Hisense U8N 55″ ULED 4K Smart TV review – Bargain price with premium features!

REVIEW – It’s been a while since I’ve been in the market for a television, thankfully, but recently my mother’s old TV kicked the bucket and we had to find her a new one. My sister was set on Samsung or LG as the only ones to look at, while I am more value oriented. The 55″ Hisense U8N ULED 4K Smart TV, part of their U8 series, is on the budget end of pricing, while still advertising a solid, premium product.

⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $1099.99 ($798-$998 on Amazon, consistently on sale)
Where to buy: Amazon

What is it?

The Hisense U8N ULED 4K Smart TV is a premium TV from a budget brand with vivid colors and decent sound, at a decent price.

What’s included?

• Hisense U8N TV
• Power Cable
• Remote with batteries
• Stand / Legs

Tech Specs

• Dimensions: 48.5″ x 28.2″ x 3.0″
• Dimensions (with stand): 48.5″ x 30.5″ x 12.6″
• Weight: 41.9 lbs
• Screen size (diagonal): 54.6″
• Screen type: LCD Mini-Led Pro+
• VESA: 400 x 300
• Smart TV: Google TV built in
• Wifi: Wifi 6E
• Ethernet: Yes
• Bluetooth: 5.0
• HDMI Ports: 4 (2×2.1 4K@144Hz, 2x 2.0)
• USB: 2.0
• RF Antenna: ATSC 3.0
• RCA: Yes
• Resolution: 3840 x 2160
• Motion rate: 480
• Refresh rate: 144Hz
• Aspect ratio: 16:9
• HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Advanced HDR
• Audio power: 50W, Dolby Atmos

Design and features

The only assembly truly needed with the 55″ Hisense U8N TV was attaching the two legs to the bottom of the TV. All I needed was a screwdriver and the four included screws to attach the legs and have it ready to set on my table.

Next, I tossed the included batteries into the remote, plugged in the TV, and everything turned on smoothly. I was able to connect to my Wifi easily, and used my Google account to log in, as the U8N comes with Google TV installed as it’s operating system. I had no issue at all with setting the TV up.

While I used the table to show off the TV’s lovely feet, I ended up mounting the TV on an affordable TV stand I picked up. This was the time when I needed an assistant, so after using the bolts and spacers included with the TV stand, we both easily lifted it and put it in place.

The remote is simple, though the one thing I loved the most was the ability to use my voice to search rather than typing in each letter one by one on the on screen keyboard. There are six permanent buttons for the apps Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Disney+, Tubi, and one with a heart and a plus sign that you can program yourself. To program it, I just had to press the button while I had the TV on and it brought up a drop down menu to choose which app (or input device) I wanted to assign. It would have been nice to have several buttons to assign rather than the pre-programmed ones.

There are several ports on the rear/side of the TV, with a headphone jack, AV-in, cable, 2x HDMI @ 144Hz, 2 HDMI @ 60Hz, serial, and a USB 3 port. On the audio side of things, there’s a LAN port, digital audio out port, and a USB 2.0 port.

I did not have a cable box or OTA to connect, but I did have a few streaming services to try out; Prime Video, Peacock, and YouTube. Some apps come pre-loaded on the Hisense U8N TV, though I had to download Peacock through the app store. As YouTube and Prime Video were already on my remote, I programmed Peacock on the sixth spot and was ready to go.

When watching 4k videos on YouTube, the display was crisp and, because I have decent internet, there was little latency to cause tearing or smearing on the display with the Wifi 6E built-in to the TV. Next, I checked out Prime Video, and tossed Arcane on screen. Once again, through a streaming service this time, no tearing, no smearing, and no odd dark coloring that I noticed in my old roommate’s On. brand TV. Lastly, I checked out Peacock, and just as the others, it worked great as well.

I paused Arcane just to check angles, as the TV stand I purchased for the Hisense U8N TV does not allow rotation, and found for the most part, if you stay within 45 degrees left or right, the quality does not suffer. Past 45 degrees, it becomes more difficult to view. Working out on the floor in front of the TV was fine, as that was just at the edge of a comfortable viewing angle. Of course, the below picture can never do it justice when trying to capture quality on a TV, but it at least shows the angle from straight on, just under 45 degrees, and roughly 60 degrees.

As I initially mentioned, my parents were hunting for a 55″ TV recently, so I was able to use their TV, the TV they ended up returning, along with my old roommate’s TV that he purchased last summer to compare picture quality.

My parents ended up going with one of the LG OLED TVs, costing $1300 at Costco. I admit, the quality is good. It’s slightly brighter than the Hisense U8N TV, but in terms of smearing, tearing, stuttering, and the UI, the two are very much on par with each other. The TV they had returned was a Samsung in the $360 range and the U8N absolutely blew it out of the water in every category. It was the same with the On. brand TV my old roommate purchased from Walmart.

With the 144Hz refresh rate of the Hisense U8N TV, everything looked as if I was watching my gaming monitors. The vivid screen allowed me to watch easily in the bright light or in the dark without issue. When loading different streaming apps, the OS was quick and responsive. The sound quality also was as good as the TV my parents chose, and during both Yellowstone and Arcane, I could hear the higher pitched and the lower voices clearly. There was a little bass as well which I was happy with, as it helps bring that fullness to music and movies alike. I only needed to have the volume at less than “20” to have rich, loud sound as well. If I put it any higher and I feel the upstairs crew would be handing out complaints!

With that high refresh rate and that Hisense advertises a bit about gaming, I had to try and plug in the TV to my PC and play a game or two. Thankfully, the ports are on the side of the TV, which made it easy to access. I then just had to plug in the HDMI cable and choose the input correlating with that port. My PC recognized the new input, and I did not even need to change over the audio output. Just as with streaming, there was no screen tear and the colors looked great. I wish I had a PS5 to check out, as the newer generation consoles can take advantage of the high refresh rate. Maybe one day I’ll give in.

Final thoughts

Overall, for hundreds of dollars less (on sale) than the TV my parents settled on, the 55″ Hisense U8N 4K ULED Smart TV is at a solid price point for the value. It may not be OLED, but it nears the brightness level of the LG OLEDs my family use. I saw no smear when watching streamed content due to the 144Hz screen, and navigating the menus was easy and painless. Other than the unnecessary buttons on the remote, I honestly couldn’t think of much I would change. Since the TV is usually on sale, if you are searching for a new TV and have an opportunity to check the Hisense U8N out, I would recommend it.

What I like about the Hisense 55″ U8N TV

• Bright, vivid colors
• Easy to assemble and get started
• Ports are easy to access
• Easy to see in light or dark room

What needs to be improved?

• Unnecessary buttons on the remote for different apps

Price: $1099.99 ($798-$998 on Amazon, consistently on sale)
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Hisense. Hisense did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.

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