The Hisense U6/U6N is a budget-friendly TV released in 2024 and replaces the Hisense U6/U6K. It's the entry-level model in Hisense's 2024 ULED lineup, sitting below the Hisense U7N and the Hisense U8/U8N. It doesn't have the same gaming features as the more expensive models, like HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and a black frame insertion, but it's still capable of 4k @ 60Hz with VRR and HDR enabled, and you can also game in up to 1440p @ 120Hz if you'd prefer a higher frame rate. The TV does have a local dimming feature meant to improve contrast, and it uses Hisense's Hi-View Engine chipset that's designed to optimize certain settings to improve the user's viewing experience. The TV uses the Google TV interface, which is loaded with apps and offers smart features like voice control, and it has a built-in 20W 2.0 channel speaker system. We bought and tested the 65-inch model, but it's available in four sizes total: 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch.
The Hisense U6N is a good TV for mixed usage. Unfortunately, the TV isn't well-suited for use in a group setting due to its narrow viewing angle. Still, it looks fantastic in a dark room due to its high contrast ratio, although there's some noticeable blooming around bright highlights when they're against a dark background. It also performs well in a bright room due to its very good SDR brightness, but its handling of direct reflections isn't great, so you'll want to avoid placing a lamp directly in front of the screen. The TV's fast response time is great for watching sports and playing video games with minimal blur, but the TV doesn't have HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and is limited to 4k @ 60Hz, so it's not the best option if you're looking to get the most out of your modern console or gaming PC.
The Hisense U6N is decent for watching TV shows. The Google TV interface is loaded with apps, so it's easy to find the newest popular shows. Its very good SDR brightness and satisfactory reflection handling means it overcomes some glare in a bright room, although direct reflections from lights placed in front of the screen are noticeable. The TV has good upscaling capabilities, so low-resolution content doesn't look too soft, but its low-quality content smoothing is poor, so low-bitrate streams or cable channels have noticeable artifacts. Unfortunately, the TV's narrow viewing angle makes it a poor choice for watching shows with friends since the image quickly degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen.
The Hisense U6N is decent for watching sports. The TV has a very good response time, so there's minimal blur behind fast-moving players. Its very good SDR brightness and satisfactory reflection handling make it suitable for a well-lit room, but lights placed directly in front of the screen cause noticeable reflections. The TV's gray uniformity is only decent; there's some dirty screen effect in the center of the screen, and the edges of the screen are noticeably dimmer than the middle, which is most noticeable when watching sports with large areas of uniform color, like football and hockey. Unfortunately, the image degrades when viewed from the sides of the screen due to its narrow viewing angle, so it's not a good option for watching the game with a group of friends.
The Hisense U6N is very good for playing video games. It has a very good response time and incredibly low input lag, so there's minimal blur behind fast motion, and you get a responsive gaming experience. Using PC/Game Mode doesn't negatively impact the TV's image, so you don't have to worry about trading in picture quality for performance. The TV supports up to 4k @ 60Hz and VRR for a nearly tear-free gaming experience, but you can also game in 1080p or 1440p @ 120Hz if you prefer a higher frame rate over resolution. Unfortunately, the TV's VRR feature doesn't work @ 120Hz, so you'll have to stick with 60Hz if you want to use that feature.
The Hisense U6N is good for watching movies in a dark room. It has fantastic contrast that delivers deep blacks in a dark room, and they mostly stay deep when brighter highlights are also on screen. The TV supports a wide color gamut for lifelike and vibrant colors, but its HDR brightness is only okay, so brighter highlights don't stand out the way they should. The TV removes 24p judder from any source, so you get a judder-free movie-watching experience regardless of the source. Unfortunately, the TV's pre-calibration SDR accuracy is disappointing, so it requires calibration if you care about accurate colors in SDR.
The Hisense U6N is very good for playing games in HDR. The TV has fantastic contrast and okay HDR brightness, so some highlights stand out well enough in darker games, but the TV isn't bright enough to display most highlights with impact. Fortunately, you don't lose any brightness while using PC/Game Mode, so you get the best possible performance without sacrificing picture quality. The TV's very good response time provides fast motion with minimal blur, and its incredibly low input lag delivers a responsive gaming experience. The TV supports up to 4k @ 60Hz with VRR, and you also have the option of gaming in 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz. Unfortunately, VRR doesn't work @ 120Hz, so you'll have to pick between a higher frame rate or a nearly tear-free gaming experience.
