Full disclosure: I bought this model from another retail outlet but felt it could use a review since there aren’t any.
I had an LG 42-Inch 1080p LCD TV for the last 9 years and while it has served me somewhat faithfully, its age was starting to show. It had outdated wireless capabilities; if you tried to stream movies, there was some stuttering. This was solved by plugging in an ethernet cable from the router. The web apps didn’t work particularly well. Overall, it was just a bit slow. Over the last couple years, I’ve been concerned that my hearing is starting to go because I’ve been having trouble understanding what’s being said on various TV shows.
I recently was at my in-laws and as the resident technical “expert” I was tasked with finding them a replacement TV. I’ve been looking for a new TV for myself, so I was somewhat familiar with the latest Samsung/TCL/LG/Vizio offerings having browsed ratings at the RTINGS site.
I went to Walmart and looked at the wall of TV offerings and I kept going back to the Hisense unit, which I hadn’t heard of. The picture looked great and the price was very low. I saw a review from Tech Radar that seemed very positive, so I bought it figuring we could just return it if it was a dud.
I got the 43-inch R6E Hisense Roku TV and was blown away by the quality. I was so impressed, once I got home, I bought the 50-inch R7E unit which has 10 watt speakers compared to the 7 watt speakers on the smaller model. I'm not sure if there are any major differences between the R6E and the R7E units.
Here’s a few thoughts:
1. The Hisense TVs have all the inputs I wanted: HDMI, A/V, headphone, USB, coaxial/antenna, ethernet. I was happy to have the headphone jack because I have a Bluetooth transmitter that I use with Bluetooth headphones to watch TV without waking anyone up, which works great with this TV. I want to say the slight lag I had with the LG TV isn’t apparent with this unit and the transmitter.
2. The screen quality blew me away. I watched a few of the “Our Planet” shows on Netflix and was slack jawed by the detail and richness of the colors. A definite upgrade from the LG screen. You will get some reflection from the screen if it’s near a window. There’s a definite drop-off in quality if you’re looking at the screen from an angle.
3. The sound is crystal clear and can get loud without much distortion/muffling/buzzing. I can stream music through this unit using the Spotify app with very clean results.
4. I figured, for the price, there had to be some shortcomings somewhere, so I was pleasantly surprised once again to have quite advanced control over the picture (backlight, brightness, contrast, sharpness, dynamic contrast, color and tint) and the sound settings (DTS TruSurround, dialog clarity, TruVolume). Your customized tweaks get saved.
5. You get one controller, the standard Roku one, to run the TV. It’s fine because it’s familiar but it can be a bit plodding to get to the different channels. I also use an antenna to get local stations and it works great with a nice grid layout that shows you what the current show is and what’s coming up.
6. The different “web” apps work pretty well. I’ve linked my Google Photos account to the TV so I can look at videos and photos. The quality there isn’t as good as I would expect, but that’s something the developer would need to address. You can browse YouTube videos either through your own account or through a guest one, which is great with good quality. I’ve also streamed video from my Windows 10 laptop to the TV using the “Project to second screen” function in Windows 10 and it works flawlessly.
7. I have a number of movies I stream from a storage unit (using Twonky media server) that I connect to the TV with an ethernet cable and use the Roku media player. The only videos I’ve had trouble streaming are those with a DTS audio stream that, once converted, work fine. The Hisense TV supports the following audio formats -- AAC, eAAC+, FLAC, MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV -- but I’m not sure what the bitrate limits might be. This Roku media player didn’t work with my LG TV, so I’m glad it works with the Hisense TV because it has resume function so you can pick up with a movie where you left off.
While it’s not an OLED screen, so you don’t get those deep blacks and better viewing angles, but for the price you get pretty darn good quality with a rich set of features that should suffice for people who have a TV that’s showing its age and want to upgrade.
| Brand | Hisense |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Hisense |
| Model Number | 43R7E |
| Model Year | 2019 |
| Part Number | 43R7E |
| Hardware Interface | USB, Component Video, Ethernet, HDMI, Composite Video |
| Tuner Technology | ATSC |
| Scanner Resolution | 4K |
| Mounting Hardware | Power Cable, Remote Control, Stand |
| Number Of Items | 1 |
| Standing screen display size | 43 Inches |
| Display Type | LED |
| Image Aspect Ratio | 16:9 |
| Resolution | 3840 x 2160 Pixels |
| Wattage | 120 watts |
| Batteries Included | Yes |
| Batteries Required | Yes |
| Battery cell composition | Alkaline |
| Refresh Rate | 120 Hz |
| Total Usb Ports | 1 |
| Connector Type | Wireless |
| Includes Rechargable Battery | No |
| Remote Control Included? | Yes |
| Manufacturer | Hisense |
| Item model number | 43R7E |
| Product Dimensions | 97.03 x 19.3 x 60.45 cm; 10.12 Kilograms |
| ASIN | B07HR1J1F2 |
