hisense tv lcd panel quotation

The Samsung QN90B QLED is the best TV with an LED panel we"ve tested. It"s an impressive TV with amazing picture quality and a great selection of gaming features. It uses a Mini LED backlight, with way more dimming zones than most LED TVs, which allows for greater control over the local dimming feature for better dark room performance, with less distracting blooming around bright objects. It also gets exceptionally bright, meaning it can handle lots of glare in a bright room.

Unlike most high-end LED TVs, it"s also a good choice for a wide seating arrangement, as the image remains consistent when viewed at an angle thanks to Samsung"s "Ultra Viewing Angle" technology. It also has a great selection of extra features like a built-in Tizen smart interface that"s easy to use and has a ton of apps available to download, so you can easily find your favorite shows. It"s also excellent for gaming, as it supports 4k @ 120Hz gaming from the new-gen consoles, and it supports a variable refresh rate to reduce tearing.

We carry high-quality TV parts for many Hisense TV models and common Hisense TV repairs. When searching for the correct TV part to fix your Hisense TV, we always recommend searching by the exact part number located on the part you want to replace or repair in your TV. If you want to start your search by TV model, you can find your TV"s model number on the back of your TV, in its manual, or through its menu/settings.

Modern TVs are more complicated than ever before. If you’ve found yourself browsing one of our guides and felt stumped by some of the acronyms or tech specs, we’ve summarized the most common terms below:

LCD: LCD stands for liquid crystal display, and it’s the most common kind of television besides OLED (defined below). LCD TVs shine an LED backlight through a panel of liquid crystal, a malleable substance that reacts to electricity, opening or closing when jolted. In LCD TVs, the liquid crystal opens to allow the backlight through or closes to block it. The specific details of the opening/closing are dependent upon the arrangement of the pixels: The most common LCD arrangements are Vertical Alignment (VA) and In-Plane Switching (IPS), with the former tending to produce higher contrast and the latter tending to produce wider viewing angles. All so-called “LED” TVs are really LCD TVs, as are all current QLED and ULED TVs.

OLED: An organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, TV creates light inside each individual pixel without using a backlight and can dim each pixel individually all the way down to black, which LCD TVs can’t do. This tech gives an OLED TV an infinite contrast ratio and other benefits to help create an overall better-looking image, although at considerable additional cost. You can read more about OLED technology in this article.

Mini-LEDs: Every LCD TV made today currently uses LEDs to produce the light that shines through the LCD panel. Most TVs use LED lights that pass through a diffuser to light up the entire LCD screen. Mini-LEDs, which some TVs use, are much smaller than traditional LEDs, so TV makers can install more of them and thus create more zones of local dimming, which means less blooming or halos around bright objects. Mini-LEDs are completely different from micro-LEDs, an available (though very expensive) technology that employs individual red, green, and blue LEDs to produce an image without needing an LCD panel at all.

Nits: Also called candelas per square meter (cd/m²), this unit of luminance measures how much light a TV can produce. Previously, TVs could output 200 to 300 nits, and standard dynamic range (SDR) content was graded and mastered with 100 nits as the standard. With high dynamic range (HDR), content is mastered with 1,000, 4,000, or 10,000 nits as the standard; so, the more nits an HDR TV can display, the more accurately it can display the highlights in HDR material without having to reduce the brightness of the highlights or clip them.

Wide color gamut: Ultra HD content has a wider color gamut than standard HDTV content; right now, most UHD content is mastered with the same DCI/P3 color gamut used in theatrical cinema (the ultimate goal is the even larger Rec. 2020 color gamut). This expanded color gamut allows a TV to display richer reds, blues, and greens than ever before. Some TVs use quantum-dot technology to produce this wider color gamut.

Quantum dots: Quantum dots are a color-enhancing technology primarily found in LCD TVs (though some 2022 OLED TVs now have them as well). Chiefly employed as a filter that’s painted onto a substrate, quantum dots are microscopic nano-crystals that, when struck with blue light, produce very vivid red or green light (depending upon the size of the crystal). Quantum dots are the primary technology that allows LCD TVs to produce the wide color gamut required to display HDR content properly, as they greatly increase the color saturation of red and green.

