Hisense UR9 RGB Mini LED Review – This is the latest TV tech, how does it stack up?

2026 may well be the most important year for televisions since the switch off of analogue TV. We’ve got more choice, more competition and most importantly a brand new TV technology: RGB. So does it have what it takes to challenge the OLED for quality dominance, and will it compete as a premium TV? We’ve got the top of the line Hisense UR9 RGB Mini LED TV to review first up this year.

The EFTM Snapshot: This is the first RGB class TV we’ve had in the EFTM studio and it’s impressive. Stunning colours, bright screen, amazing contrast. It appears to offer it all. But it does come at a price and carries some literal weight too. Your basic question is this: this, or an OLED for the same price?

The promise of this TV is big. We’re being promised colour like never before and a contrast to rival OLED. Priced at $3,999 for this 65 inch model, the Hisense UR9 is top of the TV charts, proper premium. It’s a lot to live up to.

What is RGB Mini LED?

Until now, we’ve pretty much had two types of TV: OLED and LED. OLED TVs are made up of self-illuminating pixels, so every single dot on screen is shining for itself. LED TVs have an LCD panel which is the picture, but you can’t see it unless a light shines through it. Over the years those lights have been white or blue, shining through from the edge to the back of the TV, then evolved to be Mini LEDs behind the panel. The smaller that backlight, the better the contrast between black areas of the screen and colour, and the closer they got to matching OLED.

This year, everyone’s got their version of “RGB”. Instead of a single white or blue Mini LED light, there’s a little Mini LED that can light up in any colour thanks to the Red, Green and Blue Mini LEDs that sit in place of that single Mini LED.

Why does that matter? Well, if the colour shining through is blue where the picture is blue, you get the best possible blue image. If the colour is red and the light is red, again: great colour.

This means better accuracy of colour, but also an outstanding range of colour. If you imagine a sliding scale of just one colour, let’s say green, your eye can see it all but other TV technology can’t produce every single shade in that scale. RGB Mini LED comes close. Real close.

Setting up the Hisense UR9

I’ve got to say, out of the box, this thing is big and heavy. Weighing in at 29.2kg on the stand, that’s at least six kilograms more than Samsung’s RGB and easily 10kg more than an LG OLED. It was remarkably noticeable to me.

As was the thickness. The Hisense UR9 RGB Mini LED was over 4cm thick.

On one side is a small RGB colour marker; the other side has that same marker with the words RGB Mini LED printed on it.

Setup was a breeze. The stand base and back went together with just a few screws, then slid into place on the back of the TV with several height options, allowing you to sit the TV low on the stand or high if you’re planning to use a soundbar too.

A single proprietary power cable and you’re done.

Even better, and genuinely impressive, was the software setup. These days you pretty much need a manufacturer account, and all that can be done on your phone.

I timed it: from the QR code appearing on the screen to this TV being on with apps showing in front of me was four minutes. And that included me resetting my password.

Home screen and home

This is just nerdy me, but entirely noticeable on the home screen too were the free to air apps from Nine, Seven, Ten, ABC and SBS, all now required to have “prominence” under new Australian government legislation. A small win for Aussie business and Aussie content.

Interestingly, the remote control has a yellow HOME button on the top right, which young Harri and I thought was a rebrand of the OS, but it’s still “VIDAA”. There’s a real sense of Hisense wanting to make this home screen a real hub for your entertainment life.

Recommendations based on things you’ve watched, all the apps you could need (for the most part, still niche apps like MLB are not there), plus Hisense’s VIDAA TV channels, which are simply and easily lumped into the same “Guide” as your free to air channels.

Hisense have a bit of work to do to get as many channels and as much content as Samsung’s TV Plus, but there’s still credibly lots to watch here for free.

As with all new TVs there’s going to be big ads on your home screen from platforms and shows trying to entice you, and while you can turn off personalisation, I think you’re better off seeing relevant ads than ones that are of no interest.

Let’s talk about colour on the Hisense UR9 RGB Mini LED

OK, let’s cut to the chase. There’s only one way to describe the first glimpse you get at a colourful scene on the Hisense UR9 RGB Mini LED TV: wow.

And this isn’t in store mode. Pop into JB Hi-Fi or Harvey Norman and you’ll likely see this pushing strong colour and brightness in store mode, but I can tell you, in normal setup, normal mode: wow.

