Hisense 55U8HQ TV test: the affordable Mini-Led

The Hisense 55U8HQ television has an IPS panel with wider viewing angles than an LCD television equipped with a VA panel. We measured a loss of brightness of only 42% at 45°, whereas it is around 70% on most models equipped with a VA panel. Only LCD televisions equipped with a specific optical filter manage to do better (35% loss for the Samsung Q950TS and 40% for the Sony XH9505). Oled TVs show a loss of only 25% at 45°, while QD-Oled models simply have perfect viewing angles, with almost zero loss at 45°.

Unlike the very well calibrated Hisense U7HQ, the 55U8HQ television is far from displaying a perfect image. If the temperature and gamma curves are stable over the entire spectrum, the average temperature measured at 7340 K results in colors that tend slightly towards blue (reference to 6500 K). With an average gamma measured at 2.15, the gray levels are fairly well reproduced, except for the very light grays which are a little overexposed. The average Delta E measured at 4 is higher than the ceiling (3) for perception of colorimetric drifts. The colors cannot therefore be considered as perfectly faithful to those sent by the source. Finally, the biggest black point is obviously the native contrast measured at only 1390:1. The Mini-Led backlighting system fortunately makes it possible to reinforce the blacks (and therefore the contrast) since by activating the local dimming, we go from a black of 0.15 cd/m² to 0.05 cd/m². It’s three times deeper. Unfortunately, even with 180 backlight zones, the phenomenon of blooming (halo effect around light objects on a dark background) is far too visible. This is explained by the use of an IPS panel which has great difficulty in effectively filtering out stray light and therefore light leaks are even more visible than with a VA panel. In the end, if the use of a Mini-Led system is interesting to reinforce the perceived contrast, these efforts are reduced to nothing by the use of an IPS LCD panel which is far too permissive.

The Hisense Hi-View video processor is powerful enough to scale Full HD content to the Ultra HD panel without artifacts, while offering fairly light texture smoothing. The good surprise comes from the motion compensation engine which works very well on this television equipped with a 120 Hz panel. It remains a notch below the tenors of the segment which are Philips and Panasonic, but it improves the sharpness of moving objects without creating artifacts.

The Hisense U8HQ’s LCD panel isn’t particularly responsive. We measured the persistence time at 16 ms, a very average value, quite far from the 11 ms measured on the most reactive LCD televisions such as the TCL 55C725 where the Samsung QE65Q80A, for example. On the image, we can thus observe a blurring effect behind moving objects. Oled and QD-Oled televisions remain unbeatable on this point (afterglow time of less than 0.1 ms). Input lag is measured at 17.8ms, just over a frame behind the source (60Hz). There is almost no lag between the action performed on the controller and its impact on the screen. Only LG and Samsung televisions do really better on this point, with less than 10 ms.

Hisense had the good idea to leave the possibility of activating the Game mode on any image preset. It is therefore possible to reduce theinput lag while maintaining the color fidelity of Filmmaker mode. We thus measured the delta E at 3.2 in HDR, but only 4 in SDR.

The Hisense 55U8HQ has two HDMI 2.1 inputs compatible with 4K 120 Hz, ALLM and VRR. The Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) operates between 48 and 120 Hz to avoid image tearing (tearing) and jerks (stuttering).

This television has a fairly classic design and goes everywhere. It is distinguished above all by its speakers on the front hidden by a fabric just under the slab.

The central leg is well finished, but quite bulky (30 cm), which complicates the installation of a sound bar on our 40 cm deep cabinet.

The frame is 7.7 cm thick, but the size on the TV cabinet is linked to the depth of the foot, which here is 30 cm. The television is therefore comfortable on our 160 x 40 cm cabinet, but it leaves little room to install a sound bar.

The rear of the foot acts as a cable management system: the cables enter at the top and exit at the base. The connectors are on the right, the power supply on the left, and there is compatibility with VESA 400×300 supports.

The connection consists of four HDMI inputs, including two HDMI 2.1 (VRR, eARC, ALLM, 4K/120 Hz), two USB ports including one USB 3.0, an Ethernet port, an optical digital audio output, a composite input, an output headset, a PCMCIA (CI+ Common Interface) port, a rake antenna connector and a satellite connector. There is also a DVB-T/T2 (TNT), DVB-S/S2 (satellite) and DVB-C (cable) tuner and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n as well as Bluetooth for connection with a wireless audio device (headphones or speaker).

This Hisense television has an in-house operating system (Vidaa U in version 6.0). The interface is clean and responsive. The number of applications is less than on Android TV, but we find the most popular (Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Rakuten TV, Deezer, Redbull TV), and even French applications like MyCanal, Salto, RMC Sport or Molotov . The Vidaa U system now integrates Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice assistants in addition to the home assistant. Like last year, mirroring technologies like Google Cast or AirPlay are still absent and you have to fall back on the Miracast system. While Tizen and webOS seem to have lost responsiveness, in particular because of the suggested content (advertising) on ​​the home page, Vidaa U is more responsive and still ignores advertising.

The first start of the TV takes about 19 seconds. That’s way faster than Android TV (between 35 and 45 seconds), but slightly slower than LG’s WebOS and Samsung’s Tizen (12 seconds). Switching off is instantaneous while restarting takes less than 3 seconds, which in practice allows you to use the television quickly.

The Hisense 55U8HQ TV comes with a fairly basic, but functional remote control. It has all the classic keys and above all many dedicated keys for direct access to applications, including French applications such as MyCanal, RMC Sport, Salto or even Molotov. The keys are not backlit, but the remote control has a microphone, which is essential for carrying out searches via the integrated assistants.