In the past few months, we’ve seen three different TV manufacturers show off prototypes of a new kind of LCD TV. Sony, Samsung and Hisense have all revealed their plans for LCD TVs that use RGB LED backlights, instead of the the white or blue LED backlights used by traditional LED/LCD TVs.
RGB MiniLED backlighting has several advantages over standard monochromatic LED backlights including higher peak brightness, more extended color gamut and higher efficiency. Sony showed us their RGB-lit TV in prototype form at their headquarters in Tokyo earlier this year. Samsung and Hisense both showed their RGB-lit TVs at this year’s CES in Las Vegas. And while Sony said their version was still at least a year from production, Hisense promised theirs much sooner.
Last week Hisense made good on that promise by unveiling the final production version of their 116UX TV at a press event in New York City. The 116-inch RGB-backlit behemoth is available to order on Amazon for $29,999. It is expected to begin shipping in the U.S. in late July or early August.
Viewing Impressions
We got to spend a few hours with the 116UX at the event and brought our Kaleidescape Strato V loaded with some of our favorite films as well as Spears and Munsil’s UHD Benchmark disc on 4K Blu-ray with its vast array of test patterns and content. The set was quite impressive, offering peak brightness up to 8,000 nits (2% window), solid HDR tone-mapping, rich vibrant colors and much better off-axis viewing than most of the LED/LCD TVs we’ve seen.
The 116UX’ Anti-Reflection Pro coating on the panel minimized room reflections, allowing the set to produce solid black levels even in a bright room. With the lights turned off, the set looked even better with excellent contrast and bright accurate colors. Skin tones were particularly well represented. The 116UX is actually both Pantone validated as well as Pantone SkinTone validated. Hisense says the 116UX is capable of reproducing around 95% of the BT.2020 color space, which is impressive for any display device, but particularly impressive for a transmissive display.
But no TV is perfect. On challenging content like the “Blade Runner” intro with white and red text scrolling up a black screen, the 116UX did have some signs of haloing or bleed around the white edges. Also, the black background here was noticeably brighter than the black letterbox bars above and below the active 2.4:1 image area of this widescreen film.
Transmissive displays like this which require a backlight will never quite match the lighting precision of an emissive display like an OLED or MicroLED TV where every individual pixel can be turned on, off or anywhere in between. But OLED TVs currently max out at 98 inches and can’t even come close to the brightness peaks of this TV, making them less well suited for bright room viewing. And MicroLED TVs are still prohibitively expensive for most buyers and panel size limits currently require multiple screen modules be connected together in order to create a large screen image (which can lead to visible seams at the edge of each component panel). Meanwhile, RGB backlit LCD TVs can use traditional LCD panel fabrication plants to keep costs relatively low and still reach these ultra large panel sizes.
That French Sound?
While TCL is partnering with Danish company Bang and Olufsen for their TV sound systems, Hisense has partnered with French high-end speaker maker Devialet for the 116UX speaker system. They’re calling it a “6.2.2-channel” system with up-firing, side-firing and bottom-firing speakers and two integrated subwoofers. The system supports Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X surround. I put on a few Dolby Atmos clips from “Dune” and “Blade Runner” and found that the sound was actually quite good for an integrated speaker system. I’d still recommend adding a component surround system (or at least a high quality soundbar system with discrete rear speakers) but the built-in sound will definitely get you by if you want to keep things simple and clean.
Features Up the Wazoo
The Hisense 116UX supports virtually all flavors of HDR (high dynamic range): Dolby Vision, Dolby Vision IQ, Dolby Vision Gaming, HDR10, HDR10+, HDR10+ Adaptive and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) so it’s likely any content you feed it, from physical media to streaming, to Kaleidescape downloads, will be fully supported. It’s even IMAX Enhanced certified. There are 3 HDMI 2.1 ports on board (one with eARC support) as well as a USB Type C Display Port. The RF antenna input will accept a local antenna input and the on-board tuner supports both ATSC 3.0 (“NextGen TV”) as well as ATSC 1.0 local digital broadcasts.
The set’s integrated far-field microphone supports Google Assistant directly, and the set also works with Amazon Alexa, Google Cast and Apple Home Kit for smart home integration. The set is built on Google TV so you’ll get access to all the popular streaming services.
Gamers will appreciate the Hisense Game Bar, with instant access to picture and sound settings to optimize the gaming experience, VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), a native 165 Hz panel for smooth motion reproduction as well as AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support. At 116 inches, The “infected” in “Last of Us” will probably actually be larger than you are in real life, but if you’re up for the challenge, the 116UX should provide a pretty killer immersive gaming experience.
The Bottom Line
At $30,000, the Hisense 116UX is outside the realm of affordability for most TV buyers, but it does have the distinction of being the biggest and brightest consumer TV currently on the market. It also offers excellent color reproduction and contrast, thanks to its novel RGB MiniLED backlighting system. Will that be enough to convince buyers to bring one home? We shall see.
Where to Buy:
Related Reading:
- I Have Seen the Future of Sony TVs in All its Red, Green and Blue Glory: Here’s What’s Coming
- Hisense’s 116UX is a Visual Feast for the Eyes
- Check Out the Hisense Premium ULED TV Line-up for 2025
