Hisense U8Q vs TCL C8L / QM8L

When it comes to HDR, Hisense U8Q shows its claws. On paper, meaning in synthetic measurement tests, the television can "score" nearly 4000 nits of peak brightness. That's a value that most models can only envy. In practice, this translates to very strong lighting effects in films – in some scenes, we managed to measure a real 1500 to 2000 nits, which is a level usually reserved for the absolute top of televisions on the market.

Of course, it's not always that perfect. With small, pinpoint elements, brightness can drop – a good example is scene number 4 from the movie Sicario 2, where instead of thousands of nits, we get around 500. But it's worth noting that the effect doesn't vanish completely – the light is still visible, and the image doesn't feel artificially dimmed. This is a typical drawback of Mini LEDs, so it's hard to consider it a significant minus.

On the huge plus side, color reproduction deserves high praise. Thanks to additional coatings that improve color saturation, the U8Q nearly covers the full DCI-P3 color space (98%), and in the case of the wider BT.2020 gamut, it achieved a score of over 80%. This is an excellent result, making HDR films look juicy, vibrant, and simply very cinematic.

In terms of HDR, the TCL C8L turns out to be a hellishly bright television – and I mean literally. On a synthetic chart of 5%, our measuring equipment indicated a result exceeding 4500 nits. This is a result that is downright cosmic, considering that reference director monitors, which we often refer to in our materials, typically operate around 4000 nits. Does this mean that the C8L breaks barriers and climbs to the technological peak of Mini-LED? Not exactly. Dry synthetic tests are one thing, and real movie images are another. In real, varied scenes, the C8L achieves a peak of around 1600 nits. This is still a very good result, ensuring a very high level of HDR dynamics, but also clearly lower than what the manufacturer boasts in the specifications. The trouble starts with very small flashes of light – then brightness can drastically drop to around 600 nits. The algorithm tries at all costs to maintain deep black and minimize halo effect, but it does so at the expense of HDR impact. This is perfect evidence that laboratory charts rarely correspond to what we ultimately see on the screen.

Huge applause is due for color reproduction, all thanks to the new generation of SQD (Super Quantum Dot) quantum dots. The coverage of the DCI-P3 palette reaches 97%, but the true jaw-dropper is the measurement of the extremely demanding BT.2020 space. The C8L achieves as much as 90% in it, placing it alongside today's top screens that boast RGB backlighting. Importantly, unlike some screens with Micro/Mini RGB backlighting, this effect is stable regardless of the scene displayed. Of course, one must remember that content mastered for such a wide gamut in films or series is still a rarity. However, the mere fact that the panel has such a "color reserve" deserves immense admiration.

We have to admit that when the U8Q arrived at our editorial office, we were slightly surprised… and positively so. Usually, televisions require immediate white balance correction – it can be too warm or too cold, which immediately leads to strange color errors. Meanwhile, here the situation looks really good right out of the box. Of course, we are talking about our unit, so there’s no guarantee that every model will be tuned as well, but in our case, the first impressions were very positive. The only more pronounced issue was related to how the television manages brightness. Looking at the EOTF chart, it is evident that the U8Q tends to brighten small elements on the screen. This, in turn, caused what we mentioned earlier – slight overexposures and the impression that the entire scene can sometimes be a bit too bright. However, this is not a flaw that undermines the image, rather it is a characteristic effect of this model.

We tested the TCL C8L in the best factory picture mode available in this TV’s menu for image fidelity. That, of course, is Filmmaker Mode, which appeared in this brand’s software relatively recently (a year ago in the "K" series). Thanks to it, an average user can get a pretty good color reproduction straight out of the box, although it is certainly not a perfectly tuned mode. Looking at the factory white balance of our unit, both in SDR and HDR material, the red component was clearly lacking, which made the image noticeably cooler and caused a slight shift toward bluish-green tints. The issue of brightness management is also ambiguous, as we mentioned earlier. While for SDR content the gamma linearity is actually correct and holds steadily at the reference value of 2.4, in HDR things look much worse. Tracking the EOTF curve clearly shows the TV has a significantly boosted brightness across the range, which can make the final image overly bright and inconsistent with the creators’ intent, and that in a mode that by definition should avoid that. Of course, like every sample in our lab, this one also underwent professional calibration, and its results are shown below.

Of course, we wouldn't be ourselves if we didn't make adjustments to the white balance. After calibration, we managed to align the SDR signal to near perfection – older movies, YouTube content, and classic television looked almost perfect on the U8Q. This is truly an outstanding level that shows this model can do a lot if given a little help. Unfortunately, the situation is different with HDR content. The colors themselves aren't a major issue, but the biggest flaw of the U8Q remains the EOTF brightness characteristics. In practice, the TV tends to "blow out" beyond how the image should look in its original form. It's that slight "blown out" effect we saw 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 similarly good control over brightness in HDR as we do in SDR, we would have an absolutely reference-quality image.

