Hisense is joining Toshiba, Insignia, Pioneer, and Amazon itself with its first-ever Fire TV Smart TV. The new Hisense U6HF Fire TV Smart TV is available in 50-inch and 58-inch sizes, although the larger size won’t be released until sometime this fall, with both sizes being 4K TVs. These new Fire TV Smart TVs are slotting in among the more premium offerings from other manufacturers with features like Dolby Vision, Quantum Dot QLED, Full Array Local Dimming, and a variable refresh rate.
Hisense’s first Fire TV Smart TVs support all popular flavors of high dynamic range video including Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and HDR10. These TVs are capable of 600 nits of peak brightness which is pretty good. It’s tough to know how that compares to other Fire TV Smart TVs because most Fire TV Smart TV manufacturers never included peak brightness specs. It’s probably safe to assume that these new Hisense TVs are among the brightest, if not the brightest, Fire TV Smart TVs available. For comparison, the 50-inch Toshiba C350 Series Fire TV Smart TV has a peak brightness of only 300 nits.
The panel on these Hisense TVs uses Quantum Dot QLED screens. These are only the second Fire TV Smart TVs to use QLED, with the first being the Insignia F50 Series Fire TV Smart TVs released last year. The advantage of QLED screens over standard LED screens is improved color gamut for more accurate and more vivid colors. QLED doesn’t do anything to improve black levels, but what does is full-array local dimming, which these TVs have. These are only the second Fire TV Smart TVs to feature local dimming, the first being the Toshiba M550 Series Fire TV Smart TVs, but those have 48 backlight zones while the new Hisense TVs have only 32 zones.
As for ports, the Hisense U6HF Fire TV Smart TV has four HDMI ports, of which at least one is an HDMI 2.1 port that is eARC capable. These TVs support auto low-latency mode as well as a variable refresh rate, which is ideal for modern gaming consoles, but they do use just a 60Hz screen. There’s also an AV IN port for analog video and a coax port for connecting an HD antenna to the built-in OTA tuner. Audio ports include optical audio out and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Connectivity comes in the form of an Ethernet port of unknown speed, 802.11ac WiFi 5, and Bluetooth. Lastly, there is a single USB port, also of unknown speed.
Unfortunately, nothing is known yet about what’s under the hood, like the CPU, GPU, amount of RAM, or internal storage. Those specs tend to trickle out later through Amazon’s developer documentation site, so I’ll follow up with another post about the guts of these TVs once more is known. Something else that is known, however, is that these TVs use Amazon’s standard Fire TV Smart TV remote which includes Alexa voice support and the standard array of buttons. The app shortcut buttons in this case are for Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu. These TVs do not support hands-free voice control, like the Amazon Omni or Toshiba M550 Series Fire TV Smart TVs.
The Hisense 50-inch U6HF Fire TV Smart TV is available to pre-order now for $529.99. It will be released on May 24th. The 58-inch version of the same TV is not yet listed on Amazon’s site but is expected to be available in the fall. Unlike most other Fire TV Smart TVs models in the US, these TVs are not being sold in Best Buy and are only available through Amazon.
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I have a Best Buy Insignia TV with the Fire TV OS built-in, and it’s noticeably than any of my other TVs that all have Fire Stick 4Ks. Could just be that model, but we know that if you keep the TV long enough you’ll be way behind the curve compared to the separate Fire Sticks, so I’m of the mind that I’ll never buy another TV with a built-in OS like that.
Curious, though, would attaching a separate Fire Stick work or would the built-in OS insist on being the only interface allowed? Anybody try this?
Hahaha – yup, just change the input :-) Just read my post below :-)
Cool. I’m going to try that. The Fire TVs are so cheap compared to others of similar specs, so I assume that Amazon is either taking a loss or subsidizing them in some way. But I didn’t want to end up with another frustrating TV. I’m going to test this with my Insignia and see if I notice a difference. Thanks!
The concept of the “dumb” TV without a built-in OS is essentially dead now. That’s because it is literally cheaper to make a smart TV than to make a dumb TV because the smart TV continues to generate profit after it is purchased, due to ads and content purchases on the OS. The question is no longer whether you should buy a dumb or smart TV. It’s more about making sure the TV will degrade well enough when you eventually need to just connect an external streaming device to it. All Fire TV Smart TVs, except for the 2017 ones made by Element and Westinghouse, let you turn a setting on that will power on the TV to the last input, so you never have to see the built-in OS if you don’t want to.
Thanks. That’s good to know. I didn’t think about a setting like that. I’ll have to look for that.
Of course, they did – I just bought a 65″ U8G. Thankfully I have a Fire Cube, so I get to benefit from the Fire TV interface. I had to disable the Google feature because it kept switching inputs on me, and I’d be stuck with the Google interface until I went back to the Cube input :-) I prefer Alexa.
Doses it have Dolby Atmos. Unless I missed it in Your Description of the Tvs. It Dose Not Have Dolby Atmos, DTS Master. Etc.
Like most TVs, it’ll pass Dolby Atmos through the HDMI ARC port to your surround sound system. The TV itself does not process Dolby Atmos.
Anecdotally, a relative of mine just bought the Insignia 65″ F50 series TV, which, as mentioned, also has the QLED technology, and the picture quality is absolutely stunning for a sub-$500 TV.
My issue, if you want to call it that, is this: I’d sure like to purchase the Amazon Omni 75″ 4k tv, but I don’t pull the trigger with it because of some of the set’s current poor specs. I wonder if Amazon will have an improved version of the Omni by at least Thanksgiving of this year. If so I will make my purchase of it in a NY heartbeat. ♐
I have two Hisense smart HDR 4K tv’s, and the picture on either tv is just fine. But also I use the fire stick and the fire cube and even do they both are smart, they both have Amazon prime built in. I still use my fire tv devices to do my streaming. On broadcast tv and any sports on live tv is amazing in 4k. No issues with gaming on either Hisense Tv. In my opinion never need to look at any other brand, Hisense is perfect for me.
Yes they do have a good name and are advertised and mentioned by the presenters on foxes sports australia.
Bought 395.00 hisense 50 inch Super bowl discount specifically for the bedroom!
Absolutely fantastic bang for the buck. Watch for 15 to 45 minutes in mornings and same at night.
Great Picture, and works well with the fire stick. Bright, sharp,clear picture! Not perfect but perfect tv for me.