Hisense U8G 4K ULED HDR TV Review
Hisense U8G Series 65 "4K ULED TV
"The U8G is Hisense's most impressive television to date."
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Incredible brightness
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Excellent black levels
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Vibrant, bright colors
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Good exercise
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Excellent for playing
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good sound
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Bad off-angle picture
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Color problem with low luminance
As a replacement for the popular Hisense H9G from 2020, the new Hisense U8G 4K ULED HDR TV has a lot to offer. The two TVs look very similar, but it depends on what is inside. The H9G was praised as being particularly bright, while maintaining impressive black levels, resulting in high-contrast image quality.
Will we see some improvements and performance improvements with this new model? I hope so, because the U8G costs significantly more than its predecessor. For example. The 65-inch H9G I tested in August 2020 was $ 950 while the 65-inch U8G I tested here is $ 1,300.
In this review, I'll look at peak brightness measurements, take a look at backlight behavior, assess black levels, examine color accuracy and image quality adjustments, and see if it all adds up to make a TV want to buy.
Video review
Jump to: What is ULED? Out of the box | Setup | Connections | Picture settings | Calibration | Processing | Image quality | Sound | Play | Our opinion
What is ULED?
Let's start with the ULED nickname as I think this might be confusing for some people. To be clear, this is a quantum dot TV, so it might as well be called a QLED TV. Hisense only has its own branding, so this TV is comparable to other QLED LED-backlit TVs on the market.
Out of the box
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The Hisense U8G is effectively packaged and should be well protected for transport. There's not much in the box – you get the TV, two legs, screws for the legs, a slightly redesigned remote control, batteries and a composite video cable, and product literature.
Hooking up the TV legs is a breeze, and I really appreciate the central stand that allows larger screen-sized models to fit onto a wider range of stands.
Riley Young / Digital Trends
Riley Young / Digital Trends
The TV has very thin bezels, except for the lower edge, which is finished with a brushed metal strip. The TV doesn't have a particularly thin profile, so it may not look as elegant on the wall as more expensive competing models.
Hisense U8G 4K ULED HDR details
While we tested the 65-inch model 65U8G, our test also applies to the 55-inch model.
| Screen size | Model no | RRP |
| 55 inches |
55U8G |
$ 899.99 |
| 65 inches | 65U8G | $ 1,149.99 |
Set up
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The Hisense U8G runs Android TV as the operating system and not the newer Google TV. I reached out to Hisense to find out if the U8G might get an upgrade to Google TV in the future and will update this review as soon as I hear anything. However, I suspect it will stick with Android TV.
As an Android TV, setting up access to apps requires a lot of user IDs and passwords – there's no getting around that. However, if you sign in with your Google account, you will automatically be signed in to your YouTube account as well.
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Speaking of Google: The U8G is equipped with a microphone in the remote control and another in the television for calling up the Google assistant. Make sure to choose the setting that allows the Google Assistant to hands-free use the TV's microphone the way you want. It's easy to miss when you tend to click through the setup options quickly.
links
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The Hisense U8G has two HDMI 2.1 inputs on the HDMI 3 and 4 inputs. You will find that each is labeled for 4K 120 Hz. It's also worth noting that HDMI 3 is also the eARC connector. So if you plan to use eARC to return sound to a soundbar or A / V receiver, you'll need to use HDMI 4 for your Xbox Series X / S, PlayStation, 5 or HDMI 2.1 equipped gaming PC.
It's also important to browse the picture settings menu, find the HDMI format, and select the "Advanced" option to unlock advanced features like VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), 4K 120 Hz, and automatic device detection.
Picture settings
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The out-of-the-box picture settings I chose (and would recommend to U8G owners) were Theater Day for SDR content, HDR Theater for HDR10 content, and Dolby Vision Dark for Dolby Vision content. Theater Night and Dolby Vision Day are good alternatives depending on the viewing environment. For my calibration and measurement, however, these options made the most sense.
From there, I turned off motion smoothing and made sure the device's local dimming feature was set to high. I left most of the other settings at their defaults as they were set correctly for the image presets I selected.
Calibration and measurements
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As part of my calibrations and adjustments, for which I use the Calman software and a SpectraCal C6 colorimeter profiled on an X-Rite i1Pro meter, I set the two-point white balance of a TV. This ensures that the TV uses the optimal mix of red, blue and green primary colors for better color accuracy.
With the H9G, I ran into an issue where I couldn't adjust the SDR and HDR white balance separately. Whether this was a specific issue for this TV or Hisense made a change, this issue no longer exists. I was able to set each of them separately for more accurate readings.
After making these settings, I measured the TV's grayscale and peak brightness and ran a series of color tests.
