Hisense U8Q vs Samsung M80H

When it comes to HDR, the Hisense U8Q shows its claws. On paper, meaning in synthetic measurement tests, the TV can "push out" nearly 4000 nits of peak brightness. This is a value that most models can only envy. In practice, this translates to very strong light effects in movies – in some scenes we managed to measure real levels from 1500 to 2000 nits, which is a level usually reserved for the absolute top-tier TVs on the market.

Of course, it's not always so perfect. In small, point-like elements, brightness can drop – a good example is scene number 4 from the movie Sicario 2, where instead of thousands of nits we get about 500. But it's worth noting that the effect doesn't disappear completely – the light is still visible, and the image doesn't appear artificially dimmed. This is a typical issue with Mini LEDs, so it’s hard to consider it a major drawback.

However, a huge plus has to be granted for colour reproduction. Thanks to additional coatings improving colour saturation, the U8Q almost covers the entire DCI-P3 colour space (98%), and for the wider BT.2020 gamut it achieved over 80%. This is an excellent result that makes HDR films look juicy, intense, and just very cinematic.

The M80H is not one of the brightest TVs. Its peak brightness is around 350 nits, and we saw similar results across most of our test scenes. That's not enough to achieve truly striking HDR, as bright highlights lack punch and the overall image is a little too dim. In practice, HDR on the M80H feels more like well-presented SDR than noticeably more dynamic material with a wide brightness range. The picture can still look fine, but it's hard to point to strong highlights, clearly bright light sources, or an effect that immediately sets HDR apart from ordinary content.

Colours

One of the M80H's stronger points is its colours. The TV uses a PFS filter in the backlight, which lets it display a much wider colour gamut than a standard LCD without filters. Our measurements confirm this – the M80H covers about 96% of the DCI-P3 gamut and 72% of BT.2020. Those are very good results, which allow colours to be richly saturated. Samsung's positioning here is interesting. The M80H isn't part of the QLED family, even though in terms of colour it is practically on par with models carrying that badge. From an image quality point of view that doesn't make much difference – the colours are simply good.

We have to admit that when the U8Q arrived in our editorial office, we were slightly surprised… and in a good way. Usually, white balance in televisions immediately requires adjustment – it can be too warm or too cold, which immediately causes strange colour errors. Meanwhile, here the situation looks really good straight out of the box. Of course, we’re talking about our unit, so there’s no guarantee that every model will be tuned as well, but in our case, the first impressions were very positive. The only more noticeable issue was related to how the television manages brightness. Looking at the EOTF chart, it’s clear that the U8Q tends to brighten small elements on the screen. This, in turn, caused what we mentioned earlier – slight overexposure and the impression that the whole scene is a bit too bright. However, this is not a flaw that negates the picture, rather an effect characteristic of this model.

Filmmaker Mode is pretty well set up out of the box, though it’s not perfect. In SDR material the most noticeable issue is an excess of red in the white balance, which makes the picture look a little warmer than it should. HDR content has a similar character. As for brightness response, in SDR the gamma stays close to the target value across most of the range. Small deviations are mainly visible in darker areas, which are in places slightly too dim. In HDR the very darkest details are slightly lifted, while from around 65% brightness the image starts to be gently darkened. This largely results from the way the TV controls its brightness. Overall, Filmmaker Mode looks good straight out of the box, but the picture can still be improved.

Of course, we wouldn’t be ourselves if we didn’t make adjustments to the white balance. After calibration, we managed to level the SDR signal to near perfection – older films, YouTube content, and classic television looked nearly ideal on the U8Q. It’s truly an impressive level that shows this model can do a lot if given a bit of help. Unfortunately, the situation is different with HDR content. The colours themselves don’t pose much of a problem, but the biggest issue with the U8Q remains the EOTF brightness characteristics. In practice, the television tends to "shoot" above how the image should originally look. It’s this slight "blowout" we noticed earlier in comparisons with the best screens on the market. It’s a bit of a shame that this characteristic can't be completely tamed – if we could maintain equally good brightness control in HDR as we do in SDR, we would be looking at an absolutely reference-level image.