The Hisense U6N is very good for use as a PC monitor. The TV delivers a responsive desktop experience thanks to its incredibly low input lag, and its very good response time provides minimal blur behind quick cursor movements and other fast motion. The TV has very good SDR brightness and satisfactory reflection handling that make it useable in a well-lit room, but it doesn't perform very well with direct reflections, so you'll want to avoid placing a lamp in front of the screen. Unfortunately, the TV's gray uniformity is only decent, so there's some noticeable dirty screen effect in the center of the screen, and the edges of the screen are darker than the center, which is distracting when looking at large areas of uniform color, like when browsing the web. The TV displays chroma 4:4:4 properly, but since it uses a BGR subpixel layout, there are some minor text clarity issues that will bother some people.
We bought and tested the 65-inch Hisense U6N, and the results are also valid for the 55-inch and 85-inch models. The 75-inch model uses an ADS Pro panel, so it performs a bit differently than the other sizes, with worse contrast but a better viewing angle. In Canada, the TV is known as the Hisense U68N and performs the same. There are similarly named international models, like the U6NAU in Australia, but these models perform differently from the North American U6N, so our results aren't valid for them.
Size | US Model | Local Dimming Zones | Panel Type |
---|---|---|---|
55" | Hisense 55U6N | 160 | VA |
65" | Hisense 65U6N | 240 | VA |
75" | Hisense 75U6N | 240 | ADS Pro |
85" | Hisense 85U6N | 512 | VA |
Our unit was manufactured in February 2024, and you can see the label here.
The Hisense U6/U6N is one of the best budget-friendly TVs on the market and outperforms similarly priced models from brands like LG, Samsung, and Sony. Its standout feature is its contrast, which has been drastically improved over last year's Hisense U6/U6K. The TV delivers very deep blacks that rival those found on much more expensive TVs, although there's some noticeable blooming. The TV doesn't have the HDMI 2.1 bandwidth found on the higher-tier Hisense U7N, but it's still a capable gaming TV, supporting up to 4k @ 60Hz with VRR. You can even choose to game in up to 1440p @ 120Hz if you'd rather have a higher frame rate. Unfortunately, its VRR feature doesn't work @ 120Hz, which limits its usefulness for gamers looking for a nearly tear-free gaming experience.
It's comparable to TVs like the TCL Q5/Q550G QLED and the TCL Q6/Q650G QLED, but the TCL models are a bit better for gamers since 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz work properly with VRR on them. Still, the Hisense U6N provides much better overall picture quality than the TCL models, mainly due to its local dimming feature that delivers significantly better contrast. If you're looking for an affordable TV that looks good and performs well overall, the U6N is hard to beat.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best TVs under $1,000, the best 65-inch TVs, and the best TVs for gaming.
The Hisense U6/U6N is mostly better than the TCL Q6/Q650G QLED. The Hisense has the edge in terms of pure picture quality due to its much better contrast, meaning it displays deeper blacks. The Hisense is also better suited for a home theater since it supports DTS audio, has better upscaling capabilities, and removes judder from any source. Both TVs allow you to drop your resolution and play in up to 1440p @ 120Hz, but VRR doesn't work on the Hisense when doing that, so the TCL is the better option for gamers looking for a tear-free gaming experience.
The TCL Q7/Q750G QLED is better than the Hisense U6/U6N. The TCL has better SDR brightness, meaning it overcomes more glare in a bright room. The TCL also has better HDR brightness and PQ EOTF tracking, so it displays brighter highlights and stays closer to the content creator's intent with HDR content. The TCL has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, supports up to 4k @ 144Hz, and has a better VRR feature, so it's the better option for gamers looking to get the most out of their modern consoles or gaming PCs.
The Hisense U6/U6N is better than the Hisense U6/U6K in most ways. The U6N has a higher contrast ratio and much better black uniformity for deeper blacks in a dark room, and its slightly better HDR brightness makes highlights stand out a bit more in HDR content. The U6N also has better SDR brightness, meaning it overcomes more glare in a room with the lights on. Additionally, the U6N has a faster response time for less blur behind quick motion, supports DTS audio formats, and has slightly better upscaling capabilities. On the other hand, the U6K is the more accurate TV in both SDR and HDR due to its much better pre-calibration accuracy and better PQ EOTF tracking.
