The Hisense U8/U8H is a mid-range 4k TV released in 2022. It's the second-highest model in Hisense's 2022 ULED lineup, sitting above the Hisense U7H and below the Hisense U9H. It's available in three sizes, ranging from 55 to 75 inches, and all three sizes offer very similar performance. It replaces the Hisense U8G, and while it's very similar, Hisense has upped its specs a bit with a new Mini LED backlight with up to 528 dimming zones and a slightly updated design. It comes with the user-friendly Google TV 11 interface, an upgraded version of the Android TV interface found with the 2021 Hisense lineup. It has a great selection of gaming features, including HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two of its HDMI ports and FreeSync variable refresh rate (VRR) support.
Our Verdict
The Hisense U8H is an excellent TV all-around. It's an excellent TV for watching movies in a dark room thanks to its high contrast ratio and great local dimming feature. HDR content looks incredible as it gets incredibly bright and has a wide color gamut, so the latest movies look incredibly realistic and lifelike. It's a great TV for watching shows or sports in a bright room, but because it has a narrow viewing angle, it's not a good choice for a wide seating arrangement as the image degrades when viewed off-center. Finally, it's an amazing TV for gaming thanks to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, VRR support, low input lag, and fast response times.
- Fantastic contrast and black uniformity results in deep blacks in a dark room.
- Exceptionally bright in both SDR and HDR.
- Excellent reflection handling.
- Image degrades when viewed from the side.
The Hisense U8H is a great TV for watching shows during the day. It has exceptional peak brightness and excellent reflection handling, so glare isn't an issue even in a very bright room. It has a great smart interface with a huge selection of streaming apps, so you're sure to find your favorite shows. It also upscales lower-resolution content well, which is great if you have TV shows on Blu-ray or DVD. Sadly, it has a narrow viewing angle, so it's not ideal if you have a wide seating arrangement or if you like to move around with the TV on, as the image degrades as you move off-center.
- Exceptionally bright in both SDR and HDR.
- Excellent reflection handling.
- Low-resolution content is upscaled without any issues.
- Image degrades when viewed from the side.
- Poor low-quality content smoothing.
The Hisense U8H is a great TV for watching sports in a bright room. It has excellent reflection handling and exceptional peak brightness, so it can easily overcome glare in any viewing environment. It has great gray uniformity, with just a bit of dirty screen effect in the center, and it has a fast response time, so fast action is clear. On the other hand, it has a sub-par viewing angle, so it's not ideal for a wide seating arrangement, as the people watching it from the sides will see a faded, washed-out image.
- Exceptionally bright in both SDR and HDR.
- Excellent reflection handling.
- Low-resolution content is upscaled without any issues.
- Image degrades when viewed from the side.
The Hisense U8H delivers an amazing gaming experience. It has superb low input lag and an excellent response time, delivering a very responsive gaming experience, although, unfortunately, the TV's response time causes red ghosting in some content. It also has a great selection of gaming features, including FreeSync variable refresh rate support. It has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two ports, meaning it can take full advantage of the Xbox Series S|X and the PS5.
- Fantastic contrast and black uniformity results in deep blacks in a dark room.
- Exceptionally bright in both SDR and HDR.
- Superb low input lag.
- Excellent motion handling and a fast response time.
- Low-resolution content is upscaled without any issues.
- Great selection of gaming features.
- Red ghosting in some content.
The Hisense U8H is a great TV for watching movies in HDR. Thanks to its fantastic contrast ratio, impressive local dimming feature, and incredible peak brightness in HDR, bright highlights look incredible. It tracks the PQ EOTF extremely well, ensuring that most content looks the way the content creator intended. It also has an excellent color gamut, so most HDR content looks vivid and lifelike. Unfortunately, due to its fast response time, there's some noticeable stutter in slow panning shots.
- Fantastic contrast and black uniformity results in deep blacks in a dark room.
- Exceptionally bright in both SDR and HDR.
- Wide color gamut and amazing color volume.
- Noticeable stutter in low frame rate content.
- Poor low-quality content smoothing.
