samsung tft lcd tv brands

In the infancy of smart TVs, Samsung was the leader in functionality and smart features. It isn"t to say that they were very good, as it took quite a few years for Smart TV platforms to mature into something comparable to external set-top boxes. However, other companies have caught up to Samsung and offer similar all-around performance, like Roku TV or LG"s webOS, so the best Samsung smart TV isn"t much better than smart TVs from other brands.

Samsung has constantly been updating its Tizen platform to ensure it competes with its competitors. In 2017, they added voice capabilities to their remote and smart platform, making it easier to navigate through menus. In 2018, they added Bixby virtual assistant, so you can use voice control to control other Samsung devices in your house, like lights, fridges, and door locks. The 2020 update featured a new, sleeker look with a "Dark Mode" that isn"t as bright as the white theme in older versions, and the 2022 version has a new full-screen webpage, which is an improvement over past versions that had all the apps and settings in a toolbar.

The interface is very simple and easy to navigate. As of 2022, they now have a full-screen webpage instead of the toolbar they had in past years. You"ll find downloaded apps here, and you can quickly access the different inputs and settings. The interface works well, and there are many animations, but these can be slower on lower-end TVs.

Unfortunately, Samsung"s Smart Hub also shows ads on the home screen. It shows up in the same row as the installed Samsung Smart TV apps, and they can"t be disabled.

The app selection is pretty extensive nowadays. All the popular video and music services are available and more. Fortunately, the search function is quite good, and results come up very quickly. Like LG"s webOS and Google TV on Sony TVs, Samsung TVs have an excellent selection of apps, and the vast majority of streaming services are available.

Voice Command was overhauled in 2017, and they"re pretty good now. Other smart interfaces were updated in 2018 to search for content, apps, and change settings, something Samsung has been able to do for a few years. Even more in-depth stuff like calibration settings are only a button press away, which is quite nice.

Samsung updated their remote with the release of the 2022 TVs. It features the same buttons as remotes from previous years, except with a redesigned body with brushed plastic on the bottom. There are quick-access buttons to popular streaming services and for your voice control. It"s pretty minimal compared to traditional TV remotes, as you don"t get a Numpad, but you still get navigation buttons. It"s small and sleek-looking.

It"s less common now than in previous years, but Samsung TVs often have issues with Wi-Fi connections. They"ll randomly stop functioning after leaving the TV off for a while and require the connection to be set up again, which is quite annoying.

The best cheap QLED TV we"ve tested is the Insignia F50 QLED. TVs with Quantum Dot technology usually aren"t cheap, so this TV stands out for its incredibly wide color gamut, making it the best cheap QLED TV. It delivers decent picture quality overall, with excellent contrast, but it lacks advanced features like a local dimming feature, and it can"t get very bright to overcome glare. Overall, HDR content looks good, with saturated colors that look good, but it"s not bright enough to bring out the content creator"s intent, so if you care about that, a mid-range or more expensive model like the Hisense U6H is a better choice.

It"s still a cheap TV, though, and it has limited picture processing capabilities and fewer features than the more expensive models on this list. Lower resolution content isn"t upscaled as well as other TVs, and there"s significantly more banding in areas of similar color. It has very few advanced gaming features, so it"s best suited for casual gamers who don"t need the latest and greatest gaming features.

If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your old TV, you’ve got plenty of options. In fact, most TV brands on the market offer a number of impressive models with cutting-edge picture technology, incredible smart features, and myriad connections for all of your AV equipment. But when it comes time to buy, is there one brand that stands above the rest?

Let’s examine all the TV makers worth looking at, and why big brands like Samsung and LG are so good at what they do. And whether you’re looking for the absolute best TVs on the market, the best TVs under $500, or something in the Goldilocks Zone like the best TVs under $1,000, you don’t want to waste your time. We’ve put together a guide to all the best TV brands of 2022, so when the time comes to upgrade, you’ll know where to start your search.

Note: Televisions chosen for this list are representative of makes and models available in the U.S. market. Further, TVs included in this guide were chosen primarily for their picture performance, with other considerations such as operating system or audio performance as secondary considerations.

South Korea’s Samsung is the de facto market leader in the world television space, leading competitors like LG and Sony by a wide margin in terms of overall sales. That’s partly a result of the company’s size (Samsung ranks 18th on the Fortune 500), but mostly it’s because Samsung makes great TVs with a focus on accessibility.

Technically, it’s called Samsung Smart TV Powered by Tizen, but let’s just go with Tizen. Like  Samsung’s best smartwatches, the company’s TVs run on a Tizen-powered user interface called Eden 2.0. For clarity, we’ll refer to it as Tizen, the UI’s building blocks.

Perhaps most impressive is how Tizen works with the Samsung app family, including SmartThings, Smart Connect, and Smart View. You can use those to mirror content from your phone — even iPhones — to your TV or send TV playback directly to your phone (only on Samsung phones). If you’ve got compatible smart home devices, you also can use the TV as a control hub.

Also, Samsung’s newer models — QLED and otherwise — offer some cool features like importing app logins from your phone to save time, and the Samsung One Connect box, built to simplify messy cable nests behind TVs (and to enable cleaner wall-mounting).

Samsung has so far avoided producing OLED displays like those of LG. So, instead of striking a deal to use LG’s panels, Samsung branded its own LCD tech “QLED.” For a detailed breakdown, check out our QLED TV versus OLED TV comparison, but the general gist is this: QLED uses quantum dots to enhance performance by producing a purer, full-spectrum white light than LEDs are capable of on their own. In practice, QLED televisions are brighter (better for bright rooms) than less-expensive LCD TVs, and unlike OLED, can be more affordably built into large displays (100 inches and beyond).

2022 also saw Samsung announce its expected QD-OLED TVs, which use an advanced blue light source that acts as a hybrid between QLED and OLED. We are starting to see these TVs show up in the wild now, including the stunning Sony A95K QD-OLED, and the Samsung S95B OLED, if you are looking for an OLED-like upgrade from your current set. Like other major brands, 2022 also saw Samsung unveil a new MicroLED TV line, a major LED upgrade using the latest technology for super-tiny LEDs that can achieve higher brightness levels and very accurate dimming.

Another South Korean company, LG may not be as massive as the tried-and-true Samsung TV, but thanks to its OLED TV display technology, it has minimal competition when it comes to top-of-the-line picture performance.

WebOS — currently in its sixth iteration, WebOS 6.1 — completely revamps the LG smart experience. Where past models relegated apps to the bottom of the display (similar to Samsung Tizen), LG’s WebOS 6.1 sets utilize the entire screen for apps and other recommended web content. LG’s Magic Motion Remote has also been redesigned to support voice commands for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, along with a Magic Explorer feature that lets viewers get additional info about the show or movie they’re watching, from what actors appear in the series or film to notable trivia.

It should be noted that there’s been a change in how LG will be naming its versions of WebOS going forward, and will now correspond with the year in which they’re released. LG TVs released in 2022 now come with WebOS 22, which is mostly the same as version 6 but adds profiles, smart speaker capabilities when the TV is turned off, and other new features.

OLED — Organic Light Emitting Diode — is the premier display technology today. OLED TV panels are capable of reaching black levels never before seen, with better contrast across the board, and because the pixels themselves light up, OLED televisions boast quicker response times (and less input lag) than other types of displays, and the picture integrity is stunning at any viewing distance. To see how OLED stacks up against regular old LED, take a look at our OLED vs. LED comparison.

In 2021, LG introduced OLED Evo, an improvement on OLED technology that helps increase brightness by more than 20%. 2022 is seeing even more OLED Evo TVs hit the market, including the new and well-reviewed LG C2 Evo OLED, making LG the best place to get your OLED upgrade.

Sony, standing as the last great Japanese TV heavyweight in the U.S. (sorry, Panasonic, Toshiba, and JVC), doesn’t market as many proprietary technologies as Samsung or LG, but it has all the tech it needs to create awe-inspiring TVs.

Google TV — versions of which run on many other devices, like the Amazon Fire TV family — isn’t quite as slick as WebOS, but it’s arguably more powerful. Unlike WebOS and Tizen, the Google TV home screen is laden with apps and suggestions, and you can scroll down for even more. Sony’s 2021 catalog was the first generation of sets to switch over to Google TV, an overhaul of the Android TV OS that features a faster, more intuitive user interface, complete with recommended and sponsored web content.

Google TV also has built-in support for Google Assistant (via a microphone in the remote or in your phone) and Chromecast, for both video and audio. Plus, as with Tizen, Google Smart Lock can automatically sync logins from your mobile device to your TV. You also have the ability to create separate profiles with Google TV for each person in your home. And, if that’s not enough, you can download the Logitech Harmony app to control your smart home devices from the couch.

Sony is one of a handful of companies offering OLED televisions (the list has recently expanded to include Panasonic, Philips, Hisense, and Vizio) thanks to a deal with LG allowing Sony to build TVs using LG panels. Due to the Cognitive Processor XR chip, Sony’s Bravia flagship TVs offer greater contrast, improved sound, low input lag, and faster web performance than we’ve ever seen. Sony’s newer TVs also offer VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) for gaming, particularly with the PlayStation 5.

In 2022, Sony also announced a push into mini-LED technology, announcing its first mini-LED TVs like the Z9K series. We’ve already seen mini-LED technology crop up in other devices like some Apple iPads. It’s a more affordable version of MicroLED tech where the LEDs are a bit larger, but still provide some of the same benefits, including better-localized dimming and contrast. Sony’s processor is key to this as it is designed with backlight algorithms to take the most advantage of smaller LEDs.

Like Samsung, Sony has also developed its own QD-OLED televisions. Our own Caleb Denison flew to Sony’s headquarters to thoroughly test one and found that Sony’s QD-OLED was a significant upgrade from past displays, albeit an expensive one.

TCL was barely a blip on the radars of seasoned LED TV reviewers half a decade ago. Today, it’s the fastest-growing brand out there, offering up 4K UHD and HDR-capable models at preposterously low prices.

TCL isn’t the only company making Roku TVs — Insignia, Sharp, and Hisense do the same, among other manufacturers — but it has been the most successful so far. From the affordable Roku Express to the Roku Streambar, the Roku TV platform’s vast selection (5,000+) of channels and its snappy cross-app search function are second to none. Roku’s smart TV user interface is a little less slick than webOS or Tizen, but we think it works better, and it’s more straightforward.

Additionally, TCL expanded into Google TV territory last year with theirpopular 5- and 6-Series panels equipped with the latest Google TV operating system. While the new sets were briefly pulled from U.S. Best Buy shelves due to software issues, a fix was issued and the retailer now stocks the popular TVs again.

If you’re on a tight budget, but you still want some buttery 4K goodness up in your TV (not to mention HDR), TCL is the way to go. They’re affordable and are equipped with the latest version of Roku OS, featuring a dedicated Dolby Access channel to show off HDR-laden trailers.

Chinese manufacturer Hisense has been steadily making moves in the TV market over the years, licensing Sharp’s brand name(and buying its North American factory outright in 2015), buying Toshiba’s business in 2017, and making TVs under all three names for the U.S. market. Hisense had a rocky start but found a rhythm in making value-conscious Quantum 4K panels. In fact, their quality has improved so much that one of the latest versions, the Hisense U7G with HDR support, is one of our new recommended picks for a TV under $1,000 — and it has new, affordable 8K TVs now as well.

Hisense is unique in that it doesn’t have a singular operating system tied to its line of televisions. Some of its TVs use Android TV, like Sony, some of its TVs use Roku OS, like TCL, and some use VIDAA U, a slick-looking software that you can learn more about here. The models we are most impressed with are currently using Android TV, although at CES 2022 the company announced that all of its newULED TVs and its A6H and A7H lines will use Google TV. And for those of us that rely on Alexa, there’s even a Hisense TV that uses Amazon’s Fire TV platform!

With choices between Roku, Google TV, Fire TV, and more, buyers can pick the smart platform they like here, with plenty of options for budget-friendly purchases. The company is also making use of its TriChroma laser tech for improved color accuracy, and “ULED” panel technology to enhance images. Its latest Google TV picks also offer mini-LED panels, while the U6H Fire comes with Quantum Dot color, so you also have plenty of panel technologies to choose from. The latest 2022 models even have FreeSync and Game Mode Plus for gamers.

Vizio was once the undisputed champion when it came to awesome picture quality at a reasonable price. And while brands like TCL and Hisense have since challenged the Mighty V’s position at the top of Budget TV Mountain, this isn’t to say that Vizio isn’t still a name to be reckoned with.

Before 2017, all of Vizio’s Smart TVs ran a system that required users to download an application on their smartphone or tablet, which would be used to cast any content to the screen. In a nutshell, they were designed for mirroring. SmartCast updated that system by automatically curating a wide selection of apps without the need to download anything. That includes major streamers from Disney+ to Netflix, plenty of individual channel apps, and a wide variety of niche apps. It’s particularly easy to use in a field where smart TV platforms aren’t always the most user-friendly.

As with Samsung, Vizio is big on quantum-dot-powered panels. This is especially evident for the brand’s 2022 models, especially when it comes to the MQX and P-Series Quantum X series. And on top of quantum-enhanced colors and contrast, while you won’t find mini-LED tech on these 2022 models, the sheer number of traditional LED local dimming zones that are in place make for a totally arresting image packed with brightness, color detail, lifelike contrast, and minimal light blooming.

Plus, gamers will be happy with Vizio’s announcement of a free firmware update to its 2021 models, allowing for compatibility with AMD’s FreeSync technology, which enables smoother graphics when used with compatible gaming consoles and PCs. It has also an M-Series TV specifically designed for gaming, with a 240 fps frame rate and built-in Dolby Vision Auto Gaming, among other features.

With over half a century of skin in the game, it’s weird to consider Panasonic an up-and-comer. It’s seen better days, particularly when plasma TVs were the hottest thing going and Panasonic was the leader of that bunch. But, boy, have times changed. With the fall of plasma, the company has packed up its American dream and taken it back to Europe and Asia, where scores of consumers are enjoying some of the best OLED sets available. American customers, meanwhile, will have a much harder time finding any models locally.

Panasonic isn’t known for its disruptive technologies, but it does produce a number of reliable UHD OLED models. The big problem is that its TV sets just aren’t available in North America any longer, which makes the brand very hard to recommend compared to similar, affordable TVs from Hisense or TCL that are readily available. We’ll see if that changes with 2022’s LZ2000 OLED TV showcased at CES, but for now, Panasonic isn’t worth considering unless you’re on another continent.

For most of the 20th century, Toshiba was the preeminent name in Japanese television manufacturing, having produced the first Japanese transistor TV in 1959.

Hisense spent more than $110 million to buy 95% of Toshiba’s TV business in 2017. The real nail in the coffin came in 2015, though, when (after years of flagging sales and a de-prioritization of the sector) Toshiba gave up on making TVs for the U.S. market. Reportedly, the decision came after years of trying to compete with an expanding global market by lowering prices and costs without sacrificing quality.

The decision to invest in Canon’s SED technology in the mid-aughts turned out poorly as well. For a company that once reigned as one of the leaders in the CRT (cathode-ray tube) and rear-projection TV manufacturing, it’s a shame, but Toshiba is still chugging along just fine, making other appliances and electronic control systems. Its TV line is only notable as an Amazon partner, which means they offer built-in Fire TV and Alexa voice assistant compatibility.

For all the more seasoned folks reading, RCA was once the most respected bastion in American television development, having deployed the first-ever TV test pattern in 1939 (!) and pioneered the first color TV standard, NTSC (so named after the National Television System Committee) in 1953.

By the mid-1980s, RCA had been lapped by Japanese manufacturers and was no longer the powerhouse many remembered. A massive $6 billion-plus deal in 1985 saw the entire company sold to General Electric, then, in 1988, GE turned around and sold the rights to GE and RCA-branded televisions to French company Thomson. Thomson later sold the GE rights to TCL in 2004 and the RCA rights to Korea’s ON Corporation, which currently makes RCA-branded TVs.

Magnavox may never have been the most dominant name in the American TV game, but it was a prominent player for some years following the technology’s proliferation.

In 1974, Philips acquired Magnavox’s consumer electronics division, later introducing and selling televisions under the “Philips Magnavox” brand name to try and bolster sales in the U.S. Eventually, Philips sold those rights to Funai, which now makes TVs under both the Philips and Magnavox brands. Magnavox (the company) is still a subsidiary of Philips.

JVC used to be part of the Panasonic Corp. and started manufacturing TVs in 1953. For decades, JVC was one of the most well-respected TV brands on the market. Few companies sold more CRT sets over the back half of the 20th century.

Around the turn of the millennium, JVC started seeing dwindling sales in its TV division. In 2008, the company merged with Kenwood and closed many TV manufacturing plants in the next few years. It also had to phase out TV production to increase the manufacturing of other products.

In 2011, JVC Kenwood ceased television production altogether and licensed the brand name to Taiwanese manufacturer AmTRAN for the North American market. When that license expired, the next deal went to China’s Shenzhen MTC, which currently makes TVs under the JVC brand in the U.S. and elsewhere. JVC still has a stellar reputation for projectors, which it still produces and sells.

What size TV do you need? Here are a few tips for picking the right size TV for any room, including ideal viewing distance and picture quality versus size.

Whether you are binge-watching a show on Netflix or gaming on your PlayStation 5, you"ll want a good smart TV setup in your living room. But with hundreds of TV models to choose from, it"s hard to know where to start. While you might have an idea of the basic features you want from your TV, like size or resolution, there are good options available from dozens of brands. So which one is right for you?

To help you navigate the messy world of TVs, we consulted tech experts and put together a brief starter guide to the leading TV brands, highlighting their similarities and differences.The best TV for you: How much does brand matter?

According to tech expert Whitson Gordon, senior manager of content marketing at Asus ROG, brand is not as big a signifier of quality as you might expect. While there are budget-focused brands out there like Insignia or Element, the more well-known, higher-quality names — like Samsung, LG and Sony — each have high-end models and low-end models to choose from.

“The most important question to ask yourself is what your quality bar is,” said technology journalist Henry St. Leger. “If you’re happy with a bad picture if it gets you a big screen on the cheap, that’s fine, but if [you’d rather] watch TV shows and films in a high resolution, that changes the budget — and the TVs you should be looking at — quite a bit.”

To help you narrow down your search for the TV brand that best suits your needs, Select consulted the experts to find out the categories in which each manufacturer excels — from picture quality and processing power to smart capability, audio, sleek design and best value for the price.LG TVs: Best OLED TVs for movies and gaming

According to St. Leger, LG makes the best quality screens for movies. “Its OLED panels pack a punch — with excellent processing, deep blacks and vivid colors across the board — while the webOS smart platform is possibly the best in the business,” he explained. “Low brightness means that [the OLED TVs are] best used for evening movies, though, rather than afternoon sports broadcasts.”

LG"s C2 OLED TV is widely regarded as one of the best TVs you can buy today, Gordon said, especially for gaming. It has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, so it’s fully compatible with the Xbox Series X and PS5, and you can play 4K games up to 120Hz without any issues. It boasts perfect black levels that make the picture pop right off the screen, Gordon added. This self-lighting OLED is an investment, but Gordon said its detailed picture, Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos compatibility is well worth the price if you can afford it. It’s great for living rooms, family rooms and larger bedrooms, the brand says.

LG"s mid-range TVs use a different type of panel than most LED TVs from other brands. According to our tech experts, these LED panels provide better viewing angles — colors don"t look "wrong" when you"re sitting off-center — at the cost of worse black levels (this is the opposite of what you’ll get with LG’s OLED TVs). And the lower price point doesn’t keep the LG from coming with some nice perks, like compatibility with smart assistant devices like Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple AirPlay 2.Samsung TVs: Best all-around brand with the best built-in audio

Samsung is the best all-round TV brand, partially because of its huge TV range, St. Leger said. “You can find Samsung TVs for $300 or $3,000, and all [are] generally good for the price,” he noted. “Samsung does excel particularly with bright TVs, especially for more expensive sets — it’s a good bet for daytime viewing especially — and offers far better built-in audio than you’ll find on most of its competitors. A good smart TV platform (Tizen OS) certainly helps, too.”

