Televisions have become completely ridiculous.

Twenty years ago, owning a giant flat-screen television meant you were either wealthy or had recently made a series of financially questionable decisions at Best Buy.

Now you can buy a 65-inch television for approximately the price of a decent lawn mower.

That’s created an entirely different problem:

Why the hell would anybody spend more?

After living with the 2024 Hisense U8N, I actually have an answer.

Because sometimes spending more gets you something.

The Hisense U8N is outrageously bright, has excellent contrast, supports modern gaming features, and can run 4K content at up to 144 Hz. It also supports VRR and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, giving gamers considerably more to work with than your average cheap giant television. [rtings.com]

More importantly, we’ve actually enjoyed owning the damn thing.

This isn’t one of those products where I have to explain why some specification you’ve never heard of theoretically makes your life 4.7% better. The things you’re paying extra for are things you can actually see.

And occasionally squint at.

Because holy shit, this TV gets bright.

Picture Quality: Sweet Jesus, It’s Bright

If there’s one thing that immediately separates the U8N from cheaper televisions we’ve owned or looked at, it’s brightness.

This isn’t the sort of brightness where you move a slider from 80 to 100 and convince yourself you see a difference.

The U8N is bright.

That’s especially noticeable if your television lives in a room where people occasionally commit the horrible sin of opening the curtains.

A lot of TVs look fantastic in a dark showroom or basement. Throw some daylight into the room and suddenly that gorgeous picture starts looking like you’re watching television through somebody’s sunglasses.

The U8N doesn’t have that problem.

Independent testing from RTINGS praised the U8N’s SDR and HDR brightness and found it performed very well with the lights on. HDR content also benefits from strong brightness, black levels and vibrant colors. [rtings.com]

Does it look exactly like our OLED?

No.

But that’s not necessarily an insult.

Our OLED has advantages that we’ll get into, but sometimes the sheer brightness of this bastard is exactly what you want.

Sports and Racing Look Fantastic

Sports are one of the best arguments for buying something better than the cheapest enormous television you can drag home.

Fast movement is where shitty televisions tend to expose themselves.

Football, hockey, basketball, motorsports or anything else involving objects hauling ass across the screen benefits from having a TV built to handle fast-moving content.

Racing especially looks great on this thing.

You’ve got cars flying across the screen, quick camera pans, changing scenery, timing graphics and everything else happening simultaneously.

That’s also where the high refresh-rate capability becomes more than something Hisense gets to print on the box.

Which leads us to one specification that gets hilariously confusing.

No, It Isn’t Actually a 480 Hz Television

You may see 480 Motion Rate associated with the Hisense U8N.

That doesn’t mean this is secretly a 480 Hz television capable of displaying the future.

The actual panel supports refresh rates up to 144 Hz, while the 480 figure refers to Motion Rate rather than a 480 Hz native refresh rate. [displayspe…ations.com], [rtings.com]

Which is good, because honestly:

120 Hz is already plenty for me.

At 120 Hz everything looks extremely smooth.

At 144 Hz, great. I’ll take it.

At 240 Hz, I’m not convinced my eyeballs are still contributing meaningfully to the experiment.

And at 480 Hz, I expect the television to start showing me next Sunday’s football game.

For ordinary television viewing, we’re already well into territory where I’m perfectly happy.

For gaming, however, having that additional capability becomes much more interesting.

Gaming: This Thing Is Ready

Gaming is probably one of the strongest reasons to spend the extra money on the U8N.

The television supports 4K at up to 144 Hz, along with variable refresh rate and HDMI 2.1 bandwidth. [rtings.com]

That’s not just “good enough for a television.”

That’s legitimately serious gaming capability.

Personally, I’m perfectly happy around 120 Hz. That’s the point where I’m enjoying the game instead of sitting three feet from the television trying to determine whether I can perceive another 24 frames every second.

But that’s what I like about the U8N.

The TV isn’t the thing holding you back.

You’ve got enough display capability here that gaming, sports, racing and movies can all take advantage of the hardware in different ways.

The Size Is Part of the Fun

There’s no delicate way of putting this:

Big TVs are fucking awesome.

Television enthusiasts can debate contrast ratios and color accuracy until somebody dies of old age, but there is something deeply satisfying about putting a giant screen in front of the couch.