The Hisense U8H is an amazing TV for gaming in HDR. It delivers an amazing gaming experience thanks to its low input lag and excellent response time, although, unfortunately, the TV's response time causes red ghosting in some content. It has a great selection of gaming features, such as FreeSync VRR support and HDMI bandwidth on two ports. HDR content looks amazing thanks to its fantastic contrast ratio, impressive local dimming feature, and incredibly high peak brightness, so bright highlights look superb, delivering a more realistic picture in some games.
- Fantastic contrast and black uniformity results in deep blacks in a dark room.
- Exceptionally bright in both SDR and HDR.
- Superb low input lag.
- Excellent motion handling and a fast response time.
- Wide color gamut and amazing color volume.
- Great selection of gaming features.
- Red ghosting in some content.
The Hisense U8H is a good TV for use as a PC monitor, but there are a few issues with it. It has very good uniformity, so there's very little dirty screen effect in areas of uniform color, like a website with a uniform background. It has low input lag and a fast response time, ensuring a smooth, responsive desktop experience. It also has a narrow viewing angle, so the sides of the screen appear washed out if you're sitting too close to the screen.
- Exceptionally bright in both SDR and HDR.
- Superb low input lag.
- Excellent motion handling and a fast response time.
- Image degrades when viewed from the side.
Changelog
- Updated Jun 11, 2024: Unfortunately, this TV died as part of an in-depth investigation into edge-lit TVs. It has been removed from the Accelerated Longevity Test.
- Updated May 27, 2024: Mentioned the newly-reviewed Hisense U8/U8N in the HDR Brightness section of this review.
- Updated May 02, 2024: We uploaded the latest brightness measurements and uniformity photos for the Accelerated Longevity Test.
- Updated Feb 13, 2024: We uploaded the latest brightness measurements and uniformity photos for the Accelerated Longevity Test.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 65-inch Hisense U8H, and the results are also valid for the 55-inch and 75-inch models. In Canada, it's known as the Hisense U88H, and it performs the same. There are similarly named international models, including the U8HG, U8HSG, and the U8H in Australia, but these models use a completely different panel and smart platform, and these results aren't valid for those models.
| Size | US Model | Local Dimming Zones | Panel Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55" | Hisense 55U8H | 336 | VA |
| 65" | Hisense 65U8H | 504 | VA |
| 75" | Hisense 75U8H | 528 | VA |
The unit we tested was manufactured in May 2022, and you can see the label here.
Popular TV Comparisons
The Hisense U8H delivers incredible performance for the price, significantly outperforming any other TV in its price range, like the TCL 6 Series/R655 2022 QLED, making it by far the best mid-range TV on the market in 2022. It even competes well with more recent releases like the TCL QM8/QM850G QLED and even its own successor, the Hisense U8/U8K. It has limited processing capabilities compared to more expensive competitors, such as the Sony X90K/X90CK, resulting in worse gradient handling and slightly higher input lag. Sadly, it still has some bugs and issues, including red ghosting in some scenes.
See our recommendations for the best 65-inch TVs, the best 4k TVs, and the best TVs for bright rooms.
The newer Hisense U8N is an improvement over the Hisense U8H. The newer Hisense has noticeably improved contrast, giving it deeper blacks, which is especially noticeable when watched in darker rooms. The U8N is also brighter than the U8H, but this won't be noticeable in most content. If you care about image accuracy, the U8H is notably more accurate than its successor in HDR and SDR. Still, the U8N's image processing is vastly superior to the older model. The U8N is also a bit better for PC gamers due to its 4k @ 144Hz support, while the U8H is capped at 4k @ 120Hz.
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 U8H and the Samsung QN90B deliver very similar picture quality overall, but the Samsung is a bit better overall. The Hisense has better native contrast, and it displays content closer to what the content creator intended. On the other hand, the Samsung TV has much better processing overall, so upscaled content looks a bit better, and there's less banding in areas of similar color. Thanks to its wide-angle filter, the Samsung is a much better choice for a wide seating arrangement, as the image remains consistent when viewed from the sides.
The Hisense U8H is significantly better than the LG QNED85. The U8H has much better contrast, with significantly less blooming around bright areas of dark scenes. The Hisense also gets significantly brighter in both SDR and HDR, and it has a better anti-reflective coating, so it can better overcome glare and bring out highlights in HDR better. The LG has a much wider viewing angle, but unless you're in a moderately lit room with a wide seating arrangement, the Hisense is still much better.
We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests use specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
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