Hisense U8Q vs Samsung The Frame Pro

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.

Samsung The Frame Pro is one of the relatively bright televisions. In synthetic tests, we managed to achieve values around 900 nits, which is quite a decent result for a lifestyle model. In full-screen scenes, such as the frame from the movie The Meg or the opening sequence in Life of Pi, the brightness maintained a level of 700–800 nits. These values allow you to fully enjoy the HDR effects and capture their cinematic magic. However, the situation complicates when smaller, point light sources appear on the screen. The edge lighting used here, equipped with the ability to local dim whole strips, does not handle them very well. It happens that small elements are overly darkened, which weakens the effect, or conversely – they become heavily brightened, but at the cost of losing black depth in that part of the image. This can be compared to light halos reminiscent of a laser beam spreading in dense fog – an effect that is visible and bright but at the same time not very natural and distracting. Fortunately, the colour aspect performs better. Thanks to the use of a quantum dot filter (QLED), the colours are saturated, and the reproduction of the DCI-P3 palette reaches over 92%. Generally, movies or series watched in HDR on The Frame Pro present a rich colour palette, even if contrast and the performance of the lighting algorithms can sometimes draw our attention away.

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.

The best results were, of course, achieved in Filmmaker mode, which immediately showed that Samsung had put effort into the factory settings. In SDR content – the most commonly viewed materials – The Frame Pro performed really well. The white balance and gamma were almost perfectly set, making the image look natural and cohesive. Yes, there were some noticeable errors, particularly in skin tones and reds, which could be overly saturated, giving everything a slightly "warmed up" character, but in everyday use, it didn't hinder the viewing experience too much. For HDR content, the situation was similar regarding the white balance. It was at a good level, however, the biggest issue turned out to be managing brightness. The EOTF curve was set in such a way that in many scenes the image appeared blown out, and the brightest areas lost detail and resulted in uniform patches of light. This severely affected realism and made colours appear very oversharpened. Fortunately, Samsung provides the option for manual adjustment of the curve in their TVs, so we opted for calibration and its results can be seen below.

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 SDR mode looks almost perfect. We managed to eliminate the overly intense red saturation that previously gave the image a somewhat excessively warm character. The colours became more balanced, which translated into a natural and pleasant viewing experience for everyday content – from television to movies and series from streaming services or materials on YouTube. In HDR mode, the EOTF curve required the most work, as the factory settings caused excessive clipping of the entire image. The calibration significantly helped to "tame" this issue – the image stopped being overexposed, and details in the bright areas became more visible. Of course, the limits are set by the design of the television itself, as edge lighting reveals its limitations, and even the smallest elements of light can still appear overly bright or blend into the background. However, this is a matter of technology, not just calibration. After the correction, The Frame Pro is much more enjoyable to watch, and it is definitely worth considering if you want to make the most of the television's capabilities.

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 in 4K HDR materials the fluidity of tonal transitions in the ChooseTV Pro is not a problem at all, naturally with weaker signal quality – such as with television, HD materials, or older Full HD films – imperfections may occur. Therefore, it's crucial how the television handles these limitations thanks to the image processor. The noise reduction feature works really effectively here. At the medium setting, it eliminates unwanted bands or artifacts, smoothing the image in a visible yet not overdone way. However, it's important to remember that Samsung has a tendency to be aggressive – even at the lowest level of this feature, it can "eat" film grain. So, it's wise to use it with caution and adjust the settings according to the material being watched.

The upscaling itself is of a high standard. The ChooseTV Pro effectively boosts older materials to a native 4K resolution, maintaining good sharpness and clarity. Movies and series in lower quality simply look better here. However, it's worth mentioning a minor downside – typical for many Samsung televisions. With very old sources in poor quality, you may notice some cropping of the image edges on the left side of the screen. It's not a problem that will ruin the viewing experience, but it's good to know that it may occur.

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 fluidity of movement in The Frame Pro is not only due to the panel itself, which operates at a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, but also the image processor and motion smoothing system. It is thanks to this that we can adjust the way movies or sports broadcasts are displayed to our own preferences. Available are sliders for blur reduction and motion judder reduction – the first function enhances the sharpness of fast movements, while the second helps to soften the effect of the "jumping" image during camera pans. Everyone can choose between a cinematic character of motion and a smoother, more "television" style.

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 😉

Samsung The Frame Pro doesn’t pretend to be just a “living room” TV; gamers will also find something for themselves here. The manufacturer has ensured a full package of gaming features: we have support for variable refresh rate (VRR), auto low latency mode (ALLM), refresh rates up to 144 Hz, and compatibility with both G-Sync and FreeSync Premium Pro. Additionally, there’s the well-known Game Bar panel, which is a quick menu where you can check key parameters on-the-fly – from refresh rates to active image processing modes. Are there downsides? Yes, The Frame Pro doesn’t support Dolby Vision in game mode, but it’s hard to consider this a serious issue – most gamers use HDR10 anyway... so the HGIG mode. Exactly. The biggest surprise was the latest software update. Samsung... completely removed this option from The Frame PRO. In practice, this means that the TV independently interprets HDR tone mapping in games, and the user cannot enable settings designed with consoles in mind. This is a step backwards, which may disappoint more aware gamers hoping for full compliance with HGiG guidelines. We can only hope that this mistake will be quickly fixed.

An interesting feature of The Frame Pro is also the unusual placement of HDMI 2.1 ports. We have as many as five at our disposal – four are located in the One Connect module, and the fifth, in micro HDMI form, is located directly on the TV. This solution is quite unusual but very practical. Samsung clearly suggests that this is the port to connect your console or computer. Why? Because it minimises any potential delays associated with communication through the wireless One Connect, and in gaming, every millisecond counts. We have written separately about input lag, but we can reveal here that by connecting the equipment directly to the TV, we get the absolute maximum response speed from it.