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 one among 2026 is right here — the Hisense UR9. It’s the primary take a look at the viability of the brand new backlight know-how exterior 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 shade house for motion pictures and TV reveals which have wider shade. But 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 116UX, so it’s not too shocking that its top-end fashions, the UR9 and UR8, are RGB LED TVs and never conventional mini LED (it is advisable step right down to the U7SG for that). It’s additionally the primary firm to launch a extra reasonably priced 2026 mannequin, however it’s nonetheless costlier than the flagship mini-LED TVs of final 12 months, just like the TCL QM9K.

The Hisense UR9 is offered 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 every other RGB LED TV. I acquired a take 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. 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 frequently related to the TV, the cable is clearly seen. The TV helps 180Hz native refresh charge, AMD Freesync Premium Pro, HDR 10+, and Dolby Vision. A future replace will allow Dolby Vision 2, however we’re not going to see any Dolby Vision 2 content material out there for some time.

One of the touted advantages of RGB LED TVs is their potential to attain one hundred pc of the BT.2020 shade house. That’s speaking about chromaticity, which is predicated on saturation and hue and is impartial of brightness (or luminance). You might need seen shade house triangles on a CIE 1931 diagram. But what this chart doesn’t present us is how colours carry out throughout totally different brightness ranges, or in our dwelling rooms. (For a deep dive on this, Caleb Denison launched an excellent video a pair weeks in the past.)

Also, the overwhelming majority of HDR content material makes use of the P3 shade house, 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 motion pictures 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 house is totally 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 rather a lot, there’s some nice video on the market that extends past the P3 shade house and into BT.2020 colours. One instance is the BBC documentary sequence Planet Earth II, which I watched with a Kaleidescape Strato E participant. Episode 3 appears to be like on the jungles of the world, and the greens of the timber specifically appeared 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 properly. It’s on par with what I noticed on the $7,000 TCL X11L, and a extra colourful image than I’ve seen from OLEDs just like the LG G5 or Sony Bravia 8 II. Without any movement compensation, there was some judder because the digicam panned by way of the jungle. Changing the movement setting to Film helped to easy that out with out giving it an unnatural impact.

One of the potential points with RGB LED TVs is shade crosstalk, one thing that LG Display — notably a maker of OLED panels — made a video about again in December. An instance may very well be when somebody is strolling previous a colourful mural and the crimson from the art work causes the individual’s face to look slightly crimson, which then modifications to be barely blue once 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 motive behind this may very well be one among two prospects: glorious processing and shade filter efficiency able to deftly delineating side-by-side colours, or the backlight as an alternative utilizing white mild and relying solely on the colour filter when the onscreen shade info will get too difficult. The second choice mainly negates the good thing about having particular person crimson, inexperienced, and blue diodes, with the TV functioning as a blue or white backlit mini-LED TV, however the one technique to know for positive is to take the TV aside and look simply at what the backlight is doing. When it comes right down to it, although, what issues is how the image appears to be like, and the UR9 appears to be like actually good in HDR.

OLED nonetheless has a giant benefit over RGB LED with some of the essential specs: distinction. Contrast is extra essential to our eyes than shade (it’s one of many first belongings you be taught 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 flicks, 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 properly (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 instantly 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 cheaper than Samsung, LG, and Sony for like applied sciences, so that might imply that costs on comparable RGB LEDs from these corporations will are available in 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 most effective processing to assist the worth. 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. Especially 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 is able to seemingly be within the $2,000-or-under vary for the 55-inch dimension. But that once more places them up instantly in opposition to midrange OLED fashions just like the LG C6, which received’t get as vivid because the RGB LED TVs, however nonetheless has pixel-level management and glorious distinction.

The world of TVs in 2026 is fairly thrilling. The accuracy of shows throughout value ranges and manufactures is nearer than it’s ever been, and we’re persevering with to get new improvements like RGB LED. That crowded market means it’s laborious to suit RGB LED TVs someplace that is sensible. They carry out higher than common mini-LED TVs and can completely overtake them (OLED remains to be out of attain), however it received’t be till 2027 on the earliest.

For now, I’d nonetheless simply purchase an OLED. But the way forward for RGB LED TVs is wanting vivid.

Photography by John Higgins / The Verge