audiovisual 4K Mini LED television
SUMMARY
Hisense 65U8KAU
Price: $2499
+ Consistent strong image
+ Good blacks and local dimming
+ Image pings in Standard mode
+ Excellent VIDAA interface with extras
+ Gaming features
– Less impact in HDR modes
– TV sound lacks dynamism
Hisense is a company which embraces various TV technologies. It has had OLED televisions on its books in the past, though not in its ongoing ranges: instead the top sets are now firmly focused on Mini LED, with locally-dimmed groups of increasingly small LEDs behind a conventional LCD panel.
Mini LED is proving itself both under review and in the market, delivering (at its best) higher brightness levels than OLED, and beating it on dynamic range, the number of stops between the lowest level of detail in near-black shadows and the brightest white in an HDR desert sun. Our Sound+Image award-winners have been led by Mini-LED winners in the last couple of years.
The relative cost of Mini LED can be seen in the difference between pricing for standard LED. Reviewed here is the 65-inch U8KAU, the Australian version of the 65U8K, which is currently priced at $2499 (as we write; obviously these things can change). Hisense offers two other Mini LED 65-inchers below this, in the U7K and U6K ranges, but once you forgo Mini LEDs and drop to normal LED, the ‘A’ series pricing drops to just $1299 for a 65-incher, with street pricing under a grand.
So two questions — why pay more within Hisense's own range, and how does this U8KAU compare with Mini LED rivals from the likes of Samsung, Sony and TCL?
The mystery of ULED
The first question is easier for us now than it was when we started, because we sat down with Hisense Australia near the end of this review to untangle the ranges and specifically the company's widespread but often seemingly random application of the term ‘ULED’.