In SDR, I measured a little over 700 nits of peak brightness, which is pretty intense! When switching to HDR, I got a little more than 1900 nits after adjustments – it was closer to 2,100 before I shifted the white balance. That's pretty incredible, and contrasts the HDR brightness of this TV with the Samsung QN90A, which is a much more expensive TV.
Light colors look amazing.
These brightness numbers are great, but you'll also want to see solid black levels. The good news is that the U8G's black levels are just as impressive as the H9G's, meaning that when the TV is viewed straight on the axis there is minimal bloom or halo. However, once you step aside, those dark colors are lost and the TV's backlight usually shows up. Black turns milky and there are some color shifts too.
As for the color, it's kind of a mixed bag. Light colors look amazing. I found them well saturated, but not oversaturated, very rich and with an impressive range of colors. However, low luminance colors seem to have problems. Objectively, I could tell from the measurements – the darker the color, the more the color missed its target.
You don't often notice this when viewing real content, but there have been times when the image appeared to have some dark, blotchy areas, which at first appeared to be the result of an issue with panel uniformity, but upon closer inspection it actually did to do the performance of the backlight. Again, I haven't seen this often, but it did come up a few times with some of the content I saw. Most of the time I saw the effect when I saw an image slowly fade in – from dark to light. This resulted in a color streak effect that was never present in lighter images. Something to consider.
Otherwise, the backlight on the U8G was very quick to respond – the TV has no problem with delaying dimming or lightening the backlight as I've seen on some other TVs this year. So when something goes black it can go black very quickly, and when an object lights up it lights up instantly.
Processing
The level of detail on this TV is also very impressive. The U8G has fine details with minimal artifacts and passes most of our stress tests with ease. Very rarely do I see the moire effect or the screen door effect on this television. Plus, this particular example has a pretty neat LCD panel. I didn't see any spots or even a lot of vignetting in the corners. It looks great for golf and hockey where you get a lot of green or white and it's easy to see a dirty screen effect.
Movement is impressive on the U8G too. It has great response time and is also very bright, so you will see a jerk when slowly panning images. This can be ironed out with a minimum of motion smoothing, but that can create a soap opera effect that cinephiles like me don't like. Overall, however, the U8G offered surprisingly solid movement performance.
I think my only real complaint about this TV would be part of the macro blocking I saw while watching shallow bit depth content from highly compressed video. I want the TV to clean that up a little better. There have been moments when I saw YouTube and saw a lot of macroblocking (big squares of color) in darker areas. Fortunately, higher quality content doesn't suffer as a result. This is how your Netflix, Disney +, HBO Max, Blu-ray Discs, and PC / console games all look great.
Image quality to take away
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Aside from all of the objective measurements and analysis and just sitting back and watching TV, I could tell that it was difficult not to be impressed with the U8G – when you are sitting right in front of it. This TV is a real blender. The extremely high contrast that the U8G offers is somewhat reminiscent of OLED TVs, and you get that contrast no matter how much light there is in the room because of its exceptional full-screen brightness.
HDR images on this TV look great and luckily there is a lot of HDR and Dolby Vision content out there for you to enjoy these days. The TV looks solid for SDR too, but I'd only say if you are looking at it in a dark room you might want to dim the backlighting a bit as the TV can look almost too bright in general.
sound
Surprisingly, the U8G sounds very good! It has a respectable amount of bass, the dialogue is always very clear, and the highs aren't too harsh, although they sparkle and offer a good amount of high-end detail. Definitely a bonus!
Play
This TV is great for gaming. It has very little input lag in game mode, the HDR images are jumping off the screen, the shadow details are great for first person shooters, and the movement looks solid. The U8G supports VRR and beats up to 120 frames per second thanks to a native 120 Hz panel and HDMI 2.1 inputs. You only get two HDMI 2.1 ports, but that's exactly what we see from almost all manufacturers except LG. So all in all, this TV is great for gamers.
Our opinion
I think it's safe to say that the Hisense U8G is definitely a high-flyer. It improves the H9G in the most meaningful way. The price of this TV tier has increased a bit, but you get performance for the premium you pay. I think the value is very high given the U8G's performance. I look forward to making some comparisons in the months to come as this TV currently looks like it's going to be very hard to beat for the price.
Is there a better alternative?
The Hisense U8G is currently in a class of its own. The closest comparison would be the Vizio P-Series Quantum, which is hard to come by at the time of this review's writing. The TCL 6 series is comparably inexpensive, but this is an aging model and has yet to be replaced. It doesn't get nearly as bright as the U8G. Given the U8G's performance specs, which go well with a premium TV like the Samsung QN90A, it's impossible not to see its incredible value.
How long it will take?
Given the U8G's support for Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HDMI 2.1, this should continue in the future.
warranty
Hisense provides a one-year parts and labor warranty on its televisions. More information about the Hisense warranty program can be found here.
Should you buy it?
Yes. If you're looking for an affordable TV with very good performance, the Hisense U8G has few peers.
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