We’re still several weeks away from CES 2022, but don’t tell Hisense that. The company has decided it doesn’t need a big, splashy Las Vegas show to show off its big, splashy new Roku TV, which also happens to be its first Roku TV to offer 8K resolution: The Hisense U800GR, which is available December 8 from Best Buy and Amazon for $2,700.
The U800GR packs Hisense’s ULED display technology, which in this case means a quantum dot LED panel with a native 120Hz refresh rate and up to 1,000 nits of brightness. Gamers will appreciate the extra smoothness this brings to their fast-action games, as well as the TV’s support of auto low-latency mode (ALLM) and variable refresh rate (VRR). You get Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support, in addition to HDR10 and HLG. Hisense says there are 180 local dimming zones for better contrast and black levels.
Around the back of the TV, you’ll find two HDMI 2.0 ports and two HDMI 2.1 ports, one of which has support for HDMI ARC and eARC. Hisense doesn’t get into too many details on its website, but we’d be surprised if these ports didn’t handle 4K at 120Hz and 8K at 60Hz too.
Hisense says that its 8K Upscaler analyzes content frame by frame and automatically adjusts the displayed image to deliver greater clarity and depth, regardless of the content resolution.
In the box, you’ll get the new Roku Voice Remote Pro, and the U800GR has built-in support for Apple’s HomeKit and AirPlay 2 technologies. The TV is also compatible with (and can be controlled by) Alexa and Google Assistant if you own a separate smart speaker.
The U800GR isn’t the only 8K Roku TV you can buy. Earlier in 2021, TCL debuted its 8K Roku TV 6-Series TVs, for $3,000 for a 75-inch model. Right now, it’s down to $2,700, the same price as the U800GR. The biggest difference between the two TVs is that the TCL uses mini-LED technology for its backlight, giving it 240 local dimming zones versus the 800GR’s 180 zones.
Curious whether the U800GR can outperform the 6-Series despite its lack of mini-LEDs? We’ll hopefully get a model in for testing soon. In the meantime, these are the best Roku TVs you can buy.