Now, this is not a comparison review; we’ll get to that throughout the year. So I don’t have another TV side by side here. But I watch and review a lot of TVs and this thing POPS.

As it should. That’s the purpose of RGB: not to give you brightness, we’re getting that from a lot of TV tech, but for colour, a broader range of colour.

I think a big part of seeing better colour is getting better contrast, and while I’ll address that battle shortly, the fact is the impressive contrast here serves to highlight the impressive colour. They go hand in hand and it’s a real winner.

I watched everything from basic YouTube to streaming and some recent 4K movies. The TV knows when to switch colour or video modes thanks to Dolby Vision, and the cinematic look of the F1 movie in fact doesn’t really take advantage of the full RGB benefits. But when you’re watching brightly lit TV series or YouTube there’s a real pop to it and I honestly mean that’s not a brightness thing, but more of a “lifelike” feeling.

On this, RGB is proving a real winner.

Sounding great on the Hisense UR9 RGB Mini LED

With a 4.1.3 channel sound system tuned by Devialet you’d hope this sounds good. And it does.

I didn’t test it in the ideal spot to capture Dolby Atmos, but I certainly felt the surround.

Pumping it loud for some ELO sounded great; giving it the beans during the F1 movie was fantastic.

Interestingly though, during more bass heavy instrumental arrangements I could hear the TV casing rattle with the bass. I had to put my hand on the back to remove the rattle.

Not a deal breaker by any means, unless perhaps you use your TV more for music than you do pictures (movies, TV, streaming), but certainly something Hisense might want to tweak for Gen 2.

A win for Aussie lounge rooms

I’ve been banging on about reflections for a while now, since I saw Samsung’s beastly 115 inch, and that same Glare Free coating is coming to many premium Samsungs in 2026.

Well, Hisense has hit first here. Their “Anti-Reflection & Glare-Free” coating on this Hisense UR9 RGB Mini LED is amazing. It diffuses the light across a wider area rather than reflecting it.

It’s as good as you can get, and you notice it from the moment you peel the protective screen coating off. Look in this video at the EFTM logos and how they almost disappear on the true Glare Free screen.

It’s a win for consumers!

RGB Mini LED vs OLED: the real battle

RGB is being billed as the technology to take on OLED, there’s very little doubt about that. The fact is there’s very little doubt it is impressive, and I don’t mean just “nice one, that’s good”. I mean so very impressive. Something that you will genuinely notice even upgrading from a TV that was just two years old.

Is it better than OLED? No. Is it the same as OLED? No. Is it close to being as good as OLED? Yes. That’s what matters. We’ve come so close with this technology that it would be very hard to genuinely notice the difference unless you have an eye for these things, which I appreciate a lot of people do.

People with much greater machinery than me and proper testing equipment will measure the blacks versus the colours versus the contrast versus all the different mechanics of these TVs over the months ahead, but with my basic human eye I think the blacks on this are utterly impressive, and perhaps more so because of the glare free coating. It’s that coating that actually helps give you a sense of the blacks because you’re not seeing what else is in the room with you, and I think that’s probably one of the shining lights of this TV.

I’m pretty safe in saying RGB is not “better” than OLED.

However, what we will see in the months ahead are some measurements of colour gamut and brightness that will be very hard to ignore. A wider colour gamut and brighter picture will be what appeals to most people. Purists with movie watching plans might have light-controlled rooms and will really respect the pure pixel performance of OLED.

Did I see blooming from the colour into black areas of the screen? Yes, when watching test-controlled vision. Did I notice it while watching Top Gun: Maverick or the F1 movie? No.

Should you buy the Hisense UR9 RGB Mini LED?

The way I see it, the challenge here is perception. OLED has had more than a decade to establish itself as “the” TV technology. Now you’re telling me that for the same price as OLED there’s a new king in town?

I think many people will opt for OLED, but when we start seeing retailer competition and discounting, we’ll work out if RGB has more wriggle room on price.

The Hisense UR9 RGB Mini LED is a stunning looking TV, both in physical form and picture quality. No person who buys one will have regrets. It’s just too good.

If you’re trying to work out which TV to buy? Use the EFTM TV picker “Which TV To Buy?” today!