Hisense 100U8QG  TV Review

The Hisense 100U8QG is exceptionally bright in HDR. Small specular highlights stand out incredibly well against both dark and bright backgrounds. Bright scenes are just as impressive, and it's bright enough to bring out fine details in even the brightest HDR content.

Our results above are with the TV set to Filmmaker Mode with 'Dynamic Tone Mapping' disabled. Below are the results with DTM turned on, which makes the image even brighter.

• Hallway Lights: 935 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 616 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 541 cd/m²

There's no noticeable difference in HDR brightness when the TV is set to Game Mode.

Our results above are with DTM disabled, but if you like an even brighter image, you can see the results with DTM enabled below.

• Hallway Lights: 898 cd/m²
• Yellow Skyscraper: 582 cd/m²
• Landscape Pool: 571 cd/m²

This TV is incredibly bright in SDR, even in the brightest, most demanding content like sports. There's a significant drop in brightness when bright scenes are displayed for extended periods of time. This is extremely rare, though, and even at its lowest, it's still one of the brightest TVs on the market.

The Hisense 100U8QG has fantastic contrast. The native contrast of the panel is pretty good, which helps maintain deep blacks in the most complicated scenes. The Mini LED local dimming feature is fantastic, though, delivering incredibly deep blacks.

Peak brightness was set to 'High' for this test since most people will want to use that setting for the brightest image possible. However, that setting means the minimum brightness of the cave in the image is 309 cd/m² instead of the 200 cd/m² we typically target. This means that the contrast ratio is a bit inflated compared to TVs with whites set to 200 cd/m².

This TV has great lighting zone precision. There's very minor haloing around subtitles and bright highlights, but it's not very noticeable when watching the TV from directly in front. The TCL 98QM8K delivers slightly better zone precision overall, with a touch less haloing around bright highlights. On the other hand, it's significantly better than the Samsung 100QN80F.

Zone transitions are fairly smooth on this TV, and the processor keeps up with fast-moving objects well. There's some noticeable flicker as objects move between zones, but very little trailing halo effect. Edges are clean and properly lit for the most part.

Unfortunately, zone transitions are slightly worse when the TV is set to PC/Game Mode. This results in slightly worse dark details than outside of this mode, but it's still excellent overall.

The Hisense 100U8QG has excellent black uniformity. Blacks are incredibly deep and uniform when local dimming is enabled. It's decent even with local dimming disabled; the screen is a bit cloudy throughout, but it's fairly uniform.

The Hisense 100U8QG has just decent color volume in SDR. It has excellent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, but it can't quite display the full range of greens or reds. It struggles more with BT.2020 coverage, especially in lighter scenes.

This TV has excellent color volume in HDR. Colors are incredibly bright thanks to its high peak brightness, but it has a limited color gamut, so it can't fill out the full range of colors in HDR. Dark scenes look great thanks to its very high contrast.

The Hisense 100U8QG has decent color accuracy in SDR. The biggest issue by far is its color temperature, which is far too cold, resulting in a noticeable blue tint. Overall, color accuracy and the white balance are very good, with just a few minor issues.

Thankfully, this TV is easy to calibrate and delivers superb results after a full calibration. The color temperature is nearly perfect after calibration, and any remaining color inaccuracies are so minor that most people won't notice them.

See our full calibration settings.

Unfortunately, this TV has bad accuracy in HDR before calibration. The color temperature is horrendous, as it's far too cold, and everything is noticeably blue. Like with SDR, color accuracy and the white balance are okay, with noticeable issues across the board.

HDR accuracy is great after a full calibration. The color temperature is much closer to the target, but still a bit cold. White balance and color accuracy are also a lot better, but there are still some noticeable issues.

EOTF tracking on this TV is a bit of a mixed bag. Shadow details are very good overall, but they're slightly crushed. Midtones look much better, with near-perfect tracking. Anything above about 250 nits is severely overblown, though, especially in content mastered at 600 or 1,000 nits. It doesn't respect the mastering level for that content, either, and displays it well above the target luminance.

