The Hisense U8G is a high-end 4k TV in Hisense's 2021 lineup. It replaces the 2020 Hisense H8G, and it's been replaced in 2022 by the Hisense U8H. It offers an impressive array of additional features, including HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, 4k @ 120Hz gaming for PS5 and Xbox Series X gamers, and FreeSync variable refresh rate support. It runs the Android 10 smart interface, which has a great selection of additional streaming apps, including all major streaming services. Sadly, even though these sizes are the most popular, it's only available in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes, which is disappointing if you're limited in space or looking for something bigger.
Our Verdict
Overall, the Hisense U8G is an impressive TV. Thanks to its excellent contrast ratio, high peak brightness, and great local dimming feature, it's a great choice for watching movies in a dark room. It also looks great in a bright room for watching shows or sports, and it easily overcomes bright glare, but it has a narrow viewing angle, so it's not ideal for a wide seating arrangement, as the image degrades at the sides. It has outstanding low input lag, an excellent response time, and great gaming features like variable refresh rate (VRR) support, making it an excellent choice for gaming or use as a PC monitor. Overall, it's a well-rounded TV that should please most people.
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Outstanding contrast.
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High peak brightness.
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Excellent reflection handling.
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Excellent response time.
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Image degrades when viewed at an angle.
The Hisense U8G TV is an excellent choice for watching movies in a dark room; the impressive contrast ratio, great local dimming, and excellent black uniformity results in an impressive viewing experience in a dark room, with very little blooming around bright objects. High-resolution content like Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray content displays without any noticeable issues, and even older DVD or cable content looks great. Due to the fast response time, there's some stutter when watching movies, especially in slow panning shots.
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Outstanding contrast.
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Excellent black uniformity.
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Low-resolution content is upscaled without any issues.
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Noticeable stutter in low frame rate content.
The Hisense U8G is a great TV for watching TV shows during the day. It has great reflection handling and high peak brightness, so glare isn't an issue even in very bright rooms. It's not perfect, though, as the image degrades when viewed at an angle, which is an issue if you like to move around with the TV on. Older, lower resolution shows are upscaled well, which is great if you have shows on DVD. The built-in Google Play Store has a huge selection of apps, so you're sure to find your favorite streaming service without resorting to an external streaming box.
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High peak brightness.
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Excellent reflection handling.
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Low-resolution content is upscaled without any issues.
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Image degrades when viewed at an angle.
The Hisense U8G is a great TV for watching sports in a bright room. It has excellent reflection handling and great peak brightness, so glare isn't an issue in bright rooms. It has a fast response time, so fast action is clear, and it's easy to make out the action on-screen. Lower resolution content, like cable sports, is upscaled well and looks almost as good as native 4k content. On the other hand, the image degrades when viewed at an angle, so if you like to watch the big game with a large group of friends, only those seated directly in front of the TV will enjoy it to the fullest.
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High peak brightness.
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Excellent reflection handling.
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Excellent response time.
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Low-resolution content is upscaled without any issues.
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Image degrades when viewed at an angle.
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Some noticeable dirty screen effect.
The Hisense U8G is an amazing TV for playing video games. It has outstanding low input lag for a responsive gaming experience, and a great response time, so fast action is clear. It's great for console gamers, with support for 4k @ 120Hz gaming from the Xbox Series X or PS5, and it supports variable refresh rate technology to reduce tearing. Games look great thanks to the excellent contrast ratio, and local dimming performs just as well in 'Game' mode as in other picture modes. It's also extremely bright and has great reflection handling, so glare isn't an issue.
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Outstanding contrast.
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High peak brightness.
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Outstanding low input lag.
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Excellent response time.
The Hisense U8G delivers an excellent HDR movie experience. It has an excellent contrast ratio, delivering deep blacks, and the local dimming feature is great, resulting in bright highlights that stand out, with minimal blooming. It gets extremely bright when displaying HDR content, and small specular highlights stand out well, but it doesn't track the PQ EOTF very well, as most scenes are brighter than they should be. HDR movies look vivid and realistic thanks to the impressive color gamut.
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Outstanding contrast.
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High peak brightness.
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Excellent black uniformity.
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Most scenes are brighter than they should be.
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Noticeable stutter in low frame rate content.