The U8N lineup came in sizes ranging from 55 inches all the way up to an absolutely ridiculous 100 inches. [rtings.com]

One hundred inches.

At that point you’re not really buying a television anymore.

You’re installing a wall that occasionally shows football.

Whatever size works for your room, though, the combination of screen size, brightness and picture quality is part of what makes the U8N feel like a genuinely premium TV.

We love ours.

So Why Pay More Than a Budget TV?

This is probably the most important part of the review.

You absolutely can buy a cheaper television.

Hell, you can buy a much cheaper television.

Walk into a big-box store and there’s usually some enormous screen sitting there at a price that makes you wonder how anyone involved in manufacturing, shipping and selling the damn thing made any money.

And for some people, that’s perfectly fine.

If you watch some streaming shows, occasional sports and whatever happens to be on when you sit down at night, you may not need something like this.

The U8N starts making sense when you actually care about the experience.

We wanted the brighter picture.

We wanted the higher refresh rate.

We wanted the gaming capability.

We wanted something that would handle sports and racing particularly well.

We wanted the big screen.

Those are tangible improvements we’ve actually used.

That’s why the price hasn’t bothered us.

The U8N lives on the premium side of the television market compared with the endless supply of bargain-priced screens, but at least the additional money buys features we genuinely appreciate.

Cheap is great.

Value is better.

Google TV: Surprisingly, We Don’t Need Another Damn Box

Smart TV software has traditionally fallen into one of two categories:

1. Something you tolerate.
2. Something so shitty you eventually plug a Roku or Apple TV into it and never touch the television’s own interface again.

The Hisense U8N has been a pleasant exception.

Its built-in Google TV interface is actually one of the things we like about the TV.

It’s smooth, responsive, and has pretty much every streaming app we’ve wanted. The U8N uses Google TV, and independent testing notes its broad app selection and other built-in smart features. [rtings.com]

We’ve also been impressed by the software support during ownership. Ours has received software updates regularly enough that the platform continues to feel actively maintained rather than like something Hisense forgot about six months after selling us the TV.

Most importantly, we haven’t felt the need to plug another streaming box into it just to make the television tolerable.

That’s a bigger compliment than it sounds.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using a Roku or Apple TV. But if I’ve already spent premium-ish money on a television, it’s nice when the television itself can handle the basic task of being a fucking television.

Turn it on.

Pick an app.

Watch something.

What a technological breakthrough.

And that matters when we’re talking about value. The U8N costs more than bargain-bin screens, but part of what we’ve gotten for the money is a TV that feels complete without another box hanging off an HDMI cable.

And Now for the Bad Part: Viewing Angles

No television is perfect.

And here’s the U8N’s biggest pile of crap.

You really want to sit in front of it.

In our experience, the picture looks excellent when you’re reasonably close to straight-on. I’d roughly describe that sweet spot as being within about 45 degrees of the front of the screen.

Start moving farther toward the side and things get noticeably worse.

It’s not like the television suddenly becomes unwatchable. You can still see what’s happening.

But compared with looking directly at the screen, the picture starts losing some of what made you spend the extra money in the first place.

Between roughly 45 and 90 degrees, it’s still perfectly visible in our experience, but progressively blurrier and less impressive.

And this is one area where our OLED absolutely kicks its ass.

U8N vs. OLED: Everybody Gather in Front of the Television

Our OLED doesn’t care nearly as much where we’re sitting.

You can move off to the side and the picture remains remarkably good.

The U8N isn’t nearly as forgiving.

That’s worth thinking about before you buy one.

If your living room has a couch directly opposite the television and maybe a couple chairs reasonably close to either side?

Great.

Buy the U8N and enjoy the giant bright bastard.

If you’ve got seating scattered around a huge room, with Uncle Larry watching football from practically behind the television, this may be a much more significant problem.

Independent testing similarly identifies viewing angle as a weakness of the VA-panel U8N models. One important exception is the 75-inch U8N, which uses a different panel type than the other sizes covered in that testing. [rtings.com], [displayspe…ations.com]

For our setup, it hasn’t been a deal breaker.

But it’s easily the biggest weakness we’ve noticed.

So Is the OLED Better?

In some ways, absolutely.