The Hisense U6/U6N is better than the Hisense A6/A65K. The A65K doesn't have a local dimming feature, whereas the U6N has very effective local dimming to greatly improve its contrast, so it looks much better in a dark room. The U6N is also the brighter TV overall, meaning it fights more glare in a bright room while watching SDR content, and highlights in HDR content stand out more. Both TVs aren't the greatest for gaming since they both lack HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, but the U6N has the edge due to its faster response time and support for up to 1440p @ 120Hz.
The Hisense U7N is better than the Hisense U6/U6N. With local dimming turned on, the U7N has better contrast for deeper blacks in a dark room, with slightly less noticeable zone transitions. The U7N is better suited for use in a bright room due to its better SDR brightness and reflection handling, meaning it overcomes more glare. The U7N is also the better gaming TV due to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, up to 4k @ 144Hz support, and faster response time.
The Hisense U8/U8N is much better than the Hisense U6/U6N. The U8N has the more effective local dimming feature, which delivers very deep blacks that are approaching those found on OLED TVs, with less blooming. The U8N also has much better SDR brightness and reflection handling, meaning it overcomes glare in the brightest of rooms. When it comes to HDR, the U8N has much better HDR brightness, which means it displays brighter highlights that really pop out, and its wider color gamut and better color volume deliver brighter and more vibrant colors. If you're looking for a Hisense TV to pair with your Xbox, PS5, or gaming PC, the U8N is the better choice due to its faster response time, HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, and support for up to 4k @ 144Hz.
The Hisense U6/U6N is better than the TCL Q6/Q651G QLED. Thanks to its local dimming feature, the Hisense displays much deeper blacks, so it looks better in a dark room. The Hisense also looks better in a bright room since it overcomes more glare, and it provides a more impactful HDR experience thanks to its wider color gamut and better HDR brightness. The Hisense allows you to drop your resolution to play in up to 1440p @ 120Hz, but VRR doesn’t work when you do that. However, the TCL can output up to 1440p @ 120Hz with VRR active, so it’s the better option for gamers.
The Hisense U6/U6N is mostly better than the Sony BRAVIA 3. The Hisense has a local dimming feature that drastically improves the TV's contrast, so it delivers much deeper blacks in a dark room. The Hisense also has a faster response time, so there's less blur behind quick motion in sports and video games. Although both TVs don't have HDMI 2.1 bandwidth or support for 4k @ 120Hz, the Hisense supports VRR, and you can game in up to 1440p @ 120Hz, so it's the better option for gamers. However, the Sony does have better image processing; it does a slightly better job at upscaling and a significantly better job at removing artifacts from low-quality content.
The Hisense U7G is better than the Hisense U6/U6N in most ways. The U7G is the brighter TV overall, so it overcomes more glare in a bright room and displays brighter highlights in HDR content. The U7G is also more suitable for gamers due to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth and 4k @ 120Hz support. However, the U6N has better contrast with less blooming due to its better local dimming feature, so it looks better in a dark room.
The Hisense U6/U6N is much better than the LG UT7570. The Hisense is much brighter overall, so it overcomes a lot more glare in a bright room and displays brighter highlights in HDR content. The Hisense has a massive advantage when it comes to contrast since it has an effective local dimming feature that delivers much deeper blacks in a dark room. The Hisense also has a wide color gamut, so it displays more vibrant and lifelike colors. Finally, the Hisense is better for gamers due to its faster response time and the ability to game in up to 1440p @ 120Hz.
The Hisense U6/U6N is much better than the Hisense A6G. HDR content looks much better on the U6N due to its wider color gamut for more vibrant colors and its better HDR brightness for more impactful highlights. Whether you're watching SDR or HDR content, the U6N looks much better in a dark room thanks to its local dimming feature, which greatly increases the TV's contrast and allows it to display much deeper blacks. The U6N also looks better in a bright room due to its ability to overcome more glare. Finally, the U6N is the better gaming TV due to its VRR support, quicker response time, and support for up to 1440p @ 120Hz.
