Hisense U65QF Mini-LED TV hands-on review
For years, there hasn’t been a single Amazon Fire TV on our list of the best TVs. Sure, the latest batch of Omni Mini-LED Series TVs from Amazon offer some decent brightness and color reproduction technologies — but they’re far from perfect.
Enter the Hisense U65QF. It’s a low-cost Fire TV that combines Mini-LED backlighting and a maximum 144Hz refresh rate. For gamers, it looks like one of the best budget TVs of 2025.
I didn’t have long to look at it, but at a recent Hisense event I was able to go eyes-on with this budget big-screen and talk to Hisense’s Bruce Fairchild about how we’re finally getting the Amazon Fire TV we deserve with the U65QF.
Hisense U65QF: Sizes, pricing and availability
The U65QF is part of the Hisense 2025 TV lineup, below the Hisense U7QG and Hisense U8QG. While both those TVs use Google TV as their built-in smart platform, the U6QF uses Fire TV. It’s an interesting decision, and one that has a lot of ramifications for performance that I’ll go over in detail down below.
The U65QF is currently available in four sizes — 55, 65, 75 and 85 inches — with a 100-inch model (pictured above) planned to launch later this year.
Here’s the current price breakdown:
|
Size |
Price |
|---|---|
|
55″ |
$549 |
|
65″ |
$799 |
|
75″ |
$1,299 |
|
85″ |
$1,499 |
|
100″ |
TBA |
Hisense U65QF: Specs
|
Sizes |
55″, 65″, 75″, 85″, 100″ |
|
Resolution |
3840 x 2160 |
|
HDR |
Dolby Vision / HDR10+ / HDR10 / HLG |
|
Refresh Rate |
144Hz |
|
Audio |
50W, 2.1 speakers |
|
Inputs |
2 x HDMI 2.1 and 2 x HDMI 2.0 |
|
Smart TV |
Amazon Fire TV |
Hisense U65QF: Design
For a budget TV, the Hisense U6QF is pretty sleek. It has two wide-set feet and reserves only the smallest bit of the edges for its bezel. It’s not the thinnest TV at 3 inches thick and will jut out from the wall slightly should you decide to wall-mount it, but that extra thickness allows the TV to host a 50W 2.1 speaker system. There’s some pros to its cons.
A more-powerful processor is going to enable a smoother browsing experience and faster app load times.
Inside the TV is the new Hi-View AI Engine that will power the U65QF’s Al 4K Upscaler, Al Smooth Motion and Al Sports Mode. I didn’t have the chance to really see it in action, but from a sheer design perspective, a more-powerful processor is going to enable a smoother browsing experience and faster app load times.
Also inside is a Wi-Fi 6 antenna and support for Bluetooth 5.2. Even better, there’s an ATSC 3.0 tuner built-in, which is incredibly rare to see on budget TVs like the U65QF.
Another unusual inclusion at this price point are the two HDMI 2.1 ports. Most TVs at this price don’t have a single one, so the fact that they’re here alongside a 144Hz refresh rate (more on this in a second) is a huge bonus point.
Hisense U65QF: Performance and features
I wasn’t able to play any of my own content on it — and Hisense didn’t allow us to use the testing equipment we brought with us — so I’m basing these preliminary opinions on the demo content Hisense had playing.
That said, while I have an inherent distrust of demo content (working at a Best Buy for any period of time will do that to you), I was impressed with the contrast provided by the Mini-LED backlighting. Several of the sizzle reels had brightly illuminated colorful objects next to pure black with minimal blooming. Color was a tad oversaturated for my liking, but I’m sure I could rein it in with the right settings.
I’m expecting that this TV will have decent color saturation and great contrast no matter the screen size.
It’s important to note that each size of the TV will come with a different number of dimming zones and a different peak brightness. The 100-inch model will have up to 600 dimming zones and Hisense claims a peak brightness of 1,000 nits. Not everyone is going to shell out for the 100-inch model, but I’m expecting that this TV will have decent color saturation and great contrast no matter the screen size.
For gamers, the U6QF will be particularly interesting. It supports a 144Hz refresh rate — more than what’s needed to run console games at 4K/120 — and it offers two HDMI 2.1 ports to accommodate either both the PS5 and Xbox Series X, or one console and a gaming PC. Tack on support for Dolby Vision Gaming, AMD FreeSync Premium and the 55-inch model’s low price tag, and you could be looking at the best budget TV for gamers in 2025.
So where’s the downside here? For me, I see two potential issues. The first is that Amazon Fire TV, as a platform, has its share of issues. It’s loaded with ads. It has performance issues that only become more severe as a TV’s processor ages. It’s also less robust and user-friendly than Google TV, which is included on the U7QG and above.
The other issue is that brightness is going to be substantially lower here than on the Hisense U7QG or U8QG — especially on the 55-inch model — and that lower brightness is going to lead to issues with glare and less impressive HDR performance.
I’ll need to spend more time with it outside of a crowded gallery to know how big of an issue this is, but at this point it’s something I’m leery of.
Hisense U65QF: Outlook
As far as Amazon Fire TVs go, the Hisense U6QF is shaping up to be one of the best, if not the best Fire TV ever made. Its Mini-LED backlighting already gives it a leg up in contrast compared to the competition that’s stuck using basic full array — or worse, edge-lit — backlighting. Plus, its HDMI 2.1 ports and support of a 144Hz refresh rate make it a great pick for gamers looking for a budget TV to pair with their consoles.
Small design snafus and peak brightness quandaries aside, the only real issue I see with the U6QF is its use of Fire TV, a platform that’s riddled with ads and one that provides a fundamentally worse experience than the Google TV smart platform that has traditionally been used on the U6 series.
Hisense likely has its reasons for this partnership, whether they be financially or even politically motivated, but the bright side of this arrangement is that we’re finally getting a Fire TV with Mini-LED lighting and solid gaming chops.
If you’re set on the Fire TV platform because of its smart home integration or because you genuinely like Amazon’s ecosphere of products, then I can’t imagine you’ll find a better option coming out in 2025.
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