HD PICTURE QUALITY HD picture quality was Very Good, overall. Reproduction of fine HD image detail was Excellent. Color accuracy was Very Good, with flesh tones in particular, looking natural. Very Good contrast—the difference between the darkest blacks and brightest whites—gave images convincing depth and dimension. Black levels were Very Good, and delivered fairly deep blacks that helped the contrast in darker scenes—Hisense's full-array local-dimming feature helped. However, dark scenes tended to reveal "glowing halos" around content, especially when viewed at off angles, which was distracting. The quality appeared worse as we viewed from the sides—see our Viewing Angle results, below. This was among the brightest models we've tested (with the backlight control turned up), so the picture was well suited for a very sunny room—a lower setting is recommended for a dimmer viewing environment. However, there was notable display non-uniformity in our test sample—it appeared as brighter cloudy areas which were most visible on very dark scenes (or in the black bars of a letterboxed movie)—the severity can vary from model to model. Its reproduction of smooth edges on image content was generally Excellent and free of "jaggies" (jagged edges) for "up-converted" HD-to-UHD images, 1080i video, and film-based 1080i content. We saw the best deinterlacing on this TV using HDMI 3 or 4 inputs—as using HDMI 1 or 2 didn't perform as well.
4K UHD PICTURE QUALITY Overall 4K UHD picture quality was Very Good, overall. In our UHD testing, we played native-4K movies and test videos (non HDR) thru the TV's HDMI input, and found their image detail was all there. For color, contrast and black level, the TV performed similarly to its HD picture quality.
HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR) PERFORMANCE HDR performance had limited effectiveness. In our tests, the display showed Good peak brightness capability (by HDR standards) and did a fine job displaying the benefits of our HDR 4K content. It could not reveal much contrast between the moderately bright and very bright highlights, while the brightness levels in the mid-to-lower tones, like those in an indoor scene, were preserved. It did a good job reproducing a greater range of nuanced shadow detail, from black to white, with no obvious banding within the gradually shaded areas, but we noted some loss of detail within the highlights of the brightest areas. Brightly colored objects remained nicely saturated.
VIEWING ANGLE This model has a narrow viewing angle overall, below-average performance among TVs. Only those seated directly in front of the screen will see the best picture quality. We examined the image quality at various viewing angles—its image quality notably decreased as we moved away from the center position. With dark scenes it didn't fare quite as well. When viewed from the sides, the depth of black levels varied depending on our vertical position. 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. When we viewed the TV from the sides image quality degraded significantly. The picture showed a strong loss of color, so flesh tones looked very washed out. Black levels brightened significantly, and made dark scenes look hazy. Halo effects around objects in darker scenes (a side effect of the local dimming feature) also become more prominent at off angles. We viewed the image from above and below center screen, and noticed Good vertical viewing angle performance, with only slight changes in color, contrast, and black level.