After calibration the M80H performs very well, especially with everyday SDR content. Regular TV, YouTube and movies watched without HDR can look very good on it. After adjusting the white balance the errors are small, though you can sometimes still see the TV tends to push the most saturated reds too far. You can also improve the picture in HDR and correct its main faults, but it doesn't reach the level of more expensive models. Samsung quite heavily restricts colour adjustment options in HDR, so in many areas we have to accept what the TV offers out of the box. Calibration can improve some parameters, but we can't change the M80H's overall picture character.

Hisense U8Q handles lower quality materials quite well. The television can smooth tonal transitions thanks to the “Smooth and Gradient Picture” feature – it works best on the Medium setting. It nicely dims unwanted bands and irregularities in the image, but importantly, it doesn't remove the film grain or fine details.

The upscaling itself is also at a good level. Image from lower resolutions appears smooth and soft, sometimes a bit too much – we get a plastic effect that may not appeal to everyone. Fortunately, this can be easily corrected with the sharpness slider, allowing you to adjust the image to your personal preferences.

Although the M80H is positioned fairly low in Samsung’s line-up, the maker equipped it with one of its stronger processors, the NQ4 AI Gen2. The same chipset is used in Neo QLED TVs and the higher‑ranked S85H OLED. That’s good news, because the processor handles improving weaker sources really well. Upscaling is its strongest suit. Low‑resolution material is displayed properly and edges don’t look overly jagged. The TV won’t of course create details that aren’t in the source, but regular broadcast TV and older recordings look decent on it. One drawback is overscan, i.e. edge cropping, which can’t be completely turned off. The feature that smooths tonal transitions, the so‑called noise reduction, also works well. The processor can effectively reduce visible signs of heavy compression, but it doesn’t do so without side effects. At higher settings it can smooth the picture too much, remove some fine detail and even eliminate film grain. For that reason we recommend using this feature mainly for material that genuinely suffers from heavy compression and posterisation.

Hisense U8Q has a panel that can refresh the image up to 165 Hz in 4K resolution. In practice, this will mainly benefit PC gamers, but as they say – better to have it than not 😊. For movies and series, we have a built-in smoother called Ultra Motion Smoothing. In the settings, it can be easily adjusted to your own preferences – whether you want a more ‘cinematic’ frame rate or a smooth, theatrical spectacle.

The M80H performs very well for watching sport and for gaming. The TV is equipped with a panel offering a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz at 4K, and when the resolution is reduced to Full HD it can handle up to 240 Hz. That second option will be used mainly by PC gamers.

The panel also handles 120 Hz content well, which matters especially for console gaming. A high refresh rate is also useful when watching sport, and motion blur is relatively low. That's important because VA panels are not known for the best performance in this area. On the M80H, fast-moving objects do not produce a very noticeable blur.

In terms of features, the Hisense U8Q has practically everything one would expect from a modern gaming television. Thanks to the new processor, the manufacturer has managed to implement three HDMI 2.1 ports, so there’s no trouble connecting multiple consoles or a computer. On top of that, it includes all the key technologies – Game Bar with parameter previews, variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic game mode (ALLM)… in a word, a complete set.

But as often happens with Hisense, it’s missing just a bit from perfection. The biggest drawback remains the lack of support for the HGiG format, which allows the TV's brightness to be adjusted to the console and gets the most out of HDR in games. It’s a shame because if this feature were included, we’d have a device practically made for gamers. As it stands, the U8Q remains “only” a very good choice 😉

The M80H could be a very good choice for gamers on a slightly smaller budget. In terms of features it offers pretty much the same as Samsung’s much more expensive TVs. All three HDMI inputs support HDMI 2.1, so even if one is taken by a soundbar connected via eARC there’s still room for a PC and consoles. There’s also VRR up to 144 Hz in 4K and up to 240 Hz in Full HD. Samsung has correctly implemented HGiG as well, so after performing HDR calibration on the console games are properly matched to the screen’s capabilities. That won’t make the M80H any brighter, but at least it won’t unnecessarily wash out the brightest parts of the image. On top of that there’s a Game Bar for quick access to key settings and a Gaming Hub that lets you play in the cloud without a console. The M80H also includes Game Motion Plus, which generates extra frames and improves the smoothness of games running at 30 or 60 fps. Input lag then increases to around 59 ms, but is still about one third of what you’d see with typical motion smoothing on other manufacturers’ TVs. We wouldn’t really recommend it for online multiplayer, but it can work very well in slower‑paced titles.