Hisense E8Q vs Philips OLED910

Since the E8Q is a twin of the U7Q, it’s no surprise that the quality of the HDR effect is almost identical. On paper, it looks promising – a peak brightness of 800 nits can impress in many scenes. Fragments like the flashes of light in “The Meg” or shots of the sun in “Life of Pi” can indeed evoke a “wow” effect. But the longer we watch, the more we notice the limitations. The problem arises when small, bright details are supposed to be displayed on a dark background. In such situations, the dimming algorithms try to preserve contrast but end up dimming what should shine the brightest. Instead of dazzling details, we get almost invisible points of light. This is typical for Mini-LED in this price segment and is not surprising – but it’s worth knowing that the HDR effect won't always be fully preserved. Fortunately, the color reproduction offers reasons to be satisfied. A coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut at around 94% is a very good result, and the applied quantum dot layer (more specifically, PFS) does its job – colors are saturated and vibrant, especially with 4K content.

OLED910 is simply an absurdly bright television for an OLED. All thanks to the new panel from LG Display, the Tandem RGB OLED, which Philips has dubbed its "META OLED." It is this panel that allows for over 2000 nits of brightness in films, which was previously completely unattainable in OLEDs. The way the television handles full-screen scenes drenched in bright light is also commendable. Usually, in OLEDs, brightness drops significantly, but here it remains at an excellent level - around 1400 nits. These are almost reference values, and combined with the great color gamut reproduction at 99% DCI P3 and 82% BT.2020, it gives us an HDR effect that can confidently be called one of the best in the world.

Testing the Hisense E8Q in Filmmaker mode, we were hoping for a neutral image close to the director's vision. Unfortunately - although on paper it doesn't look bad (the color reproduction errors are not significant), in practice the image feels somewhat unnatural. The reason? Too strong an increase in blue and a lack of red in the white balance. The effect? The scenes look cool, and the white appears slightly bluish. Alongside the U7Q model, we also noticed a specific approach to brightness management here. The brightness reproduction curve for HDR content (EOTF) shows that the TV can significantly dim small, bright elements of the screen to maintain contrast - but sometimes it goes too far. On the other hand, it can excessively brighten larger, very bright parts, which disrupts tonal balance. This is a compromise that may not suit everyone – especially if you want an as faithful image as possible right out of the box.

Unfortunately, when it comes to color reproduction right out of the box, the Filmmaker mode on the OLED910 performs poorly. The television overly emphasizes the color blue, and at times it almost looks like a store mode. It gives the impression that the manufacturer hasn't quite calibrated the device properly. The result is that colors look unnatural, and the overall effect resembles a somewhat exaggerated display from a market showcase. HDR content looks much better, where aside from a slight loss of detail in blacks, it's hard to find fault with anything. The problem is that in everyday viewing, it is the SDR materials that matter the most – and on the OLED910, they simply look bad and are far from what we would expect from a television of this class.

The calibration of the Movie mode brought really good results, especially regarding SDR content. The white balance was successfully adjusted, which gave the image a natural look – it appeared almost reference-level. The colors were well-saturated, and the overall perception of the content improved significantly. Unfortunately, when we moved to HDR materials, the well-known problems from the U7Q model returned. The TV still tends to “do things its own way,” which is evident from the analysis of the EOTF brightness characteristic – despite calibration, the E8Q still dimmed small details in the shadows, while the bright areas of the screen could sometimes be excessively boosted. In practice, this means that in darker scenes, some of the tiniest details could simply disappear. Although it must be admitted that the entire calibration process brought a lot of good, not everything can be circumvented – even with the use of professional tools. The E8Q can impress with its picture, but in HDR content, its design limitations become noticeable, and it is worth keeping this in mind.

Fortunately, it quickly turned out that it was not the panel that was responsible for the issues, but rather the way Philips had calibrated the OLED910 from the factory. After calibration, the television displayed its full potential, and only then could we see what the new panels produced by LG Display were truly capable of. We primarily corrected the white balance and brightness characteristics, which allowed us to tame the excessive blue and give the image a natural look. The final effect can be described as excellent. Errors on the Color Checker palette rarely exceeded a value of 3, which in practice means an image close to perfection and colors presented in accordance with the creators' intentions. In SDR content, the effect was remarkable, and in HDR, the improvement was even more noticeable – gradients became cleaner, and colors fuller and more believable. After calibration, the OLED910 transformed from a disappointing television into equipment that can easily be called reference-level in terms of color reproduction.