But this is where TV comparisons get stupid.

People often treat televisions like we’re supposed to crown one universally superior technology and execute everything else.

That’s not how we use them.

Our OLED has fantastic picture quality and significantly better viewing angles.

The U8N gives us incredible brightness, excellent contrast and a ton of capability for gaming, sports and everyday television.

They’re good at different things.

If I’m building a dark dedicated theater room where everybody sits directly in the perfect viewing position, I have one set of priorities.

If I’m putting a giant television in a bright living room where somebody is watching racing on a Saturday afternoon with sunlight blasting through the windows, suddenly the U8N starts making a hell of a lot of sense.

Who Should Buy the Hisense U8N?

The Hisense U8N makes the most sense for somebody who wants better-than-budget-TV performance without automatically jumping to an OLED.

I’d especially recommend looking at it if you’re:

• A gamer who actually wants high-refresh-rate capability.
• A sports fan who watches a lot of fast-moving content.
• A racing fan who will appreciate the brightness and smooth motion.
• Putting a television in a bright room.
• Looking for a large screen with premium features.
• Someone who actually notices and appreciates better picture quality.
• Someone who wants built-in smart software that’s good enough that an external streaming player doesn’t feel mandatory.

It’s especially compelling if most of your seating is located reasonably close to the front of the television.

Who Shouldn’t Buy It?

If your room requires people to watch from severe side angles, I’d think harder about it.

That’s the one area where living with the television consistently reminds us that it isn’t an OLED.

I’d also skip it if you genuinely don’t care about the things you’re paying extra for.

If 60 Hz looks perfectly fine to you, you don’t game, you don’t watch much sports, HDR doesn’t matter and the television spends six hours a day showing the Weather Channel while nobody watches it, congratulations.

You can save some money.

Buy the cheaper TV.

There is no prize for owning features you never use.

The Verdict: Premium Crap Worth Paying For

The 2024 Hisense U8N occupies what I think is one of the best parts of the television market.

It’s not cheap.

It’s not trying to be cheap.

Instead, you’re paying more and actually getting something for your money.

You get tremendous brightness, excellent contrast, high-refresh-rate gaming, VRR, HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and support for up to 4K at 144 Hz. [rtings.com]

And in our experience, you also get smart TV software good enough that we haven’t felt compelled to bypass the damn thing with another streaming box.

That’s ultimately the key to the U8N for us:

Very little about it feels compromised.

Sports look great.

Racing looks great.

Games look great.

Movies look great.

Daytime viewing looks great.

The interface is quick and useful.

The giant screen is still fun every time we turn it on.

And after actually living with the thing, we’d buy it again.

There is really only one substantial turd floating in the otherwise clean pool:

The viewing angles.

Our OLED absolutely beats it there.

Sit somewhere reasonably close to the front of the U8N and the picture is fantastic. Move significantly off-axis and you start giving up some of the picture quality you paid for.

For our room, that’s nowhere near enough to ruin the television.

It’s just enough to keep the U8N from achieving almost perfect crap status.

Should I Buy This Crap?

Yes. Absolutely.

If you’re a gamer, sports fan, racing fan, HDR junkie or simply somebody who wants a huge, ridiculously bright television that doesn’t immediately make you want to connect another streaming device, the Hisense U8N is easy to recommend.

There are cheaper TVs.

There are better TVs.

There are OLEDs with much better viewing angles.

But the U8N hits a fantastic middle ground where the extra money you’re spending actually buys you shit you’ll notice.

And that’s really the entire philosophy behind this site.

We’re not looking for the cheapest crap.

We’re looking for crap that’s worth buying.

💩 Crap Rating: 1.5 / 4

Remember: fewer turds are better.

1 💩 = Excellent crap. Buy it.
2 💩 = Decent crap with some shortcomings.
3 💩 = Questionable crap. Proceed carefully.
4 💩 = Actual crap. Keep your money.

The Hisense U8N earns 1.5 turds out of 4.

That extra half-turd is mostly there because of the viewing angles.

If you’re sitting somewhere vaguely in front of the television like a normal human being, it’s an outstanding screen.

If your preferred TV-watching position is 85 degrees off to the side while standing in the kitchen doorway, maybe buy something else.

Everyone else?

This is some really good crap.