Hisense U8Q vs Dreame S100

When it comes to HDR, the Hisense U8Q shows its claws. On paper, that is, in synthetic measurement tests, the television can achieve 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 films – in some scenes, we managed to measure a real brightness of between 1500 and 2000 nits, which is a level typically reserved for the absolute top tier of televisions on the market.

Of course, it's not always perfect. In small, pinpoint elements, brightness can drop – a good example is scene number 4 from the film Sicario 2, where instead of thousands of nits, we get around 500. But it’s worth noting that the effect does not disappear completely – the light is still visible, and the image does not seem artificially dimmed. This is a typical issue with Mini LEDs, so it's difficult to consider this a major downside.

On the other hand, the colour reproduction is a huge plus. Thanks to additional coatings that enhance colour saturation, the U8Q nearly covers the entire DCI-P3 colour space (98%), and for the wider BT.2020 range, it achieved over 80%. This is an excellent result that makes HDR films look rich, vivid, and simply very cinematic.

The Dreame S100 is a relatively bright television. In movie mode, the brightness we measured reached around 600 nits. This is a really good result, although not the highest when considering the competition at this price point. In fullscreen scenes, it is evident that the television can produce an image that impresses with its brightness. Unfortunately, when more complex scenes appeared on the screen, the local dimming algorithm in this model primarily focused on maintaining the deepest blacks. However, this came at the expense of HDR performance – and in a drastic manner. In such scenes, the brightness of bright elements dropped below 100 nits, which is a frankly tragic result, far from any HDR effect. One can improve this aspect, but not without a "however." It is simply necessary to change the local dimming setting in the television's menu, but then the blacks in such scenes simply become grey. It's a pity that Dreame couldn't better refine the local dimming algorithms, and the S100 is another example that the sheer number of local dimming zones does not always translate to a better image. As a consolation, it is worth adding that the Dreame S100 is advertised as a "QLED" type television, although in reality it uses a PFS LED filter. As a result, the colours are appropriately saturated, and the colour gamut coverage of DCI-P3 we measured exceeded 94%.

We must admit that when the U8Q arrived at our editorial office, we were slightly surprised… and positively so. Usually, in televisions, the white balance immediately requires adjustment – it can be too warm or too cold, which immediately leads to strange colour mistakes. Meanwhile, here the situation looks really good straight out of the box. Of course, we are talking about our unit, so there is no guarantee that every model will be equally well calibrated, but in our case, the first impressions were very positive. The only more apparent issue concerned the way the television manages brightness. Looking at the EOTF graph, it is 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 entire scene can be a bit too bright. However, this is not a flaw that undermines the picture, rather an effect characteristic of this model.

We tested the Dreame S100 in 'movie' mode and we definitely recommend using this setting for watching all types of content. Interestingly, within the deeper settings of the television, we also find a dedicated 'Filmmaker' mode, which is now available from almost every manufacturer. However, in the case of the Dreame S100, we do not recommend using it – it blocks all settings related to the picture and does not allow for any configuration in the menu - even motion smoothing. So, how do the factory colours of the S100 fare? Not too badly, but also not the best. The television itself was quite heavily tinted with blue components, which is clearly visible in our white balance measurements. This made the picture artificially brightened, and the colours had a slight bluish tint. This is confirmed by the Color Checker palette, which showed how the colour samples tend to drift towards blue, generating quite significant colour errors. The picture in HDR mode looked definitely better, where the colour errors were not as prominent, although they still fell far from perfection. Here, the white balance was also shifted too much towards blue, causing considerable errors in colour reproduction.

Of course, we wouldn’t be ourselves if we didn’t make adjustments to the white balance. After calibration, we managed to equalise the SDR signal to practically perfection – older films, YouTube content, and classic television looked almost ideal on the U8Q. This is truly an exceptional 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 many problems, but the U8Q’s biggest issue remains the EOTF brightness characteristics. In practice, the television tends to “over-expose” beyond how the image should look in its original form. It’s that slight "bleeding" that 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 fully tamed – if we could maintain equally good control over brightness in HDR as in SDR, we would be dealing with an absolutely reference-quality image.

The Dreame S100 has proven to be a device very amenable to professional calibration. In its menu, we found a plethora of advanced options that allowed us to effectively correct factory errors. Thanks to advanced white balance correction – both in SDR and HDR content – we completely eliminated the excess blue components. The image immediately became much more natural and pleasant to the eye. After fully tuning the colours, the errors in the Color Checker test dropped below Delta E values of 2-3. For the average viewer, this means that any colour distortions have become nearly impossible to perceive with the naked eye. This is truly a pleasant surprise, as new brands in the television market often encounter significant issues with the correct implementation and functioning of sliders in the calibration menu. Here, everything worked as it should. The only thing we must criticise is the way the television manages its brightness in HDR. Due to the specific nature of the local dimming algorithms, anomalies can be seen on the EOTF curve we measured. Where high highlights should appear, there is a slight boosting of the curve above the reference line. In practice, this causes an unnatural brightening of some of the brightest elements in films or games. Despite this minor flaw, professional calibration brings about a huge, very positive change in this model.