Refresh rate: All digital displays (including TVs) have what’s called a refresh rate, measured in hertz (Hz), shorthand for cycles per second. A TV’s refresh rate refers to how quickly it displays new incoming video information on a nanosecond-to-nanosecond basis. While there are many possible refresh rates, most TVs come with either a 60 Hz refresh rate (meaning 60 screen refreshes per second) or a 120 Hz refresh rate (120 screen refreshes per second). Ideally, a TV will have the highest refresh rate possible, but there are diminishing returns for higher refresh rates during many types of content. A 120 Hz TV has advantages when watching 24p content or mitigating judder (definitions below), and tends to produce less input lag when playing video games, but it won’t provide advantages for most forms of cable TV or streaming content. In 2022, some manufacturers introduced 144 Hz TVs meant to appeal specifically to gamers, but the majority of TVs still have 60 or 120 Hz refresh rates.

Judder: This term refers to a slightly jerky motion that can occur when 24p film content appears on a TV with a 60 Hz refresh rate. In such situations, to make 24 frames match up to the 60 Hz display, half of the frames appear two times and the other half appear three times. This display technique causes judder, which is most noticeable on panning shots. Some 120 Hz displays avoid this effect by repeating each film frame five times, while some 60 Hz panels run at 48 Hz to show each frame twice.

Motion smoothing: Motion smoothing, sometimes called MEMC (Motion Estimation/Motion Compensation), refers to a TV’s ability to intelligently create new frames to create smoother-looking or less juddery motion. Most modern TVs can artificially increase their refresh rates to smooth out fast or difficult sequences, but the efficacy of this motion smoothing is often dependent upon the TV’s native refresh rate. Motion smoothing is also the cause of the “soap opera effect,” where cinematic/24p content looks more like a daytime soap opera due to the insertion of unnecessary frames. The best TVs come with multiple motion smoothing presets, and some even allow the user to fine-tune the degree of judder reduction and frame interpolation employed. When used correctly, motion smoothing can make content like sports and nature documentaries look more realistic, but we prefer it be turned off for content like premium TV, movies, and video games.

Hisense is one of the biggest budget TV brands out there, competing with the likes of other mainstream budget TV brands like TCL, Toshiba, Insignia, and Amazon’s Fire TVs. In both the US and the UK, Hisense offers up tons of different TVs with different features at different price points, which is great for the consumer but also can be greatly confusing.

Accordingly, we’ll be breaking down Hisense’s range of TVs, in both the US and the UK, into three core lines each, focusing on the brand’s budget to mid-range TVs. You can spend more on a Hisense TV to get more features and better image quality, but in general, for more expensive TVs you might be better served by a nice set from a brand like LG or Sony.

But is a Hisense TV worth the cash, and if so, which one should you get? And how do Hisense TVs compare to other competing budget brands in terms of specs and features. Most importantly, are Hisense TVs good value? We’ve reviewed some Hisense TVs, though nowhere near all of them, but you can learn a lot about a TV from its specs.

So, kick back, relax, and read on to learn all about the wild world of Hisense TVs and which sets you should consider if you’re in the market for a new TV…

Across both the UK and the US, there are tons of different Hisense TVs you can buy. If you’re looking for flexibility, this budget brand definitely has you covered. What’s more, though, is that these TVs are often extraordinarily competitive in terms of specs, features, and pricing. Depending on what you’re looking at, a Hisense TV might be the best option.

In the US, for example, Hisense offers up just about the cheapest HD TVs money can buy, and if you can nab the 4K A6 Series on sale, you’ll be able to enjoy one of the cheapest 4K sets money can buy, too, undercutting even the low-cost TCL 3-Series 4K TVs. Hisense won’t always be the cheapest option, but it definitely can be.

In the UK, the situation is similar. Generally, at retail, Hisense UK TVs aren’t the cheapest around, though they have competitive specs and features, but with even a modest sale, they can quickly become the default pick for a budget TV. Especially if you’re a gamer: Hisense UK 4K TVs support VRR and ALLM, which oftentimes other budget sets won’t.

