I consider both the Hisense U8H and the TCL 6-Series (R655) to be two of the best TVs on the market this year. That being the case, I imagine many buyers will struggle to decide between the two, but this article should help. I’ve broken down the strengths and weaknesses of both TVs and identified which TV might suit some common use cases.
There’s a lot to go through, so let’s get to it, shall we?
Video face to face
Under the hood
Before we get into the picture quality comparison, we need to start with the software these TVs are built on. These smart TV platforms don’t just affect the overall experience of living with these TVs, how easy it is to find the content you want to watch or how fast your apps load. They also affect image quality.
Hisense U8H powers Google TV and TCL powers Roku TV. On the Google TV platform — which is also seen on Sony TVs — the platform itself doesn’t impose many restrictions. Google TV allows some wiggle room in terms of the type of picture presets that can be used and what type of picture adjustment options you can implement.
The Roku TV platform, meanwhile, is much more limited in terms of the control you can have over the picture it broadcasts. Furthermore, some of the more detailed controls available cannot be used without the Roku app on your smartphone or tablet.
For a Roku TV like the TCL 5-Series or 4-Series, or even some of the lower-end TVs like the Hisense Roku TV, this isn’t a problem at all. In fact, I think it’s a bonus because it helps keep things simple for people who want simple. But for a TV like the R655 6-Series or even some of TCL’s higher-performance TVs, that limited access causes a few concerns for me and anyone else who really wants to get the best out of their TV.
Brightness
It probably won’t come as a surprise that the Hisense U8H is, overall, a brighter TV. And it’s not just the peak brightness for HDR highlights that’s brighter — it’s bright all the time. Whether that’s good for you is something I’ll talk about below. But for now, if we accept that the Hisense U8H is a bright TV, we naturally want to find out how the TCL 6-Series compares. It took me a long time to realize that.
I ran a comparison of HDR content simultaneously on both TVs using their built-in YouTube app. The Hisense preset is set in Filmmaker mode, although I got similar results with HDR Theater mode. The TCL is set to Dark HDR, but within that there are options for Darker, Dark, Normal, Bright and Brighter.
So while it’s nice to have this quick way to just light things up, maybe depending on whether you’re looking in the dark, or on a gloomy day, or on a really bright day, this kind of flies in the face of the idea of having backlight control at all. Not only that, but within the picture’s dark HDR mode, there seem to be limits to how bright it will get. In “Normal HDR” mode, each of these selections is lighter than the same settings within “Dark HDR” mode, indicating that we are dealing with a sliding scale.
The problem I have with this is that you give up some of the other accuracy-oriented settings found in Dark HDR when you switch to the normal HDR setting. Color temperature changes, for example, so if you wanted a brighter average image level but more accurate white balance and color rendering, you’d have to do a lot of work to achieve that. There are some limitations here that you cannot bypass.
This makes it difficult to make a comparison between the two TVs, but I feel that the brightest setting in TCL’s Dark HDR setting comes pretty close to the Hisense U8H without distorting a bunch of other picture quality elements.
Riley Young/Digital Trends
I think a lot of people want flash, and the Hisense U8H delivers a bit more of that than the TCL 6-series.
When comparing brightness with attention to image quality preservation, what we see is that the U8H is a brighter, brighter TV. There’s more pop. It also has higher contrast than the TCL. The TCL, by comparison, is a little more restrained, but it also looks much more realistic, which could be called more accurate. The colors on the TCL are not artificially enhanced by the naked eye, and according to the measurements I made, the TCL is indeed more accurate.
But I don’t think accuracy is what many people are looking for. I think a lot of people want flash, and the Hisense U8H delivers a bit more of that than the TCL 6-series. In comparison, I think non-experts would say that the Hisense looks better when playing HDR content, at least from a pure brightness and contrast perspective. But the U8H has some issues that could dampen that enthusiasm.
