Hisense U6NQ vs Haier K85F

Hisense U6NQ offers a stable HDR effect, which is rare in TVs with local dimming. On most streaming platforms, in movies and series recorded in 4K, the TV presents consistent performance – in every tested scene, regardless of difficulty level, brightness is around 450 nits. This is a pleasant surprise, as many models in this class show significant differences – some scenes are well-lit, while others are heavily dimmed by dimming algorithms. However, Hisense U6NQ prioritizes maintaining higher brightness, which comes at the expense of black levels, as mentioned in the paragraph about contrast testing.

The HDR effect on the U6NQ is satisfying, offering a noticeable "hit" of light in bright moments, although it is worth remembering the previously mentioned blooming, which can be visible in more challenging scenes. In terms of colours, the TV also performs decently – the coverage of the DCI-P3 palette is 89%, and BT.2020 is 71%. Although these are not results that would impress more demanding users, for beginners in the world of high-quality content, the U6NQ serves as a solid choice. Thus, it presents an interesting option as an "entry-level" TV for home cinema.

Now let's move on to one of the hottest topics in the world of televisions, which is the quality of HDR effect. In the case of the Haier K85F model, we must unfortunately make it clear: if you are looking for equipment to watch content in a wide dynamic range, you should steer clear of this model. The main issue is its very low peak brightness, which during our tests barely reached 250 nits. To give you a better idea of what this means – such a value is okay for watching standard SDR materials, but it is absolutely insufficient to show any real benefits of HDR. The image simply lacks the "power" to generate bright, striking bursts. All our measurements and tests on specialist patterns only confirmed this. As if that weren't enough, the television also struggles with color reproduction. In this budget model, we won't find any technologies that expand the color palette, such as quantum dot layers (known in marketing as "QLED"). As a result, the coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, which is crucial for HDR materials, is only about 80%. In practice, this means that the image will not only be dark but also devoid of vibrant, saturated colors that the director wanted to show us.

The Hisense U6NQ in Filmmaker mode offers truly decent colour reproduction, although it is worth noting that differences between individual units can be noticeable. The model we tested surprised us positively, especially with HD content in SDR quality. The white balance was correct, and errors around 3–4 ΔE should be acceptable for the average viewer. The TV performed slightly worse in colour reproduction with 4K HDR materials. The dominance of blue hues led to unnatural cool tones on the Colour Checker chart, giving the picture a "store-bought" character. Combined with issues in brightness characteristics – gamma and EOTF curve caused some parts of the image to be too dark – the Filmmaker mode loses some of its credibility in this case. Although the factory settings of the tested unit deserve praise, especially in SDR, there were still minor shortcomings that would require adjustment to fully leverage the capabilities of the TV.

Well, how does the television perform with colors straight from the factory, without any intervention from our side? The Haier K85F offers a full range of picture modes, such as Dynamic or Eco, but for anyone who wants to watch movies according to the creators' intentions, only one really matters: Film mode. This is the mode we focused our tests on, and unfortunately, its name has little to do with reality. The picture in the factory settings is far from what we could call cinematic fidelity and requires many adjustments. Let's start with the white balance, which has a clear lack of red color. In practice, this means that the whole picture has a cool, bluish tint. The situation is even worse when it comes to brightness management, specifically gamma curves (for SDR) and EOTF (for HDR). Their graph resembles a real rollercoaster, which has a disastrous effect on the viewing experience. This results in unnatural dimming of SDR content, causing details in the shadows to get lost, and in the case of HDR – excessive brightness, which further exacerbates the issue of highlights. This combination, meaning too cool white combined with chaotic brightness and excessive blue color saturation, causes enormous errors in color reproduction. Our measurements on a specialized ColorChecker chart showed errors (Delta E) regularly reaching and exceeding values of 8-9. In simpler terms: errors above the threshold of 3 are easily noticeable to the naked eye, so such a result means that the colors on the screen are simply heavily distorted.

Although the factory settings of the Filmmaker mode on the Hisense U6NQ were quite good, we decided to carry out calibration to fully assess the capabilities of this model. Only after such an adjustment can you see how the TV performs in ideal conditions. In the case of SDR content, which was already at a high level, we managed to further improve the white balance. However, the biggest change came from the brightness characteristic correction - gamma was optimized and no longer causes excessive dimming of the image, which improves its naturalness.

For 4K HDR content, calibration also yielded positive results. We eliminated the problem of blue dominance, which translated into a more balanced and natural image. However, managing brightness in HDR materials remains a more complicated issue. The EOTF curve, although it had problems with dimming the image in the range of 10-30% brightness under laboratory conditions, reveals other shortcomings in real scenes. The TV tends to excessively brighten the smallest elements on the screen. As a result, this leads to noticeable halo effects around bright objects. This phenomenon, which we mentioned earlier in the context of contrast and HDR, stems from the technological limitations of the model and is often difficult to eliminate.

In short: although the Filmmaker mode with factory settings looked decent, calibration allowed for an even better effect - minor adjustments resulted in a more balanced image, especially in HDR content. Calibration will be a beneficial step for users seeking the highest quality image.