In general, Hisense TVs aren’t competing with premium OLED sets that can cost thousands, but they manage to provide competitive features and specs, often with solid gaming performance – and for low prices that can, with sales, be the best prices you can find. Like TCL, this brand is a must-watch if you’re looking for a budget TV.

In the US, Hisense makes a wide variety of different TVs. From sets with different smart platforms to expensive Mini-LED sets and everything in between, there are a lot of different Hisense TVs to choose from. We’ll be focused on three core lines of budget US TV that look to offer up some of the best value: the A4H Series, the A6 Series, and the U6H Series.

As you’d generally expect, these TVs scale up in terms of features, specs, and price, too. Though there are commonalities between the lines, like smart functionality, voice control, VESA mounting, and HDMI ARC, the more expensive lines support HDR, 4K, different audio technologies, and even different display technologies outside of LED.

In terms of pricing, Hisense TVs are competitive, and can even be some of the best value around. When you couple that with frequent sales, if what you’re looking for is a really cheap TV that’s still relatively modern in terms of specs and features, Hisense is almost always a brand worth considering.

However, if you want the best picture quality out there or the best gaming performance, these TVs, in general, won’t be offering up that kind of functionality at these prices. Sure, you’ll be able to watch whatever content you’d like on a Hisense TV without issue, and connecting a PS5 is doable, too, but if you’re looking for more out of your TV, you’d likely be better served by spending a little more on a different set.

The A4H Series is Hisense’s most basic line of TV. While smart, the A4H Series only supports HD and Full HD, depending on which size you go for, and you’ll also get a pretty basic set of features and specs, including an LED panel, 60Hz refresh rate, but no fancy gaming-focused features like VRR or ALLM.

However, you will get HDR support, which is something of a novel addition to an HD TV in 2022, with many HD TVs not supporting HDR, so that’s definitely a win. Plus, you’ll also get DTS Virtual:X in terms of audio and HDMI ARC, too. Altogether, this is a fairly standard HD TV with a couple of nice features thrown in on top.

Though, the A4H is more exceptional than it might seem in terms of features when it comes to pricing. The 32-inch set retails for $140, while you can find it (and the other sizes) for even less on sale. At $140 normally, this is just about the cheapest you can find an HD TV in 2022, so if price is what you care most about, the A4H Series might be worth a look.

Of course, A4H TVs won’t offer up the best gaming performance or even support 4K, so if you care about high-resolution content or want to play games in 4K, you’ll be better served by any number of other sets. What’s more is that, even within the context of Hisense TVs, you won’t have to spend too much more to get a 4K TV, either.Today"s best Hisense A4H 32-inch deals

Hisense’s A6 Series is the brand’s mid-range flagship 4K TV. This kind of TV is about what you’d expect from a budget 4K TV in 2022, offering up 4K resolution, HDR support, DTS Virtual:X, and even HDMI eARC on top of familiar smart TV functionality.

What you won’t be missing out on, though, is saving money. The A6 Series starts off at $270 for the 43-inch model, while you’ll regularly be able to find these TVs on sale for less, too. In terms of how Hisense’s pricing compares with other budget TVs, it’s about the same you’ll find from competitors, though you will be able to find similar sets for slightly less, sometimes.

For example, you can grab a 43-inch TCL 3-Series, at retail, for $230, which makes it $40 less than the A6 with just about the same specs and features. Though, sales may change up whether or not the A6 is the best deal out there. So, while you may want to opt for other sets if the A6 isn’t on sale, if it is, it’s usually strong value.Today"s best Hisense A6 43-inch deals

Hisense’s U6H line is one of the brand’s more premium lines of television that still manages to come equipped with a budget-focused pricetag. These TVs upgrade Hisense’s other lines’ traditional LED panels to Quantum ULED panels as well as supporting the full suite of HDR functionality, in addition to bringing full-array local dimming to the table.

What’s a Quantum ULED, you ask? Well, ULEDs are traditional LED TVs that come with an extra layer between the panel and display that’s aimed at providing better contrast and deeper blacks in conjunction with some proprietary Hisense software. A Quantum ULED also makes use of quantum dot technology seen in QLEDs on top of the above.