For example: especially in HDR, the U8H has a processing problem that causes shimmer in very detailed parts of the image with bright highlights on YouTube. When there is motion, you get a shimmer artifact on the U8H that you don’t have on the TCL Series 6. Also, again in HDR, the U8H over-darkens some dark areas to the point where you lose some detail. This is not a backlight issue, this is a processing issue as there is plenty of light around the area.
It’s HDR. But what about SDR? It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Hisense can be much brighter than the TCL, but what stands out to me is that, in Film mode, even with the brightest setting on, the TCL doesn’t get nearly as bright as it could. This makes sense for movie mode, but lacks contrast; not enough pop. However, in normal mode, I found it to be slightly brighter and the perceived contrast much better. However, the color temperature was very low, and the motion smoothing needed to be fixed. Ultimately, I had to change modes and manually adjust levels in three menus to end up with an image close to the brightness and accuracy of the U8H.
I don’t understand why it still takes so much work to get what I want, but I don’t blame TCL. I think it’s probably a Roku TV platform thing. I just wish it wasn’t like this.
Image quality
Let’s move on to motion resolution in general: the TCL R655 is better. It has smoother, more natural movements with fewer artifacts than the U8H, even without the HDR shimmer I mentioned earlier.
In terms of bloom control, neither TV is significantly better than the other. Both TVs generally have excellent backlight control and both do a great job of mitigating most of the blooming. While some other, more expensive TVs might provide better bloom control, for the purposes of this comparison, it’s a tie.
The TCL is a more natural looking TV and can still dazzle you when it needs to.
So what’s the bottom line about image quality? Hisense U8H is a flashier TV. Its increased brightness, color saturation and deep darks provide eye-popping contrast. Many people who see these TVs side by side would say that the Hisense is the “better” TV, at least at first glance. It has a more attractive appearance. By that I mean I’ve watched a lot of content with beautiful footage of food, and the same footage on both TVs looked tastier on the Hisense. It makes you want to eat the picture. The downside is that it doesn’t look as natural. And less natural, in my book, means less realistic.
The TCL is a more natural looking TV and can still dazzle you when it needs to. Not only that, it doesn’t suffer from overly dark dark areas, nor does it have the motion shimmer we saw in the Hisense U8H. Its motion resolution is also smoother and more pleasing to the eye. It’s not as bright as the Hisense U8H, but it can still be bright enough for most use cases. And for general image processing, TCL generally performs better.
Games
First, let me say that I think there are more qualified opinions on which TV might be better for immersive gaming. However, I will say, from a user standpoint, I like some of the recognition and automation that the TCL 6-Series provided when I connected my Xbox Series X console, and I like that it can go up to 144Hz.
Other than that, it’s a tie. They use the same chipsets, have the same connectivity and have the same minor limitations. For the casual gamer, any of these TVs will do the trick.
Sound quality and appearance
No contest: Hisense U8H beats the TCL R655. The TCL 6-Series just doesn’t sound very good, while the Hisense has surprisingly robust sound. As for looks? Choose. Center stand at TCL; versatile legs on Hisense. This really depends on what works best for you.
The last thing I want to point out is that the TCL R655 is available in an 85-inch model, while the Hisense U8H is a maximum of 75 inches.
To take away
So which TV is the best? It depends on what you want. If you want a TV with a lot of flash and you’re willing to overlook some drawbacks to get it, the Hisense U8H is arguably the flashier TV. It also has better sound and runs Google TV if either of them points you in a certain direction.
If you want a more restrained TV that has a little more finesse, the TCL R655 is a better choice. It can also get really bright, but you have to work harder to get it to do what you want, and even then there are some adjustment levers you won’t be able to touch. You will have to agree with that.
Which one would I personally choose for my home? With my particular needs and preferences all unique to me, I’d go with the TCL between the two, but it shouldn’t necessarily be your decision. Weigh everything you’ve learned today and choose the best choice for you.
In the end, both of these TVs are winners in my book. You get stellar performance at prices that fall well short of what you’d expect for image quality. It’s nice to be able to make such a difficult decision.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn