LG QNED80A6A (VA) vs Hisense A6Q

Let's now talk about how this television shines. If you are expecting dazzling light effects, we need to temper your enthusiasm. The LG QNED80A is a moderately bright television. Our measurements in most movie scenes indicated values around 350-400 nits. This is not enough to speak of a full, cinematic HDR experience and the sense of that famous "high dynamism" offered by flagship products. However, brightness is not everything. Although the QNED80A is not a "light monster," it makes up for it in another crucial category: colours. This is where PFS technology comes into play, which LG marketers disguise under the name QNED/NanoCell. Thanks to this approach, the television offers a much wider colour palette than classic LCD designs. In our tests, coverage of the cinematic DCI-P3 palette reached a solid 93-94%. What does this mean for you? That even with lower brightness, when watching movies in HDR, colours will be vivid, deep, and appropriately saturated. The image is not washed out but rather juicy, which is a significant advantage in this price range.

The Hisense A6Q is unfortunately difficult to recommend for watching HDR content. The main issues are low brightness and rather modest coverage of a wide colour gamut. The measured brightness of around 300 nits simply isn't sufficient for HDR materials to look impressive. In practice, the picture often resembles standard SDR instead of true HDR with clear differences in brightness and dynamics. Additionally, the colours in such materials do not appear as they should. The television does not utilise additional filters such as QLED or PFS LED, and the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space at around 80% means that some colours look rather washed out. Consequently, some scenes in HDR materials lose intensity and spectacle, making it difficult to speak of a full HDR experience.

It might seem that since the QNED80A is one model, regardless of the version, it should offer the same picture. However, practice shows something completely different. Analyzing the variant with a VA panel in the best factory setting – that is, in Filmmaker Mode – we noticed a specific characteristic. This television, “out of the box,” serves us a picture with a clear dominance of red and a deficiency of blue. Overall, it is very warm, even hot. Many users may describe this as a picture that is “too cinematic,” leaning towards sepia. Additionally, there is the issue of the gamma curve – the television has a tendency to slightly artificially brighten scenes (gamma is too low), causing the picture to lose some depth. The good news is that these are not panel errors, but merely software issues. As always in our tests, we conducted professional calibration, which completely eliminated these shortcomings, restoring the natural white balance and correct saturation.

We conducted the tests in the best available mode, namely Filmmaker, however – as is often the case – this does not mean an ideal image straight out of the box. In the case of Hisense A6Q, this mode clearly "swallowed" too much blue in everyday SDR content. In practice, this led to an image with a yellowed white, particularly noticeable on large, bright surfaces. This is not due to poor assumptions of the Filmmaker mode itself or the vision of filmmakers, but rather the factory settings requiring adjustment.
Furthermore, looking at the saturation characteristics and the gamma curve in SDR, as well as EOTF in HDR content, there is a slight tendency to brighten most scenes. As a result, the image often appears brighter than it should, losing a bit of its naturalness. For this reason, we decided to perform a professional calibration to restore the proper colour balance and a more accurate brightness characteristic.

Was it worth spending time on calibration? Definitely yes. We managed to tame the initial, too warm white balance and, most importantly, correct the gamma curve. The television stopped artificially brightening scenes, which gave the image depth. The greatest improvement is noticeable in SDR content, that is, while watching regular television, YouTube, or playing games without HDR. Here the QNED80A shows its class – colour reproduction errors (DeltaE) have dropped below a value of 2. In technical terms, this means that the errors are virtually unnoticeable to the human eye. The image in everyday use has simply become very attractive, natural, and correct. The difficulties begin with HDR content. Although we managed to improve the white balance, the EOTF curve graph (responsible for brightness at various levels) shows that the television still "interprets" the image in its own way. This stems from the nature of the edge-lit backlight with local dimming and the fact that LG gives the calibrator very little control over this parameter. In short: the television struggles to hide its hardware shortcomings, sometimes ignoring our commands. Nevertheless, the final image is significantly more accurate and pleasant to behold than with factory settings, even if it falls a bit short of studio perfection.

The colours after calibration in the Hisense A6Q should be assessed in two ways, as everything depends on the type of content. In the case of SDR material, the effect is truly very good. In everyday programmes, series, and films, it is difficult to spot any serious problems with colours. The yellow tint has been effectively removed, and the television no longer brightens the entire image. As a result, the ColorChecker test showed errors below Delta 2 values, which are already outstanding results, allowing us to speak of very high image quality in standard content. Unfortunately, the situation looks significantly worse in the case of HDR material. Yes, the white balance has been corrected and the EOTF curve has been improved, but the limitations of the panel itself remain insurmountable. The lack of support for a wide colour gamut means the television still generates quite significant colour errors. Certain colours simply cannot be displayed by the screen, making them appear less saturated than they should be. It's a shame because even a simple PFS or QLED filter would significantly improve the final effect. The conclusion is therefore simple – the A6Q is really very well suited for SDR content after calibration, while watching HDR content on it should still be approached with caution.