We’d have to review this TV to give you a good idea of its actual performance, but on paper, you can definitely expect a fairly meaty improvement to image quality with a Quantum ULED set, particularly one with full-array local dimming, over a traditional LED set. Accordingly, you"d probably expect a substantial price increase with the U6H, but you’d be wrong.

The U6H Series starts off at a $600 retail price, but that’s not what these TVs actually go for anymore. You can find them starting off at around $428 without a sale, and on sale, these TVs can be found for a lot less. On sale, though, these Hisense TVs are just about the best value you can find in the world of budget TVs.

These TVs might not be the best pick for gamers, and if you’re looking for more impressive display tech like OLED, again you’ll be better served elsewhere, but if you want exceptional value on a modern set with competitive features and image quality, the Hisense U6H Series is definitely worth a look.Today"s best Hisense 50U6H deals

Much like in the US, Hisense UK makes a ton of different TVs from low-cost 720p HD TVs all the way up to expensive OLED sets. As always, choice is great for the consumer, but actually choosing a Hisense set can be confusing. So, we’ll be breaking down Hisense UK’s range of TVs into three core lines: the A5600F Series, the A6BG Series, and the A7H Series.

Unsurprisingly, these TVs scale up in terms of specs, features, and of course, pricing. Nonetheless, these different Hisense TVs have commonalities, too. All these TVs come packed with smart functionality, VESA mounting, Dolby Audio, 60Hz refresh rates and HDMI ARC, while some sets come with 4K support, HDR, ALLM, VRR, and more.

In terms of pricing, Hisense’s UK TVs are almost always competitive. While at retail, a Hisense set may not always be the absolute lowest of the low, they’re close to it, and on sale a Hisense TV can often be the best value around if there isn’t another similar sale on a similar set from another budget brand like TCL.

Hisense TVs aren’t the best for gamers, with none of the above lines coming with 4K/120Hz support, but some sets do come with 4K support, VRR, and ALLM, which will be enough for most gamers out there, even those with PS5s. In terms of image quality, Hisense might not be competing with an LG C2 OLED, but on paper, their specs are competitive.

In general, if you’re looking for a modern smart TV that’s solid value, Hisense TVs are usually a strong choice, and if you can nab one on sale, particularly a 4K set, it’ll get the job done without breaking the bank, making these UK TVs worth keeping on your radar.

The A5600F is Hisense UK’s most basic set. These TVs come in HD 720p and Full HD 1080p, depending on the size you pick, while they also come with LED panels, 60Hz refresh rates, HDMI ARC, Dolby Audio, and no HDR, VRR, or ALLM in sight. Though, you will get smart functionality, so you won’t have trouble streaming all kinds of content.

As far as TVs in 2022 go, the A5600F is just about as basic as they come, offering up enough for casual viewing but little else. Accordingly, these TVs are the cheapest sets Hisense offers, most especially on sale, coming in at just a £249 retail for the 720p 32-inch model.

In terms of the budget TV market, the A5600F is right about where you’d expect. It’s not necessarily the lowest in terms of retail price, but depending on the sales shake out, the A5600F may well be the cheapest option when it comes to low cost HD TVs in 2022.

Of course, the A5600F isn’t a great gaming TV, though it’ll definitely get the job done if you’ve still got a PS4 or Xbox One kicking around, and while you can use them to casually stream content and watch as you please, buying an HD TV in 2022 is never the best value. Considering how little extra money you’d need to upgrade to a 4K set, most will be better served by doing that, unless you don’t ever watch content in resolutions higher than HD.Today"s best Hisense 32 A5600 deals

Hisense’s A6BG UK TVs are the brand’s flagship mid-range 4K that’s likely the sweet spot between features and price, sliding in-between the cheaper A5600F Series and the more expensive A7H Series. These TVs come packed with 4K support, HDR by way of HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision, plus Dolby Audio and HDMI eARC.

