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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways
- The Hisense U8QG is disposable from 55-inch to 100-inch, with astir models presently connected sale.
- It offers arresting HDR representation prime and brightness.
- However, this acceptable lacks immoderate premium features similar 4 HDMI ports and an ultra-thin frame.
The Hisense U8QG is 1 measurement down from the company's flagship TV, (the U9QG), and it's presently connected merchantability for astir $1,275 astatine large retailers (normally $2,200).
If you're up to velocity connected modern TV tech, past you mightiness cognize the quality betwixt OLED and QLED, and possibly however Mini-LED fits into the ecosystem of tv probe and development. You might've adjacent heard of QD-OLED and Micro-LED arsenic envelope-pushing technologies that volition everlastingly alteration our viewing experience.
But person you heard of ULED?
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According to Hisense, ULED (or Ultra LED) is the company's proprietary "ultimate viewing experience… that combines 20 antithetic patents to make the astir vivid and true-to-life viewing experience." It deploys these technologies crossed 4 cardinal areas: Ultra Local Dimming, Ultra Wide Color Gamut, Ultra 4K Resolution, and Ultra Smooth Motion Rate.
TV selling nomenclature tin get further convoluted because, portion you won't find Hisense's competitors utilizing the word "ULED" to picture their caller models, the 2025 Hisense sub-flagship U8QG besides categorizes itself arsenic a Mini-LED and QLED (Quantum Dot) television. So galore labels.
Yet astir consumers lone privation to cognize a mates of things: How bash each these labels construe into show and value? And however does this exemplary stack up to others? I tested the 65-inch Hisense U8QG successful our Louisville laboratory to find out.
Setup and hardware observations
Setting up the U8QG progressive the accustomed creation of attaching the basal and connecting the portion to our network. While the assembly process was not terrible, it surely required 4 hands (two people) to bash safely, and it helped that my helper is my Lab Manager and an engineer.
Even so, we consulted the Quick Start instructions to usage 4 screws adjoining 2 integrative components to a dense robust sheet that serves arsenic the ft of the U8QG -- which seemed similar it could deflect a 50-caliber bullet.
In that light, this TV isn't going to topple implicit if your feline spasmodically bounces disconnected the partition oregon your kids roughhouse excessively adjacent to the centerpiece of your surviving room.
The distant came with caller batteries (always a plus), and I americium besides ever pleased by distant controls that airy up erstwhile you prime them up, arsenic this 1 does. It besides has an ambient airy sensor and Find My Remote feature, successful summation to being a dependable distant tied to the TV's Google OS.
I bask the hardy consciousness of this remote, which has a brushed metallic decorativeness but is intelligibly made of plastic. Notably, this distant mirrors the width of the TV itself, astatine astir 2 inches. This TV is not super-sleek, but that's not the relation the U8QG is playing successful the crowded marketplace of fund to midrange options.
Three HDMI ports are great, particularly since the U8QG has a 165Hz autochthonal refresh rate, an upgrade from the 144Hz complaint successful 2024's U8N model. However, 4 ports are becoming the modular among premium TVs due to the fact that you're apt to usage 3 ports with a gaming console, an outer speaker/soundbar, and a streaming device, if not a cablegram oregon outer box. Four ports licence a caller level of versatility, from a 2nd gaming strategy to a laptop transportation oregon a integer camera, and the U8QG falls conscionable abbreviated of that versatility.
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Having said that, the U8QG is the archetypal Hisense TV to see a USB-C larboard that tin enactment arsenic an alternate show larboard for PC gamers, which is rather cool.
How does ULED truly look?
When I archetypal powered connected the U8QG, the retail mode demos connected its surface were arresting. Waterfalls of colour and airy poured vertically done a montage of imagery that I would telephone captivating. This is simply a 4K TV, but erstwhile playing high-res video, it looked 8K, astatine slightest to my quality eye. So let's interruption down those 4 components that Hisense celebrates with the word "Ultra."
'Ultra Local Dimming' successful action
This is wherever the U8QG's mini-LED facet truly shines (literally) due to the fact that thousands of tiny LEDs tin beryllium controlled with exquisite precision. This means deeper blacks that are actually black, not a murky grey positioned close adjacent to bright, punchy highlights.
The opposition is striking. During a peculiarly acheronian country successful "Alien: Romulus," the U8QG rendered the inky blackness of abstraction with an strength that tin springiness an OLED a superior tally for its money. The distant stars and nebulae popped with brilliant, well-defined airy with minimal blooming oregon haloing astir agleam objects connected acheronian backgrounds.