The Hisense U6N is pretty much identical to last year's Hisense U6/U6K. It has a simple design with thin bezels on the top and sides and a slightly thicker bezel on the bottom.
The TV uses two feet that don't take up a lot of space. They lift the TV about 3.11 inches, so most soundbars fit underneath without blocking the screen. The feet are adjustable to two different positions. The wider position (pictured above) is great for placing a soundbar between the feet, and the narrow position brings the feet close together and is great for placing the TV on a smaller table.
Footprint of the stand in the wide position: 46.42" x 11.93".
Footprint of the stand in the narrow position: 27.64" x 11.93".
Besides the darker color, the back of the TV is identical to last year's Hisense U6/U6K. The top section is metallic, and the section that houses the inputs is made of plastic. Most of the inputs are side-facing and easy to access if you have the TV mounted flush to the wall. However, the HDMI 4, Ethernet, and digital audio out ports located on the back aren't easily accessible if you have it wall-mounted. Unfortunately, the TV doesn't come with any clips to help with cable management.
The TV has alright build quality. It's mostly made of plastic that feels cheap, so it wobbles front to back in both feet positions when pushed, and there's quite a bit of flex on the back of the TV towards the middle and around the inputs. There are no major issues with quality control, but there's some debris behind the panel of our unit that's distracting with some content.
The TV has decent overall lighting zone transitions, but it struggles with fast-moving content. There's noticeable haloing, and the leading edge of bright, quick-moving objects is visibly dimmer.
The Hisense U6N has just okay HDR brightness. Some highlights stand out a bit in darker scenes, but the TV's HDR brightness isn't good enough to display brighter highlights with impact.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
Results with Dynamic Tone Mapping set to 'On':
There's no noticeable difference in HDR brightness when the TV is set to PC/Game Mode.
These measurements are after calibrating the HDR white point with the following settings:
Results with Dynamic Tone Mapping set to 'On':
The TV has satisfactory PQ EOTF tracking. With content mastered at 600 and 1000 nits, the TV displays shadows and mid-tones dimmer than intended, and there's a gradual roll-off to preserve some detail in highlights that are brighter than what the TV is capable of. With content mastered at 4000 nits, everything is displayed much darker than intended, and the gradual roll-off happens much sooner.
The Hisense U6N has very good SDR brightness, and it overcomes some glare in bright rooms.
These measurements are after calibration with the following settings:
The TV has a very good HDR color gamut. It has outstanding coverage of the commonly used DCI-P3 color space, with great color accuracy. The TV has decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space, but very saturated colors are undersaturated and mostly off the mark.
The TV has decent color volume. Dark saturated colors are displayed well due to the TV's fantastic contrast. On the other hand, the TV can't display most colors at high luminance levels.
The Hisense U6N has poor pre-calibration SDR accuracy. Its white balance is bad, with greens underrepresented and blues and reds overrepresented in most shades of gray. Gamma is close to our target of 2.2, but most scenes are displayed darker than intended. Its color accuracy is alright, but there are inaccuracies with all colors, and whites and lighter shades of most colors are noticeably inaccurate. Fortunately, the TV's color temperature is almost perfect at our target of 6500K.
The TV has fantastic SDR accuracy after calibration, and the TV is easy to calibrate. Any issues with white balance are gone, and the gamma is close to perfect. Color accuracy is outstanding, with only some minor inaccuracies that aren't noticeable to most people.
You can see our full calibration settings here.
The TV has just decent gray uniformity. There's some noticeable dirty screen effect towards the center of the screen, and the edges of the screen are noticeably darker than the center. On a very dark or near-black screen, its uniformity is great, but the left side is lighter than the rest of the screen.
The Hisense U6N has superb black uniformity. With local dimming disabled, blacks are slightly cloudy and blueish. With local dimming enabled, blacks are deep and uniform across the screen, with only a bit of blooming around bright objects on a dark background.
The Hisense U6N has an inadequate viewing angle, so it's not suitable for a wide seating arrangement. As you move off-center, there's significant gamma shifting, color shifting, and brightness loss, and colors look increasingly washed out as you move further away to the sides.
