For me, Hisense has become the value brand to beat. That title used to belong to TCL, but Hisense has been packing its televisions with so much over the last two years that it basically resets my internal barometer of what I think a TV should cost.
For $1,400 original MSRP – and regularly available on sale for around $900 – Hisense has created a 4K television that is packed with gaming features while at the same time providing enough brightness to overcome even the most window-lit living room. While some manufacturers are making the best TVs for home theaters, Hisense is over here making the best TVs for the majority of average families
As such, the U8H is a juiced-up utility knife of a television that not only manages to do a lot of things pretty well, but also takes the title for the brightest TV I’ve tested in the last year – a dynamic combination that results in a heck of a value.
Hisense U8H – Design and Build
The U8H isn’t going to wow you from every angle, but it’s a decent-looking television from the angle that matters most: the front. While most television manufacturers right now are reducing how much branding they show and slimming down extraneous parts on bezels – a strategy I agree with – Hisense’s choice to do the opposite is at least not particularly egregious as it is only one small box at the bottom of the display.
By default, this box shows a power icon when the TV is off (which feels backward but I think it’s there to let you know it is receiving power) which can be turned off in the menu. It also houses a physical switch that lets you turn the smart home-connected microphone on or off. The microphone is on by default, and when you switch it off the television displays four very bright yellow LEDs that do not turn off. I was unable to find a way to turn them off in the menu either, which is pretty annoying. It’s as if the television is punishing you for not wanting Google to listen in all the time.
I find this intrusion to be particularly glaring, and while I was more forgiving of it last year when I first encountered it, I’m becoming less willing to look past it and will specifically call this out as a downside to owning a Hisense. That said, I spoke to a couple of friends who own a recent Hisense and while they admit it is a bit annoying that the lights turn on, they are able to ignore them. Additionally, they don’t seem that bothered by Big Brother Google listening in on them. So I guess it is up to you when it comes to the degree this intrusion bothers you.
While I’ve seen less attractive TVs from the side, the U8H isn’t going to win any awards for the design. It’s thin enough, but notably thicker than the OLED panels that we’ve seen from LG, Samsung, and Sony. In this price tier, however, it’s not that bad and it won’t stick out that much from the wall if you were to mount it.
When looking at the TV from the front, the power cable routes in on the right side while all the inputs are on the left side. The U8H has four HDMI ports, two of which support HDMI 2.1 for 120Hz from PCs, the PlayStation 5, or the Xbox Series X. I think at this point, two HDMI ports are the absolute bare minimum that a manufacturer can put on a TV, especially considering that in this case one of them is also the eARC port. That means if you want to use a soundbar or a sound system connected via HDMI, which you absolutely should, that only leaves one port open for gaming.
In addition to the HDMI ports, the U8H has two USB 3.0 ports, optical audio, composite video, and Ethernet. It also supports triple-band Wi-Fi6E and Bluetooth.
If you don’t plan to wall mount the U8H, it comes with two sturdy metal feet. I’m a bit torn on these because on the one hand they can be mounted in two separate places, either wide or closer together, which greatly expands the number of media stands that it will work with. On the other hand, these feet are very deep – more than 14-inches – which makes them hang over the edge of my test stand, something that has never happened before. If you have a deep media stand, this won’t be an issue, but for those who are living in smaller quarters like me, the feet might not play nice.
The last thing to mention is that the feet do have some level of cable management, but it’s not that impressive – just a loop at the back that you can run the cables through in order to slightly hide them. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.
Hisense U8H – The Remote
I don’t think that many people really care how a television remote looks – outside of it not being comically large like Sony’s used to be, or so small that it’s hard to figure out what each button does like Samsung’s. I think the Hisense remote strikes a good balance between the two, and while it’s not a “pretty” remote by any means, it’s perfectly acceptable and comfortable to hold and use. It also has the unique ability to stand up thanks to a wide stable base – if you’re into that.
Our review unit featured six pre-installed streaming service shortcut buttons: Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, Disney+, Tubi, and Peacock.
The Hisense U8H remote is a voice remote as well, so if you enjoy searching for content without having to painstakingly navigate on a digital keyboard, you’ll like that you have that option here.
Hisense U8H – Software and UI
Hisense chose to go with Google TV as its operating system and it’s the same experience here that you get on a wide number of other televisions.
The smart TV interface here is exactly the same here as you’ll find on those TVs as well. While Google TV does tend to slow down as a television ages, the Hisense U8H was snappy, responsive, and without any issues out of the box and through my review period. Additionally, I will say last year’s Hisense U7G has held up exceptionally well in this regard and is not exhibiting any signs of slowdown despite daily use over that time.
A lot of folks don’t like Google TV because it places an unavoidable slideshow of “recommended” things at the top of the home screen, and while yes these are technically ads, they’re not trying to sell me any products other than shows on streaming services I tend to already have access to.
The rest of Google TV is also a lot more of these kinds of advertisements, but you can turn them off by altering the interface to “Apps Only Mode,” which makes it much more streamlined and far less intrusive. While just about every smart TV interface does some kind of “recommended shows” advertising, Google TV is right up there with Roku TV in at least giving you the ability to tone this down.
As far as picture quality options go, there are plenty here and the Hisense U8H not only lets you pick your picture profile (I always go with Filmmaker Mode outside of gaming), you can also adjust how hard you want the TV to work through dimming zone and backlight brightness alterations.
One nitpick I have with Hisense TVs is how the company defines color temperature. Coming from a film production and camera background, “mid-low” and “high” as far as color temperature is concerned is totally meaningless. High, apparently, means cooler or more blue while “low” means warmer or more yellow. Alright.
