Skip to main content

Hisense’s 2021 TV lineup: 8K, Dual-Cell, and gamer-friendly features

Today, in a hilarious prerecorded video hosted by Community’s Joel McHale, Hisense launched its 2021 smart TV lineup, which includes the company’s first 8K Roku TV and the first TV in the U.S. to offer Dual-Cell technology. What will these TVs cost, when can you buy them, and exactly which features can you expect? We’ve got all of the details.

U9DG Series: 4K ULED XD TV with Dual-Cell Technology

2021 Hisense U9DG Dual-Cell 4K TV
Hisense

You’re probably familiar with terms like quantum dots, HDR, and 4K resolution, but Hisense’s new U9DG Series brings a new buzzword: Dual-Cell technology.

What is it? In short, it’s a second “luminance control” LCD panel that sits between the TV’s LED backlight and the main LCD panel. This sandwiched panel produces the same image as the main panel, but only works in black and white. It’s a clever way of getting around the tricky business of making LED backlights smaller and smaller in order to increase the number of dimmable backlight zones.

Each pixel in the black-and-white LCD panel effectively becomes its own backlight control zone — there are 2 million of them — which lets Hisense significantly increase its control over image brightness and contrast. One of the big benefits of this system is that it effectively eliminates blooming — the halo of light that can sometimes appear in dark areas of the screen that sit adjacent to bright areas. The TV’s light passes through these two layers, thus the “dual-cell” name.

Despite the fact that the light has to pass though two layers, Hisense still claims 1,000 nit peak brightness, which should yield very good HDR performance.

Beyond the new dual-cell tech, the U9DG also sports a huge array of other features like:

The U9DG will only come in a 75-inch screen size and will sell for $3,500 when it’s released in summer 2021.

U800GR Series: 8K Roku TV

2021 Hisense U800 8K Roku TV
HIsense

With the U800GR, Hisense officially joins the 8K race and does so in style with a Roku TV. The U800GR has 4x the resolution of 4K TVs, or 33 million pixels for those who like really, really big numbers.

To get a crisp 8K image, Hisense uses an 8K Upscaler, which analyzes HD and 4K pictures frame-by-frame and automatically adjusts for the 8K display.

This model sports a native 120Hz panel, up to 180 local dimming zones, and up to 1,000-nit peak brightness.

As a Roku TV, it has all of the features that make Roku such a strong smart TV streaming platform, such as:

  • A customizable home screen
  • Access to over 250,000 free movies and TV episodes
  • Search across channels with returned results in order by price
  • AirPlay 2
  • Roku voice remote
  • Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility
  • Apple Siri and HomeKit
  • Private Listening

Other feature include HDMI 2.1, Quantum dot color, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and 480 Motion Rate.

The U800GR will only come in a 75-inch screen size and will sell for $3,200 when it’s released in summer 2021.

U8G Series: 1,500-nit peak brightness

2021 Hisense U8G 4K TV
Hisense

In 2020, Hisense blew us away with its H9G, a 4K TV with truly impressive 1,000-nit peak brightness. For 2021, that bright torch gets handed to the U8G, which Hisense claims can muster even more brightness: 1,500 nits!

That kind of achingly bright performance sets up the U8G to be an ideal choice for rooms with big windows and lots of natural light. When you combine the U8G’s brightness and its anti-glare, anti-reflection screen, it should look stellar no matter how much ambient light it has to contend with.

As with the U9DG and U800GR, the U8G is loaded with leading-edge features, including:

  • Quantum Dot color
  • Dolby Vision IQ
  • HDMI 2.1
  • 10,000:1 contrast ratio
  • Up to 360 full-array local dimming (FALD) zones
  • IMAX-enhanced
  • Filmmaker Mode
  • VRR and FreeSync Premium
  • HDR10+/HDR10
  • Dolby Atmos,
  • eARC
  • WiSA Ready
  • 120Hz native display
  • Android TV with hands-free Google Assistant

The U8G will be available in May, with two screen size options:

Read our Hisense U8G in-depth review

U7G Series

2021 Hisense U7G 4K TV
Hisense

Hisense is positioning the new U7G Series (formerly the H8 Series) as its leading choice for gamers. In truth, the U9DG, U800GR, and U8G will also be excellent for gaming, but the U7G is Hisense’s most affordable way to access the most gamer-friendly features.

The key to the U7G’s gaming chops is its support for HDMI 2.1. This brings variable refresh rate (VRR), auto low-latency mode (ALLM), and 4K at 120Hz for super-smooth visuals. Hisense also bundles in FreeSync Premium VRR, which makes the U7G a great companion for PC and console games that use this feature.

There’s also a new Game Mode Pro, which Hisense says can recognize gaming sequences and automatically optimize display settings.

