LG OLED C6H (TANDEM OLED) vs Hisense UR8S

And it's with HDR that the Tandem OLED panel shows its biggest advantage. The C6H's brightness is simply very high and in our measurements it hovered around 1900–2300 nits in most movie scenes. That's already a level at which bright highlights, the sun, or small light sources can look truly spectacular. The biggest impression on us, however, was the fifth scene from the film The Meg. It is exceptionally demanding for OLEDs because practically the entire screen is very bright. Even so, the C6H reached about 1650 nits there. For comparison, the regular C6 with a classic WOLED panel delivered around 600–700 nits in the same spot. So we're talking about more than double the brightness, and in places the difference approaches threefold. That is probably the best example of what Tandem OLED brings. It's not just a higher result on a small test patch. The C6H can sustain very high brightness even when much more of the screen is lit. Thanks to that, HDR has a significantly greater dynamic range and in this respect the C6H is much closer to flagship OLEDs than to typical mid-range models.

Colors

Tandem OLED also brings improvements in color. DCI-P3 coverage remains practically full at about 99%, while in the much wider BT.2020 gamut we measured roughly 82–83%. That's about 7 percentage points more than the regular C6. In everyday use this won't be a visible difference in every scene, since most films don't use such a wide gamut. However, when very heavily saturated colors appear, the C6H already has noticeably greater capabilities, especially in reds. Reds benefit the most, becoming deeper and more saturated. It's still not at the level of the best QD-OLED panels or SQD TVs, but for a WOLED panel the result is really very good.

UR8S is a slightly higher-end Mini-LED, so you could expect a lot in terms of brightness. And indeed, on a synthetic test pattern the peak brightness reached around 2200 nits. That's a very good result, but as always what matters more is what the TV does in normal film scenes. Here the results are a bit more uneven. In bright scenes with a lot of light on screen, the UR8S can deliver really strong HDR. Brightness then reaches about 1500 nits, so the image is very intense and has a lot of punch. It's worse with small bright elements on a dark background. The TV noticeably dims them to maintain good blacks and avoid excessive blooming. As a result, things like single stars or tiny specular highlights can be only around 200 nits. And here HDR is no longer as impressive. So the local dimming algorithm works effectively, but it comes at a cost, sometimes it simply sacrifices the brightness of small details too much in favor of contrast.

Colors

With RGB Mini-LED TVs, colors should be evaluated a bit differently than usual. If we look solely at the panel's capabilities, the UR8S performs great. We measured about 94% coverage of BT.2020 and practically full DCI-P3. These are among the highest values currently found in LCD TVs, and this is where the potential of RGB backlighting is most apparent. The problem is that this potential isn't always used in real scenes. When we ran the same measurements on patterns with an overlaid film background, the saturation of some colors dropped noticeably. Individual zones can't always control the three RGB components as precisely when the scene becomes more complex. This is most noticeable with blue and magenta. In simple test patterns they can look very strong, but in tougher scenes samples of those colors clearly shrink. So the UR8S has enormous potential, but the TV can't always make full use of it.

Right out of the box the LG C6 is pretty well calibrated, especially if you select Filmmaker mode. In SDR content the white balance is quite good, although as brightness increases it starts to show a slight lack of red. The picture becomes a bit cooler as a result, but not enough to be very noticeable during normal viewing. More is happening in the luminance response. Gamma is a bit low and, instead of holding at 2.4, it sits closer to 2.1–2.2 across much of the range. In practice the C6 slightly brightens the midtones. Shadows are therefore more readable, but the image loses some depth compared with how it should look in a dark room.

The situation is a bit more interesting in HDR. The start of the grayscale looks very good, but from roughly 20–30% brightness the white balance begins to drift increasingly. As brightness rises, red increases and blue becomes noticeably lacking. In the brightest areas the difference is already substantial and also affects the reproduction of some colors. The EOTF curve itself is, however, fairly well followed over most of the range. The C6 only tends to slightly brighten the image, which we also saw during our film comparisons. The largest deviation appears around the brightest sections, where the TV begins to map the signal to the panel’s capabilities.

The out-of-the-box Filmmaker mode in HDR is therefore not perfect, but overall it performs well. The biggest room for improvement is the white balance, especially at high brightness.

For evaluating out-of-the-box colors we used Filmmaker mode, which is supposed to show the image as close as possible to how the material was intended. Looking at white balance alone, the UR8S does quite well. There is no strong color cast that immediately jumps out, although as brightness increases a bit too much blue and red appear while green becomes deficient. Color errors therefore show up in measurements, but the image itself does not look bad.

We have far bigger reservations about how the UR8S manages image brightness. In SDR the gamma stays around 1.9 to 2.0 for most of the range instead of the target 2.4. In practice this simply means the image is too bright, especially in the midtones. Shadows are lifted too much, so the image loses some depth. A similar trend is visible in HDR. The EOTF curve sits above the reference value for a large portion of the range, so the UR8S again brightens the image more than it should. This is not a matter of the TV lacking brightness; it has plenty of it. The issue is how it manages that brightness. As a result, HDR material can look very striking, but not always exactly as it should.

