Expert rating
Benefits
- Excellent color and contrast
- Affordable (rather)
- Low latency game mode
The inconvenients
- Irritating software (outside the US)
- Bulky remote control
- Few fancy features
Our opinion
The Hisense U6K sets are a no-frills Mini-LED offering, giving buyers the big display tech at a lower price than its competitors. There aren’t a lot of fancy features, and the VIDAA software shipping outside of the US isn’t great, but the value for money is hard to beat.
Hisense’s U6K series builds on the company’s recent success with relatively affordable TVs, offering the latest and greatest in Mini-LED display technology at a price few rivals can match.
Picture quality is excellent for the price, as long as you’re happy with a 60Hz refresh rate, although software is variable: while US models run the excellent Google TV operating system, my UK review unit is powered by the much less attractive VIDAA operating system. .
Design and build
- Sizes 55 or 65 inches
- Thin construction
- Huge UK Remote
There’s not much to say about the design of the U6K, which is pleasingly simple. The range is available in 55 or 65 inch sizes, and I’ve reviewed the largest model in the range – officially the 65U6KQTUK with the full model number.
A slim bezel runs all the way around the display, only slightly thicker at the silver bottom edge, which also sports the Hisense logo. Nothing here is designed to grab your attention, ensuring that the display itself is always the center of attention.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
The TV comes with an incredibly slim pair of feet, and my 65-inch model included two different mounting points, so you should be able to work the positioning around the waistline of your TV stand, soundbar, or other obstructions .
VESA wall mounting is also supported, although the bracket is sold separately, and the TV is slim enough to lay fairly flat against the wall if desired.
Nothing here is designed to grab your attention, ensuring the display itself is always front and center
What’s a little less impressive is the remote that came with my UK model. It’s absolutely huge, fitting in a ridiculous 12 pre-programmed shortcut buttons at the top (three or four is typical), and yet doesn’t even include a dedicated settings button.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
For what it’s worth, the US remote seems to be much more compact, although I don’t know how it varies in other markets.
Picture and sound quality
- Mini LED display
- 60Hz and 4K
- Not the shiniest panel
The U6K’s selling point is that it offers a relatively affordable Mini-LED panel – a backlight technology that can deliver some of the contrast and color separation of OLED without the cost (or risk burn).
The panels here are in standard 4K resolution and 60Hz refresh rate, so there’s nothing too exciting there.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
What matters is that you get great contrast and color reproduction from the U6K, with deep blacks and rich, vibrant hues on everything you watch.
It supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and HLG standards, so covers a fairly wide range of HDR content.
The only downside here is that the panel isn’t as glossy as more expensive alternatives. That means it doesn’t offer the absolute best HDR, requiring a brighter panel, but also daytime viewing can become an exercise in glare reduction.
The panel can top out at 60Hz – you’ll have to spend more for a 120Hz panel TV that can get the most out of the PS5 or Xbox Series X – but it supports a variable refresh rate of 48-60Hz for smoother gameplay, but without AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync support.
What matters is that you get excellent contrast and color reproduction from the screen.
Instead, the goal of the official game mode – which can activate automatically on compatible inputs – is lower latency, capable of dropping down to 8ms for smooth performance when a console is connected.
As for audio, the set supports Dolby Atmos, so when paired with compatible speakers, it should be able to deliver impressive surround sound.
When not paired with speakers, the onboard audio is as you’d expect: a little thin and unsatisfactory, but good enough if you’re not picky. A basic soundbar will always represent a considerable audio upgrade.
Ports and Features
- Three HDMI 2.0 ports
- Voice remote control
The Hisense U6K packs a fairly typical selection of ports, although the HDMI options may disappoint a little: even the larger 65-inch model is limited to just three HDMI 2.0 ports, which will be enough for many users but may frustrate those , like me, with a range of game consoles and streaming sticks.
That’s especially true if you decide to use one of those three HDMI ports for its eArc functionality, hooking up your soundbar that way – although the digital audio output gives you another option here.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
There are also two USB ports for connection and power, a headphone jack, Ethernet for wired internet, AV input, antenna jacks and a common interface card slot.
The TV doesn’t pack many great or unique features, but one nice perk is that the remote does support voice commands. On US Google TV models this will mean the Google Assistant, but Amazon Alexa is included on my model instead.
Software
- Runs Google TV or VIDAA
- VIDAA looks basic
- Slightly unreliable performance
The software side of the U6K is difficult to examine, simply because it is so variable.
The US models of the TV ship running Google TV, a simple, clean operating system that I haven’t tested on a TV myself, but have heard good things about.
My review model – and the model sold in the UK and Europe – runs Hisense’s own VIDAA operating system instead.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
I’ll be frank: VIDAA is clumsy, ugly and slow. It’s clearly built around ad slots, but at the moment even they don’t work – the top banner on my home screen is six identical slides advertising the OS’s own app store.
The good news is that it supports most of the basic apps you’re likely to need, and the big names, like Netflix and Disney+, come pre-installed for your convenience. The only omission I spotted was the UK’s Now app, which wasn’t available at all.
UK viewers may also be slightly annoyed to find that the ITV and Channel 4 apps here are the FreeviewPlay versions, which don’t support live TV streaming, but otherwise there’s not much to complain about.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
I was more frustrated with the overall performance. Setting up the TV took me several attempts as it repeatedly refused to connect to my Wi-Fi network.
It is sometimes slow to recognize remote inputs, so it seems slow, and once it just stopped recognizing the remote until I turned on the TV to restart it.
I mainly tested it connected to a Sonos soundbar via an optical cable, but setting it up that way had the unexpected side effect that every time I turn the volume up or down, a pop-up appears warning ” This feature is currently unavailable” – even though it do change the volume successfully.
I’ll be blunt: VIDAA is clumsy, ugly and slow
None of this is a real dealbreaker, and I’m sure buyers will get used to the quirks of the software, but that’s the main thing that makes this feel like a cheaper TV than it actually is.
Pricing & Availability
The Hisense U6K starts from $579/£999 for the 55-inch model, rising to $799/£1,299 for the 65-inch version.
It’s fairly competitively priced in the UK where it’s also available from Very, but that’s exceptional in the US, especially considering that the US models run better software.
For comparison, the cheapest Mini-LED (Neo QLED) model in Samsung’s 2023 lineup starts at $1,199 / £1,399 for a 43-inch size.
This varies the purchase advice too. US buyers will be hard pressed to do better for the price, or find a good Mini-LED panel for less.
In the UK and elsewhere, the U6K is not such a knockout. It’s a good buy, and it’s still a solid value for the screen quality, but the smartest move may be to look at one of last year’s OLED or Mini-LED flagships, often now available for a similar price – the LG C2 OLED 2022 is a prime example.
Check out our best TVs roundup for more high-end options, or the best budget TVs for cheaper models that cost under $500/£500.
Verdict
The Hisense U6K offers the best in mini-LED at a budget price, with some of the best contrast and color you’ll find on any TV for around a grand.
The tradeoff is that it’s a no-frills set – it’s 60Hz, has few special features, and outside the US is hampered by Hisense’s lackluster VIDAA operating system.
Still, if you want the best bang for your buck when it comes to display quality alone – an admirable goal when buying a TV – then this is going to be hard to beat, especially if you’re a US buyer.
Specifications
- Sizes: 55/65″
- Model tested: 65 inches
- Display Technology: Mini-LED ULED
- Resolution: 3840×2160 4K
- Refresh rate: 60Hz
- HDR support: Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG
- HDMI: x3 (2.0)
- Tuner: FreeviewPlay
- Operating system: VIDAA or Google TV
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