Hisense returns to its value roots
Just £229 for a 43in TV represents potentially ridiculously good value for money. Especially when you consider that, despite its low price, this set delivers a native 4K resolution, high dynamic range support including Dolby Vision, AI-powered picture processing and Hisense’s increasingly handy VIDAA smart system.
Its frame is impressively thin around its side and top edges, and while its bottom edge is much wider, Hisense has made a feature of this by also making the bottom edge stick out further forward and sideways than the rest of the frame. Its rear is deeper than most TVs at its chunkiest point, so it is better suited to being placed in a corner of the room rather than wall mounted.
Inevitably for a price this low, there is no Quantum Dot colour or local dimming in play, nor 120Hz or VRR gaming support, since the TV uses only a 60Hz panel, with HDMI 2.1 ports that support only eARC and ALLM. Happily the 43A6KTUK uses a VA panel that is lit from behind rather than edge-lit LEDs. VA panels have more limited viewing angles than IPS types of LCD TV, but can control the light they let through better to achieve a (usually) better contrast performance. Similarly, experience suggests that placing LEDs behind a screen rather than around its edges again provides superior light control (with less chance of local light ‘clouding’) – even without any local dimming to help out.
Even more surprisingly for its price, the 43A6KTUK carries picture processing in the form of motion compensation, and Hisense’s AI Picture Optimization tech, which attempts to get the best look for each image frame received, especially when it comes to upscaling HD content to the TV’s native 4K resolution. Hisense also points to the 43A6KTUK’s quad-core processing engine being able to deliver more accurate colours. The 43A6KTUK also impressively supports three of the four main HDR formats: HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision.
First impressions of the 43A6KTUK’s pictures are better than expected for such a cheap set. The backlighting system is surprisingly assured. It’s capable of delivering some very respectable black tones by budget TV standards, with impressively little low-contrast greyness hanging over them. Especially if you stick with the Dolby Vision Dark setting with HDR, or the Standard or Night settings with non-Dolby Vision HDR sources.
It also delivers dark scenes with none of the distracting ‘floating black levels’ some more sophisticated TVs suffer
