With this yr’s H9G, Hisense continues its pattern of delivering greater than competent TVs at greater than cheap costs. While this newest revision presents comparatively delicate enhancements over final yr’s H9F, that’s merely making what was already an excellent TV higher.
Design and specs
The H9G sports activities a 10-bit, 3840 x 2160 (4K UHD) panel with array backlighting and is rated for 700 nits of peak brightness. That permits it to do justice to the Dolby Vision and HDR10 content material it helps. Google Assitant is on board, and the Android TV working system means plenty of good performance by way of apps. The H9G I examined was a 55-inch class (54.5-inches diagonally); a 65-inch class H9G can be out there for $950.
This assessment is a part of TechHive’s protection of the best smart TVs, the place you will discover evaluations of competing merchandise, plus a purchaser’s information to the options it’s best to contemplate when buying.
Physically, the 55-incher measures 48.5 inches broad, 28.2 inches tall, and 3.9 inches thick. Make that 10.2 inches thick with the mid-mounted legs. There’s a 400mm x 300mm VESA mount level (proven beneath) for wall hanging.
The again of the Hisense H9G. Why the corporate determined to cover the ports (they’re positioned the place that grey rectangle is on the right-hand aspect of this image) is a thriller.
The H9G is a reasonably customary design with the electronics housed in a bustle on the decrease again of the rear of the unit. It has a skinny bezel, however in particular person, it’s not fairly as skinny as the photographs make it appear. If such issues trouble you, watch extra compelling content material.
The H9G’s ports embrace 4 HDMI and legacy inputs.
When it involves connectivity, the H9G has the typical consumer greater than lined. There are 4 HDMI ports (ARC is supported, however not eARC), two USB ports, coax for an over-the-air antenna or cable/satellite tv for pc set-top field, plus RCA inputs for stereo audio and composite video, in addition to a Toslink optical digital audio and 3.5mm headphone outputs. The Wi-Fi is 802.11ac and there’s a Bluetooth radio onboard.
The H9G is solidly constructed, and due to its comparatively thick decrease portion, it doesn’t exhibit a variety of flex. Despite that, it weighs in rather less than 40 kilos. I had no points wrangling it myself, however you would possibly need to enlist a buddy simply to be secure.
Interface and distant
The H9G is an Android TV with all of the goodness that now entails. The crash-happy Android TV working system of some years in the past is gone—the multimedia app that I used to play movies saved on USB sticks was rock strong. Indeed, I’ve gone from hating Android TV to being fairly keen on it. And geez, if you need apps, you possibly can’t beat it.
Hisense’s Android house display screen will not be almost as busy as this exhibits. Apparently, Netflix contributed funds for this picture.
The H9G’s distant is generic in design, albeit environment friendly the place the rubber meets the street: your fingers. The keypad, rocker cursor and choice buttons, and particularly the devoted transport controls (play/pause, fast-forward, and so forth.) are sensibly laid out. There are additionally 4 particular operate buttons (RGYB) that allow the distant to manage cable/satellite tv for pc TV set-top bins and different gadgets. Voice instructions by way of Google Assistant are additionally supported, for individuals who like speaking to their tech. If you favor Alexa, you will want an outboard good speaker or the Alexa app in your cell gadget.
Hisense’s HG9 distant is well-organized, however it could be shorter and fewer wieldy with out the shortcut buttons on the backside.
I hear from customers who love the promoting/shortcut buttons are are more and more widespread on a lot of these remotes, and I’m guessing if I used any of these providers, I would as effectively. Actually, I do use YouTube, however I can’t assist however suppose that this considerably giant distant can be extra comfy with out them. That’s a particularly minor gripe and I anticipate disagreement. It’s high quality. I by no means thought twice about it, however I’m paid for my opinions.
Picture and sound
With the introduction of array backlighting within the H9F iteration, the H9’s picture turned much more succesful when it comes to usable brightness and HDR rendering. The declare of 700 nits is nearly on the right track. That’s sufficient, mixed with the respectable blacks the H9G renders, to ship a lovely HDR impact more often than not.
In reality, the array backlighting algorithm (there are roughly 130 to 140 zones), proved very efficient below the vast majority of circumstances. It did nice on the Sony Las Vegas nighttime skyline video, and that’s not one thing I can say about many TVs on this worth vary.
The solely take a look at the place the zone dimming methodology proved barely suspect was in rendering a starfield, the place the bleed produced an ever-changing, mutating gaseous cloud impact. But that’s like saying bushes have branches. No LED-backlit LCD TV handles starfields effectively—that’s OLED territory.
Beyond that, the colours are correct and wealthy (par for the course with quantum dots), movement compensation is great even at reasonable settings, and there was little in the way in which of distortion or cloudiness with an all-white background.
If I had been to complain about something, it’s that high quality element—even when pushing the sharpness setting—was not significantly spectacular. On the opposite hand, there was little moiré or shimmer in pans. Personally, I recognize the trade-off; even detail-obsessed Samsung has backed off a notch with its 2020 TVs.
Hisense’s H9G delivers nice image high quality for the value.
The H9G’s audio output received’t blow you away; nevertheless, it’s high quality for informal listening. If you’re utilizing it in the lounge or for intensive film viewing, you’ll want to plug it into one thing with extra readability and oomph. At least for the blockbusters.
The H9G additionally helps Bluetooth headphones, which is the most cost effective option to remedy its audio shortcomings. The latency between lips transferring and dialog was fairly livable, albeit noticeable in the event you discover such issues irritating. It didn’t trouble me within the least, and is infinitely higher than listening to my neighbors pound on the partitions.
A great purchase
I wouldn’t complain in any respect if the H9G was sitting on my TV stand. Okay, the dresser that serves that function. For the cash it’s a wonderful HDR TV that suffers no evident weaknesses. Good job, Hisense.