Hisense Falls For Style Over Substance

FOR Crisp picture; smart design; natural colour palette

AGAINST Contrast not subtle; trouble with dark scenes

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“Dress for the job you want, not the one you have”. Unless you're thinking of turning up at your accountancy firm in a Batman costume, it’s generally good advice.

Hisense’s latest 50in N6800 television is certainly dressed for the part. Also available in 55in and 60in versions, it offers a middle market alternative to the television offerings from the big four of LG, Sony, Panasonic and Samsung.

On paper, the N6800 appears to tick all the right boxes: it has a 4K screen and smart functionality, as well as ULED and HDR Plus technology – which sound similar enough to OLED and HDR to impress prospective buyers in the showroom. However, in practice, the Hisense doesn’t quite reach the expected heights.

Range of technologies

ULED stands for Ultra LED, an umbrella term for a number of technologies that improve the picture quality of ‘normal’ LCD sets. This includes Wide Colour Gamut, High Dynamic Contrast, and 240-zone local dimming which makes dark colours deeper while light ones go brighter.

HDR Plus, meanwhile, is a form of High Dynamic Range for televisions with a brightness of at least 400 nits (the N6800 reaches 450 nits). However, it’s notably different from HDR Premium or the 1000 nits necessary to be considered as a UHD LCD Premium set.

Remote sounds