What is the upgradation in Hisense ULED Premium 65-Inch Class U8G Quantum Series Android 4K Smart TV? Beyond image quality the Hisense has its good points (sleek styling, especially that stand) and less-good (Android TV instead of the newer Google TV), but the main reason to consider this TV is if you have an exceedingly bright room or you want that extra punch when watching HDR content. I liked the image quality of the TCL and Sony better, but the U8G is a solid performer in its own right.
The Hisense U8G replaces the 2020 Hisense H9G, and it’s an impressive TV. Like its predecessor, it delivers impressive performance and good value for its price, competing against high-end models from other brands like the Sony X90J and the Samsung QN90A QLED. Overall, it performs very similarly to the H9G, but there are a few welcome improvements, like two HDMI 2.1 ports, as well as a significantly improved color gamut. Know about more features in Hisense ULED Premium 65-Inch Class U8G Quantum Series Android 4K Smart TV Reviews.
In the box
- Quick Setup Guide
- Remote
- Batteries
- AV Composite adapter
- Power cable
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Brighter than any other TV at this price
- Very good contrast and color
- Sleek design with unique stand
Cons
- Worse than competitors with theatrical HDR content
- Android TV smart system not as polished as Google TV
Hisense ULED Premium 65-Inch Class U8G Quantum Series Android 4K Smart TV Reviews
Build
The border around the screen is metal, but most of the body is plastic. There’s very little flex, except around the VESA mounts, but this shouldn’t cause any issues.
Stand
The frame around the picture is a dark, silver-gray metal along the bottom and beveled on the edges. The panel is surrounded by a thin strip of black on the top and sides, set against the same silver-gray, which also matches the stand.
Design
The Hisense U8G’s design is nearly identical to the 2020 Hisense H9G. They’ve made some slight changes to the stand, and the vents in the back are a bit different, but other than that, the frame is nearly identical. The back of the TV is nearly identical to the Hisense H9G. There are tracks for cable management, as well as removable clips that help to keep everything neat.
If you’re planning on wall-mounting the TV, these clips can be removed, reducing the total thickness to 3.2″ (8.2 cm).
Ports
- 4 HDMI inputs
- 2 USB ports
- Composite AV input
- Ethernet (LAN) port
- Optical digital audio output
- 1x headphone audio output
- 1x RF (antenna) input
- serial port (minijack)
Viewing Angle
As expected of a VA-type TV, the image degrades when viewed at an angle. The most noticeable issue off-angle is the gamma shift, causing the image to appear washed out. Colors stay accurate to a wider angle than the gamma, but it’s not as good as IPS-type TVs, like the LG NANO90 2021.
Brightness – 65-Inch Class U8G Quantum Series Android 4K Smart TV
The Hisense U8G has excellent peak brightness in SDR, very similar to the Hisense H9G, and glare shouldn’t be an issue. Small highlights in some scenes stand out really well, much brighter than the Hisense U6G. There is some variation in peak brightness in very bright scenes. This results in a slightly dimmer screen with some content, like watching a hockey game for example.
We measured the brightness after calibration in the ‘Theater Night’ Picture Mode with the Backlight set to ‘Max’ and Local Dimming to ‘High’. Setting Active Contrast to ‘Medium’ results in a slightly brighter picture of 1,401 cd/m² in the 25% window, but it isn’t a very noticeable difference.
If you want something with Mini LED backlighting that gets much brighter with real content, then check out the TCL 6 Series/R646 2021 QLED.
Contrast
The Hisense U8G has outstanding contrast, delivering deep blacks, which is expected from a VA-type panel. Contrast is a bit worse than the Hisense H9G, we don’t know if this is simply variance between units or not, but it’s not a very noticeable difference either way. The higher-end Hisense U9DG has much better contrast thanks to its dual layer LCD panel.
HDR – 65-Inch Class U8G Quantum Series Android 4K Smart TV
The Hisense U8G has impressive peak brightness in HDR. Small specular highlights are brighter than the Hisense H9G and significantly brighter than the Sony X90J, but overall real scene brightness is about the same across all three. We took these measurements in the ‘HDR Theater’ Picture Mode, which is also the brightest HDR mode on this TV.
Switching to Game Mode results in essentially no change in the HDR peak brightness. Like in the ‘HDR Theater’ Picture Mode, in Game Mode, the peak brightness doesn’t track the EOTF properly, so almost all scenes are brighter than they should be. Most games offer an HDR adjustment option, so this shouldn’t be an issue for most people.
Color gamut
The Hisense U8G uses Quantum Dot technology, similar to the Samsung’s QLED lineup, like the Samsung QN90A QLED, and LG’s NanoCell TVs, like the LG NANO90 2021. This allows for a wider color gamut than traditional LCD technology. This results in an excellent color gamut, with nearly perfect coverage of the DCI P3 color space used by most current HDR content and good coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space. These results are a good improvement over the 2020 Hisense H9G and even better than the Samsung QN90A QLED.
Response time
For the most part, the Hisense U8G has an excellent response time, resulting in clear motion in fast-moving scenes. Unfortunately, there are some exceptions. Transitions out of dark scenes have significantly slower transitions, resulting in noticeable ghosting behind fast-moving objects. This is common for displays with VA panels, though, and is known as black smear.