Hisense U8Q handles lower quality materials quite well. The television can smooth out tonal transitions thanks to the "Smooth and Gradient Picture" feature – it works best when set to Medium. At this setting, it nicely dims unwanted bands and unevenness in the picture, but importantly, it does not remove the film grain or fine details.

The upscaling itself is also at a good level. Images from lower resolutions appear smooth and soft, sometimes even overly so – we get a plastic effect that may not appeal to everyone. Fortunately, this can be easily corrected with the sharpness slider, allowing the picture to be adjusted to personal preferences.

For scaling and digital processing in the Dreame S100, the technology that the manufacturer proudly calls Dreamind™ Pro AI is responsible. However, it must be clearly stated that this is not a proprietary processor, but merely a marketing name for a chip made by MediaTek – more precisely, the MT5889 model. Unfortunately, we are talking about a rather outdated unit, from a time when MediaTek lagged significantly behind the competition in terms of performance. This unfortunately has a direct impact on the image as that is what this chip also deals with. The upscaling in the S100 is quite mediocre, and the processor has a tendency to heavily and artificially sharpen edges (fortunately, this can be somewhat tempered with the sharpness slider in the menu). In the options, we also find the "Contour Smoothing" feature, which theoretically is supposed to improve tonal transitions. In practice, it offers almost no improvement – setting it to any level rarely eliminates visible banding of colours, but it can unnecessarily blur elements of the image that should remain sharp.

A separate issue is the phenomenon of overscan (cropping the edges of the frame), which is noticeable here practically all the time. Although there is an option to set the screen to display the full frame in low-resolution materials, this requires activating the previously mentioned Filmmaker mode. And as you know, this mode completely blocks the adjustment of any other sliders in the picture menu. In our test tables, we marked that the television offers an option to disable overscan, as technically such a function exists in the system – however, in everyday use, when maintaining sensible image settings, you will not be able to take advantage of it.

Hisense U8Q features a panel that can refresh the image up to 165 Hz in 4K resolution. In practice, this will primarily be utilised by PC gamers, but as the saying goes – it’s better to have it than not 😊. For films and series, we have a built-in smoothness enhancer called Ultra Motion Smoothness. In the settings, it can be easily adjusted to suit personal preferences – whether we want a more “cinematic” frame rate or a smooth, theatrical spectacle.

When it comes to motion fluidity, the Dreame S100 performs really well. It features a panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, although in reality, the vast majority of people using it in a traditional way will still be limited to 120 Hz (as this is the maximum supported by today's equipment apart from PCs). Thanks to the high refresh rate, the image in motion remains really sharp, largely thanks to the well-functioning MEMC smoother. In the menu, we find predefined modes that allow the television to efficiently generate artificial frames, which effectively improves the fluidity of dynamic sports scenes, but also eliminates image stuttering in film and series materials recorded at 24 frames.

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

But as is often the case with Hisense, it fell a bit short of perfection. The biggest drawback remains the lack of support for the HGiG format, which allows the brightness of the television to be adjusted to the console and maximises HDR in games. It’s a shame, because if this element were included, we would have a device practically made for gamers. As it stands, the U8Q remains “only” a very good choice 😉

The Dreame S100 seems almost like the perfect screen for a gamer. The television is equipped with 2 HDMI 2.1 ports with a bandwidth of 40 Gbps, which means that functions like automatic game mode (ALLM) and variable refresh rate (VRR) ranging from 48 to 144 Hz work seamlessly on consoles. It also features a well-designed gaming panel (Game Bar), allowing users to continuously monitor important parameters—from active picture modes to the number of frames rendered by the console, and even the option to add a crosshair in the middle of the screen. All of this looks great on paper; however, the biggest problem with the S100 is the implementation of HDR mode in games. The television does not have the HGiG format implemented correctly. As a result, an unsuspecting user may incorrectly configure the console when first using the screen. Poor configuration can lead to an image that is too dark or too washed out (as a guideline: we suggest setting the brightness in the Xbox console menu to around 600 nits, and in the PS5 to 12 clicks). The Dolby Vision format also proves problematic, as it often would not activate at all between the XBOX and Dreame S100. And when it was finally managed to be activated, playing was not possible due to a very high input lag often exceeding 100ms. If the manufacturer can improve the HDR issue in games via an update, the S100 will be truly excellent hardware for gamers. For now, however, compromises need to be accepted.