LG TVs have been very receptive to calibration for years, and the C6 is no exception. After correction we were able to set the white balance almost perfectly, and most color errors (Delta E) fell below 3, often even around 2. In practice this means very accurate color reproduction in both SDR and HDR. The only curiosity showed up with the HDR luminance response. On the standard EOTF chart everything looks nearly perfect and at first glance it would be hard to fault anything. Only when we measured the TV’s behavior using filters based on actual movie scenes did it become apparent that the C6 has a slight tendency to artificially boost image brightness.

It’s not a huge difference and many people may even take it as a positive, since HDR looks a bit more striking because of it. From the perspective of fidelity to the source material, however, this isn’t ideal — some scenes are simply a bit brighter than the filmmaker intended. Interestingly, this is rather atypical for LG. In previous generations LG TVs usually adhered closely to the reference picture curve after calibration. With the C6 we’re still very close to the standard, but that subtle brightness "boost" can indeed be noticed in movies and TV shows.

Hisense offers quite a few calibration options, and in SDR you can achieve a really good result with them. After calibration, the white balance is practically uniform across the entire range, and color errors drop to very low values. The UR8S can be adjusted very precisely here. HDR looks a bit different. The white balance itself can also be noticeably improved, although at the highest brightness levels larger deviations start to appear. What's most interesting, however, is the behavior of the EOTF curve. Even after it is properly set on test patterns, the UR8S can still interpret brightness its own way during movie playback. Depending on the scene, parts of the image are slightly brightened while others are darkened compared to how they should look. This shows that the algorithms responsible for backlight control have a fairly large impact on the final image. So calibration can greatly improve colors, but we can't completely "turn off" the way the UR8S manages brightness in HDR.

Here the LG C6 has taken a really big step forward. The TV uses the same processor found in the flagship G6, and in terms of image processing the two models are very similar. That's a big plus, because in this area LG's processor this year performs excellently. The "Smooth Gradation" feature works especially well. With heavily compressed material it can effectively hide ugly banding and artifacts that often appear, for example, in lower-quality streaming. It's best to leave it on the "Low" setting. That way the improvement is noticeable, and the TV doesn't yet start blurring fine details. Higher levels smooth the image more, but can start to remove some of the natural texture of objects on screen. The upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution material is properly sharpened, edges look clean, and the processor quite effectively reconstructs fine details. In this respect the C6 is already very close to LG's best TVs, and the differences compared with the G6 are small.

A major advantage of the UR8S is its MediaTek Pentonic 800 processor, and digital image processing is one of this model’s strengths. The TV handles smoothing tonal transitions very well, especially with lower-quality sources. The feature responsible for this effect works effectively without overly interfering with the picture. Even at the medium setting it can noticeably reduce visible banding and unevenness without heavily blurring details. Upscaling also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is displayed cleanly, edges look natural, and the image isn’t overly sharpened. The UR8S simply copes very well with weaker signals, and in that respect it’s one of its clear strengths.

The C6H with a Tandem OLED panel can also operate at refresh rates up to 165 Hz. PC gamers will get the most use out of that, of course, because for consoles, movies, or sports we’re still talking about a maximum of 120 Hz. The panel itself performs excellently in motion. OLED pixels respond virtually instantly, so even with fast-moving objects you don’t see the typical motion blur behind them. The image stays clean whether you’re watching sports or playing fast-paced games.

If you care more about smoothness than motion clarity, TruMotion is available. LG lets you adjust two parameters separately. De-Judder works mainly with films and series shot at 24 fps and helps reduce the judder typical of them. De-Blur, on the other hand, is intended for 50/60 fps material, so it’s especially useful when watching sports or TV.

The UR8S is equipped with a panel that has a native 180 Hz refresh rate, so it already offers great potential for smooth motion. The panel itself performs really well, though some limitations typical of VA panels are still visible. Smearing is relatively low for this type of screen, but with faster motion (especially on darker backgrounds) it can still be noticed, particularly when compared with the same image on OLED TVs.

The C6H offers basically a full package of gaming features. On consoles we can easily use 4K at 120 Hz, while PC users can push the refresh rate up to 165 Hz. The TV also supports VRR from 40 to 165 Hz, ALLM and a proper implementation of HGiG. Dolby Vision is also available in game mode, which remains a significant advantage for Xbox owners. We can view all the key information in the Game Bar, which provides quick access to VRR settings and current signal parameters. The OLED tandem therefore doesn't change the actual feature set for gamers, but with such high panel brightness HDR games can make an even bigger impression. Functionally, the C6H is simply a very complete TV for console and PC.

In terms of gamer features the UR8S performs really well. The TV supports practically everything you’d expect from a modern console or PC display. It offers ALLM, VRR, and 4K at 120 Hz. It also supports Dolby Vision in game mode, so when using an Xbox Series X you don’t have to give up that HDR format. PC gamers get even more options. The panel can run at 4K/180 Hz, and dropping to Full HD can raise the refresh rate up to 330 Hz. There’s also a Game Bar that lets you quickly view key information and change gaming-related settings. The only clear shortcoming is a proper implementation of HGiG. With it enabled the TV still interferes with HDR brightness mapping, so we don’t get the effect intended by that standard. Aside from that, the UR8S is very well prepared for both consoles and a powerful PC.