If you follow football, you already know the FIFA World Cup is coming this year — hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and set to be the most-watched sporting event on the planet. What you might not know is that Hisense is one of its global official sponsors, sitting alongside names like Coca-Cola and Adidas on the world's biggest stage.
That might come as a surprise. For most Malaysians, Hisense is the brand behind the fridge in the kitchen or the aircon in the bedroom. Reliable, yes. Globally ambitious? That's a different conversation — and 2026 is the year Hisense is making sure you have it.
Because while the World Cup is the headline, it's really just one piece of what the brand has lined up for Malaysia this year. New flagship products, a retail expansion, an after-sales upgrade, and a series of consumer promotions timed to the tournament make this a genuinely interesting year to be in the market for a home appliance. Here's the full picture.
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A Lineup of Products Built Around the Upgrade Buyer
Hisense's 2026 strategy is aimed squarely at consumers ready to step up and want to know that the extra spend is justified.
Display Products
At the top of the display lineup sits the 116-inch UXQ, the world's first RGB MiniLED TV. If you think that this is merely an incremental update on existing MiniLED technology, think again, because it's a fundamentally different approach.
Conventional MiniLED uses colour filters to produce the image you see. RGB MiniLED integrates red, green, and blue chips directly into each micro LED, enabling independent, simultaneous control of both colour and brightness. The result is a 100% BT.2020 cinematic colour gamut, paired with a 6.2.2 CineStage X sound system co-engineered with Devialet. It is the most capable home display Hisense has ever built.
If you don’t need the massive 116-inch screen, the UR8 series offers RGB MiniLED in more practical sizes and price points. It also adds a Native 180Hz Game Mode, giving gamers smoother, tear-free play without the bulk.
The L9Q Laser TV rounds out the lineup for buyers who want a true home cinema experience — 5,000 ANSI lumens, 5,000:1 contrast, and a 150-inch picture from an ultra-short-throw design that sits close to the wall. And for those who want to go even larger, the XR10 laser projector supports screen sizes up to 300 inches.
Home Appliances
The appliance lineup follows the same logic of meaningful, visible upgrades.
The U8 Smart Air Conditioner's Smart Eye Pro thermal sensing detects both the position and surface temperature of people in the room, adjusting airflow automatically so cool air follows you without blowing directly at you.
Offline voice control works seamlessly in Malay, Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and English — no internet needed. Meanwhile, the HI-NANO air purification system continues to reduce airborne bacteria and particles around the clock, making it a thoughtful choice for households with young children or elderly family members.
On the laundry front, the X-zone Master — winner of the CES 2026 Best of Innovation Award — reimagines the washing machine as a full laundry care centre. Its multi-zone washing system handles underwear, baby clothes, outerwear, and shoes simultaneously in independent zones, eliminating cross-contamination between loads.
Healthy Water Activation Technology boosts detergency by 22% and achieves a 95% scale inhibition rate, while Dual-steam Hygiene Cloud delivers 360-degree steam sterilisation without damaging fabrics. The washing machine also has independent zone drying, so you don't have to wait for one large drum to finish before moving to the next load.
The RQ600 PureView refrigerator rounds out the lineup with a full-domain antibacterial defence system built for Malaysia's humid climate, a 3-in-1 ice-making system running 50% faster than conventional models, and a 6.86-inch smart screen for food management and expiration tracking.
The World Cup Window
Hisense's tournament-period marketing push runs from May to July, and it translates into concrete consumer benefits at the retail level.
The company is expanding its Shop-in-Shop presence across major outlets nationwide and rolling out fresh, immersive display corners. These new setups make it much easier for people to get a feel for premium products, offering a more engaging and hands-on experience than the usual retail floor.
Additionally, joint roadshows with distributors will feature competitive product bundles throughout the campaign period. Lucky Draw activations will run at participating outlets, and gifts are available with the purchase of selected premium models. So, if you have been sitting on a decision about a new TV or appliance, the May to July window is the most promotion-dense period of the year to act.
Penang’s Service Centre Gets an Upgrade
Hisense is turning its Penang after-sales centre into a full-fledged professional hub, moving beyond the basics to deliver stronger support. By adding more service points and working more closely with authorised providers across the country, the company is ensuring customers in the northern region receive faster turnaround times and more reliable on-site technical support.
After-sales capability is often the single biggest factor in whether a consumer repurchases from the same brand, and Hisense's investment here signals they are thinking about the full ownership experience, not just the point of sale.
The ESG Piece: Football as a Long Game
Hisense is running the 2026 ASEAN World Cup ESG Plan, scaling up a series of youth football welfare programmes across the region that it has operated for several years alongside its World Cup sponsorship.
In Malaysia, specifically, Hisense has organised its inter-university football tournament,” Own the Game, Own the Moment” University Campus Cup 2025, with prestigious universities such as UM, IMU, Sunway University, and TAR UMT taking part.
The programme nurtures young talent and opens doors from campus sports to professional careers. Rather than a short-lived campaign, it stands as a lasting investment in the game's future — what the brand calls "long-term infrastructure."
It is worth noting that Hisense's sports sponsorship history runs deeper than the current World Cup deal. This brand sponsored the Australian Open in 2008 and has since sponsored three UEFA European Championships, three FIFA World Cups, and one FIFA Club World Cup. The ESG football programmes in Malaysia are an extension of that long-term sports investment strategy applied at a community level.
The Bigger Picture
Step back from the individual announcements, and a coherent story emerges: it is clear that Hisense is not just running a one-year campaign in Malaysia. Over the past three years, the brand has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 18.7% across ASEAN, with its brand business growing at 27.4% CAGR.
In Malaysia, it holds the No. 1 position in 4-door refrigerators and air conditioners — categories where Malaysian consumers are notoriously demanding.
Hisense’s 2026 activity — the World Cup sponsorship, the product launches, the retail expansion, the service upgrade, the ESG programmes — reads as a brand that has earned its footing in this market and is now consolidating it. The products are genuinely more capable than the previous generation; the promotions are real and time-bound; the service improvements address a real gap; and the World Cup gives it all a moment of cultural relevance that would be difficult to manufacture artificially.
For the Malaysian consumer sitting on a decision about a new TV, air conditioner, washing machine, or refrigerator: 2026 is not a bad year to make that call.
For more information on Hisense's 2026 product lineup, visit Hisense Malaysia’s official website.
[This post was made in collaboration with Hisense Malaysia.]