As far as pricing goes, the A6BG line starts off retailing at £429, which is definitely high for the specs and features on offer with this particular TV, but you’ll rarely see this set at retail. Most of the time, you’ll be able to nab an A6BG for a lot less, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled.

All told, as long as you aren’t paying the full-fat original price, these TVs have modern specs and features capable of offering up solid image quality, on paper, while simultaneously providing equally solid gaming performance that will serve most gamers well. If you’re in the market for an all-around competitive TV at a competitive price, the A6BG Series is worth a look.Today"s best Hisense 50A6BGTUK deals

Hisense’s A7H Series is the brand’s more expensive, more full-featured mid-range set that manages to bring QLED tech to the table that, on paper, offers up meaningful upgrades in image quality over a traditional LED panel seen in the likes of Hisense’s cheaper ranges. On top of QLED support, though, you’re also getting a suite of useful features.

The A7H also comes with 4K support, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos spatial audio support, HDMI eARC, and even ALLM and VRR for the gamers out there on top of the traditional smarts you’d expect from a TV of this calibre. All told, this is about the best you can reasonably expect in terms of specs and features from a budget-focused set.

With the right sale, you may well find competitive sets at lower prices, but considering the C63K comes packed with features you don’t often find at these prices, like VRR and ALLM, you may still want to opt for a C63K even if it’s a bit more expensive than the very cheapest TV out there, depending on whether or not you’re a gamer, for example.

In general, if you’re looking for a QLED TV that can handle next-gen gaming and comes with a competitive set of features and specs, the A7H usually offers up all of that alongside strong value, so it’s a range definitely worth keeping an eye on.

The promise is a display that can rival the best TV technology ever, and still deliver the brightness of LCD, without many of the issues that plague high-end local dimming LCD sets today. Most intriguing for middle-budget video-quality fans, however, is that Hisense aims to release a 65-inch ULED XD TV in the US next year, for a price that"s cheaper than OLED. Let"s dive in.

At a follow-up demo in a private room in New York"s Ace Hotel in May, executives walked me through the latest on XD. The basic idea is the same: bonding two LCD modules together improves the precision of standard LED local dimming.

The most effective picture quality enhancement for LED LCD TVs today, local dimming controls the illumination in different areas of the screen. So-equipped TVs, like the

Here"s how ULED XD improves that local dimming arrangement, along with some of Hisense"s top-level specs and claims.ULED XD takes two LCD modules and precision-bonds them together. One module handles the luminance information (black and white only), while the second handles color.

The luminance panel only lights up pixels that are active, so the effect according to Hisense is to deliver local dimming on the pixel level, with 8.3 million "zones" in the 4K version.

ULED XD will also have standard local dimming (132 zones), and combined with the two-panel design, it achieves a native contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1.

Hisense followed its information session with a side-by-side comparison. Engineers had set up a prototype 65-inch ULED XD TV -- the version with the 1080p luminance module -- next to the

Moving off-angle I also noticed that the ULED XD didn"t keep its brightness and fidelity as well as the OLED set. I asked Chris Porter, director of product planning, for an explanation. "When you stack two VA panels, you compound your viewing angle issues. We know it"s important and it"s on our radar."

Of course a controlled demo of a prototype is no substitute for a real-world review in CNET"s TV lab, but ULED XD impressed me nonetheless. I"m excited to see more. Hisense says it should have a preproduction version of the shipping model (the one with the 4K luminance module) ready to show me in September or October, and it aims to bring a 65-inch production model to market "as early as possible" in 2020.

Of course I asked about price. Although Ninesling admitted that it wasn"t set yet, he did say "We intend to present a value to consumer versus the retail price point of OLED TV with our XD technology."

Looking ahead, I expect LG"s cheapest 65-inch OLED TV in early 2020, the B9, to retail somewhere between $2,000 and $2,500. To be a "value" compared to that set, the ULED XD should cost less than $2,000 at 65 inches.

That pits it against some of the best 2019 LCD TVs, including higher-end models from more-established brands like Samsung, Sony and Vizio. In that way Hisense faces a similar problem to the one it encountered asking five figures for its laser projectors: if you"ve heard of Hisense, chances are you associate it with cheap TVs, not high-performance flagship models that rival OLED.

