You should expect to make some compromises with a cheap TV, but perhaps not as many as you might think. Hisense's budget-priced U6H ULED TV, for instance, offers excellent color performance thanks to its use of quantum dots and a local-dimming backlight LCD. Moreover, it runs the powerful Google TV platform with hands-free Google Assistant and even supports Apple AirPlay. The 65-inch model we tested officially retails for $899.99, but we've seen it available for quite a bit less already. Mediocre contrast keeps it from really standing out compared with slightly pricier models like last year's Hisense U8G ($1,299.99), but it’s still a compelling enough value to earn our Editors’ Choice award for budget TVs.

It Doesn't Look Cheap

The U6H looks unassuming but fairly elegant for a budget TV. It avoids the typical plain black bezels for a thin black plastic band that’s less than an eighth-of-an-inch thick around the top and sides of the panel, while a quarter-inch-thick black border divides the edge of the glass and the active screen. A quarter-inch-wide brushed metallic bezel runs along the bottom of the screen and sports a white Hisense logo in the middle. A small, black, trapezoidal outcropping under the bezel holds the TV’s infrared sensor, far-field microphone array (along with a switch to manually disable it), and a multi-purpose power/input button.

The TV sits on two inverted V-shaped, gunmetal-colored metal legs, and has standard VESA screw holes for mounting it on a wall.

Apart from the connector for the power cable on the right side, all the ports sit on the left side of the rear panel and mostly face left. The left-accessible connections include three HDMI ports (one eARC), two USB ports, an antenna/cable connector, and four 3.5mm ports for headphones, composite video input, serial control, and service. A fourth HDMI port, an Ethernet port, and an optical audio output face directly back.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

The black, rectangular remote uses a plastic material and sports a large, white, circular navigation pad near the top. Power, input, settings, user account, and Google Assistant buttons sit above the navigation pad, along with a pinhole microphone and indicator LED. Volume and channel rockers and playback controls reside below the navigation pad, while dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, Peacock, Tubi, and YouTube are further down.

Google TV, Google Assistant, and Apple AirPlay Boost Usability

The U6H uses Google TV for its interface and connected features. It’s a powerful and functional smart TV interface that Sony and some TCL TVs also feature. It covers all major video streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Twitch, and YouTube. It also supports screen mirroring via both Apple AirPlay 2 and Google Cast; the former is particularly welcome because AirPlay isn’t available on the Chromecast with Google TV media streamer. 

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

Google TV also enables Google Assistant, which lets you search for content; control both the TV and compatible smart home devices; get useful information like sports scores and weather; and perform other tasks with your voice. The U6H features a far-field microphone array on the bottom edge of the screen, so you can use Google Assistant hands-free simply by saying “Hey Google” followed by your command. Alternatively, you can press the Google Assistant button on the remote and speak into it. 

If you don’t want the TV to listen at all times, you can manually turn off the microphone by sliding the switch next to the indicator LEDs on the bottom of the TV. However, this causes the LEDs to glow in an irritatingly bright yellow shade. You can turn off those lights by going into Google TV’s system settings and directly shutting down the Google app, but this turns off Google Assistant entirely, even through the remote. Hopefully, Hisense adds a setting to adjust LED brightness via a firmware update but, until then, you have to weigh guaranteed privacy against this possible distraction.

Amazing Color, Mediocre Contrast

The Hisense U6H is a 4K TV with a 60Hz refresh rate. It supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in HDR10, Dolby Vision, and hybrid log gamma (HLG). It has an antenna/cable tuner, but it is not compatible with the ATSC 3.0 standard.

We test TVs using a Klein K-80 colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman software. The U6H features an LED backlight system with local dimming and a quantum dot layer—features we rarely see in a TV at this price. With these technologies, the U6H exceeds our picture quality expectations for a TV in this price range, especially in terms of color performance.

(Credit: PCMag)

The above charts show the U6H’s color levels with an SDR signal in Theater Day mode compared against Rec.709 broadcast standards, and with an HDR signal in HDR Theater mode compared against DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. SDR colors were spot-on out of the box, with only some very slight drift in the reds to complain about (effectively perfect white balance makes up for it). This is a very good performance for a budget TV, but this level of color accuracy has become increasingly common in the past few years.

The HDR colors really surprised me, to the point that I was worried my equipment was malfunctioning. I’ve never seen color this wide and accurate in a sub-$1,000, 65-inch TV. It covers almost the full DCI-P3 color space, with extremely little skew in any of the colors. White levels also remain excellent. Frankly, its color levels are directly comparable with the LG C2 OLED, our high-end Editors’ Choice TV that costs three times as much.

Contrast is less impressive and much more in line with what we would expect from a budget TV. With an SDR signal in Theater Day mode and the backlight turned to maximum, we measured a peak brightness of 401 nits for a full-screen white field and 520 nits for an 18% white field. Peak brightness with an HDR signal was a little brighter (411 nits for a full-screen field, 588 nits for an 18% field). This is comfortably bright for a budget TV, though it doesn’t come close to higher-tier but still affordable models like last year’s Hisense U8G (1,763 nits for an 18% field) or TCL 6-Series 4K Google TV (1,189 nits for an 18% field).

The local dimming array also doesn’t get very dark compared with the aforementioned models; it shows a black level of 0.04 nits with an SDR signal and 0.03 nits with an HDR signal for an effective HDR contrast ratio of 19,608:1. This is still quite good for a budget TV, but a significant step down from the pricier Hisense U8G (88,168:1) and TCL 6-Series (594,597:1). We also noticed a fair amount of light bloom with high-contrast edges on the U6H.  

The strong color performance comes through on BBC’s Planet Earth II. The greens of plants are lush and varied, while the blues and greens of the sea and sky look natural. Fine textures are easily visible on animals and trees under both direct sunlight and shade. The TV’s modest contrast means the picture doesn’t quite “pop” or look as lifelike as it does on higher-end TVs like the Hisense U8H, LG C2, or Samsung QN90B. That said, it still looks excellent for its price and miles ahead of budget TVs like the Amazon Fire TV Omni and Toshiba C350.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

The red of Deadpool’s costume in the overcast opening scene of Deadpool looks vivid and well-balanced. Later, in the burning lab fight scene, shadow details appear clear, while the yellows and oranges of the flames look bright. The scene again looks a bit flatter than it does on TVs with higher contrast numbers, but it doesn’t appear muddy or washed-out.

The U6H struggles a bit with the starkly contrasting party scenes of The Great Gatsby. Black suits can look muddy or faded depending on the frame; as a result, the cuts and contours of lapels can be difficult to make out. There’s still enough contrast for the whites of balloons and shirts (as well as splashes of color) to stand out against the darker elements in the scenes. Skin tones also look warm and balanced. Once again, these are complaints that stand only in comparison with more expensive TVs. In this price range, this is the best picture we've seen.

Modest Gaming Performance

Gamers won’t find many extras on the U6H. It supports variable refresh rate (VRR), but its 60Hz panel isn’t too impressive and doesn't support either AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync. The TV's input lag is also a bit high; in Game mode, we measured latency of 11.1 milliseconds using an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix. This won’t ruin your games and would even have been considered excellent a few years ago, but it doesn’t reach the 10ms threshold we currently use to decide if a TV is best for gaming.