How colors are reproduced
In 1 of galore trial videos of earthy scenery, the vibrant plumage of tropical birds, the affluent greens of a rainforest, and the heavy blues of the water felt incredibly lifelike and saturated, but not successful an artificial, overblown way. Similarly, erstwhile tuning successful to "Top Gun: Maverick," the U8QG handled tegument tones with a earthy warmth, avoiding that plasticky oregon overly ruddy look that tin sometimes creep in.
Our Calman bundle and Klein colorimeter trial results bespeak a adjacent lucifer to targeted measurements for the BT.2020 Gamut Coverage connected astatine slightest 3 representation modes (i.e., standard, cinema, filmmaker). However, the BT.709 and P3 Sweeps weren't arsenic successful, though these variables are not wide considered perceivable to the bare quality eye.
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No less, the out-of-the-box colour accuracy successful Filmmaker mode was besides precise good, meaning you're getting a representation that's adjacent to the creator's intent without needing to dive heavy into calibration settings (though those options are determination for tinkerers).
What astir 4K video playback?
4K solution is modular fare for astir TVs nowadays. So what puts the Hisense look into an "Ultra" category?
I volition attest that for 4K viewing, the U8QG's clarity was exceptional. Fine textures successful clothing, distant landscapes, and tiny details successful analyzable scenes were each rendered with awesome precision, adjacent for 1080p content. Hisense's upscaling engine, the Hi-View AI Engine Pro processor, besides supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, which is noteworthy but not uncommon.
While it's not magic (you won't mistake an aged DVD for a 4K Blu-ray), the U8QG's MediaTek Pentonic 800 spot sharpens and cleans up lower-resolution sources effectively, making them acold much appealing connected a 4K canvas.
Ultimately, with 8.3 cardinal pixels, we tin expect crisp visuals and crisp contrast, and this is the lawsuit with each 4K TVs. But arsenic acold arsenic I tin tell, the "Ultra" portion of Hisense's branding refers to further technologies it uses to heighten representation prime (like Noise Reduction, Detail Enhancement, and Dynamic Tone Mapping for HDR). Not to disregard oregon demystify the word "ULED," but I privation to beryllium wide that it does not picture a full caller class of modern TV technology.
Sports and gaming
One mode I similar to measure question complaint connected a TV is to ticker NFL (or immoderate sports) highlights, particularly of agelong downfield passes. For the U8QG, the spiraling launches from quarterbacks were reasonably choky successful presumption of blur, and determination was astir zero blur trailing the moving players. Frantic enactment sequences successful each the footage I sampled retained their interaction without devolving into a juddery mess.
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Gamers, too, volition admit the U8QG's responsiveness, particularly with features similar ALLM, Game Mode Ultra (another "Ultra"), and AMD FreeSync PremiumPro -- each included to heighten fast-action content. Any TV that offers a adaptable refresh complaint (VRR) of 288Hz for gaming has an borderline connected its contenders, which precise good mightiness person to an borderline for you arsenic a gamer. The U8QG reaches this potential, and that puts it successful the precocious echelon for question clarity and smoothness successful the user TV space. And that's "Ultra" capable for me.
A connection connected dependable performance
The on-device dependable prime of the U8QG was amazingly robust. While it won't regenerate a dedicated soundbar oregon situation dependable strategy for existent audiophiles, the 4.1.2 multi-channel speakers present wide dialog and a decent magnitude of bass for mundane viewing. But arsenic I cranked up the volume, I did announcement immoderate rattling bass that the hardware successful this TV can't overcome.
ZDNET's buying advice
If you're looking for heavy blacks and vibrant colors connected a TV that holds up good successful ambient airy without the terms tag of an OLED screen, past the Hisense U8QG is simply a sensible consideration. The TV is large for mixed usage, including gaming and sports, adjacent successful rooms with abundant ambient lighting.
While the 65-inch U8QG retails for $2,200, large retailers person slashed its terms by up to 32%, bringing the full to $1,500. The 75-inch U8 is besides connected merchantability for 20% disconnected connected Amazon, putting it astatine $2,000.
There are higher-end Mini-LEDs that connection much dimming zones and much refined processing, but the U8QG delivers a level of show wherever the instrumentality of diminishing returns truly starts to footwear successful for those pricier models. The worth proposition present is strong, particularly erstwhile priced right. Take vantage of the discount portion you can.
The Hisense U8QG stands retired arsenic an Editors' Choice due to the fact that its Mini-LED show achieves singular brightness, awesome contrast, and affluent Quantum Dot colors that really vie with OLED representation quality. This TV delivers a high-end, feature-packed acquisition that becomes an adjacent much compelling worth erstwhile recovered astatine a important discount. It's a exemplary we tin urge with confidence.
This communicative was primitively published connected June 6, 2025, and was updated connected July 1, 2025, adding accusation for a caller July 4th discount.
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