Those other TV makers could conceivably come up with their own dual-module technology as well, but Ninesling says it won"t be soon. "We"ve been working on this for years, and we know that we"re way out front. The precision bonding that has to take place to align two 4K modules is state-of-the-art factory technology."

Porter also mentioned the importance of Hisense"s proprietary processing. "You can"t split the image to a grayscale image and a color image in real-time with software only. It"s got to be hardware-driven. With our Hi-View Pro 3 chip, we"re able to control two cells, while every other chip on the market was designed for single-cell panels."

At its May event Hisense also showed off its lineup of 2019 TVs first announced at CES (see the gallery above), and many of them have similarly solid specifications at aggressive prices. The company is seriously courting US customers this year, and for videophiles looking for an alternative to OLED and local dimming LCD, ULED XD is worth keeping an eye on. If nothing else, it"s probably gonna be affordable a lot sooner than

The Hisense U9DG offers the best black levels and viewing angles we’ve ever seen on a non-OLED TV. Its contrast control is superb, and it’s ready to showcase a world of shows and movies in blazing HDR. Unfortunately, the TV is marred by some brutal motion handling issues and its picture processing leaves upscaled content looking less than ideal. For a pricey TV that only comes in a single, gigantic size those are pretty significant warts.

Being something of a specialty, the Hisense U9DG is available in just one screen size, a 75-inch model (Hisense 75U9DG) with an MSRP of $2,999.99. We received our unit on loan from Hisense. It’s important to keep in mind that, as new Hisense TVs begin hitting shelves this year, you can expect to see some significant price drops for the U9DG.

As you can see, this TV is loaded with features. But the U9DG’s bread and butter is its dual-layer LCD panel, the complex nature of which is responsible for some of the TV’s most impressive performance flourishes. I’ll break down how this panel technology works further along in the review.

The TV ships with a standard Hisense remote control, which features a handful of dedicated app buttons and a built-in microphone for voice commands. The remote is fairly utilitarian, but the buttons feel fine to use and we don’t foresee anyone having major issues with it.

Like a great deal of Hisense TVs, the U9DG runs on the Android TV operating system. As far as smart platforms go, it’s not our favorite (that honor goes to Roku), but it’s a relatively straightforward experience. It’s not as easy to navigate as Roku, but there"s an immense amount of flexibility in the form of downloadable apps.

Before testing each TV, we make sure the panel is on and receiving a continuous signal for at least 24 hours, allowing the pixels plenty of time to warm up. Our 75-inch U9DG received this standard warm-up time before any readings were taken. In addition, the TV received the latest firmware updates at the time of testing.

To get a sense for the TV’s average performance, we use a standard ANSI checkerboard pattern for most of our basic contrast tests. We also use white and black windows ranging from 2% to 90% to test how well the contrast holds up while displaying varying degrees of brightness.

Our peak brightness measurements are taken with sustained windows to represent the TV’s peak brightness over a sustained period of time. Specular highlights (like brief flashes of reflected light) might reach higher brightness levels, but not for sustained periods of time.

Throughout our tests, Color Temperature was set to Low, both noise reduction settings were turned off, and motion enhancements (including Motion Clearness) were disabled. In addition, the TV’s automatic light sensor was disabled, its backlight was set to its default setting, and Local Dimming was set to High.

It’s worth noting that the TV’s port compartment can be covered up with a thin, plastic panel, should you decide to make its appearance a little cleaner.

Typically, if someone asks me to help them buy a posh, top-of-the-line TV, I respond by asking them what they’re looking for in their TV’s picture. Someone browsing the proverbial top shelf has two options: an OLED TV, which will offer perfect contrast at the expense of mind-blowing brightness, or a premium LCD/LED TV with quantum dots. Usually referred to as a QLED TV, the mix of quantum dots and a powerful LED backlight system offers best-in-class brightness at the expense of perfect black levels.