In the case of older materials with lower quality, a gentle smoothing of tonal transitions is often useful. The Hisense E8Q, like the U7Q, has the "Smooth and Gradient Picture" feature, but unfortunately, its effectiveness leaves much to be desired. The “Low” setting is almost imperceptible in operation, while higher settings simply blur details instead of improving transitions. The good news is that the feature does not compromise the film grain, which allows it to maintain the image structure. On the plus side, the scaling is commendable. The television can fairly sensibly transform older content to a higher resolution—without artificially emphasizing contours or excessive sharpening. Though it does not match the best models in this category, it performs quite well for its class.

The previously visible color artifacts can largely be eliminated thanks to a feature called "distortion reduction." Similar to the OLED820, it's best to set it to a medium level, as it then produces quite decent results – smoothing out unwanted tonal transitions while not taking away too many details from the image. Although there may be times when the effect is a bit too aggressive, it can generally be considered a useful feature for everyday viewing.

As for image scaling, the OLED910 performs really well. The test material with the model had a characteristic soft look typical of Philips – at times even too soft – but the sharpness slider can be adjusted at any moment to tailor the image to personal preferences. It's also worth noting that the TV has no issues with overscan, which still occurs in some competing models. It's a small detail, but it's pleasing because it means that all content, even the oldest, is displayed as it should be.

Like the U7Q, the E8Q model is a fast television designed for dynamic content. It supports 144 Hz refresh rates in 4K resolution, and if for some reason someone is still gaming in Full HD, it can achieve even 240 Hz. This is a significant advantage, especially for PC users looking for maximum fluidity. In everyday use, the television performs very well. The "Ultra Motion Smoothness" mode provides us with two sliders, allowing for personalized image settings – whether it’s more cinematic with preserved film frames or heavily smoothed, almost "series-like." It’s good that the manufacturer gives a choice here instead of imposing one style. On sports materials, live broadcasts, or in games – motion appears clean and stable. Sure, it’s not at the level of OLEDs, but for this price range, the E8Q performs really well.

The OLED910 is a television with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It's a bit disappointing that Philips didn't choose 165 Hz, because we know that the panel used in it is capable of that. On the other hand, such a bonus would mainly benefit PC gamers, as in everyday use, the most important refresh rate is 120 Hz, which is fully sufficient. Combined with the advantages of an OLED panel – lightning-fast pixel response time and no motion blur, the image is impeccably sharp and fast, even in dynamic action scenes. Kudos also goes to Philips' traditional motion smoother called "Motion Style." We can easily adjust it to our preferences: the "Smoothness" slider is for movies and allows you to choose between a more "frame-like," cinematic character and a smooth, theatrical image. Meanwhile, the "Blur Reduction" slider is for sports; it is worth setting it to the maximum value here to ensure that the image is clear and distinct during very fast shots.

The Hisense E8Q does not hide its gaming pedigree. The specification alone reveals that we are dealing with a television that will work great as a gaming screen. Variable Refresh Rate (VRR)? Yes. Automatic low latency mode (ALLM)? It's there too. Additionally, there is impressive refreshment – 120 Hz in 4K or even 240 Hz in Full HD. Such a set is rare in this price segment. Everything works smoothly and without major surprises. The only missing element – like in the U7Q – remains support for HGiG. It's a pity, because this feature makes it easier to match the brightness curve to the capabilities of a particular television, improving visual consistency with the intentions of HDR game creators. Without it, one has to manually tweak the settings, which does not always yield a satisfying result.

The OLED910 is excellent for gaming. It supports 144 Hz, so if someone has a powerful PC, they can easily take advantage of that potential. On consoles, 120 Hz is the most important, and everything works perfectly here. There is VRR, an automatic game mode, and even Dolby Vision in games along with an HGiG mode, so we actually get a full package of gaming features. Philips also added a Game Bar, which is a quick menu that shows basic information and allows you to enable a few useful things. It may not look as modern as the competition, but it works and serves its purpose. The only downside is the number of HDMI 2.1 ports. There are only two, which can be somewhat disappointing for a TV in this class. If someone is connecting two consoles and something additional to eARC - like a soundbar (which doesn't make much sense in this model, but we'll discuss that in the sound section), they'll need to figure things out a bit more. Other than that, the OLED910 has everything we expect from a gaming TV.