The Hisense U8G is an excellent TV for HDR gaming. It has impressive low input lag, a fast response time, and great gaming features, including Auto Low Latency Mode and support for a variable refresh rate. Image quality isn't hindered in Game mode, with the same great local dimming performance and high peak brightness as outside of Game mode. HDR content looks amazing, thanks to its excellent contrast ratio and great local dimming feature, so bright highlights in games really stand out and look realistic.
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Outstanding contrast.
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High peak brightness.
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Outstanding low input lag.
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Excellent response time.
For the most part, the Hisense U8G is a great choice for a PC monitor. It has extremely low input lag, ensuring smooth mouse movements and a responsive experience in general, and it has a great response time. It also has great reflection handling, so glare isn't an issue. Unfortunately, the image degrades when viewed at an angle, so you'll need to sit a comfortable distance from the screen; otherwise, the sides of the screen won't look the same. Also, like most TVs, it uses a BGR subpixel layout, which reduces text clarity a bit, but there are workarounds for this.
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Outstanding low input lag.
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Excellent response time.
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Image degrades when viewed at an angle.
- 8.4 Mixed Usage
- 8.6 Movies
- 8.1 TV Shows
- 7.9 Sports
- 8.7 Video Games
- 8.5 HDR Movies
- 8.8 HDR Gaming
- 8.1 PC Monitor
- Updated Feb 24, 2023: Updated to Test Bench 1.9, modifying our Contrast testing and splitting our local dimming testing into multiple sections covering Blooming, Black Crush, and Lighting Zone Transitions. You can see our full changelog here.
- Updated Feb 06, 2023: We uploaded the brightness measurements and uniformity photos after running the TV for two months in our Accelerated Longevity Test.
- Updated Nov 17, 2022: We uploaded the initial brightness measurements and uniformity photos for the Accelerated Longevity Test.
- Updated Sep 23, 2022: We bought and tested the Hisense U8H. We've added a few relevant comparisons to this review.
- Updated Aug 04, 2022: We retested the TV and confirmed that when the backlight strobing feature is enabled, local dimming no longer works.
- Updated Aug 02, 2022: We discovered a flaw with the equipment used to force an HDR signal when measuring color volume and the color gamut. We've switched to a new tool and updated our measurements. The color gamut and volume have changed slightly.
- Updated Aug 01, 2022: Updated review for clarity
- Updated Jul 28, 2022: Updated to Test Bench 1.8, adding a new box for PQ EOTF tracking and updating our Color Volume and Color Gamut tests to better reflect real world usage. You can see our full changelog here.
- Updated Jul 14, 2022: Updated to Test Bench 1.7 with an updated HDR Brightness test that better reflects real world usage. We've also split the console compatibility boxes into separate PS5 Compatibility and Xbox Series X|S Compatibility tests. You can see our full changelog here.
- Updated Apr 28, 2022: We tested the TV with the PS5's new variable refresh rate feature and confirmed that it's working properly. Since the PS5 only supports HDMI Forum VRR, this also confirmed that the TV supports that type of VRR.
- Updated Mar 25, 2022: We retested the TV with the firmware update M0210. 4k @ 120Hz content now displays properly, but this update broke HDR compatibility with consoles. We've updated the HDR Brightness, Supported Resolutions, Advanced Console Compatibility, and the Remote sections of the review.
- Updated Dec 15, 2021: Confirmed that local dimming isn't available with VRR enabled.
- Updated Sep 08, 2021: We checked for proper 4k @ 120Hz support and retested audio passthrough. We also rechecked for red ghosting and checked if the EOTF is still over-brightened on the latest firmware.
- Updated Aug 16, 2021: We rechecked the red ghosting issue with varied content.
- Updated Aug 06, 2021: We tested the response time with a 4k @ 120Hz signal. We also changed 'HDMI Forum VRR' support to 'Unknown', as there's no way for us to know for sure, and we replaced our upscaling photos, as they were overexposed a bit.
- Updated Jun 21, 2021: Remeasured SDR peak brightness to confirm our results.
- Updated Jun 04, 2021: We incorrectly stated that this TV has a 2 point white balance calibration. We've corrected it to 20 point.
- Updated May 31, 2021: Review published.
- Updated May 27, 2021: Early access published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 55-inch Hisense U8G (55U8G), and our results are also valid for the 65-inch (65U8G) model. In Canada, this model is known as the Hisense U88G. Unfortunately, Hisense TVs released internationally are completely different from the U.S. models, so the Hisense U8G and the Hisense U8GQ released outside of North America don't perform the same.
| Size | US Model | Canada Model | Local Dimming Zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55" | 55U8G | 55U88G | 132 |
| 65" | 65U8G | 65U88G | 360 |
If someone comes across a different type of panel or their Hisense U8G doesn't correspond to our review, let us know, and we'll update the review.
