Expert reviewers praised the R8 Hisense TV for its deep blacks, sub-4k upscaling, comprehensive color gamut coverage, and peak brightness levels, making it great for casual movie watching. They also agreed that despite the TV having a Game Mode to reduce input lag and decent motion handling, the lack of Variable Refresh Rate support, below par HDR performance, and missing HDMI 2.1 ports made the TV an unworthy choice for pro gamers.
Picture Quality
4K
- Critics were blown away by how well the Hisense R8 Series TV displayed 4K UHD picture quality, as the TV was easily able to play native 4K movies. They were also impressed by how the Smart TV was able to upscale content below 4K resolution, though they did have some reservations about how well the TV handled brightness for upscaled content.
Color
- The Hisense R8F boasts 96.82% coverage of the color gamut, earning it praise from reviewers at both Techradar and Tomsguide over how sharp and vivid colors on the TV appeared. The testers didn’t need to do much calibration out of the box, so the TV should give users an easy time with making adjustments on color accuracy.
Black
- Experts appreciated how dark and vivid black colors appeared on the Hisense R8F and agreed that the TV would be perfect for viewing in a dark room. Reviewers also decided that the Smart TV offers one of the deepest blacks you could get for its price range and attributed this to its proprietary ULED technology. It uses Quantum Dots similar to how an OLED display does.
Brightness
- The R8 Hisense Roku TV Smart TV impressed critics with its peak brightness (700 nits) out of the box, as it was significantly brighter than the Hisense U6G, and its images were well suited for viewing in a bright room. However, reviewers who wished to improve its peak brightness slightly could also do so by raising the backlight control.
Contrast
- Testers were pretty happy about the dark blacks and the bright whites that the R8 Hisense Roku TV was able to display, as it boasts a very high contrast ratio of 57,686:1. The high contrast ratio also sets it up nicely for displaying content in High Dynamic Range even though the TV’s rendering of that type of content was not that impressive.
Dimming
- The Hisense R8F comes packed with a local dimming feature, which product testers agreed did well to improve the dark levels on the TV. Its full-array local dimming feature did cause halo effects around objects in darker scenes, but critics didn’t find this problematic, as the feature worked well to boost the TV’s contrast levels since it had 58 dimming zones.
Gaming
- Expert testers adored casual gaming on the Hisense R8F thanks to the Smart TV’s Game Mode, which significantly reduces input lag and allows for faster gameplay.
- The TV, however, lacks HDMI 2.1 ports, and this might stop next-level console gamers from buying the Smart TV.
HDR
- The R8 Hisense Roku TV supports various HDR formats, namely HDR10, HDR Dolby Vision, and Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) content. Peak brightness on the TV stood at about 483.886cd/m2 for an SDR signal.
- Reviewers were, however, unimpressed with the TV’s brightness levels and picture quality when viewing HDR content, as some of them even argued that colors got somewhat distorted.
Motion
- Expert testers from both Consumer Reports and Cnet felt indifferent about the Hisense R8’s motion handling capabilities. The TV came with settings such as Motion Smoothing, which was also found on the Hisense R6. The TV’s Motion Rate 240 feature alongside its Motion Smoothness setting also helped significantly reduce motion handling on the TV.
Refresh Rate
- The Hisense R8F Series Smart TV failed to impress critics with the lack of a Variable Refresh Rate, as this meant that the TV doesn’t have any support for the use of FreeSync technology. Unfortunately, this also spelled doom for avid gamers, as the TV would experience considerable screen tearing if paired with a next-gen console like the PS5 or Xbox X Series.
Response Time
- Experts weren’t able to determine the response times for the R8 Hisense Roku TV, but they did agree that users wouldn’t have any issues when viewing fast-paced scenes.
Viewing Angle
- According to most critics, the Hisense Roku TV had moderately good viewing angles, but they did notice a significant reduction in image quality when viewing the TV from the side. The TV boasts a maximum viewing angle of 89 degrees, after which flesh tones appeared washed out, and black levels visibly brightened but not to an extreme extent.
Burn-In
- Expert testers acknowledged that the R8 Hisense Roku Smart TV did have a risk of burn-in, and this was mainly because the TV happens to be an LCD. To avoid this, they recommend that users avoid having static elements displayed on the screen for long periods.
Design
Stand
- The Hisense R8F Roku Smart TV is supported by two stand legs that keep it upright without much wobble. Reviewers from PC Mag and TechRadar also loved that they could adjust the legs and place them either toward the extreme edge or closer to the middle of the panel.
Back
- Product testers appreciated that the back of the R8 Hisense Roku TV was well populated with all the primary inputs that normal TV users would appreciate. They also liked that the back had screw holes that allowed for VESA wall mounting, so users could opt to wall mount it if they so wished.
Borders
- The R8 Hisense Roku TV has thin borders. Expert testers measured the top and sides to be 0.2 inches, while the bottom bezel that features the Hisense logo was just slightly thicker.
Thickness
- From a side view, product testers established that the R8 Hisense Roku TV was about 3 inches at its thickest and even slightly thicker towards the bottom of the display. In addition, its minimalist black frame, although common nowadays, added significantly to its overall modern design.
Features
Tuner
- The R8 Roku TV sports an off-air ATSC Digital Tuner that made it possible for product testers to tune into locally broadcast over-the-air channels with relative ease. They loved that they could stream localized content, but they did note that the content available is, however, dependent on a user’s locality.
Input
- Experts were not impressed with the lack of HDMI 2.1 compatibility from the R8 Hisense Roku Smart TV. Still, they did, however, count 4 HDMI inputs, 1 USB port, 1 Ethernet port, and 1 Digital Audio Output.
Remote
- The R8 Series Hisense TV comes with a voice-enabled Roku remote control, which reviewers could easily use to launch their favorite apps or do a voice search quickly. The R8 Series remote also has dedicated buttons for direct access to Netflix, ESPN+, Hulu, and Roku channels.
Smart TV
Apps
- Expert testers were quite impressed with the large variety of apps available for download on the Roku TV media hub. The apps they downloaded ran smoothly, and with the option to access some of their more frequently used picks right from the home screen, reviewers didn’t have to go through the vast library of apps available on the platform.
Streaming
- The R8 Hisense Roku TV allowed for streaming of 4K content from Netflix and Hulu. Reviewers, however, acknowledged that they could not find such high-quality content in the majority of streaming channels.
Menu
- The Hisense R8F Series features an easy-to-navigate menu that hardly gave any reviewer problems when navigating. However, they did note that not all the TV’s settings were not found within its menu. To adjust things like Noise Reduction & Gamma, reviewers had to download the Roku Mobile app first.
Sound Quality
Audio
- Reviewers weren’t too happy about the mediocre sound performance on the R8 Hisense TV. They established that the TV’s sound would work just fine for casual TV watching but would not be the best option for movie soundtracks or listening to music.
Bass
- Product testers were disappointed by the Hisense R8’s bass performance, as they found it lacking in terms of definition and loudness. Music fans shouldn’t expect any booming sound, but the TV will be loud enough to fill a room.
Sound stage
- The R8 Hisense TV did come with Dolby Atmos for surround sound TV and was, therefore, able to achieve a large soundstage thanks to its Enhanced Audio Return Channel support.