You also get:

  • Quantum dot color
  • Up to 120 FALD zones
  • 1,000-nit peak brightness
  • IMAX-enhanced
  • Filmmaker Mode
  • Dolby Vision IQ
  • HDR10+/HDR10/HLG
  • Dolby Atmos
  • eARC
  • WiSA Ready
  • Android TV with hands-free Google Assistant
  • Chromecast

The U7G Series will be available in summer 2021 in three sizes:

  • 55-inch, $750
  • 65-inch, $950
  • 75-inch, $1,400

U6G Series

2021 Hisense U6G 4K TV
Hisense

Hisense’s ULED technology, which combines hardware and software to produce a high level of overall performance, is now available at a more affordable price with the U6G Series.

While not quite as bright as the other 2021 models (600-nit peak brightness), the U6G is nonetheless packed with an impressive number of high-end features:

  • Quantum dot color
  • Dolby Vision
  • HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG
  • 60Hz refresh rate
  • Up to 60 FALD zones
  • 600-nit peak brightness
  • Dolby Atmos
  • Filmmaker Mode
  • Auto low-latency mode (ALLM)
  • Android TV
  • Google Assistant
  • Chromecast

You can buy the U6G Series now, in four sizes:

Editors' Recommendations

Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like…
TCL’s 8K 6-Series mini-LED TVs are shockingly affordable
A TCL 8K 6-Series TV showing THX's Certified Game Mode.

TCL has been teasing us for months, making us wait to hear how much the company will charge for its 8K resolution 6-Series mini-LED QLED TVs. Now we know, and boy, was it worth the wait. The 75-inch model is just $3,000, while the smaller, 65-inch version rings in at $2,200. They both go on sale today with limited availability at major retailers.

To put those prices in perspective, LG and Samsung -- the only other companies that have mini-LED-based 8K TVs in 2021 -- charge $3,500 for their most affordable 65-inch models and $4,800 for their 75-inch models.

Read more
Vizio’s entire 2021 TV line-up: Gaming-friendly models start at $250
Vizio 2021 TVs

For many, Vizio strikes the sweet spot between budget brands and high-end ones, providing quality tech at reasonable prices. In recent years, that has meant 4K and OLED TVs at prices that undercut the likes of LG and Sony, while producing picture quality and feature sets that are at least in the same ballpark as its more expensive competitors.

That said, the company's offerings tend to be of particular interest to consumers who want a quality home theater experience, but may not want to spring for the absolute top-of-the-line in terms of cost. If you fall into that category, get ready to meet Vizio's entire lineup of 4K Ultra HD TVs for 2021. Below, we break down the specs, features, and prices to help you decide whether any of these displays will end up mounted on your wall or propped atop your TV stand.
P-Series TVs

Read more
4K vs. 1080p vs. 720p TV: What’s the difference?
Sony Z8H TV

Buying a new TV can be a fun-filled adventure -- but also an agonizing nightmare. In stores and online, you're bombarded with terms like HDR, OLED, QLED, 4K Ultra HD and Full HD. But what do they mean? Well, the latter two are resolutions, and they're used to indicate the number of pixels on a screen. As far as TV lingo goes, the more pixels there are, the better the picture quality. To understand why, though, we have to look at each resolution a bit more closely. Only then can you start considering what screen size is best and finally start taking a look at our list of the best 4K TVs to find the television of your dreams.
Pixels
Pixels are the building blocks for every display you've ever seen. They're tiny little dots that, together, make up the picture you see on a screen. You can only see these pixels if you're fairly close to the screen, of course. From a proper viewing distance, thousands of them blend to make the image on your screen.

Resolutions
720p
A 720p resolution television has 1,280 columns and 720 rows of pixels, hence "720p." Multiply the two numbers for a total of 921,600 pixels. This is the minimum TV resolution that can be called "high definition," or HDTV.
1080p
Often, 1080p is referred to as "Full HD." In a 1080p television, there are 1,920 columns multiplied by 1,080 rows for a total of 2,073,600 pixels -- more than twice as many pixels as you'll find in a 720p TV screen. For a while now, 1080p has been the industry standard for high-definition displays, and most content (that is, television broadcasts, shows, and movies) is produced and distributed in 1080p.
4K Ultra HD
The next level of HD is 4K -- often called "Ultra HD" or UHD. Technically, the name is a bit of a misnomer because there are 3,840 columns and 2,160 rows of pixels that make up a 4K TV screen, which is why you'll occasionally see this resolution referred to as 2160p. That's a total of 8,294,400 pixels, which is four times as many pixels as a Full HD 1080p display and nine times as many pixels as a 720p display. This is considered a high pixel density.

Read more