The unit we tested was manufactured in March 2021, and you can see the label here.
Compared To Other TVs
The Hisense U8G is an impressive TV, with a few minor issues that could be deal-breakers for some. It offers impressive value, outperforming some far more expensive models from competitors, like the Sony X90J.
See our recommendations for the best 4k TVs, the best 55-inch TVs, and the best 4k gaming TVs.
The Hisense U8H is a bit better than its predecessor, the Hisense U8G. The U8H has a more effective local dimming feature, significantly increasing contrast with local dimming enabled. The U8H is also a lot brighter, and it displays HDR content much closer to the content creator's intent. Finally, the U8H has been updated to the latest Google TV interface, which is a bit faster and smoother than the older Android TV interface on the Hisense U8H.
The Hisense U8G is better than the Hisense U7G. The U8G has better reflection handling and higher peak brightness, so it can more easily overcome glare in a bright room. The U8G also has a better local dimming feature, better black uniformity, and the unit we bought is more accurate out of the box. Finally, the U8G has a faster response time and a slightly wider color gamut.
The Hisense U8G and the TCL 6 Series/R646 2021 QLED are both great TVs. They're fairly similar overall, but there are a few differences between them. Even though the TCL has Mini LED backlighting, the Hisense has a better local dimming feature because it doesn't raise the black level as much when there are bright objects. The TCL has better contrast, but the difference isn't as noticeable with real content. The TCL also gets brighter, but the Hisense has better reflection handling. While the Hisense uses Android TV and the TCL has Google, they're very similar, and the only differences are aesthetic.
The Hisense U8G is better than the Hisense U6G. The U8G can remove judder from any source, it has an optional motion interpolation feature, it's brighter, and it has a better local dimming feature. The U8G is also more future-proof, especially for gaming, as it has 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, it can display 4k @ 120Hz signals from the next-gen consoles, and it supports variable refresh rate technology (VRR).
The LG C1 OLED and the Hisense U8G use very different panel technologies, each with strengths and weaknesses, so which one is better depends on your usage. The LG has a nearly infinite contrast ratio, so blacks are inky black in a dark room. The LG also has much better viewing angles, making it a better choice for a wide seating arrangement. On the other hand, the Hisense is much brighter, and unfortunately, the LG has a risk of burn-in with static content, which may be a concern for some people.
The Hisense U8G is much better than the Hisense H8G. The U8G has much better reflection handling and significantly higher peak brightness, so it looks better in a bright room. The U8G has slightly better contrast and a better local dimming feature, so dark room performance is better, too. Finally, the U8G has a wide array of gaming features, including support for a 120Hz refresh rate, variable refresh rate support, and 2 HDMI 2.1 ports.
The Hisense H9G and the Hisense U8G are very similar overall. The newer U8G has much better accuracy out of the box, but the H9G we tested has better black uniformity, better contrast, and better gray uniformity, but those tend to all vary between units. The U8G runs a more recent version of Android TV, and it's much smoother and, unlike the H9G, 120Hz signals are displayed correctly, with no dropped frames. The U8G also has 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, which is new this year.
The Hisense U8G is better than the Sony X90J. The Hisense has higher peak brightness, and small highlights in some scenes stand out more in HDR. The Hisense also has better black uniformity, much better reflection handling, and it can display a wider color gamut. On the other hand, the Sony has less banding in areas of similar color, and the motion interpolation feature is a bit more polished, with fewer artifacts in busy scenes.
The Hisense U8G is a bit better than the Samsung QN85A QLED, but as they use different panel technologies, which is better depends on your viewing conditions. The Hisense has much better contrast, better black uniformity, and a better local dimming feature, so it looks much better in a dark room. On the other hand, the Samsung has significantly better viewing angles, so it might be a better choice for a wide seating arrangement.
The Hisense U8G and the Vizio P Series Quantum 2021 are both great TVs, but the Hisense is more well-rounded. They each have a high contrast ratio on the 65 inch sizes, but the Hisense has better local dimming to display more uniform blacks. The Hisense has a much quicker response time, so motion looks better, and its gaming features don't have as many bugs as the Vizio as you can easily play 4k games up to 120fps. The Android TV interface is also better than Vizio's SmartCast system as it doesn't crash as much.