Samsung is known for its QLED panels, which use Quantum Dots for “fantastic color performance,” Gordon explained. “Its blacks aren"t as deep as its OLED competition (namely spotted in TVs from LG and Sony), but it has a much brighter picture, making it ideal for rooms with a lot of sunlight streaming through,” he said, explaining that with Samsung’s 4K AI upscaling, the TV"s software can make non-4K content look a lot closer to its high-res counterpart. Its adaptive picture properties are designed to adjust automatically as your room gets darker or brighter, according to the brand.

Samsung has also made a splash with unique TVs like The Frame, which acts as a TV when it"s on, and art when it"s off. Like other smart art frames, it offers a small selection of paintings for free, or for $5 per month, you can have access to 1,400 pieces of art from world-renowned institutions, such as the Louvre, the Prado and the Uffizi. At CES 2022, Samsung showcased The Frame’s new anti-reflective matte finish, which makes the artwork look more like a canvas. You can also now upload your own artwork or photos from your phone or flash drive. Gordon personally owns The Frame and is a big fan. “I love having something other than a black slab to look at on my wall when the TV is off,” he said.Sony TVs: Fantastic color accuracy and smooth motion for movies and sports

According to Gordon, Sony offers some of the most color-accurate TVs you can buy today, with a solid smart TV interface (Google TV), good HDR performance and incredible processing power. St. Leger agreed, though he added that Sony TVs “can be a bit pricey at times.” Another plus is the excellent gaming specifications, which is unsurprising, perhaps, given the Sony PS5.

The Sony X90K is an upper mid-range TV that comes in a variety of sizes, from 55 inches to 85 inches. It’s especially excellent for gaming, as it is fully compatible with the PS5 and Xbox Series X, our tech experts noted. The X90K is also great for watching 4K content, as it gets high ratings for its contrast ratio, delivering vivid blacks and peak brightness, according to our experts. However, they noted that it falls a bit short of the Sony X95K on the wide-angle viewing since it doesn’t have the mini LED backlighting its predecessor has. What differentiates this model from many of Sony’s others is that it features Sony’s Bravia Core video service, which offers access to new releases and classic films, including the largest IMAX movie collection, according to the brand.TCL TVs: Best smart TV platform at unbeatable prices

If you"re upset with the lack of budget-friendly options on this list, don"t worry: There"s a reason for that, Gordon said. While LG, Samsung and Sony all make superb high-end sets, their budget and mid-range sets are often outshined by up-and-comer TCL, which offers great picture quality for the price with a built-in Roku media player. “TCL TVs are generally best for the value, often providing premium specifications at lower-than-average prices,” St. Leger added. “That means you can get high-end mini LED displays, or just a good mid-tier screen for everyday TV and games, for a decent amount less than the competition.”

According to Gordon, the TCL 6 series has been widely considered the best TV you can buy for the money for the last few years. It has excellent colors, thanks to its QLED panel, alongside fantastic brightness and black levels for HDR movies. It also boasts next-gen gaming features for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, like variable refresh rate and auto low-latency mode. All put together, he said, it beats out many sets twice the cost.

The 5 series is a mild step down from the 6 series, with less impressive brightness and motion and none of the gaming features — however, it has an even more enticing price, Gordon said. “You’re still getting 4K UHD. You’re still getting a QLED panel. You’re still getting Dolby Vision HDR and, of course, built-in Roku TV with a relatively sizable price cut,” he noted.Vizio TVs: Great performance without the bells and whistles

Vizio"s P Series offers picture quality comparable to higher-end sets without the higher-end price tag, Gordon said. He noted that its smart apps are lackluster and its motion smoothing isn"t as good as Sony"s, but if you don"t use these features anyway, why pay extra for them? The panel"s Quantum Dot tech promises enhanced color, and the TVs also arrive with Chromecast built in.Meet our experts

The Hisense U8H matches the excellent brightness and color performance of much pricier LCD TVs, and its Google TV smart platform is a welcome addition. But it’s available in only three screen sizes.

The Hisense U8H is the best LCD/LED TV for most people because it delivers the performance of a much pricier TV yet starts at under $1,000, for the smallest (55-inch) screen size. This TV utilizes quantum dots, a full-array backlight with mini-LEDs, and a 120 Hz refresh rate to deliver a great-looking 4K HDR image. It’s compatible with every major HDR format. And it’s equipped with two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 inputs to support 4K 120 Hz gaming from the newest Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Add in the intuitive, fully featured Google TV smart-TV platform, and the U8H’s price-to-performance ratio is of inarguable value.