There are other factors to consider, of course; whether or not the TV supports cutting-edge gaming features, its smart platform and motion handling, just to name a few. But for the most part, if you’ve got the money to spend on a dazzling, high-end TV, the “OLED or QLED” question is one you’ll have to ask yourself sooner than later.

The Hisense U9DG is one of the first TVs of its kind to hit the market. While it uses a traditional LCD panel with an LED backlight—just like you’ll find in any LED or QLED TV—its claim to fame is its dual-cell LCD panel, which aims to deliver the best of both worlds when it comes to contemporary display technologies: the inky black levels of an OLED TV with the searingly bright highlights of a top-shelf QLED TV.

Without getting too far down a rabbit hole of technical mumbo jumbo, the U9DG sets out to achieve this feat by adding a secondary LCD “luminance panel” beneath the main 4K LCD layer. This secondary layer—a 1080p panel—controls grayscale luminance, allowing for much tighter contrast control. Hisense describes the U9DG’s contrast as being "near OLED-level," and I think "near" is the keyword, there. There are technically over 2 million “dimming zones” on the U9DG, but by the same measurement, a 4K OLED TV features over 8 million. That’s because, unlike LED TVs, OLED TVs are self-emitting, meaning each pixel can turn on and off independently. Still, 2 million is an impressive figure.

Being no stranger to the oft ridiculous ballyhoo of TV marketing speak, I was naturally quite skeptical of dual cells reported triumphs. After all, in recent years, major efforts have been made to bridge the gap between OLED and LED TVs; to make the former brighter and to get the latter to provide darker black levels without light bloom. Some of these efforts (like mini-LED) took hold—they really make a difference. Others, like LG’s evo OLED panel technology, only managed to chip away at the margins.

On our contrast test pattern, an OLED TV produces a black level of 0.000 cd/m²—otherwise known as “zero.” On the same test pattern, the Hisense U9DG produces a black level of 0.005 cd/m². The picture tells a similar story in action, as the U9DG does an incredible job keeping dark regions of the picture jet-black and full of detail. It’s not exactly fooling me into thinking that I’m watching an OLED TV, but it’s the closest I’ve ever seen in a TV with an LED backlight.

And black levels aren’t the only thing the dual-cell tech does well. Instances of light bloom, the distracting glow of bright picture elements clashing with dark backdrops, are almost non-existent on this TV. I threw test pattern after test pattern at the U9DG and saw only the faintest hint of the ghostly auras that typically haunt TVs with LED backlighting—even those with thousands of dimming zones.

So we can confirm that, at least when it comes to black levels, the Hisense U9DG is closer to an OLED than any LED TV we’ve ever seen. But what about its brightness?

While the U9DG doesn’t get nearly as bright as some of the brightest TVs we’ve ever tested, its picture is still plenty bright, and its HDR performance is worthy of celebration.

I watched my fair share of HDR and Dolby Vision content on the U9DG and spent most of that time marveling at the TV’s flashy specular highlights and the TV’s voluminous, quantum-dot color. To my eye, the U9DG’s highlights aren’t as crackling as they are on the Hisense U8G and it’s colors aren’t as psychedelic as the Samsung QN90A. However, neither of those TVs are able to limit light bloom as well as the U9DG, nor do they get as dark.

During testing, we always use the most accurate picture mode to assess a TV’s performance. This always comes with the caveat that you might be able to make your TV brighter by using a Vivid or Dynamic picture setting, but doing so would come at the expense of color accuracy. Curiously, however, the U9DG is brighter in its Theater picture mode than it is in Vivid. So if you want the brightest picture and one of the most accurate for color, we recommend using Theater Day and HDR Theater for SDR and HDR content, respectively.

In SDR, the TV is still bright enough for most living arrangements, so even if you live in a well-lit home and spend most of your time watching non-HDR content on cable or streaming apps, it won’t feel like you’re fighting the sun.

The U9DG features an IPS-style LCD panel, typically known for relatively shallow black levels and super-wide viewing angles. Due to the dual-layer nature of its display technology, the U9DG throws the “shallow black level” qualifier for its IPS-style panel right in the trash, but manages to hang onto the extra-wide viewing accommodations we’ve come to expect from this panel type.