The Hisense U8G is better overall than the Sony X85K. The main difference is that the Hisense has a local dimming feature, which the Sony TV doesn't have, allowing it to deliver better picture quality in dark scenes. The Hisense also gets brighter for a better HDR experience and has much better reflection handling if you want to use it in a well-lit room.
The Hisense U8G and the Sony X90K are great TVs with a few differences. The Hisense gets brighter and has a better local dimming feature, meaning its overall picture quality and bright and dark room performance are better. The Hisense also displays more colors, and smaller highlights pop more if you watch HDR content. They have the same gaming features, but the Sony doesn't have the same motion issues as the Hisense, if that's an issue for you.
The Hisense U8G and the Hisense U9DG each have their own strengths and weaknesses, so the best one depends on your usage. The U9DG has much better contrast and a better local dimming feature, so it's better for watching movies in a dark room. On the other hand, the U8G has better motion handling, so it's better for gaming or watching sports.
The Samsung QN90A QLED is a bit better than the Hisense U8G. The Samsung has better viewing angles, making it a better choice for a wide seating arrangement, and the local dimming feature is more effective at reducing black levels, improving contrast. The Samsung is also significantly brighter, but since the Hisense is also very bright, the difference is only noticeable with some content.
The Sony A80J OLED and the Hisense U8G use different panel technologies, each with advantages and disadvantages. The Sony uses an OLED panel, which delivers a much better dark room experience, with perfect blacks and no blooming. The Sony also has much better viewing angles. Unfortunately, though, the Sony comes with a risk of permanent burn-in when exposed to static content. On the other hand, the Hisense is much brighter, and it supports the latest gaming features, including two HDMI 2.1 ports and support for a variable refresh rate.
The Hisense U8G is much better than the Sony X85J. The Hisense has a full array local dimming feature to improve contrast and reduce blooming in dark scenes. The Hisense also has much better reflection handling and can overcome glare in most rooms. The Hisense is also much brighter, and small highlights in some HDR content stand out much better.
The Hisense U8G is slightly better overall than the Vizio P Series Quantum X 2020, but the differences are minor. Unlike the Hisense, the Vizio can't remove judder from 60Hz sources, which might be important if you like to watch movies from a cable box, for example. On the other hand, the Vizio has a much higher contrast ratio with local dimming, and it's significantly brighter with some content.
The Hisense U8G is slightly better than the Sony X950H for most uses. The Hisense has significantly better contrast and a better local dimming feature, so blacks look better in a dark room. The Hisense also has more advanced gaming features, including support for a variable refresh rate. On the other hand, the Sony has slightly better viewing angles, so it might be a better choice for a wide seating arrangement.
The Hisense U8G is better than the Sony X900H. The Hisense has better reflection handling, higher peak brightness, better contrast, and a better local dimming feature. On the other hand, the Sony has better gray uniformity, and there's significantly less banding in areas of similar color.
The Samsung Q90/Q90T QLED is slightly better than the Hisense U8G for most uses. The Hisense has higher native contrast, but the local dimming feature on the Samsung is more effective at boosting contrast. The Samsung is a lot brighter in HDR, and it has better viewing angles.
The Hisense U8G is a bit better than the Sony X95J. The Hisense has better contrast and much better black uniformity. The Hisense is also much better for gaming, as it has lower input lag. On the other hand, the Sony has higher peak brightness, a better local dimming feature, and a better viewing angle.
The Hisense U8G is significantly better than the LG NANO90 2021 for most uses. The Hisense has significantly better contrast, a much better local dimming feature, and significantly better black uniformity, making it a better choice for dark-room viewing. The Hisense also has much better accuracy out-of-the-box, and it's brighter. On the other hand, the LG has better viewing angles, so it might be a better choice for a wide seating arrangement.
The Hisense U8G is significantly better than the TCL 6 Series/R635 2020 QLED. The Hisense has a much better local dimming feature, and the unit we tested has significantly better black uniformity, so it looks better overall in a dark room. The Hisense also has much better reflection handling, and although minor for most people, it's a bit more future-proof, with two HDMI 2.1 ports.
