4K used to be out of reach for the select elite who could afford it. Now 4k has become ubiquitous, with countless options lining the walls of major retailers. With so many options, it's often surprising to find something that commands a great price while still offering value and performance. While the Hisense R6 4K Roku Smart TV won't crush the competition, it does offer a great option for the budget-minded or people who need a second TV.
It's easy to see why this is an attractive TV for Hisense. It has a great price, a sleek design that works well in most settings, and a decent size. The Hisense R6 4K Smart TV lacks many of the features we'd describe as "modern", but it does have decent input selection and plenty of other features that won't land you in the world of smart TVs.
Most people who buy a TV these days look at a few key features: size, brightness, apps, and how easy it is to use. Few people delve into the settings or try all the options that modern TVs have for adjusting the image. Most leave it on the default settings and stick with what the brand has decided looks best. And this is where the Hisense R6 delivers fantastic performance out of the box, offering plenty of options but lacking features the vast majority of buyers will never need or even want.
The appearance and design of the Hisense R6 are what you would expect from a modern and affordable television. You'll find the typical all-screen layout with minimal bezels. The TV may not be the thinnest TV around, but it should look good in most homes or mount to most walls. It offers clean, if simple footers, and doesn't make any big design decisions that divert attention from the image to the content on the screen.
Since the R6 is a cheaper TV option, it will have slightly fewer inputs. You'll find your three standard HDMI ports, a single USB 2.0 port, AV inputs, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an optical port for legacy soundbars or AV gear. Hisense has given enough to meet most people's needs, though for anyone (like me) you'll quickly fill up all the included ports and need to find a way to expand the offering, be it with an HDMI switcher or some other alternative.
If you look at the image quality, you'll find a good, if not amazing 4K display. Colors were largely accurate out of the box and while we found that images could be a bit oversaturated in some scenes, this was never a major issue and could be adjusted with a quick trip to the TV's settings panel.
HDR on the R6 was good overall, it lacked a bit of light output which made HDR appear a little less vibrant in a bright room, but once you turn the lights down or close the curtains you'll find an image that will keep happy to the majority of the spectators. . Make sure you're in Movie mode and you should find most media seems adequate, especially for the price of the TV.
The only area I was disappointed in was the lack of backlighting or dynamic zones, meaning this can sometimes take away from vibrancy to images. This is a common problem with budget screens, and wouldn't be a deal breaker for most people, but we did notice some inconsistent light during testing, with the outer area often looking brighter than the center of the screen. But luckily, there was no blooming or ghosting when testing the screen, so Hisense wins points for avoiding an annoying problem many budget panels face.
The 2020 R6 is also missing 120Hz, which means that if you have a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, you won't be able to take full advantage of what those consoles have to offer. The screen will still deliver great visuals and a game of The Last of Us Part II will still shock you with its emotional impact, but unfortunately, newer games that increase a system's capabilities are blocked by the TV and its display capabilities.
User interface-wise, and similar to last year's R6 offering, Hisense opted for the Roku TV operating system, which brings with it all the features and ease of use that this platform has made a name for itself. It's a fast, easy-to-use interface that on the surface hasn't changed much from year to year. Using the home screen system, with everything focused on apps, makes streaming the core of the Hisense R6. It's easy to install thousands of different applications and bring the world of media into your living room without having to connect an external box.
As with older TVs using Roku, it can be a bit tedious to tweak more complicated settings, requiring you to navigate through menus or search the web to find the specific setting or feature. But as with anything that focuses on simplicity, the more complex things can feel hidden or buried, but luckily, they are often not everyday setups and can usually be a set it and forget it situation, but something to stay in. must be things It doesn't seem immediately obvious.
Another complaint we had with this year's R6 is the sometimes slow response time when trying to switch between different apps or tasks. Although this isn't a big problem if you're someone used to lightning-fast interfaces, theYearThe operating system on the R6 can feel a bit sluggish at times, even compared to other Roku OS TV offerings. I'm not sure if this is due to the types of apps they run, but it was frustrating at times, though that can be fixed as Roku is constantly updating their platform at the time you're reading this.
While we're already talking about 8K, many of us still have a large collection of 1080p or even 480p media that we haven't gotten rid of yet. So it was good to see that, like 2019, the new R6 comes with enhancements so you can keep watching your old media. As with any built-in upscaling, it doesn't work by magic, and your old 480p movies will still look grainy and lacking in detail. On the other hand, with 1080p content, it looked amazing on the 2020 R6 and while it didn't have the clarity that 4K offers, it still looked good and would be perfect for a movie night for most people. Improvement has gotten much better over the years and the 2019 Hisense Roku R6 TV has some of the best I've seen from a TV in this price range, though there's still plenty of room for improvement.
For the price of,Hisensethey have delivered a fantastic Smart 4K TV deal on the R6. It looks sharp, delivers a crisp, clear picture, and manages to tick most of the boxes people look for in a new TV. Although it lacks some features and can seem a bit bulky at times, the Hisense R6 is excellent value for money and is a great option for people looking for a second TV or if budget is a barrier to enjoying TV mounts. 4K content. If you want to experience the latest and greatest in the new generation of consoles you might miss out on the R6, for everyone else Hisense has once again provided a great value deal.