In this category, the QNED80A proves to be a true "dark horse." It is an excellent, affordable television for those who frequently watch lower-quality content – for example, traditional cable TV. The processor used here handles upscaling, that is, enhancing low resolution to native 4K, exceptionally well. The image after processing is natural, smooth, and, most importantly, not overly jagged or artificially sharpened. In the menu, we also find a dedicated option for smoothing tonal transitions in low-quality content. This feature works really effectively, eliminating annoying "banding" of colours under heavy video compression. However, we must remain vigilant. Remember that we are not dealing with a top-tier processor known from flagship OLED models. In more challenging scenes, the system may struggle and introduce minor artefacts or distortions. Nonetheless, it is definitely worth giving this feature a chance, as in most cases the quality improvement is visibly apparent.

Upscaling on the Hisense A6Q works quite decently for a television in this price range. Materials of lower resolution are correctly "upscaled" to a higher one, and the image remains clear without artificial edge enhancement or the typical "over-sharpening" found in cheap models. Unfortunately, the digital processing is significantly worse. In practice, it is difficult to speak of any advanced artifact smoothing or problematic tonal transition masking. In heavily compressed films – especially those from YouTube – the television practically struggles with reducing compression blocks and unwanted banding, making the imperfections in the material clearly visible. The A6Q scales the image well, but when it comes to digital processing, it leaves the user alone with the quality of the source.

We move on to a matter that may be decisive for many. Unfortunately, here we must point out the biggest "Achilles' heel" of the QNED80A model. This television is equipped with a panel featuring a native refresh rate of 60Hz. There is no denying it – at this price, we expected more as we know that Chinese manufacturers can offer 120Hz screens for a similar price. Due to this parameter, dynamic scenes in sports or fast-paced games are not the strongest aspect of this display. Fortunately, LG has equipped the television with a proven motion smoothing system called TruMotion. It works quite effectively with film material (24 frames). We suggest playing around with the De-Judder slider – from our experience, setting it in the range of 2-4 provides the best compromise: the motion becomes smoother, yet still looks natural, without the artificial "television theatre" effect.

The motion fluidity of the Hisense A6Q is… well — quite mediocre. It’s a television with a native refresh rate of 60 Hz in 4K, which means that the motion of objects on the screen doesn’t always look perfectly smooth. In dynamic scenes in movies or sports, it’s clear that this isn’t the strongest feature of this model. The situation improves significantly with 1080p content when connecting a console or computer, as the A6Q can operate even at 120 Hz then. This is a big plus, especially for gamers. Nevertheless, the clarity of motion still leaves much to be desired; blurring is noticeable, and the response time of the panel indicates that it is not one of this television’s strong points.

Now that we have established that the QNED80A is a television with a 60Hz panel, we must say it plainly: we will not be playing here at 120 frames per second at any resolution. Does this disqualify the equipment in the eyes of gamers? Not necessarily, especially those "casual" ones. LG has decided to sweeten this technical limitation by packing quite a few useful functions inside. We have support for VRR (variable refresh rate) in the range of 48-60Hz and automatic game mode ALLM, which instantly reduces input lag upon detection of a console. All of this is managed from a very convenient, purple Game Optimizer menu, which has already become LG's hallmark. A big plus goes to the manufacturer for consistency regarding HDR. Although the television does not support Dolby Vision in games on Xbox consoles, LG adds a well-implemented HGiG standard. Thanks to this, even on a moderately bright screen, playing in HDR is clear, and the details in shadows and highlights are accurately reproduced, rather than "cut off".

For such an inexpensive television, the Hisense A6Q can truly surprise with what it offers to gamers. It operates in 4K only at 60 Hz, but when a game switches to performance mode and drops to 1080p, the panel can work even at 120 Hz. This is a significant advantage in this price range, as most titles on consoles don't achieve stable 4K at 120 frames per second anyway. In practice, we are realistically playing at 1080p, and here the A6Q provides very enjoyable gaming experiences. On top of that, there are several features usually found in more expensive models: ALLM, VRR, and Dolby Vision Gaming for Xbox Series X/S. Everything is gathered in one place, in a simple and convenient Game Bar, so there's no need to dig through the entire menu. For such an affordable piece of equipment, it's a really solid set for gamers — perhaps not for the most demanding, but certainly spot on for occasional gaming.