Hisense has quietly gone from the “cheap and cheerful” TV brand to the company that keeps making the big guys look a bit silly on price, and the Hisense U8QAU 4K ULED Mini-LED is exactly that kind of TV. Here in Australia, where premium Mini‑LED and OLED sets regularly nudge well past the three‑grand mark for a decent size, the 65-inch U8QAU model is a steal at around just under $2,000 depending on where you shop.
And, it often dips lower during silly sales seasons while still actually being easy to find locally rather than being some mythical model that never ships here. Not to bury the lead but the U8QAU is the best non-OLED TV that I’ve ever seen and it’s shockingly not even close. The combination of brightness, contrast, AI features and some rather impressive gaming chops make it a no brainer for most people.
Out of the box, the U8Q just looks like a serious bit of kit: slim bezels, robust frame and a solid stand that keeps its chonkyness stable. This isn’t no slim OLED panel here, the Mini-LED backlighting system requires more depth making the U8QAU almost two inches thick. The extra girth allows for a 4.1.2 surround sound with side speakers, rear subwoofers, and upward-firing speakers that actually sounds great. There’s plenty of ports for connecting peripherals including 3x HDMI 2.1 and internally supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. At 65-inches, it’s not the biggest TV around but it’s heavy with sizes that go upto 75, 85 and 100-inches, I would be seriously worried about mounting on a wall bracket.
Turning on the U8QAU reveals Hisense’s Mini‑LED backlight that can push brightness up into silly territory for a living room TV, so HDR highlights actually punch through Aussie daylight instead of washing out whenever you forget to close the blinds. Colours are rich and saturated without going full cartoon, and once you flip into one of the more accurate modes like Filmmaker or a tweaked Cinema preset, skin tones look natural and dark scenes hold onto shadow detail instead of becoming grey mush.
The flip side is that off‑axis viewing is still LCD‑ish: move too far to the side and contrast and colour drop off, not to mention reflections, so this is a couch‑centric TV rather than one for a wide, wrap‑around seating arrangement. Additionally, the U8QAU doesn’t have a clever anti-reflective coating like Samsung’s impressive QN990F that almost completely stops any ambient reflections. It’s not an issue looking straight at the U8QAU but move to extreme off-axis and any bright windows will become noticeable. Nevertheless, the colors and contrast of the U8QAU are absolutely stunning and you could easily forget this isn’t OLED.
Where the U8Q really clicked for everyday use is how it handles the mix of content that actually gets watched: free‑to‑air sport, YouTube, Netflix(Stranger Things, am I right?), and a frankly unhealthy amount of 1080p anime and older shows. The upscaling from sub‑4K sources is surprisingly clean for this class, smoothing out lower‑resolution content without turning faces into plastic and keeping enough detail that 1080p still looks sharp on a 65‑inch screen. Motion handling is good overall, with some visible softness and minor artefacts in really fast scenes if you push the smoothing too far, but once the settings are dialled in it strikes a decent balance between soap‑opera weirdness and choppy sport.
Audio is another area where Hisense has clearly decided that “good enough” wasn’t enough this year. The built‑in multi‑speaker system with virtual Dolby Atmos throws sound wider and higher than the usual flat, tinny TV output, and for day‑to‑day viewing it holds its own without instantly demanding a soundbar. At really high volumes with heavy bass tracks or big action movies you can provoke some rough‑sounding low‑end and a bit of cabinet rattle but at normal listening levels it’s detailed, loud and clear enough to make movies and games feel big. Still, paired with a good soundbar like Samsung’s HW-Q990F and you are in for a world of cinematic joy.
On the software side, Hisense’s VIDAA OS feels a lot more polished than in earlier generations, with a clean home screen, quick app switching and all the usual local favourites like Netflix, Disney+, Stan, Prime Video and Kayo front and centre. The built‑in AI‑style features quietly do useful work in the background, from scene and content detection that nudges picture and motion settings into the right ballpark.
There’s also voice control and recommendations that actually surface things you might watch instead of random junk, so the TV feels smarter without constantly shouting about it. The best thing is that it just gets out of your way so you can quickly get to your content. Hisense includes a solar powered remote(also with USB charging) that has all the key functions at easy reach including shortcuts to Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video and Stan.
Built for Gamers
Gaming is where this TV goes from “good deal” to “why is everyone else not doing this yet?”. All three HDMI ports are full‑fat HDMI 2.1, so 4K 120 Hz with VRR and ALLM is basically plug‑and‑play for PS5 and Xbox Series X, and input lag in game mode is low enough that it just feels instant. But the real party trick is the USB‑C port that doubles as a DisplayPort‑style input, which is honestly the first time a TV in this house has let a laptop or PC just plug in over USB‑C and behave like a proper high‑refresh monitor.
Running a PC at up to 4K 165 Hz on a huge screen is ridiculous in the best way, and being able to go from desk to couch with a single cable is the kind of quality‑of‑life upgrade that makes every other TV setup feel suddenly dated. It’s not perfect – VRR doesn’t currently work over the USB‑C input and super‑high 1080p 288 Hz modes are HDMI‑only – but for most PC and console gamers this is still an absurdly flexible display.
Compared with LG’s QNED86, which tops out at 4K 120 Hz over HDMI and doesn’t have Display Port, the U8Q leans harder into enthusiast territory with higher peak brightness, punchier HDR and that genuinely game‑changing USB‑C DisplayPort input for PCs and laptops. But yeah, this is a great panel for gaming especially in HDR. The brightness means when a flashbang goes off in CoD BO7, you will be blinded. Turn to God of War and the U8QAU is just bursting with eye-popping colours. I didn’t spend nearly enough doing PC gaming but that high refresh rate on such a big screen is a hell of an experience.
One big ommission and where LG and Samsung beat Hisense is the lack of Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud gaming. Beyond licensing politics, I’m not sure the reason why this is missing as they are merely apps. Perhaps its a problem with Hisense custom Vidaa OS because the TV has a dedicated gaming hub like its rivals with free to play games that require a Bluetooth controller. It would have been nice to have support for those two streaming services.
Verdict
It’s simple really; the Hisense U8QAU is hands down the best Mini-LED TV in its category and its not even close. The picture quality is so close to OLED that sometimes I forget it’s not, with excellet AI upscaling and various picture profiles that are great no matter the content. Gaming is phenomenal too with both consoles and PC’s and the only thing missing being support for Nvidia Geforce Now and Xbox Cloud.
Furthermore, the Hisense U8QAU is often much cheaper than rivals from LG and Samsung which combined with all these pro’s leaves very little indeed to complain about. This is one helluva TV that is a loud statement in the market proving that Hisense is at the top of the game. Got get it.
Hisense Australia kindly loaned the U8QAU to PowerUp for the purpose of this review.