Like the Hisense H9G, there have been reports of red ghosting in some situations, and our U8G also has this issue. You can see it here along Olivia Colman’s hairline in this image taken from The Crown, Season 3 Episode 5.
Refresh rate
This TV supports a variable refresh rate, and in our testing, it worked properly from multiple sources, including from an NVIDIA graphics card. We’ve received reports of a few issues when VRR is enabled, though, including noticeable ghosting in some games, and local dimming isn’t available in some cases when playing on an Xbox with VRR enabled.
Hisense ULED Premium 65-Inch Class U8G Quantum Series Android 4K Smart TV customer Reviews
Impressive TV and Amazing Value
The new Hisense 65” U8G Quantum ULED TV is the real deal. This is my first experience with a Hisense TV and I am truly impressed. I have another top of the line brand QLED (Q80R) that I use in my living room and I have loved for the last two years. That TV is primarily for watching Bravo and HGTV (according to my wife). So when I got the new Xbox Series X, I knew I needed to upgrade to a better TV in my media room.I didn’t want to spend as much as I previously spent on a the Q80R, so I started looking at alternative options and stumbled upon this Hisense. This TV is on par with my Q80R as far as brightness, color, and black levels. It is simply stunning to look at. If you have not experienced one of these higher end TVs, you have no idea of what you are missing with regard to the picture quality and black levels.
The screen does a good job of reducing reflections from the big windows that sit on the opposite wall of the TV and the brightness (holy cow is it bright) helps even more. I have no issues playing games or watching movies during the day.
Of course, if you are using one of the next generation video game consoles, this has pretty much everything you need with the 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, 120hz gaming, VRR, and high quality HDR. I hooked my xbox directly to one of the HDMI 2.1 ports and then used another cable to my eARC compatible soundbar, which allowed me to passthrough Dolby Atmos to my soundbar. I even tested a few older xbox games with FPS Boost and HDR and it was very impressive. Makes me want to go back and experience some of these games again. I have not experienced any ghosting issues as some other reviews have reported.
Last thing. The TV was packaged well and easy to unbox and put together. I was able to do everything myself.
I am now recommending this TV to some family members that have also been looking to upgrade. I will continue to update this review in the comments as I test out more features, but this is pretty close to perfect.
I received this product at a discounted price in exchange for my honest review.
By pvtpyle at Best Buy
Alternate of Hisense ULED Premium 65-Inch Class U8G Quantum Series Android 4K Smart TV
65-inch Sony A90J OLED 4K HDR TV (2021)
Why you should buy this: Sony’s latest picture processing tech delivers an unmatched movie viewing experience.
Who it’s for: Those who seek perfection in movie and TV picture quality and have the money to pay for it.
Why we picked the Sony A90J OLED 4K HDR TV:
Last year, we declared Sony’s XBR A8H OLED TV as the most cinematic 4K TV, thanks to the subtleties in detail that Sony was able to extract from its OLED panel. This year’s pick, the Bravia A90J Master Series, deserves the title of most cinematic TV for very similar reasons.
If you checked out our description of the LG G1 Gallery Series above, you know that it’s LG’s brightest OLED TV to date, thanks to the new LG OLED Evo panel and LG’s picture processor. Well, Sony has always had a way of squeezing even more performance from a given panel than LG, and the A90J exemplifies this capability.
Through specialized heat sinks, Sony can run the A90J’s panel longer and harder without damaging the OLED material itself, which leads to an exceptionally bright image — brighter even than the G1. And when you layer on Sony’s latest Cognitive Processor XR — a computer brain that Sony claims works a lot like a human brain — you’ve got what our reviewer described as the “best picture quality I have ever seen […] this TV is now the benchmark, and it’s going to be hard to beat.”
Yes, the same reviewer said something similar about the G1, but in fairness, he had not reviewed the A90J yet.
The A90J also scores very highly when it comes to sound quality. Sony’s Acoustic Surface Audio+ turns the entire OLED panel into a speaker, while its XR Surround makes that sound feel as though it’s coming from all around you — perfect for virtualized Dolby Atmos without a soundbar. But given that most A90J buyers will be running an A/V receiver for their sound, it’s pretty darn cool that the A90J has its own center channel speaker terminals, which lets you use the TV as a replacement for your existing center channel speaker.
With Android TV (and the new Google TV experience) running the user interface, it’s like having a top-notch streaming media device built-in, plus Sony has embedded Apple’s AirPlay and HomeKit in addition to Google’s Chromecast, leaving no stone unturned in terms of wireless device connections.
There are really only two drawbacks to the A90J, and one of them may not matter to you at all: There’s no VRR support for now, which gamers should be aware of, as it might affect their favorite games. The other is the price. At $4,000 for the 65-inch model, the A90J is very, very expensive.
That’s why the LG G1 won our overall best pick: It comes incredibly close to the A90J in terms of picture quality, it has every gaming feature you could want, and it costs $1,000 less.
Still, if you want the best cinematic experience in 4K TV, the Sony A90J OLED 4K HDR TV is the TV you’ve been waiting for.
