Hisense 65UXKQ

Samsung has slowly but surely shifted its focus to the OLED side (after many ups and downs), while LG has now stopped manufacturing its LED panels and is focusing solely on OLED in the future. Sony, Philips and Panasonic have all moved in the same direction, and there is of course a general agreement in the display world that the way forward is OLED, and in the long term also Micro LED, of course. LCD and LED... are in more ways than one yesterday.

Of course, there are exceptions. Chinese TV giants TCL and Hisense are pushing their own versions of what Samsung has been marketing as "QLED", with backlit LCD panels based on Mini LED technology, with lightning-fast response and plenty of brightness. TCL and Hisense could be called backward-looking, especially if their top-end displays weren't super high quality. It would be easy to dismiss them as old hat if they weren't amazingly good. Luckily for both manufacturers, they have found the right path and are now engaged in what should be considered highly effective artificial respiration, and to call the Hisense UX series anything other than superb would be downright disingenuous.

UX is produced in 65, 85 and 110" (!) and the panel is Hisense's best and is based on quantum dots for improved blackness and colour reproduction as well as advanced local dimming in 1400 different zones. Hisense calls this TV a "ULED" but basically it is an LED, or the same technology that Samsung calls "QLED". There are opportunities here thanks to the quantum dots to control the light with great precision and it is immediately noticeable. 65UX can squeeze out 1500 nits in light punch during sustained periods, which makes it about twice as bright as the market's most light-capable 65-inch OLED and if you have a lit living room with lots of windows, this is of course where you should look.

In terms of design, the UX is a different TV than most of its competitors. Weighing more than twice as much as a 65" LG C3, it's about four times as thick and feels very solid in terms of construction. On the sides it has special holes to be able to convey a proper sound image and on the back there are two visible bass elements, which together with the side holes allow the UX screens to play TV sound in 4.2. The screen stands on a heavy, sturdy metal base that weighs more than virtually all other table stands that we have encountered here at Gamereactor and on the whole this feels like a real premium product, which it is.

Inside the TV we find Hinsense's proprietary operating system Vidaa which is by far the best on the market, today. I have for over ten years preferred LG's Web OS and today I also like Google OS very much (it has become radically much better in the last two years) but if we are to compare the functionality and speed of the "Click", it is Hisense Vidaa that rules the TV world at the moment. It's lightning fast, responds instantly and makes every Hinsense TV feel more modern than pretty much anything else on the market. The main menu is super clear and easy to change, the app support is great and the voice control is the best on the market right now. It's obvious that Hisense has put a lot of effort into this and hasn't skimped on the processing power in this TV.

As for the picture quality, it is just as worthy of praise as the operating system is. I've never seen a better LCD TV in my life. For starters, the sharpness is instantly stunning, as is the colour reproduction, which feels neutrally soft and calm while the colours really pop. The colour spectrum is fantastic and there's just about the right amount of contrast here for an LCD. I'm an OLED junkie through and through and still consider my 77" LG G2 to be the best I've seen (apart from the replacement G3, of course) but here in the UX there's clearly merit in more than double the amount of sustained brightness. In HDR scenes from most of my favourite scenes, there's a dynamism to the image that I've fallen deeply and powerfully in love with over the past week. Lots of colour, lots of contrast, sharpness and dynamics without being over-saturated or as overly exaggerated as I feel Samsung's OLED models are.

When it comes to "Game Mode" and how the 65UX performs for those of us who play games at least as much as we watch films/TV, it's easy to praise what Hisense offers here. 144Hz, VRR, 14 milliseconds in measured input lag (superb), four HDMI 2.1 inputs (two of which support full bandwidth, i.e. 4K/144 Hz) and several smart functions that allow you to quickly create profiles for different games or consoles, which you then activate via a super quick voice command. Sounds good, and as I said, it does. One of the best I have tested when it comes to TV sound and for once I can recommend a TV also for its sound, where you are not advised to buy a loaf of bread the first thing you do.

There are so many really good TV screens on the market today that it has become easy to choose and choose something good. The competition is fierce and the vast majority of TV manufacturers available here, in Sweden, are today at an incredibly high minimum level. For around £2000, you can also buy just about anything for those who are looking for a really nice 65-inch TV. I'm not ready to call this TV the best (of everything, including OLED), but it's definitely the single finest LED TV you can buy right now. If you think the brightness is too low in today's OLED panels and therefore prefer LED, this is the flagship you should invest in. Because it's consistently fantastic.