Hisense H8G TV Review

The Hisense H8G is an upper-mid range TV in Hisense's 2020 lineup. It sits below the Hisense H9G and above the Hisense H65G. Its main competitors are other budget TVs, like the LG NANO85, Vizio M Series Quantum 2020, and the Samsung Q60T QLED.

The Hisense H8G has a nice and simple design, similar to the H8F, with added hooks on the legs for cable management. The stand is made out of metal and you can change the position of the feet, which is a nice feature.

The feet are made out of metal and are adjustable. The stand supports the TV fairly well, especially when the feet are in the widest position possible, but there's still some wobble.

Footprint of the 55" stand at the narrow position: 35.9" x 9.7"

Footprint of the 55" stand at the wide position: 43.9" x 9.7"

The top half of the back of the H8G is metal, while the bottom half where the inputs are housed is made out of textured plastic. There are hooks for cable management which is something 2019's Hisense H9F doesn't have.

Three of the borders are thin while the bottom is a bit thicker, but it shouldn't be distracting.

This TV isn't very thick and won't stick out much when well-mounted.

The Hisense H8G has a decent build quality, but it doesn't have a premium build like other high-end TVs. The metal on the back and the plastic parts are solid. There's a bit of wobble when nudged, but overall, there aren't any obvious issues.

As is the case with most VA panels, the contrast ratio is excellent, and blacks appear black when viewed in the dark. Sadly, it's not as good as the Hisense H8F, but the local dimming feature helps darken any blacks.

This TV has a decent full-array local dimming feature. Fast-moving bright objects transfer between the dimming zones well, but it crushes small light sources. In real scenes, small lights don't pop like they're supposed to and there's some blooming around them.

Great peak brightness. The H8G gets bright enough to combat glare and it's a good improvement over the Hisense H8F. Sadly, the brightness changes with varied content.

We measured the brightness after calibration on the 'Theater Night' Picture Mode with the Brightness set to 'Max' and Local Dimming to 'High'.

If you don't care about image accuracy and want the brightest image possible, set the Picture Mode to 'Vivid' and Local Dimming to 'High'. We were able to get 666 nits in the 10% peak window test.

The HDR peak brightness is just okay, but it's not enough to bring out highlights, and there's variation in brightness between different content.

We measured the brightness before calibration in the 'HDR Theater' Picture Mode with Local Dimming set to 'High', and Brightness to 'Max'. Use these settings if you also want the brightest image possible, as we were able to reach 679 nits on the 10% peak window.

Decent gray uniformity. There's a lot less vignetting than on the Hisense H8F, but there's still some dirty screen effect in the center, which is visible during sports or panning shots. In near-dark scenes, the entire screen is a bit more uniform.

Like most VA panel TVs, the viewing angles are poor and you quickly lose image accuracy when viewing from the side. There's an Enhanced Viewing Angle setting, but it doesn't improve the viewing angles and causes some sub-pixel dithering.

Decent black uniformity, similar to the Hisense H9F. There's some backlight bleed in the corners, and with the local dimming feature enabled, there's more visible blooming around the center cross.

The H8G has decent reflection handling. It handles a small amount of light well but struggles in well-lit rooms, so it's not ideal to place opposite a window.

The Hisense H8G has just okay out-of-the-box color accuracy. Most colors are fairly accurate and the color temperature is a bit warmer than the 6500K, so the image has a red/yellow tint. However, most shades of gray are inaccurate and the gamma is off-target, so some scenes are brighter than they should be.

After calibration, the color accuracy is excellent. There's almost no visible inaccuracies in colors and shades of gray, and the gamma is closer to the target curve.

You can see our recommended settings here.

The H8G upscales 480p content, like from DVDs, well without any issues.

720p content, like from cable boxes, is upscaled well.

1080p content looks almost as good as native 4k content.

4k content is displayed perfectly and there are no visible issues. If the Enhanced Viewing Angle setting is enabled, there's some sub-pixel dithering, so it's not recommended to use it.

This is a 4k TV that can't display an 8k signal.

Like the Hisense H8F, this TV uses a BGR pixel layout. Enabling the Enhanced Viewing Angle setting causes sub-pixel dithering, as you can see here.

This TV has a very good wide color gamut. It has outstanding coverage of the DCI P3 color space used in most HDR content, but it has limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space.

The EOTF follows the target curve very well until it rolls off at its peak brightness. The EOTF in 'Game' mode is nearly identical, as you can see here.

If you find HDR too dim, set the Picture Mode to 'HDR Theater' and Local Dimming to 'High'. This doesn't make the picture that much brighter, as you can see the EOTF here.

Decent color volume. Due to its excellent contrast ratio, it can produce deep, saturated colors. It has trouble displaying very bright blues, which is normal for an LED TV.

The H8G has decent gradient handling, better than the Hisense H8F and closer to the Hisense H9F. There's banding in every dark color, and it's more noticeable with dark grays and greens. The Noise Reduction and Digital Noise Reduction settings don't improve the performance.

There are no signs of temporary image retention, even immediately after displaying our high-contrast static test image for 10 minutes.

We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.

Good response time, much better than the Hisense H8F. There's no visible overshoot, but there's still some motion blur behind fast-moving objects.

Although the backlight uses PWM (pulse width modulation) to dim its backlight, the flicker frequency is extremely high and shouldn't bother most people.

There's an optional black frame insertion feature, called Motion Clearness that helps reduce motion blur. It reduces the flicker frequency to 60Hz and there's less duplication in motion than the Hisense H8F.

This TV is able to interpolate lower frame rate content up to 60Hz, but it's not very effective as it seems to come on/off during movies, but this issue shouldn't be noticeable for most people. For this to work, both Judder and Blur Reduction must be set to '10'.

See our recommended settings here.

Since this TV has a good response time, there's a bit of stutter with 24fps content as each frame is held longer, but almost none with 60fps content.

The H8G is able to remove judder from native 24p content, like Blu-ray players or native apps. For this to happen, Motion Enhancement must be set to 'Film'.

This TV has a 60Hz refresh rate and there's no support for variable refresh rate technology.

The H8G has an incredibly low input lag and it should please even serious console gamers. To achieve a low input lag, set the Picture Mode to 'Game'. Sadly, it doesn't automatically change picture modes when you start playing.