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Chinese manufacturer Hisense have really raised the bar for affordable entry-level 4K TVs. The Hisense H8F is one of the best TVs in its price range and offers great performance in different areas. Interestingly, it is only available in the US and Canada. It has some weak spots, too, though, which we will thoroughly discuss in this article.
Quality and durability of the Hisense H8F
The Hisense H8F has a nice, all-black design and quite thin bezels that do not distract from the screen itself. It mostly consists of plastic while the two feet are made entirely of metal, which is a nice feature. They hold the TV very well and allow for only little wobbling. The back of the TV is plain and most connections face sideways, so it’s easy to mount on a wall. Unfortunately, there are no grooves for cable management.
Great picture quality, suitable for SDR and HDR
The 60 HzHertz is the derived SI-unit of frequency with 1Hz=1/s - When talking about TVs this means how many different pictures a TV can display in one second. VAVertical Alignment, type of LCD Panel panel delivers the usual advantages and disadvantages: Very good blacks that have great depth and a wide enough contrast in order to display HDRHigh Dynamic Range - image/video with more dynamic range (contrast range) content. The viewing angle is limited, though. These features are the case with all VA panels. Especially the black uniformity is superb, which makes it a wonderful choice for darker surroundings. It performs well in rooms with more light, too, as the peak brightness is definitely high enough for SDRStandard Dynamic Range - image/video with a conventional gamma curve (opposite: HDR) - "normal" videos and decent for HDR content.
There are definitely models in higher price ranges that do better, but as for the price-performance ratio of the H8F, the brightness is excellent. Movies and gaming in HDR look just fine. As for the HDR formats, HDR10HDR10 Media Profile - HDR with a color depth of 10 Bit in the Rec. 2020 colorspace, HLG and Dolby VisionDynamic HDR-format with a color depth of up to 12 Bits and Mastering of up to 10,000 Nits are supported, while HDR10+ is not. The Hisense H8F is available in 50, 55, and 65 inches and has 32, 56 and 60 dimming zones, respectively.
Motion Handling
As for motion handling, the Hisense H8F is decent. Unfortunately, it has quite a slow response time which results in some motion blur when fast-moving objects appear on screen. Also, the motion interpolationArtificial calculation of more frames than the source material has to offer feature works better on other devices. On the other hand, the backlight is almost void of flickering, which is great.
Great choice for gaming
Gaming works very well on the Hisense H8F. The input lag is low (14ms @ 60 Hz, 13.9ms @ 60 Hz), provided you are using the Game Mode. When using a gaming console, the H8F does not switch into said mode automatically, so you have to manually switch picture modes. It does not support 120 Hz resolutions as the panel only allows for 60 Hz. Also, there are neither VRRVariable Refresh Rate - synchronizes the display's refresh rate with the output refresh rate of the graphics card nor ALLM.
Poor sound quality
While all other features of the Hisense H8F are satisfactory, the sound quality unfortunately isn’t. The treble frequencies lack airiness and the bass frequencies are almost non-existent and deliver very little thump. Dialogues are clear and distinguishable, though. As with most flat screens, the built-in speakers cannot physically produce exceptional sound. This isn’t too bad if you use the TV occasionally, but if you are enthusiastic about TV sound, we recommend you to upgrade to a soundbar in order to improve the sound.
Smart TV features of the Hisense H8F
The Hisense H8F runs Android TV 8.0 Oreo which offers a vast amount of apps. The classics – Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play etc. – are pre-installed. Compared to other operating systems, Android TV 8.0 is completely ad-free. It will display suggested content by default, but you can opt out of this option, if you wish to. If you don’t like to use the included remote, you can control the TV with your voice via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. There are tons of additional apps that you can download from the Google Play Store, which include games, streaming platforms or other atmospheric apps, such as a virtual fireplace – if you are into a budget friendly cozy atmosphere.