The Sony A90J OLED and the Hisense U8G use different display panels, each with strengths and weaknesses. The Sony looks best in a dark room, as the OLED panel displays perfect blacks, with no blooming or uniformity issues. The Sony also has much better viewing angles, making it a better choice for a wide seating arrangement. Unfortunately, OLED technology comes with some inherent risks, including the possibility of permanent burn-in. The Hisense, on the other hand, is much brighter, and it supports some of the latest gaming features, including support for a variable refresh rate.
The Hisense U8G and the Hisense U800GR 8k are LED TVs with different features. The U8G is a 4k TV available in 55 and 65 inch sizes and has Android TV, while the U800GR is an 8k TV available in a 75 inch size and uses Roku TV. Despite the higher resolution on the U800GR, the U8G performs better in a few areas like its higher peak brightness, better contrast, improved local dimming, and it displays 480p and 4k content better. They have similar gaming features, but the U800GR has a slightly quicker response time.
The Hisense U8G and TCL 6 Series/R648 2021 8k QLED are both great TVs with different resolutions. The Hisense is a 4k TV, while the TCL is 8k, so it supports higher resolution signals. Although the TCL has Mini LED backlighting and the TCL doesn't, the Hisense has a better local dimming feature because it doesn't crush blacks as much and has better uniformity. The Hisense also gets brighter in HDR, delivering a better HDR experience.
The LG CX OLED and the Hisense U8G use different panel technologies, so which one is better depends on your usage. The LG's OLED panel delivers perfect blacks in a dark room, with no uniformity issues or blooming, and it has much better viewing angles. Unfortunately, OLED panels come with a risk of burn-in when exposed to static images. On the other hand, the Hisense is much brighter, and there's no risk of burn-in.
The Hisense U8G is slightly better than the Samsung Q80/Q80T QLED for most uses. The Hisense has better contrast, better black uniformity, and a better local dimming feature, so blacks look better in a dark room. On the other hand, the Samsung has better viewing angles, so it's a better choice for a brighter environment with a wide seating arrangement.
The Hisense U8G is significantly better than the TCL 5 Series/S535 2020 QLED. The Hisense is much brighter, and it has better reflection handling, making it a better choice for a bright room. The Hisense is also a better gaming TV, with a 120Hz refresh rate and support for the latest gaming technologies, including two HDMI 2.1 ports and support for a variable refresh rate.
The Hisense U8G is better overall than the TCL R745 QLED. They each have a VA panel with high contrast, but the Hisense has a much better local dimming feature that helps it produce deeper blacks. The Hisense has more gaming features like HDMI 2.1 inputs, while the TCL is limited to HDMI 2.0. Even though the TCL gets brighter, the Hisense is a better choice for well-lit rooms because it has much better reflection handling. Lastly, the Hisense is available in 55 and 65 inch sizes, but the TCL is available in a larger 85 inch size.
The Hisense U8G is significantly better than the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021. The Hisense is a high-end model with a 120Hz panel and HDMI 2.1 inputs, while the Vizio is a lower-end option with a 60Hz panel and HDMI 2.1 inputs. The Hisense is better in several ways, including the improved local dimming, higher peak brightness in SDR or HDR, and better reflection handling. The Hisense has a quicker response time, so motion looks smoother, and it has other features like motion interpolation and the ability to remove judder from 60p/i sources.
Video
Test Results
The Hisense U8G has a nice, premium design. It has a nearly bezel-less design on three sides, so the picture blends into your surroundings. The bottom bezel is quite a bit thicker than high-end TVs, though, and the silver finish stands out a bit. The stand has a unique design that takes up very little space.
The Hisense U8G has a unique stand design, and it's solid and supports the TV well.
Footprint of the 55-inch stand: 28.4" x 10.3".
The back of the TV is made of plastic, with a nice checkerboard pattern. There are tracks along the back of the TV for cable management, and removable clips that help to keep everything neat. The inputs are on the left-hand side of the TV when facing the front, and they're easy to access. There are large vents along the top of the TV to help with heat dissipation.
The Hisense U8G has good build quality. The stand supports the TV well, with little wobble. The materials used aren't very premium, but they don't feel cheap, either. 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.
The Hisense U8G has outstanding contrast, delivering deep blacks and bright highlights in dark scenes with minimal blooming. The full array local dimming feature is effective at boosting contrast significantly, but it's not as good as the newer Hisense U8H, which delivers nearly twice the contrast with local dimming.
