The best Hisense TV we have tested yet
65in Mini LED TV | £1699 | whf.cm/HisenseU8K
While the U8K sits at the top of Hisense’s current Mini LED range (a flagship UXK model is due later this year), it still looks like good value when compared with the TVs of most brands. We’re reviewing the 65in model here, which launched at £1699. The U8K’s most obvious rival is the Sony X90L, which is currently priced at £1699 and outperforms its spec sheet with superb picture quality.
Viewed head-on, the thin metal frame and fabric-covered bottom edge that houses the front-firing speakers give the U8K a premium look, and the centrally mounted metal pedestal is both narrow enough (at 40cm) and thin enough (about 6mm) to make it relatively easy to position a soundbar. The back of the TV looks and feels much cheaper than the front, and the rear-facing woofer looks more like a fan at first glance, but if you are spending any significant time looking at the rear of the TV, something has gone rather wrong.
While it features Mini (as opposed to standard) LEDs, the U8K’s backlight prevents it from offering OLED levels of thinness, but at 7.7cm, this is far from the thickest TV of this type.
At the back are an array of connections including an optical out, a proper 3.5mm headphone socket, two USBs and four HDMIs. Of those four HDMIs, two are standard and two are HDMI 2.1 spec. Those two higher-spec HDMIs support 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM gaming features (in fact, the TV can support 144Hz refresh rates, which are of no use to console gamers but will appeal to some PC players), and the TV also has a Dolby Vision game mode that goes right up to 4K/120Hz. Unfortunately, one of the two HDMI 2.1 ports is also used for eARC, which you will probably need in order to connect a soundbar or AV receiver.
Aside from Dolby Vision, the U8K also supports HLG, HDR10 and HDR10+. Support for all four major HDR formats is not something that Samsung, LG or Sony offer on any of their TVs. The U8K runs Hisense’s own Vidaa platform, which is a little basic compared with Google TV and the bespoke operating systems of the latest LG and Samsungs, but it’s logically laid out and exceptionally snappy in use.
The U8K combines Quantum Dots with a Mini LED backlight in a similar way to Samsung’s Neo QLED models. Hisense claims the TV can hit a peak brightness figure of 1500 nits, and while it won’t put a specific figure on the number of individual dimming zones it has, the company does state that it’s six times more than the UK version of last
