Philips PUS8500 vs Hisense A6Q

When it comes to the HDR effect on the PUS8560, it can fairly confidently be stated that it is very average. The panel brightness is around 350 nits, which we consider to be the absolute minimum for watching content in this format. However, this is not a result that will astonish a viewer searching for the best possible picture.

On the plus side, it is worth noting that the PUS8500 series – including the PUS8560/12 we tested – is advertised as a QLED television. And indeed, we can expect a wider colour spectrum here. This model is equipped with an additional filter (PFS), and a DCI-P3 colour coverage of around 90% should suffice for the majority of users. This filter works very similarly to quantum dots. As a result, the colours are quite well saturated. It is not an outstanding result, but it is entirely sufficient for watching films and series from streaming platforms.

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.

We tested the television with the best available factory settings, namely in Film/Filmmaker mode – this is the mode we recommend for everyday viewing. Unfortunately, it is not without its flaws. Both in HD and HDR content, the image had a noticeable tendency to a pink tint, caused by an excessive amount of red and blue in the white balance. Another issue turned out to be excessive brightness in the image, which was confirmed by both the gamma chart and the EOTF curve. This feature was responsible for loss of detail and washed-out colours in more challenging HDR scenes that we mentioned earlier. The overall result led to significant colour reproduction errors – in extreme cases, the delta E value exceeded 7, while the threshold for visible errors for the human eye is around 3. This situation can be improved with calibration, and you can read about its effects below.

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.

The Dutch manufacturer offers quite a sizable amount of settings in its products, so as usual, we decided to tinker with them a bit. The effects are immediately noticeable – we managed to correct the white balance, which made the image stop appearing excessively pink. The brightness characteristic has also been partially evened out, of course, within the limits set by the television itself. The image is no longer overly exaggerated, and the overall reception after calibration is definitely better than in the factory settings of the Filmmaker mode.

One could only critique the EOTF curve characteristic, which still indicates that the image has a tendency to brighten HDR materials. Despite our efforts, the darkest parts of scenes are still sometimes too bright, and the brightest ones do not always achieve their full contrast potential. However, it must be clearly stated that we are dealing with a typically budget construction – one cannot expect reference-level reproduction of HDR content from it.

Calibration has definitely helped this model – it improved the balance, toned down the aggressive colour palette, and brought the image closer to what one might expect from a well-configured movie mode. However, there are certain limitations that cannot be overcome.

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.

Philips PUS8560 offers a function for reducing posterization, hidden under the name "distortion reduction". And although it indeed fulfills its role by smoothing out problematic tonal transitions, it works a bit too broadly. In practice, it affects not only colourful gradients but also softens faces, the textures of clothing, and the surfaces of furniture. This compromises the authenticity of the image – especially in films where natural texture is very important. However, if someone is looking for smoothing at all costs, it's best to set this option to "Low". For cinema image enthusiasts – we definitely do not recommend it.

On the positive side, the quality of upscaling older materials is noteworthy – the PUS8560 model handles them surprisingly well. The image retains its natural softness, without artificially boosted sharpness. It is also worth mentioning that the television correctly displays content with very low resolution, avoiding issues with image edge cutting (so-called overscan).

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.

The Philips PUS8560 is a television equipped with a panel featuring a refresh rate of 60 Hz, which immediately limits its capabilities in terms of displaying dynamic content. Watching sports or playing on a console is not particularly enjoyable. The situation is further worsened by the lack of any option to improve the smoothness of films. In the menu, we won't find settings that would allow us to enable a motion smoother or even a slight motion smoothing for films recorded at 24 frames per second. You can imagine the effect. The image can appear jerky, especially in shots with panoramic camera movements.

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.

Although the Philips PUS8560 is not designed with gamers in mind, the manufacturer has decided to equip it with a few features that may prove useful when connecting a console. On board, we find automatic switching to game mode (ALLM), as well as a simple connection status information bar – the so-called Game Bar. It does not make a particularly strong visual impression, but it serves its purpose. The presence of variable refresh rate (VRR), operating in the range of 48 to 60 Hz, may come as a surprise. While this is not a wide range, in the case of less demanding games or titles with unstable frame rates, VRR can help reduce screen tearing. However, this is the only element that could be considered beyond the minimum.

It must be made clear that the PUS8560 is not equipment for gamers looking for a responsive screen and full support for modern console features. It lacks HDMI 2.1 ports, the refresh rate is limited to 60 Hz, and the response time of the panel is not among the fastest. This model may be suitable at most for casual gamers who want to enjoy the Ambilight system.

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.