With 4x more pixels than traditional Full HD, Hisense’s 4K UHD resolution delivers breathtaking picture quality and pin-sharp clarity.

In the Standard mode the speaker’s delivery is deliberately flat. I think it works well. Vocals are prioritised and it’s easy to understand what’s being said. It’s not particularly wide or tall, but the Theatre option is there for a more expansive presentation. Vocals, however, are less emphasised. Switch to standard-def content from the built-in tuner and the Hisense copes much better, largely because the higher frame rate of the signal requires less processing from the TV, and the motion smearing issue is almost gone.Problems still persist. The scene in Skyfall (Dolby Vision Bright) where Bond is served a martini at the Macau gambling palace features smearing, but at least it’s better controlled (just). Animation can suffer too, as an episode of The Simpsons eluded the Hisense’s grip. If you are looking for an LED LCD TV for dim room critical movie viewing the Hisense U8QF is not the TV for you and you will probably need to search out a higher-priced LCD model or consider an OLED. It is not an enthusiasts TV and there are better options if you can spend a little more. If you’re after a TV that supports the latest picture and gaming features: There’s no Dolby Vision IQ, no Filmmaker mode, no HDMI 2.1 features or 4K@120Hz. Despite it being the premium option in Hisense’s 2020 TV range, it’s mid-range for features. The Hisense U7QF is a very good midrange LED LCD that uses Quantum Dot technology and also has Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HLG and HDR10 capabilities along with Dolby Atmos sound onboard. The smart TV system is intuitive and fast with a decent selection of apps as well as Freeview Play and all the UK catch-up services. Gaming input lag is also decent at 17ms but it doesn’t have all the HDMI 2.1 goods for VRR or ALLM.

The remote is a slim effort but too compact for my liking. Buttons are smushed close together and if you have sizeable digits such as myself, you’ll jab at the wrong button with regularity. It’s also not the most responsive, which doesn’t help. Netflix, Prime Video, Rakuten TV, YouTube and Freeview Play have dedicated buttons, so you can hotfoot to the service you fancy. Hisense U8Q features — Covers the basics for picture and gaming The U8QF uses a quad-core processor and has a claimed peak brightness of over 1,000nits. It supports wide colour gamut (DCI-P3/Rec.2020) and high dynamic range (HDR10, Hybrid Log-Gamma, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision).This cookie is a performance cookie used for internal Bazaarvoice web analytics, to be correlated to the same user for interactions within a particular client domain. There’s some careful shading of these parts of the picture and some decent light and dark detail. The depth and solidity to the image is enhanced by the Dolby Vision Dark picture mode, which gives added subtlety to Dolby Vision content. Despite that, the opening ten minutes of 1917 (Dolby Vision) shows solid motion stability as Schofield and Blake make their way through the trenches. The only noticeable effect is some blurry edge definition as a group of soldiers walk by. The same can be said for the shaky-camera races in Days of Thunder (Dolby Vision). The U7Q is more confident in this aspect than it was pre-update. All the main HDR formats are here, which means HDR10, HLG (used by iPlayer and Sky Q), along with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. The latter two add dynamic metadata to the HDR signal, optimising the performance to give the Hisense a better chance at HDR with its relative 700 nits of (peak) brightness.

The video processing in the Hisense U7QF is powered by the Hi-View Engine which helps with motion and scaling of images. We found the upscaling to be good with only the odd instance of ringing around fine lines in some test patterns, but this was not visible in the vast majority of HD content we viewed. Shadow detail (that’s detail in the darkest parts of an image) is not the U8Q’s strongest suit. A whirl through The Dark Knight Rises and the TV can’t lift all the detail from the Batman suit. Raise the brightness and there’s more to be found, but there’s not much room to play with. A point up is all that’s needed, but anything more and scenes look washed out. Direct Full Array Local Dimming lets you experience remarkable contrast levels with independently controlled dimming zones, enabling pinpoint detail in darker scenes and stunning brightness.With the stand included the TV measures in at 1232 x 799 x 308mm (whd), or if you’re considering wall-mounting then the rear panel juts out at just 83mm of depth. It’s compatible with VESA wall-mounts, and at 17.4kg without a stand (18.9kg with one), it’s not too heavy. It has a strong feature set and performs fairly well in some aspects, but the smeary motion undoes a lot of the good work the set does elsewhere.

There’s an aspect of personalisation to the VIDAA interface with app recommendations and a peak at what’s trending for those with Netflix accounts. VIDAA is also Chromecast-able for flinging content at the TV. Alexa is built in, so the TV can be controlled by your voice if you fancy a chat. Inside this set is a digital tuner, with the Freeview Play service built-in. As ever, it makes for a usable EPG and a decent set of catch-up services, however, the VIDAA U4 Smart TV operating system comes up short on apps. Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube are all present, but notable absentees include Now TV, BT Sport, Apple TV, Google Play Movies & TV and Disney+.

You work at BID, what a legend.

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