The TV has satisfactory reflection handling. Its semi-gloss screen finish significantly reduces the intensity of indirect reflections, like when glare from a ceiling light isn't directly facing the screen. Unfortunately, the TV's handling of direct reflections is only okay, so reflections caused by something like a lamp positioned in front of the screen are distracting.
The TV has satisfactory HDR gradient handling. There's noticeable banding in dark greens, dark blues, and dark grays, but all other colors have minimal banding.
The Hisense U6N does a good job at upscaling low-resolution content like DVDs or lower-resolution streams. Details are clear enough, but finer details are hard to make out.
Sharpness processing was calibrated with no over-sharpening for low-resolution content, with the following settings:
The TV uses a BGR (Blue-Green-Red) subpixel layout instead of the traditional RGB layout. For video or gaming content, this doesn't cause any issues, but for PC monitor use, it can be a problem as it impacts the text clarity, although not everyone will notice this.
The TV uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight, which introduces flicker that can bother people who are sensitive to it. Fortunately, it flickers at a very fast 7800Hz in all picture modes and at all brightness levels, so it's not noticeable.
The TV doesn't have an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion (BFI), to help reduce persistence blur.
The TV has an optional motion interpolation feature to improve the clarity of motion, but it doesn't work very well. Even slower-moving scenes have some noticeable artifacts. The TV really struggles in faster-moving scenes, and there are distracting artifacts and haloing, and at times, the TV stops interpolating altogether.
Due to the TV's quick response time, there's some noticeable stutter when watching movies or TV shows, and it's most apparent in slow panning shots.
The TV gives a judder-free experience from any source with the 'Motion Enhancement: Film' setting turned on.
The TV supports every VRR technology to reduce screen-tearing. Unfortunately, VRR doesn't work in 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz. Its usefulness is also limited when gaming @ 60Hz since it doesn't support sources with Low-Frame-Compensation (LFC), so you get screen-tearing when your frame rate dips below 48 fps.
If you want a similarly priced TV that can do 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz with VRR active, take a look at the TCL Q6/Q651G QLED.
The TV has incredibly low input lag when set to PC/Game Mode, which ensures a very responsive gaming experience with very little delay between your actions with your controller or mouse and the action on-screen.
The TV supports all common resolutions up to 4k @ 60Hz. Unfortunately, 1080p and 1440p @ 120Hz only work with VRR disabled. 1440p only works on PCs since it requires a forced resolution.
The Hisense U6N supports 4k @ 60Hz and 1080p @ 120Hz on the PS5. It supports VRR for a nearly tear-free gaming experience, but VRR doesn't work properly when gaming in 1080p @ 120Hz. The TV supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about manually switching to PC/Game Mode to get the lowest input lag.
The Hisense U6N supports 4k @ 60Hz and 1080p @ 120Hz on the Xbox Series X|S. It supports VRR for a nearly tear-free gaming experience, but VRR doesn't work properly when gaming in 1080p @ 120Hz. Fortunately, the TV does support Dolby Vision gaming in 4k @ 60Hz. The TV also supports Auto Low Latency Mode, so you don't have to worry about manually switching to PC/Game Mode to get the lowest input lag.
The TV is limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth on all four HDMI ports. Unlike the Hisense U7N, the TV only has an ATSC 1.0 tuner, so you can't watch 4k content over the air.
The TV supports eARC, which lets you pass high-quality, uncompressed audio to a compatible receiver or soundbar through an HDMI cable. It supports all major audio formats, so you don't have to worry about compatibility with external sources.
The TV has a sub-par frequency response. Like most TVs, the bass is pretty much non-existent. Dialogue is clear enough at moderate listening levels, but the sound becomes increasingly unbalanced as you raise the volume. This is unfortunate since the speakers don't get very loud, so it's best suited for a quiet environment.
The TV's distortion performance is great. There's barely any audible distortion at moderate volume levels, and there's only a bit of distortion at maximum volume.
The TV has a fantastic selection of apps, so finding your favorite content is easy. You can also cast content from your phone onto the TV or play videos directly from a USB stick.
The TV comes with Hisense's newly designed, backlit remote. It has buttons for popular streaming services, and you can use the built-in microphone to switch inputs, change apps, search within apps, and ask for the weather and time. Unfortunately, you can't change the TV's settings using the voice controls.