We don’t often do television reviews here at IGN AU – normally our verdicts on the most cutting-edged of idiot boxes are delivered by the square-eyed tech gurus on our US team. However, when the Hisense U7QAU arrived at our doorstep accompanied by marketing materials claiming it to be “The Game Changer”, we felt compelled to put it to the test to measure just how seismic an impact it makes on gaming in 2025. The results? Overwhelmingly positive. The Hisense U7QAU is a spectacular-looking and feature-rich unit with almost unmatchable big screen bang for buck, and surely one of the most attractive options for Aussie gamers after a new telly in 2025 that will dazzle your eye sockets without damaging your hip pockets.
The specific model that was provided to IGN for testing was the 65-inch U7QAU, however this particular range comes in a wide range of sizes, from the smallest 55-inch (hefty by 2015 standards, but fast becoming pint-sized in 2025), through to the positively massive 100-inch, which can deliver a proper cinematic experience without having to organise a babysitter and drop $10 on a bag of Malteasers. If you have the lounge room space capable of housing these stadium-sized screens then more power to you, but for IGN AU’s humble review space 65 inches is pretty much the perfect fit – large enough to make gaming feel properly immersive, but not so huge that it completely overwhelms the room like the Kenny Rogers’ Chicken sign outside Kramer’s apartment in Seinfeld.
The U7QAU’s panel is a directly lit Mini-LED, which, while not quite capable of delivering the same contrast ratio of an OLED display, nonetheless surprised me with the quality of its image. No matter which games I threw at it, from Doom: The Dark Ages in graphics card-straining ultra settings on PC to the more painterly aesthetics of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, the U7QAU’s presented consistently detailed shadows and brilliant highlights. It also looked superb both with the curtains open and during the dark of night, thanks to the anti-reflection coating on the U7QAU which allowed its picture to punch through with minimum glare. There’s a brightness level of an impressive 2,400 nits here, which, by way of comparison, is greater than the 2,000 nits found in last year’s top of the line U8NAU.
The U7QAU also supports all the major formats of HDR as far as gaming is concerned, able to process the HDR10 found on the PlayStation 5 and Dolby Vision and HDR10+ on the Xbox Series X, and I didn’t have to dive into the picture settings for too long to dial in a balanced and beautiful image for any of the gaming hardware I threw at it. There is some haloing that occurs around bright objects in darker scenes – it was somewhat noticeable during the oppressively dim later levels of 2024’s Silent Hill 2 remake – but it’s a relatively minor bugbear in the scheme of things. Let’s be honest, if you want OLED-quality contrast then you have to be prepared to pay OLED prices for it. However, to my eyes (and wallet) the U7QAU seems to hit what will likely be a sweet spot for a lot of Aussie gamers, since it delivers surprisingly deep blacks without plunging your bank balance into the red.
The U7QAU has also been a perfect fit for our game review setup, seeing as though it features a generous 4 x HDMI 2.1 ports. That’s allowed us to have our PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X all connected to take advantage of the Variable Refresh Rate capabilities that HDMI 2.1 allows – with the U7QAU natively supporting up to a silky smooth 165Hz refresh rate to almost eradicate screen tearing and a noticeably snappy response time for controller inputs. At the moment, the fourth HDMI 2.1 port is being utilised by our Nintendo Switch 2, which doesn’t presently allow for VRR in docked mode. However, it’s reassuring to know that if Nintendo decides to add that functionality at a later date via a firmware upgrade, then the U7QAU will be able to display all four major gaming platforms at their absolute best without having to crawl around swapping out HDMI cables or hooking up messy HDMI-switching solutions.
While for the purposes of this article I was mainly focussing on the U7QAU’s visual quality as it pertains to gaming in 2025, I was surprised by its substantial audio capabilities too. I typically review games for IGN with headphones on, but after chucking on Mario Kart World for a bit of same-screen multiplayer fun I was pleasantly surprised by how rich the spatial sound coming out of the U7QAU was. It’s packing a 2.1.2 multi-channel surround sound speaker setup in its rear and supports Dolby Atmos, and while it might not be as beefy an audio experience as one heard through an external soundbar and subwoofer setup, there’s an unexpectedly high amount of clarity and bass achievable here, from the crunchy shotgun sounds in Doom: The Dark Ages to the cartoon-y whirring of a green shell zipping past your right shoulder in Mario Kart World. Again, you’d likely want to plump for either a nice gaming headset or a dedicated soundbar if possible, but if your budget doesn’t allow it then the U7QAU can at the very least deliver audio performance that’s a step up from the internal speaker systems sandwiched into most other ultra slim UHD TVs I’ve tried.
So, is the U7QAU a “game changer”? Well, for this price point there’s certainly very little downside. The 65” U7QAU has an Australian RRP of $2,399, but despite the fact it’s only been out a couple of months you can already find it for roughly $400 cheaper than that if you shop around, which makes it an incredibly appealing deal for a screen of this size and quality. While OLED is still widely regarded as the pinnacle of screen technologies among most gaming circles, the Mini-LED employed in the U7QAU narrows the gap in perceivable picture quality to a considerable extent – far more than I had anticipated. The U7QAU might not necessarily change the game, but it could well change gamers’ minds as to what type of television panel is best suited for all their modern videogame needs.
Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor on IGN’s Australian team. The 65-inch U7QAU was provided on loan from Hisense Australia.