Chief among the U8H’s many strengths is its impressive peak brightness. When sending it HDR test patterns, I measured an average brightness of 1,500 nits, with peaks just north of 1,800 nits (a measurement of luminance; see TV features, defined for more info). To put that into perspective, consider that the 65-inch version of our budget 4K TV pick (the TCL 5-Series) typically costs around half as much as the 65-inch U8H but achieves only around 30% to 40% of its brightness. On the other side of the coin, the 65-inch version of our upgrade pick (the Samsung QN90B) costs almost twice as much as the 65-inch U8H, but it achieves only nominally higher brightness. Adequate light output creates convincing highlights and image contrast and (when necessary) combats ambient light from lamps or windows. It is a necessity for any TV worth buying—especially if you hope to watch HDR movies or play HDR games—and the U8H simply outpaces most TVs in its price range (and some in the next price bracket up, too).

Key to this functionality is the U8H’s employment of mini-LED backlighting with local dimming, which allows this TV to produce very bright light while still maintaining satisfyingly deep black levels that are typically free of blooming (or light bleed that’s visible around bright objects against a dark backdrop). This not only ensures impressive image contrast, it also makes the U8H a viable choice for most rooms, whether they’re brighter than average or dimmed down like a movie theater.

That’s not to say the U8H has pixel-precise light control—it’s not an OLED TV, after all—but it does a terrific job most of the time. In fact, in our tests, the U8H bested last year’s upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90A, in certain scenarios: The intro to Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix features the filmmaker against a pitch-black backdrop. Though last year’s QN90A failed to maintain perfect control over dimming elements during this scene (the black backdrop brightened distractingly once a sufficient amount of brighter content appeared on screen), the U8H did not. (For the record, the newer QN90B also passed this test.) The U8H’s mini-LEDs also help the screen look uniformly bright: Although the U8H is still not as good as an OLED TV in this respect, it shows very little indication of being a backlight-driven display, even during tricky scenes with large swaths of dim lighting.

The U8H’s brightness, black-level integrity, and local-dimming abilities make this an excellent TV for watching HDR content. The U8H is capable of playing HDR content in all of the major formats (HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG), but when it comes to impressive HDR, what’s under the hood is much more important than format compatibility. The most crucial thing for good HDR is high brightness and deep color saturation, and the U8H’s quantum dots achieve the latter. It’s not as simple as just having quantum dots, however: While many TVs (even the budget options) have quantum dots nowadays, what is often not taken into account is that brightness directly affects color saturation. For example, both the 2022 TCL 6-Series and the Hisense U8H are equipped with quantum dots, mini-LED backlights, and local dimming. But because the U8H is notably brighter than the 6-Series, it also achieves a higher total color volume. During our color-volume testing, the U8H exhibited color ranges at more than 100% of the DCI-P3 color space (the range of color needed to properly display HDR content), and it is capable of roughly 10% more total color volume compared with the 6-Series.

What does this mean in real-world terms? It means that the Hisense U8H truly excels as a modern 4K HDR TV, whether you’re watching the latest episode of Rings of Power or playing Overwatch 2. While watching HDR content side by side on the U8H and on our upgrade pick, the Samsung QN90B, I was truly surprised by how similar they looked at times, given that our upgrade pick is much more expensive. That said, though the U8H achieves impressive results where light output and color volume are concerned, it also exhibited some occasional video processing and upscaling issues (see Flaws but not dealbreakers), which videophiles and AV enthusiasts may take umbrage with. But in general, the picture quality punches well above its weight, metaphorically speaking.

And thanks to Hisense’s inclusion of Filmmaker Mode, it’s easy to rein in the U8H’s brightness abilities for a more-subdued and filmic experience in a darker room. Our measurements revealed that this mode has a very accurate white balance, mostly accurate colors (green is a bit oversaturated, but not egregiously so), and a perfect “dark room” gamma (which controls how quickly the video signal transitions from dark to light). Additionally, the TV’s 120 Hz refresh rate means it can play Blu-ray discs at 24 fps without the judder that’s usually present on TVs with 60 Hz refresh rates.