The TV does a great job cleaning up artifacts in low-quality content. Most artifacts like macroblocking and pixelization are cleaned up well, and there's very little loss of fine details.

This TV does a great job upscaling low-resolution content. Details are clear enough, but some finer details are a bit hard to make out.

The gradient handling on this TV is very good overall. There's some noticeable banding in bright shades of red and green, but it's not too bad.

The Hisense 100U8QG has excellent input lag, especially with the boosted refresh rate modes at 165Hz and 288Hz.

There's also a dedicated USB-C input that can be used as a DP Alt-mode port for PC gamers, but it doesn't support most of the gaming features available on this TV. Below are the input lag measurements using the USB-C port.

• 1080p @ 60Hz: 14.9 ms
• 1080p @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode: 124.9 ms
• 1080p @ 120Hz: 6.3 ms
• 4k @ 60hz @ 4:4:4: 14.6 ms
• 4k @ 60Hz Outside Game Mode: 124.6 ms
• 4k @ 60Hz With Motion Interpolation: 25.7 ms
• 4k @ 60Hz: 14.6 ms
• 4k @ 120Hz: 6.0 ms
• 4k @ Max (165Hz): 4.1 ms

This TV supports all common resolutions up to 4k @ 165Hz, and it supports chroma 4:4:4 for clear text from a PC. It also offers a boosted refresh rate mode, where you can lower your resolution for 1080p @ 288Hz gaming when using HDMI. When using the USB-C port, chroma 4:4:4 works as intended, but the maximum refresh rate at all resolutions is 165Hz, so 1080p @ 288Hz isn't possible.

This TV supports VRR across a wide refresh rate range, ensuring a nearly tear-free gaming experience from any VRR-enabled source. It works well across the TV's entire refresh rate range and supports sources with Low Framerate Compensation (LFC), which ensures your games remain nearly tear-free even when your frame rate drops very low. Unfortunately, VRR isn't supported when using the USB-C alt-display port.

Unfortunately, like the Hisense U8N, the overdrive behavior changes when you have VRR enabled. and the frame rate hovers around 61 fps. This results in inconsistent motion handling, especially if your source is hovering close to that frame rate. Above 61 fps, there's noticeable overshoot, resulting in inverse ghosting, especially in shadow details, but below this motion is very slow, resulting in a long blur trail.

Unfortunately, the CAD at this TV's maximum 4k resolution is poor. It struggles going in and out of darker shades, resulting in very blurry motion in shadow details and midtones. It's significantly better in bright scenes, though. On the positive side, there's no overshoot, which is good as this means there's no inverse ghosting in dark scenes.

Dropping down to 120Hz actually improves the CAD on this TV. It still struggles with shadow details, but midtones look a lot better, and bright highlights are still good. Again, there's no noticeable overshoot.

Unfortunately, 60Hz motion looks poor, as this TV again struggles with shadow details and midtones. Bright scenes look a lot better, but motion is very blurry overall.

The TV is fully compatible with everything the PS5 offers, like 1440p @ 120Hz and 4k @ 120Hz, as well as HDMI Forum VRR. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about manually switching to PC/Game Mode to get the lowest input lag.

The TV is fully compatible with everything the Xbox Series X|S offers, including 1440p @ 120Hz, 4k @ 120Hz, HDMI Forum VRR, FreeSync Premium Pro, and Dolby Vision gaming. It also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about manually switching to PC/Game Mode to get the lowest input lag.

Due to the TV's quick response time, there's some response time stutter when watching movies or shows, which is most apparent in slow panning shots.

The Hisense 100U8QG removes judder from all sources.

This TV has a good cinematic pixel response time. This helps reduce stutter when watching low-frame-rate content like movies and shows.

The TV uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight, which introduces flicker that can bother people who are sensitive to it. Fortunately, it flickers at a very fast 20,000Hz in all picture modes, at all brightness levels, and with local dimming enabled, so it's not visible.

The TV supports backlight strobing, more commonly known as black frame insertion (BFI). The feature is designed to improve the appearance of motion by strobing its backlight and reducing the amount of persistence blur. Unfortunately, it only flickers at 120Hz, and the image is blurry with some image duplication. The pulse timing can't be adjusted, but the Clearness setting on this TV can be used to adjust the pulse width.

