PICTURE QUALITY. It did an excellent job displaying the finest detail of HD content. Color accuracy was very good, with image content, and flesh tones in particular, looking natural. Color temperature was slightly on the cool side, lending images a bluish tone. Contrast—the difference between the darkest blacks and brightest whites was good, so images had depth and dimension, typical of most models we test. The brightness level was good, making it a suitable choice for most rooms. Black levels were only fair with darker areas of the image looking unnaturally illuminated and hazy. Dark scenes, in particular, were lacking in contrast. In scenes with subtly shaded light-to-dark areas, such as a sky during sunset, the model did an excellent job producing a smooth transition without distinct, coarse bands. There was slight display non-uniformity that created brighter cloudy areas most noticeable on very dark scenes (or in the black bars of a letterboxed movie). We routinely see this issue with LCDs and severity can vary from model to model. The deinterlacing and film mode operations were excellent on HD content; there was little or no trace of jaggies on the edges of objects for video and film-based 1080i video content, such as from cable.
VIEWING ANGLE. This Haier has a wide viewing angle overall, better than that of most TVs. It will provide the same picture quality, with fewer problems than most TVs, for typical viewing conditions—say, if your family is seated across a long sectional or in chairs off to the sides. With brighter scenes, this model did a fine job maintaining accurate colors and contrast as we viewed it from the sides. The picture did show some dimming from the sides but not to any point we found distracting. With dark scenes this model didn't fare quite as well. When viewed from the sides, the depth of black levels varied depending on the vertical position of the viewer's head. As we moved closer to the screen this limitation became even more apparent, especially if seated on the floor looking upward where black levels brightened significantly. This model's wide horizontal viewing angle is best appreciated when the TV's picture is viewed at eye level.
ULTRA HD PERFORMANCE. Overall, not great. This Haier UHD TV delivers compromised 4K picture detail, along with just acceptable HD-to-UHD upconversion. All native 4K content we played on this model, including movies and test videos, was presented in full 4K detail when played back via the TV's HDMI input, but the images were very aggressively oversharpened to the point of being distracting. With 4K content specifically, the TV switches to new default settings and provides no access to color, tint, and sharpness controls (unlike with HD content). As a result, the oversharpened images could not be corrected. This model is not internet capable, so it does not support the streaming of 4K programs, limiting its access to 4K content. To get 4K streaming you'll need to purchase a 4K media player or 4K Blu-ray player with streaming capability. Using the TV's USB port, we were not able to play back any of our 4K videos stored on a flash drive which were encoded in both the HEVC, VP9, and MP4 formats. Photo play back was a mixed bag - high-resolution images were presented with full 4K vertical resolution, but horizontal detail was cut in half to HD quality, not taking advantage of the display's detail potential. With regular HD content, the TV's HD-to-UHD up-conversion processing fell short, with visible jaggies along the edges of diagonals when playing HD content. This TV is not HDR capable, and did not show any image quality improvements when presented with content that was mastered for HDR. All four of the TV's HDMI inputs comply with the latest HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 specifications that support play back for 4K video at 60Hz, and copy protection, a requirement for compatibility with 4K movie play back devices such as a 4K Blu-ray player.
MOTION BLUR. This Haier TV has only fair motion performance, with significant blurring on our motion tests. This model does not include a blur reduction feature. The visibility of blurring on typical program content is often subtle and may not bother most people, but keen-eyed viewers may detect some loss of texture and detail on scenes with movement.
SCREEN REFLECTIVITY. Though not as mirror-like as on some models, this screen surface is glossy and therefore susceptible to reflections from a nearby lamp or window. It does a good job reducing glare from ambient light and maintains contrast in a brighter room environment.
SOUND QUALITY. This model has fair sound quality with below average performance. It's acceptable for typical programming, but shortcomings become obvious with movie soundtracks and music. With movies, dialog was generally clear and natural sounding and remained well balanced with respect to background music and other sounds. Bass was lacking treble lacked detail, and the overall sound was and closed in. The speakers produced a good volume so this model should play sufficiently loud in typical room environments, and sound quality does degrade at the highest volume settings. Also, at higher volume, dynamic compression kept the sound from distorting, but also limited the clarity of peaks in loudness, which can be distracting on some audio content. If sound quality matters to you, you might want to add a soundbar or other external speaker system.
EASE OF USE. Overall, it was very easy to setup and fairly easy to do routine things. On first power up there is an on-screen guide that helps you through setting up the TV. When making a video adjustment, the on-screen menu covers a significant part of the screen making it difficult to see the picture as you make adjustments. It lacks the ability to add custom labels to different input sources.
STAND ASSEMBLY. The TV's base does not come pre-attached, so some assembly is required. Mounting the support stand to the TV is straightforward, though the stand requires the assembly of one part before mounting. The TV's stand extends to the far ends of the display, which means the table top you'll be setting the TV on will need to be at least as wide as the display itself.
INTERNET FEATURES. This TV does not have access to the Internet.
CONNECTIONS. This model has four HDMI inputs—, and one supports ARC (Audio Return Channel), one "component/composite shared" input (which means you can only use one type or the other at a time). It also has one USB port, an optical digital audio out. The cable connections on the rear panel are recessed with side or bottom-facing ports, so wires don't protrude beyond the display's depth.
INCLUDED IN THE BOX. A printed user manual. A remote control with batteries.