It’s a good thing, too, since the U9DG is only available in a screen size that begs to be enjoyed by a room full of friends and family. Even if you’re watching the U9DG four or five feet off to the side, you aren’t likely to notice a drop in contrast, nor will you notice much color shifting. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a non-OLED TV with better off-angle viewing. It’s that good.

It took me about four seconds to realize how impressed I was with the U9DG’s contrast, but it took even less time to wonder what on earth was going on with the TV’s motion handling. Simply put, the U9DG’s motion handling should be your number one concern if you’re in the market for a TV in this price range.

The U9DG features a native refresh rate of 120Hz—a maximally good motion spec, at least until 144Hz TVs hit shelves later this year. Every single one of the U9DG’s closest competitors also features a 120Hz refresh rate, so on paper, the U9DG should go toe-to-toe with those TVs in the motion department.

On paper, the U9DG is a seemingly perfect companion for next-gen gaming on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5; it arrives with ALLM and VRR support to auto adjust the settings and motion handling to the content, looks incredible in HDR, and according to our lab tests, offers a low input lag of around 30ms in the TV’s dedicated Game Mode. Unfortunately, I can’t bring myself to recommend the U9DG as a gaming display—video games will not look good on the U9DG, even if you optimize the TV for gaming.

Admittedly, I’m far more likely to notice this phenomenon than most folks—I spend my days sitting two feet away from a TV, paying extra attention to every minor detail. Where I do expect people to notice some of these issues is while watching upscaled content upscaled from 720p or 1080p, like most TV broadcasts and older streaming content.

I spent some time watching HD movies on the U9DG (Contagion and Phantom Thread) as well as some basic TV programming, and the TV absolutely struggled with picture detail, particularly around the edges of characters and objects.

If you’re the type of person who watches a ton of over-the-air or cable TV, you’re likely to notice these image processing issues more often, since they seem to mostly rear their head when the TV is upscaling content.

Like the Hisense U8G, the U9DG features a metallic, butterfly-shaped stand system that visually sets itself apart from most of its competitors. Unfortunately, these pieces feature an incredibly wide footprint, and due to their placement toward the corners of the panel, you’ll need an extra-long, extra-deep table or cabinet in order to stand this TV upright on a surface.

This is mostly par for the course when shopping for a 75-inch TV, but it’s worth noting that the Hisense U7G offers two alternative slots for its feet that sit closer to the center of the panel, which goes a long way for shoppers who want to splash out on a big-screen TV but who don’t intend on wall-mounting.

Despite how silly it might sound, testing and reviewing the Hisense U9DG has been a bittersweet experience. I can see a ton of potential in dual-cell technology; as a proof of concept, its implementation here is plenty impressive.

The U9DG doesn’t quite replicate OLED contrast, but its near-perfect black levels alongside super-wide viewing angles bring it closer than any LCD/LED TV I’ve seen to date. And while it might not blast you with brightness like some of the top-shelf, quantum dot-enhanced TVs we’ve seen in recent years, it’ll hold up in a bright room better than any OLED on the market.

But the U9DG’s motion handling is seriously dire—perhaps the worst I’ve seen on a high-end TV with a 120Hz refresh rate. There’s no way around it: Video games, sports, and most filmic content will simply look off, as ghosting and smearing seem to be permanent fixtures. Hisense’s image processing software certainly doesn’t help, either, as it has a knack for smudging picture detail, particularly during upscaled content.

Shoppers hoping to invest top dollar in a flashy, world-class TV are better off spending that money on a Hisense U8G, a Samsung QN90A, or an LG C1. You’ll have to choose between the glamorous black levels of an OLED or the brilliant light show of a quantum dot-enhanced LED TV, but all three of those TVs look better across all types of content.

I sincerely hope that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of dual-cell technology—the hardware clearly has potential. I’d also like to see Hisense—who deserves credit for bringing this technology to the market—take another stab at a dual-cell TV with improved picture processing.

The Hisense U9DG may not be the groundbreaking TV many had hoped it’d be, but it might end up being the start of a whole new generation of TVs. I commend it, but I can’t meet its asking price.