Just when we thought we’d seen it all The mini LED TVs of 2024 had to offer, Hisense finally gave us the opportunity to take a look at the new flagship of its ULED displays, the U9N. It’s a TV that desperately tries to find the fine needle between ultra-premium and upper-midrange, but thanks to the whopping 5,000 nits of claimed peak brightness, the whole thing comes with a bow. Is it a contender? Possibly, as long as your wallet is thick enough to forgo the $2,999 and $3,999 for the massive 75-inch and 85-inch screens, respectively.
In addition to this brightness, the U9N 4K QLED TV has more than 5,300 local dimming zones. It’s big and bright and, above all, colorful. It supports Dolby Vision and HDR 10+, which certainly gives it a slight edge in comparison Samsung’s QN90D 4K NEO QLED ($3,300 at 75 inches), which still only supports the company’s own HDR brand.
To top it off, the TV supports a 144Hz refresh rate, which should be enough Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 runs in 4K. Hisense promises that the TV will receive the AI improvements of some of its flagship ultra-premium TVs, namely the 98UX QLED and 110UX QLED (which, as the name suggests, are over 100 inches in size). Own Hi-View Engine
Gizmodo was able to see the U9N in person, but we didn’t get a chance to play around with the settings or do anything other than watch a few clips scroll across the screen. Sure, it looks bright and beautiful, but just like at CES, we couldn’t really put the TV through its paces outside of an extremely controlled environment. However, I was still impressed with the overall brightness and anti-glare ability of the TV, considering the room we were in was definitely not the best possible viewing experience.
Personally, I appreciate the speakers built into the sides of the Hisense screens for those who just can’t bother with a soundbar. Sure, it has a 4.1.2 multi-channel audio setup that we’d like to test ourselves, but it’s fair to say that the U9N continues the tradition of Hisense’s strategy of presenting pretty good TVs that have a good Cost less per piece than others like Sony or Samsung.
Compare all this to this U6N, U7NAnd U8N. The latter two TVs also promise some of the same AI features, albeit with a lower peak brightness of 3,000 nits. They all support WiFi 6e and built-in Game Mode and Game Bar features.
At least on paper, the U9N seems to be making a real effort to offer a premium experience that’s a little less heavy on your wallet. Take for example Sony’s new Bravia series The crowning glory is the ultra-high-end Mini-LED Bravia 9. At 75 inches, the QLED costs $4,000 and the TV is claimed to be the brightest screen the company has ever produced. However, we still don’t know the exact stats on how bright that actually is, although the Bravia 9 has some pretty wild driver technology with incredible potential for local dimming. If Hisense can match these other TV manufacturers in terms of display quality and still maintain this price, it will certainly prevail in the very crowded QLED market.
The U9N should be available sometime this summer Best Buy website.