I just attended a demo of Hisense’s new 2026 TVs, and while discussing the new UR9 RGB TV, an unusual feature slipped my mind: it has a DisplayPort connection. It’s not a full-sized DisplayPort port, but it is a USB-C port with full DisplayPort support and branding.
HDMI has clearly dominated the world of TV inputs, but DisplayPort is still the most common output on GPUs – and preferred by the PC hardcore in many cases. Generally, including DisplayPort seems like more trouble than it’s worth on most TVs, so it’s just never there – which is obviously why this one caught my eye.
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First, the set has 3x HDMI 2.1 ports, not 4 like most high-end TVs. This was also true of the Hisense U8QG last year – it seems to be a result of the special connection control chip that Hisense uses.
But the other element is that this is an RGB-backlit mini-LED TV, and Hisense claims it should be able to hit over 100% of the BT.2020 pro color space, and it’s also Pantone-validated (although the latter doesn’t matter too much – Hisense’s more affordable TVs also have this rating).
So there could be an element of Hisense aiming to include DisplayPort for maximum color depth for creatives who want to use the display’s wide color support. Whether the TV will hit the claimed color figure is something we’ll have to wait to see – there are several ways to measure the color space, and the Hisense UX116 released last year with RGB technology hit 92.6% of the BT.2020 spot in our test. This is way better than regular mini LED TVs, which have tended to max out around 75-78%, but obviously aren’t quite 100%.
The only potential problem for both gaming and creative use is the size of the TVs – the UR9 series comes in 65-inch, 75-inch and 85-inch sizes, with the 100-inch also available in the US. That means it’s not desktop friendly, but may still have potential for both.
I think it’s PC gamers looking for a couch setup who will find it most interesting. You have the flexibility to use the HDMI ports for the AV connection you really need requires HDMI and you can make the most of the high refresh rates over DisplayPort.
The TV supports AMD FreeSync, and while Hisense hasn’t confirmed it for this model, most of its mini-LED sets are G-Sync compatible, though not G-Sync certified.
Its TVs usually have fairly low latency when we’ve measured them, and they have easy-to-use game menus for adjusting settings.
But the other tempting factor is that RGB mini-LED technology isn’t coming out in displays at the moment, and it’s a really interesting new technology. It uses an LCD panel with a mini-LED backlight, but the backlight is not monochromatic: each light element has red, green and blue LEDs, effectively creating a low-resolution version of the image of the backlight, and then the LCD layer adds the final color filtering and details.
It is theoretically more efficient than regular mini-LED, while also having a wider color gamut and potentially less noticeable blooming from bright areas to dark.
And it’s much brighter than OLED, and this TV has a light matte anti-reflective coating that helps make it work well in brighter rooms if you’re gaming during the day.
Having a DisplayPort option won’t be a huge game-changer for most people, but it’s so rare that I had to call it out – and it’s especially interesting that it’s on a TV technology you can’t get in a smaller version, so the UR9 offers something unique.
It won’t come cheap though – in the US, the 65-inch model is officially priced at $3,499. We don’t have UK or Australian prices yet, but it’s around £2,650 / AU$5,080.
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