Hisense gets a lot right when it comes to picture bells and whistles, however. The U8H supports a swath of HDR formats in Dolby Vision, HDR 10+, HDR 10, and hybrid log gamma (HLG), which means that if your streaming service supports HDR, the Hisense can show it. As for audio, the U8H supports Dolby Atmos and IMAX Enhanced sound.
Hisense U8H – Picture Quality
The U8H uses a full-array local dimming mini-LED system bolstered by quantum dots, which is a combination of technologies that is pretty much the best you can find before going to OLED. The result is pretty accurate colors supported by a lot of brightness.
The U8H can get eye-searingly bright at 1,500 nits at peak, which makes it the brightest TV I’ve tested in the last year. That brightness means it can combat even the strongest glare coming in from bright open windows, and I was able to comfortably watch TV and play video games even with the sun streaming in from two open windows to my right.
It should be noted that every photo I took of this television I captured during the day, which is in contrast to what I usually have to do for other televisions. That should say a lot right there.
Hisense also says it has an anti-glare screen and I think it works reasonably well, though bright objects directly in front of the screen are going to be visible if what you’re watching is particularly dark. This is totally expected and I don’t hold that against Hisense. Being able to clearly see a football game in the middle of the day is a far more likely circumstance, and here the Hisense passes with flying colors.
Speaking of color, while the U8H isn’t coming close to the extreme versatility of the Sony A95K, it does very well at basically a quarter the price. It covers 95.9% of sRGB, 75.7% of DCI-P3 and 70.9% of Adobe RGB color gamuts with an average delta E of 2.67. These results are pretty good for a television, though I don’t think it would make a very good computer monitor for those who care about perfectly accurate color like video editors or photographers. I will say I do wish that DCI coverage was better, since Samsung was able to hit 91% on its QN90B, which uses a similar panel technology.
Screen Uniformity Test
Screen uniformity is what I would call “fine” overall and still pretty good for a television in this price bracket. The center of the television is quite good, but it struggles to maintain that at the edges, especially in the lower and upper right corners. Screen uniformity is an area that is most likely to change from TV to TV, so your mileage may vary here.
The color that seems to be the weakest on the U8H is green, and that means landscapes and football fields aren’t going to look as bright and vibrant as you might want, and instead have more brown and gray in them. I did not find that it strongly detracted from my experience, but I did notice it.
While mini-LEDs are better at controlling blacks than other types of LED televisions and do provide for good levels of contrast, they still don’t provide true inky blacks as you’ll get on an OLED. You aren’t paying an OLED price though, and for what Hisense is asking for the U8H I was satisfied with the performance during the day. In a dark room, the contrast on offer here is fantastic for an LED television.
Mini-LED also doesn’t have perfect pixel control, and that means there is some blooming around bright objects set against dark backgrounds, although I wager it won’t bother most.
Hisense U8H – Gaming Performance
I really like gaming on the Hisense U8H, mostly because the brightness this TV is capable of pushing out means I can see everything going on in any video game I’m playing regardless of what time of day it is. I usually game on a monitor or an OLED, and I find that I usually push my gaming sessions to later in the evening when there is less natural light outside that is competing with what my screens can put out.
That’s not a problem with the Hisense and I was able to comfortably game at any time of day. Sure, there is still some glare if you’re looking for it, but the U8H is so bright that I never struggled to see anything, even in dark environments like Oryx’s Dreadnaught in Destiny 2 or a nighttime flight in Horizon Forbidden West.
The U8H supports up to 120Hz gaming at 4K, which means I was able to get the most out of games like Destiny 2’s PvP crucible and Apex Legends. The Hisense also supports AMD FreeSynce Premium Pro, variable refresh rate, and auto low latency through either of its two HDMI 2.1 ports. Input lag will be slower than what you will get on an OLED by a few milliseconds, but those outside of professional gaming situations are unlikely to notice or be bothered by what is possible with the U8H.
HDR gaming is really nice on this television and I have no complaints about how it handles changing lighting environments, colors, and brightness. Sure, it’s not going to be able to deliver true blacks like an OLED, but for most games, this is actually an advantage as it lets you more easily see dark areas and shadows even when your living room is brightly lit. I regularly found myself fully immersed in my gaming experience, which is a great testament to this television.
Unlike Samsung, LG or Vizio, Hisense does not have a specialized gaming menu that lets you see all the pertinent information to a gaming experience. I don’t think at this point it is a must-have feature in order to recommend a television – at least not yet – but I will say that I do appreciate it when it’s there and notice when it’s not.
Hisense U8H – Audio Quality
If you’ve read any of my TV reviews to this point, you’re going to recognize this take: sure, audio quality out of the U8H is fine, but you should probably get a soundbar or use a separate sound system.
The U8H can get plenty loud, but it does so at the cost of nuance. It gets the highs pretty well, but mids and definitely the lows are nonexistent. When pushed to even a quarter of its peak loudness, sound quality feels very highs-dependent which can be almost painful to your ears after a short while.
This is not unexpected. While the U8H is not particularly thin, especially when compared to the paper-thin OLEDs on the market, there isn’t much room for Hisense to put in a decent conventional audio system. I’d like to see more television manufacturers manage the sound quality that Apple does out of its laptops, but to date no one really has and Hisense is no exception.
Hisense U8H – The Competition
The U8H competes directly against a television like the Samsung QN90B, which asks $2,600, or the TCL 6-Series which comes in under $1,000. The result is a TV that actually feels like it is perfectly priced. It outperforms the TCL enough to warrant the extra cost while it makes me wonder why Samsung thinks it can charge that much for a TV that is only marginally better when it comes to picture quality.
If you’re not going to buy an OLED, Hisense is providing you with the best alternative for a price that’s hard to argue with. At this point, they’re the best value for any television, if I’m being honest.