Like most TVs, there's an optional motion interpolation feature to reduce stutter in low-frame-rate content. It doesn't work very well at max settings, though, and there are noticeable artifacts even in slow panning shots.

The Hisense 100U8QG has mediocre direct reflection handling. The screen coating doesn't do much to reduce the intensity of direct light sources, and any lights directly opposite the screen are easily visible.

Ambient light has no noticeable impact on black levels.

The TV does a great job with total reflections. Its glossy screen finish significantly reduces the intensity of indirect reflections, but direct reflections cause some noticeable light banding.

This TV has good color saturation in bright rooms. Ambient light has almost no impact on color saturation.

Unfortunately, the Hisense 100U8QG has a very poor viewing angle. The image degrades significantly if you're even slightly off-center, and it actually looks worse in person than the measurements suggest. Scenes with mid-grays or darker tones show a dark spot in the center of the screen that can be distracting even when sitting directly in front of the screen.

Unfortunately, the Hisense 100U8QG has poor gray uniformity. The entry screen is patchy and has noticeable tint issues, and there's noticeable dirty screen effect in the center. Very dark scenes are only slightly better.

The Hisense 100U8QG uses a VA panel with a BGR (Blue-Green-Red) subpixel layout. For video or gaming content, this doesn't cause any issues, but for PC monitor use, it can be a problem as it impacts the text clarity, although not everyone will notice this.

The TV uses a KSF phosphor for reds and might use quantum dots for greens, but it's unclear. The spectral signature suggests that it might use InP quantum dots instead of cadmium, which is a downgrade from the panel used in the 65-inch version.

The TV has only three HDMI ports, but they all support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth. It also has a USB-C port that supports DisplayPort Alt Mode, but it doesn't support 1080p @ 288Hz or VRR, which limits its usefulness for PC gamers. The TV supports 4k over-the-air thanks to its ATSC 3.0 tuner.

The TV supports eARC, which lets you pass high-quality, uncompressed audio to a compatible receiver or soundbar through an HDMI cable. It supports all major audio formats, so you don't have to worry about compatibility with external sources.

The Hisense 100U8QG has a premium design, but it's significantly bulkier than smaller models.

The Hisense 100U8QG has two feet placed at either end of the TV, so it needs a large table.

Footprint of the 100-inch stand: 68.4" x 18.9".

The back of the Hisense 100U8QG is quite plain and has a less premium design than the 65-inch model. All of the inputs are side-facing, and they're easy to access. There are clips on the top of the feet for very basic cable management.

This TV has good build quality. Given its size, it obviously wobbles quite easily, which can be an issue if you have bouncy floors or kids running around. There's also noticeable flex on the rear panel. Other than that, there are no noticeable issues, but it's not as well-built as the 65-inch model.

Unboxing a TV this large is never easy, but Hisense designed the packaging in a way that makes it pretty straightforward. Most of the packaging lifts off the screen, giving you access to the mounting points for the feet while still holding it in place. You can attach the feet without laying the TV down and simply slide the last piece of foam out. Unfortunately, unlike the Sony BRAVIA 5 98, there are no handles, so it's best to unbox this in the same room as it'll be installed, as it's hard to move around.

The Hisense 100U8QG ships with version 14 of the Google TV smart interface.

Unfortunately, like most TVs, the interface contains ads. You can opt out of personalized ads, but this doesn't change the number of ads you'll see; they just won't be personalized to match your search and viewing history.

You have the option to set up the TV using the 'Basic Google TV' option, which gets rid of ads but prevents you from using most of the TV's smart features.

The TV comes with the same remote as the Hisense U8N. It has backlit buttons for popular streaming services, and you can use the built-in microphone for voice control.

• Quick setup guide
• Remote
• 2x AAA batteries
• Power cable

Unfortunately, this TV has a poor frequency response. The sound profile isn't well-balanced, and dialogue isn't very clear, but it has a bit more bass than most TVs. It can't get very loud, though, and there's noticeable compression.