The best LCD TV we’ve tested in the budget category is the Hisense U6/U6K. It has an excellent contrast ratio, so dark scenes look amazing in a dark room, with little blooming around bright areas of the screen. It has a sub-par but functional full array local dimming feature, but there’s a bit more blooming than on the Hisense U8/U8K, and it’s not nearly as bright. Still, it has alright peak brightness in HDR and good peak brightness in SDR, with decent reflection handling, so glare isn’t an issue in a brighter room. It has a wide color gamut, so colors look vibrant and realistic, and it displays HDR content the way the content creator intended. It supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR but doesn’t support advanced DTS audio formats.

Unfortunately, its image processing is significantly worse than its more expensive siblings, so there’s visible digital noise when watching low-bitrate content from streaming platforms. Still, it’s a great TV for gaming, as it has superbly low input lag and variable refresh rate support for a responsive, nearly tear-free gaming experience. Unlike the U8K, it’s limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, which is disappointing for gamers wanting to take full advantage of their Xbox Series X, PS5, or recent gaming GPU. It’s still great for visually intensive games on consoles targeting 4k @ 60Hz in their ‘Graphics’ mode or for 60 fps PC gaming.

The 2024 Hisense U6N is now available. It promises increased brightness and an improved local dimming feature for better contrast, but it’s also more expensive than its predecessor at first. Unless you need those incremental upgrades, you’re better off getting the cheaper U6K while it’s still available.