When you're a TV brand who has build your market share by focusing on value-for-money, it's never easy to take the next step and begin selling more premium products. Chinese behemoth Hisense is currently negotiating this stage in the UK and, judging from the N65NU8700 we're reviewing today, it’s coping with the transition just fine.
The Hisense N65NU8700 is a 65-inch 4K HDR television that retails for £1,399. It has an ultra high-definition (UHD) resolution of 3,840 x 2,160, edge-lit LED backlighting, a true 120Hz panel, support for both the open-standard HDR10 and broadcast HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) formats, and the company's on VIDAA SMART TV platform.
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Hisense N65NU8700 review: Design and connections
The Hisense NU8700 certainly hits all the right spots as far as attractiveness is concerned, even if it looks a bit too similar to recent Samsung flat-screen TVs for its own good. Helped by its edge LED underpinning, the black bezel – bolstered by a textured silver side trim – is seductively svelte, only widening slightly at the bottom to accommodate the Hisense logo whose illuminating LED can be switched off from the user menu.
The screen is supported on a sturdy pedestal stand with a rakish, V-shaped base, which is finished in tasteful chrome silver. Build quality all-round feels extremely solid.
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The connections are located on the left side of the display and are a touch hit and miss. Surprisingly for a modern TV, only three HDMI ports are provided, of which HDMI input 1 and 2 are compatible with 4K@60Hz HDR video signals at higher bit depth or chroma.
The firm's co-developed VIDAA Smart TV platform is straightforward and responsive, offering intuitive access to a fairly comprehensive suite of catch-up and on-demand services such as Amazon, Netflix, YouTube and even Freeview Play, although oddly, selecting the UHD version of Blue Planet II on BBC iPlayer didn't kick the television into HLG HDR mode.
Hisense N65NU8700 review: Picture Quality & Gaming Responsiveness
The Hisense H65NU8700 is equipped with a VA-type LCD panel, which delivers deep black by LED LCD standards, but exhibits a narrower viewing angle as a trade-off. As with almost every HDR-capable edge-lit LED LCD TV that has hit the market since 2016, the whole screen is illuminated by a solitary stripe of LED modules along the bottom border of the panel, so the top-and-bottom letterbox bars won't look jet black, but some gentle ambient lighting will go a long way towards mitigating this issue.
Our NU8700 review sample delivered remarkable colour accuracy out of the box as long as you select the correct [Cinema] picture mode. In fact, it’s one of the best we've seen in recent years. Upscaling is good, extracting crisp detail from lower-than-UHD sources without being adversely affected by ringing artefacts. Helped by a native 120Hz panel, motion handling is competent, too, although not outstanding, with the onboard “Ultra Smooth Motion” control prone to introducing interpolation artefacts.
As for HDR viewing, peak brightness on a 10% window barely reached 500cd/m2, so HDR videos won't look as punchy, but at least the 65NU8700 tonemaps 1,000cd/m2 4K Blu-rays fairly accurately. DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage came in at a not-to-be-sneezed-at 94%, too, and as for playing video games, the Hisense H65NU8700’s response time is respectable but not earth-shattering with an input lag of 34ms in both 1080p and 4K HDR modes.
Hisense H65NU8700 review: Verdict
Backed by premium build quality, accurate out-of-the-box colours and low input lag, the H65NU8700 is a decent effort from Hisense as the company tries to tackle the high-end TV market.
Its HDR reproduction isn’t quite as punchy as the best around but elsewhere it’s a competent all-rounder.