As you can see, the results of a professional calibration of the TCL C8L are really promising, thanks to the extensive adjustment tools the manufacturer put at our disposal in the menu. Above all, we were able to completely correct the white balance — we eliminated the red deficiency, so the image finally stopped drifting toward unwanted cool tones. After that adjustment, errors in the ColorChecker test fell to near-reference levels, regularly landing below a Delta E of 2, which is below the threshold of human perception.

If the test patterns look this perfect, you might ask: why then the lower final score in this category? The answer lies in the brightness management discussed earlier. Although the menu includes sliders that let you precisely straighten the EOTF curve on synthetic signals, when confronted with actual movie material (I recommend enabling the EOTF filter when watching movies), you can see that in most scenarios the TV still reacts to HDR metadata its own way. As a result, the picture can be slightly over-brightened and not faithful to the creators' intent, and it was precisely this lack of consistency with real films that cost the C8L a few points.

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

The upscaling itself is also at a good level. Images from lower resolutions look smooth and soft, at times even a bit too much – we get a plastic effect that may not appeal to everyone. Fortunately, this can be easily adjusted with the sharpness slider to fit personal preferences.

This year the C8 series and higher models received probably the biggest and most anticipated upgrade in TCL’s history, and it specifically concerns digital image processing. The C8L is the lowest-end model in the manufacturer's lineup to be equipped with the latest flagship chip, the MediaTek Pentonic 800 (listed in the menu as MT9655). Thanks to its processing power, the feature called "Gradual Smoothing" finally works as it should. The algorithm effectively eliminates unwanted posterization (ugly tonal transitions/color banding), doing so intelligently enough that it does not degrade the sharpness of other details.

The processor also handles upscaling lower-resolution content to 4K very well. Although evaluating this element can be mostly academic, because the differences between today's TVs in this class are very subtle. The most important takeaway is that TCL finally has nothing to be ashamed of compared to the competition.

Hisense U8Q has a display that can refresh the image up to 165 Hz in 4K resolution. In practice, this will mainly be utilized by PC gamers, but as they say – it’s better to have it than not 😊. For movies and series, we have a built-in smoothness enhancer called Ultra Smooth Motion. In the settings, it can be easily adjusted to personal preferences – whether we want more of a "cinematic" frame rate or a smooth, theatrical spectacle.

The TCL C8L is equipped with a fast panel that has a native 144 Hz refresh rate. That spec will be most appreciated by demanding PC gamers, while most users, who rely on consoles or TV broadcasts, will use a steady 120 Hz. It is at 120 Hz that motion processing algorithms handle image rendering for movies, series, and sports. In the TV’s menu you’ll find a "Motion Clarity" option that lets you adjust the motion smoothing to your preferences. The algorithms handle cinematic material at 24 or 30 frames per second (fps) as well as dynamic sports broadcasts at 50 or 60 fps, maintaining appropriate smoothness.

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 has managed to implement as many as three HDMI 2.1 ports, so there is no problem connecting multiple consoles or a computer. In addition, it includes all the key technologies – Game Bar with parameter monitoring, variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic low latency mode (ALLM)... in short, a complete set.

But as is often the case with Hisense, it falls a bit short of perfection. The biggest drawback remains the lack of support for the HGiG format, which allows you to adjust the television's brightness to the console and get the most out of HDR in games. It's a shame because if this feature were included, we would have a device practically made for gamers. As it stands, the U8Q remains "just" a very good choice 😉

For gamers – especially for those with powerful PCs and several consoles at the same time – the TCL C8L is a true beast. It’s the first model in the manufacturer’s lineup equipped with four full HDMI 2.1 ports with a maximum bandwidth of 48 Gbps. This is directly thanks to the new Pentonic 800 processor we wrote about earlier. Additionally, the TV seamlessly supports virtually every gaming feature. It has an automatic game mode (ALLM) that reduces latency to minimal levels and full frame synchronization (VRR) operating in an impressive range of up to 288 Hz. We’re also talking about standards like G-Sync or FreeSync from Nvidia and AMD. When it comes to image display standards, there are also no compromises: the C8L offers complete support for HDR formats in games, including gaming Dolby Vision and the HGiG profile. All of these features can be conveniently managed from a very readable game bar (Game Bar), which we can customize according to our preferences. From a purely gaming perspective, there really isn’t anything to complain about in the C8L – well, maybe aside from the previously mentioned slight ghosting. But other than that? It’s an unflawed machine for gamers.