The Hisense U8G has excellent peak brightness in SDR, but it's not as bright as the newer Hisense U8H. It's bright enough to overcome glare even in most bright living rooms. Unfortunately, the brightness varies considerably between scenes, but this is only noticeable if you have the backlight set to a high level. 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.
These measurements are 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.
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. These measurements are in the 'HDR Theater' Picture Mode, which is the brightest and the most accurate HDR mode on this TV.
Switching to Game Mode results in no noticeable change in peak brightness with HDR content. These results are with the same picture settings as outside of Game Mode.
Unfortunately, the Hisense 55U8G doesn't follow the EOTF properly, as almost all scenes in HDR are displayed a bit brighter than they should be. It's especially noticeable in most average-lit scenes and shadow details, but near blacks are displayed accurately. There's also a very sharp roll-off at the TV's peak brightness, which clips bright highlights, causing a loss of fine details in extremely bright scenes. The IMAX mode tracks the EOTF accurately, but almost all settings are locked out in this mode. Unfortunately, there's no way to correct this, but there are reports that the TV tracks the PQ EOTF properly with Dolby Vision content.
The Hisense U8G has good gradient handling, but this is one area where it falls short of the more expensive competitors, like the Sony X90J. There's visible banding in grays, greens, and reds. There are a few noise reduction features, but they aren't effective at reducing banding.
The Hisense U8G has decent gray uniformity. The corners are noticeably darker than the center of the screen, and there are three dark vertical bands near the center of the screen. There's a bit of dirty screen effect as well, which is distracting when watching sports or anything with a large area of uniform color. Dark scenes are a bit better, with significantly less dirty screen effect.
The Hisense 55U8G has excellent black uniformity. With local dimming disabled, the black background isn't quite black, with slight cloudiness to the entire screen caused by some backlight bleed on all four corners. Enabling local dimming significantly improves uniformity in dark areas of the screen, but there's more blooming around the bright test cross.
Unfortunately, the Hisense U8G has a sub-par viewing angle, so it's best enjoyed from directly in front. The image shifts and degrades when viewed off-angle, so it's not ideal for a wide seating arrangement or if you like to move around with the TV on. The most noticeable issue off-angle is the gamma shift, which causes 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.
The Hisense U8G has excellent reflection handling. The semi-gloss finish significantly reduces the intensity of direct reflections.
Out of the box, the Hisense U8G has excellent color and white balance accuracy in SDR. There are some noticeable inaccuracies in certain colors, especially with shades of blue. However, the white balance is excellent, and gamma is nearly flat, close to our target of 2.2 for a moderately-lit room.
As the Hisense U8G already had excellent accuracy out of the box, calibration was tough to do and didn't improve the overall accuracy much. Color accuracy improved a bit, but the issues with shades of blue are still there. The white balance is now nearly perfect, but as it was already excellent, this isn't a noticeable improvement.
You can see our full calibration settings here.
The Hisense U8G upscales 480p content, like DVDs, well, with no noticeable issues.
720p content, including most cable TV stations, is upscaled well, with no noticeable issues.
Like most TVs we've tested, 1080p content looks almost as good as native 4k content.
Like most TVs on the market, the Hisense U8G uses a BGR (Blue-Green-Red) subpixel layout instead of the traditional Red-Green-Blue layout. For video content, it doesn't cause any issues, but if you're planning on using the Hisense 55U8G as a PC monitor, this reduces text clarity a bit, although there are easy workarounds for it. You can read more about this here.
The Hisense U8G has an excellent HDR 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. The tone mapping is good in both cases, ensuring fine details are preserved in content that exceeds or approaches the limits of the TV's color gamut.
The Hisense U8G has excellent color volume. Saturated colors get very bright, and it has excellent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space at all luminance levels. Thanks to the high contrast ratio, this TV displays dark, saturated colors well.
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. It's common for displays with VA panels, though, and is known as black smear.
Like the Hisense H9G, there are reports of red ghosting in some situations. It's not always there, but it's very clear with some content, like The Crown, or in Daredevil. It's not noticeable in all content but seems to be more noticeable in warmer scenes. It's not noticeable in all games, either. There's no ghosting in Call of Duty, but it's really bad in Astro's Playground on the PS5:
The Hisense U8G uses Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to dim the backlight, but the flicker frequency is very high and doesn't bother most people. There's no variability in flicker between different settings, though; it flickers at the same frequency in all picture modes.
