam panned via the jungle. Altering the movement setting to Movie helped to easy that out with out giving it an unnatural impact.

One of many potential points with RGB LED TVs is coloration crosstalk, one thing that LG Show — notably a maker of OLED panels — made a video about again in December. An instance might be when somebody is strolling previous a colourful mural and the purple from the paintings causes the particular person’s face to look a bit purple, which then modifications to be barely blue after they cross the blue a part of the mural. I didn’t see this occur on the UR9 with any of the fabric I watched.

The rationale behind this might be considered one of two prospects: wonderful processing and coloration filter efficiency able to deftly delineating side-by-side colours, or the backlight as an alternative utilizing white gentle and relying solely on the colour filter when the onscreen coloration info will get too sophisticated. The second choice mainly negates the advantage of having particular 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 for certain is to take the TV aside and look simply at what the backlight is doing. When it comes all the way down to it, although, what issues is how the image appears, and the UR9 appears actually good in HDR.

OLED nonetheless has an enormous benefit over RGB LED with one of the crucial essential specs: distinction. Distinction is extra essential to our eyes than coloration (it’s one of many first belongings you study throughout calibration coaching). It permits us to understand depth, motion, and form, and has been important to our existence as a species — and to our enjoyment of films, TV, and artwork. RGB LED TVs nonetheless use LCD panels, solely the backlight system has been improved, and with that comes the inherent LCD drawbacks of sunshine blooming and extra restricted viewing angles. The UR9 handles each of those points effectively (though I believe TCL nonetheless has a slight benefit with blooming management), however OLED nonetheless wins. And due to its pixel-level management, OLED nonetheless delivers higher total image high quality.

Then there’s value. With the 65-inch UR9 beginning at $3,500, Hisense has positioned its flagship immediately in opposition to top-end OLEDs from Samsung and LG — each of that are priced at $3,400 for a similar 65-inch dimension.

Hisense has traditionally been inexpensive than Samsung, LG, and Sony for like applied sciences, so that would imply that costs on comparable RGB LEDs from these corporations will are available above the UR9, however I don’t assume so — aside from Sony, which nearly actually would be the costliest of the bunch, and have the very best processing to help the value. If the flagship RGB LED TVs from LG and Samsung are equal to or costlier than the Hisense UR9, it means these corporations are placing RGB above their very own OLED TVs. Particularly with LG, the chief in OLED gross sales for greater than a decade, it might be a stunning transfer.

And there’s nonetheless the step-down fashions from Hisense and Samsung, the Hisense UR8 and Samsung R85H, which is able to probably be within the $2,000-or-under vary for the 55-inch dimension. However that once more places them up immediately in opposition to midrange OLED fashions just like the LG C6, which gained’t get as vivid because the RGB LED TVs, however nonetheless has pixel-level management and wonderful distinction.

The world of TVs in 2026 is fairly thrilling. The accuracy of shows throughout value ranges and manufactures is closer than it’s ever beenand we’re persevering with to get new improvements like RGB LED. That crowded market means 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 attain), 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 wanting vivid.

Images by John Higgins / The Verge