The TV’s higher refresh rate also reduces motion blur in faster-moving sports and allows for smoother, more stable motion in games. Two of the four HDMI inputs support 4K gaming at 120 Hz. The U8H measured low input lag while playing in 4K resolution, and Hisense’s helpful GameZone setting in the picture menu allowed me to confirm the presence of 120 Hz playback and variable refresh rate during games.

The onboard Google TV smart platform is another feather in this TV’s cap. As usual, however, it will be much more satisfying to use if you have a Google account and already take advantage of Google’s connected services, like Photos. The experience of navigating the TV’s smart features—scanning QR codes to sign into apps, using the onscreen keyboard, and browsing your Google Photos to set a photo as a screensaver—was very satisfying in terms of responsiveness and speed. Powering on the TV and booting into an app took just seconds. The included Bluetooth remote is also equipped with a handy “Hey Google” button, allowing you to pull up Google’s assistant and use voice commands to search for content or set a reminder. If you have multiple users with their own Google accounts, you can designate separate profiles (attached to a Gmail account) so that each user can customize the experience to their liking, as well as access their own Google Drive or Photos. While some reviewers have reported instances of momentary freezing while using the U8H’s platform, I didn’t personally experience any instances of slowdown that were egregiously worse than with any other smart-TV platform.

In terms of design, the Hisense U8H is not as svelte as our upgrade pick, but it’s plenty sturdy and doesn’t look or feel cheap. Two narrow, metal feet jut out from beneath the panel and steadily hold the TV. They can be attached in two separate spots, either closer in toward the middle of the panel or out toward the edges, to account for different-size TV stands. The feet are also equipped with cable organization clasps—a nice touch for keeping your TV stand free of cable clutter. Though the TV is primarily plastic, its bezels are lined with metal strips, providing a bit more durability in the long run. I moved it around my home, and it was no worse for wear, but we’ll know more after doing some long-term testing.

The Hisense U8H has some difficulties with banding, or areas of uneven gradation, where transitions that should appear smooth instead look like “bands” of color (sometimes also called posterization). Like many current 4K HDR TVs, the U8H uses an 8-bit panel rather than a 10-bit panel, which affects the color decoding and color presentation process. This is usually relevant only with HDR video and games. When playing games on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, I saw a few instances where the content wasn’t rendered correctly and displayed ugly splotches of color on the screen. However, this almost always occurred during static screens (such as a pause menu or loading screen); I rarely spotted it during actual gameplay. Hisense has stated that it would address the problem in a future firmware update, but at the time of writing it was still present. This is a flaw that may give dedicated gamers pause, but we don’t consider it to be a dealbreaker for most people.

I also saw occasional instances of banding with TV shows and movies, though they were few and far between. The U8H isn’t the best at upscaling sub-4K content, so videos with a 1080p or lower resolution looked a little soft. You can get better overall video processing and upscaling by springing for our upgrade pick (this is one reason it’s more expensive, after all).

Although the UH8 TV has four HDMI inputs, only two of them are fully HDMI 2.1–compatible. And one of those is designated as the eARC input (intended as an audio connection for a soundbar or AV receiver connection). So if you’re pairing an external audio system with the U8H, you may have only one input remaining that can support HDMI 2.1 features like 4K 120 Hz playback, variable refresh rate, and auto game mode; this could be a dealbreaker if you own more than one current-gen gaming console. If you’re in that boat, you may want to splash out some extra dough for our upgrade pick. Additionally, folks using pre-HDMI source devices—like the five-cable composite connector with green, red, blue, and red/white audio inputs—should be aware that this TV requires an adapter to allow those devices to connect, and an adapter is not included in the box.

Finally, like most TVs that use vertical alignment (VA) LCD panels, the U8H has a limited horizontal viewing angle, which may be a bit annoying if you’re hoping to entertain a large crowd. Our upgrade pick uses a special wide-angle technology to address this.

For gaming, use the game picture mode (the TV should switch into this mode automatically when paired with the newer game consoles), and then go into the Gaming submenu to make sure the right settings (VRR) are enabled. We recommend leaving the HDMI setting in “auto,” unless you notice that your game console is incorrectly identified.