The Hisense U8G has an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion, which improves the appearance of motion. It can't flicker at 60Hz, though, which causes duplications in motion when displaying 60Hz content. Unfortunately, enabling this feature disables the local dimming feature, resulting in raised blacks. Note that the score here is based only on the supported modes, not how well the BFI feature performs.
The Hisense U8G has an optional motion interpolation feature that improves the appearance of motion. It's not as good as more expensive competitors, like the Sony X90J or the Samsung QN90A QLED, and there are more noticeable artifacts, especially in busy scenes.
Due to the Hisense U8G's relatively fast response time, there are some issues with stutter with 24p content, like movies, as each frame is held longer on screen. It's especially noticeable in slow panning shots.
The Hisense 55U8G automatically removes judder from any source, ensuring a smooth movie-watching experience.
The Hisense 55U8G supports a variable refresh rate (VRR), and it's compatible with most sources that support VRR, including from an NVIDIA graphics card. Unfortunately, enabling VRR causes more ghosting in some games, and local dimming isn't available with VRR enabled in Game Mode.
The Hisense U8G has outstanding low input lag, great for gaming or PC use. The 60Hz input lag is a bit higher than the best TVs on the market at the moment and about double the input lag of most monitors at 60Hz, but still low enough for most people. When running at 120Hz, the input lag is on par with the best TVs on the market and very close to most monitors. It's great for a responsive feel when gaming or using it as a PC monitor.
The Hisense U8G displays 1440p resolutions, but these formats aren't exposed in the EDID, so you have to force it. You can do this either through custom HDMI settings on an Xbox or through your graphics card's control panel software as a custom resolution. As of firmware update M0210, released in March 2022, 4k @ 120Hz signals are now displayed properly from sources that support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth; the resolution halving issue has been fixed. Chroma 4:4:4 is displayed properly at this resolution and refresh rate, resulting in clear text.
The Hisense U8G supports all the features of the PS5, but there are a few issues. 4k @ 120Hz displays properly as of firmware update M0210, but, unfortunately, this introduced some issues with consoles. HDR is no longer displayed properly from the PS5 with any signal, as colors appear washed out, and the entire image is over-brightened. Local dimming isn't working properly in this mode either, and the Active Contrast feature doesn't appear to be working. These issues only occur with the PS5 or Xbox Series X; HDR displays properly from a PC, and both local dimming and Active Contrast appear to be working properly.
Except for 120Hz Dolby Vision, the Hisense U8G supports all the Xbox One S|X's features, but there are a few issues. 4k @ 120Hz displays properly as of firmware update M0210, but, unfortunately, this introduced some issues with consoles. HDR is no longer displayed properly from the Xbox Series X with any signal, as colors appear washed out, and the entire image is over-brightened. Local dimming isn't working properly in this mode either, and the Active Contrast feature doesn't appear to be working. These issues only occur with the PS5 or Xbox Series X; HDR displays properly from a PC, and both local dimming and Active Contrast appear to be working properly.
New to the 2021 models, the Hisense U8G now has two HDMI 2.1 ports. One of them is also the eARC port, so if you're planning on using an eARC device, you can only connect one other HDMI 2.1 device on the TV.
There's no direct connection for composite sources. Instead, it requires an external breakout adapter (included), similar to some LG TVs.
The Hisense U8G supports eARC and can pass all the common formats through to a support receiver or soundbar.
The Hisense U8G has a decent frequency response, similar to the Hisense H9G. As usual for a TV, there's almost no low bass, so it can't produce any rumble or thump. It's a bit boomy in the high-bass and mid to high treble sounds are a bit under-emphasized, but otherwise, it has a well-balanced sound profile and can get quite loud.
This TV has an okay distortion performance. There's some audible total harmonic distortion, but mainly at high volume levels; it's not noticeable at moderate volume.
The Hisense U8G's smart interface has been updated to Android 10, from Android 9.0 on the 2019 models. The interface has changed a bit, and the overall experience is much smoother and faster. The interface is very similar to the new Google TV interface on 2021 Sony TVs, like the Sony X90J, but there are some slight differences.
Unfortunately, like almost all TVs on the market, there are ads throughout the interface.
The remote has a built-in mic for voice control, and it works well for launching apps or changing inputs, but you can't use it to adjust settings on the TV. There's also a mic built-in to the TV for voice control. Unfortunately, as of firmware update M0210, it's not working consistently. Some owners have reported that installing the firmware update over USB fixes it.