Well, is there anything we can do about this image? Can professional calibration save the situation? The answer is: both yes and no. It must be clearly stated that there are certain things we cannot overcome. The limitations of the construction itself, namely a poor panel and its narrow color coverage, mean that you can forget about achieving meaningful HDR – we won’t sugarcoat it for you. The biggest beneficiary of our adjustments is undoubtedly the SDR mode, and it is precisely for watching such content, after calibration, that this television begins to make sense. We managed to tame the white balance in our own way. Although the TV only offers basic 2-point adjustment (instead of precise 20-point), it’s not perfect, but we successfully eliminated that unpleasant, cold "chill" in the image. Above all, however, we recorded a significant improvement in brightness management. The gamma curve, which previously resembled a rollercoaster, looks like an almost perfectly straight line after calibration. This is a sign that the TV can finally display images without artificially dimming or brightening them. The conclusion is simple: even in the case of such a cheap television, professional adjustment of the settings can achieve a lot and draw out its maximum potential.

With high-quality materials, such as 4K, tonal transitions on the U6NQ look really good – the colours blend nicely and the image is cohesive. Unfortunately, when we switch to content in a lower resolution, the television does not offer any additional features that could improve this aspect. An example is the test with the light bulb, where it is clear that the television has trouble rendering subtle tonal transitions.

On the other hand, digital processing performs quite well. The image looks plastic, pleasantly soft, and free of excessive aliasing. Moreover, thanks to the sharpness settings, it can be adjusted according to personal preferences – whether towards a softer or sharper image. Overall, although scaling lower-quality materials could be better, the television does well with image processing.

Let's move on to digital processing and image scaling, that is, how the Haier K85F handles lower resolution signals, for example, from standard television. Right from the start, we encounter an extremely annoying and completely incomprehensible issue – the overscan feature is enabled by default. This means that the television artificially enlarges the image, cropping its edges, and this occurs on every source, even 1080p. To see the full frame, you have to dig into the screen settings every time and manually switch the format to "stretch to 16:9." It's a detail, but incredibly frustrating. The scaling of content to 4K resolution can be described in one word: acceptable. And that's basically it. The image processor does not strip the image of details, nor does it generate jagged edges or other artifacts. It simply does its job, without any fireworks. It's fine, but nothing more. The biggest and most noticeable shortcoming in the digital processing section is the absence of a banding smoothing function. This is an algorithm that could significantly reduce the annoying banding effect we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not implement such a solution, condemning us to watch the imperfections of the panel and low-quality materials in all their glory.

The Hisense U6NQ offers a native refresh rate of 60 Hz at a 4K resolution, but the manufacturer has added a feature that allows increasing the refresh rate to 120 Hz at the cost of reducing the resolution to Full HD. This is a solution we have seen before in TVs from TCL, such as the C655 and the C655 PRO. This gives the user the option to choose – higher motion fluidity or full resolution. This is a sensible approach, especially considering that many games on new-generation consoles do not achieve full performance in 4K at 120 Hz.

As for movies, the TV is equipped with a motion smoothing feature that allows adjusting motion characteristics to personal preferences. This can create a more cinematic effect or increase fluidity in dynamic scenes. Overall, the Hisense U6NQ offers reasonable solutions for motion fluidity that should satisfy both gamers and movie lovers.

The panel in the K85F model operates at a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, which already sets certain expectations for smoothness of the image right from the start. However, we must admit that we were very positively surprised when we found not one, but two separate sliders for motion control in the settings menu: one labeled "Blur Reduction" and the other "De-Judder." Such generosity in this price segment is an absolute rarity, as usually manufacturers offer at most one common option. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm quickly dwindled as fast as it appeared. It soon became clear why Haier was so "generous" – the slider responsible for blur reduction is simply a dummy. Moving it does not produce any visible effect on the screen; thus, only one of the two options actually works.

The Hisense U6NQ offers the option to choose between 4K at 60 Hz and Full HD with a refresh rate of 120 Hz. This solution may appeal to gamers who want to decide what is more important to them – higher resolution or smoothness. The television supports features such as ALLM and VRR, which help in achieving smoother gameplay. A nice addition is the GameBar – an easy-to-use panel that allows for quick changes to picture settings and checking statistics. It also includes a Dolby Vision Gaming mode, which works with low input lag, a big plus for console enthusiasts. Unfortunately, it lacks HGiG, which could further enhance HDR quality in games. Nevertheless, the Hisense U6NQ performs quite well as a gaming television, especially for those who play occasionally and do not require the highest refresh rates in 4K. It is a solid choice for less demanding users.

Let's move on to the features for gamers, although we must point out right away that this is more of a proposal for "casual" players. The manufacturer boasts in the specifications about the presence of HDMI 2.1 ports, which looks impressive on paper, but in reality, it is largely a marketing gimmick. What good is a modern port when the heart of the television is a panel with a refresh rate of 60 Hz? It physically cannot display a signal at 120 frames per second, even at lower resolutions, which takes away HDMI 2.1's most important advantage. That's a shame. (That’s why we mark it as HDMI 2.0 ports in our tests). Another oddity is the television's response to attempts to calibrate HDR from the console. Changes in brightness settings cause very unnatural behavior of the image, which might suggest an incorrect implementation of the HGiG standard. To be honest, however, you shouldn't worry too much about this, because as we have mentioned multiple times, we simply do not recommend using any HDR content on this screen. However, to make it not so bitter, the Haier K85F also has two significant and unexpected advantages. The first is the presence of ALLM, or Auto Low Latency Mode, which switches the television to low latency mode as soon as it detects a connected console. The second, even bigger surprise is support for VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate. Although it works in a very modest range of 48-60 Hz, its very presence is commendable. Thanks to this, the image in games can stutter less, which truly improves the gaming experience.