I recently visited Hisense’s experience zone in Gurgaon to test one of the most unusual televisions I have encountered this year, the Hisense 116UX. The 116-inch RGB Mini LED TV was there, but because of its size, the company couldn’t send it to the Digit Test Labs. However, since RGB Mini LED was one of the categories being evaluated in Digit India’s Top Appliance Awards, we had to test and experience the TV at any cost. Well, we couldn’t extensively use the TV, and unlike most TVs I review, I could not spend several days watching movies, sports, streaming services, and games on it. I could primarily focus on Calman measurements only, along with getting a sense of the TV’s enormous physical scale.
So, this won’t be an in-depth experiential review of the Hisense 116UX. Instead, it is an account of my quick impressions of the massive RGB LED TV, supported by the Calman benchmark runs, and a disclosure of how Hisense’s implementation differs from its competitors.
Even as I entered Hisense’s experiential zone at their corporate office in Gurgaon, I noticed the 116UX’s enormous frame. For the number nerds amongst you, this screen stretches 116 inches diagonally, with a 4K resolution and a 165Hz native refresh rate. The company claims up to 8000 nits of peak brightness and over 10000 precision-controlled dimming zones. There are some nuances and fine print disclosures attached to these claims, which we will get into in the next section.
At this size, 4K is still a sensible choice. The TV is designed to be viewed from several metres away, where the lower pixel density compared with a smaller 4K TV is not particularly concerning. The size also creates a practical problem that should not be ignored. The TV weighs around 102kg without the stand, while the packaged weight is listed at 168.5kg.
This is not a television you casually order online and carry into your living room. The room, entrance, lift, wall, and installation process all become part of the buying decision. That was also why I had to test the TV at Hisense’s experience zone rather than bring it to our office.
Hisense uses a VA LCD panel with an RGB Mini LED backlight. Traditional Mini LED TVs generally use blue LEDs along with other layers to produce white light, which then passes through the Quantum Dot filter to create the colours. RGB Mini LED instead uses separate red, green, and blue LEDs in the backlight, and even though it has a colour filter, the light reaching each sub-pixel is already the same as the target colour. So, there is less energy consumption, and the underlying Hi-View AI Engine RGB processor ensures pure colour transfer between the backlight and the LCD.
And as per Hisense, the 116UX has 3584 actual physical dimming zones, but since these are RGB LEDs, the display can individually control the red, green, and blue elements within every single zone. Thus, they arrive at the 10752 colour control zones. And unlike traditional zones that are typically meant only for brightness and contrast control, the brand claims the new approach can control colour as well.
The listed advantages are 100% BT.2020 colour space coverage and the ability to preset very bright highlights without losing colour vibrancy.
Our Calman results matched the TV’s positioning.
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The most impressive result from my testing was luminance. In the Peak Luminance vs Window Size test, the TV crossed 6000 nits. The individual measurements were roughly 5,800 nits at a 1% window, 6000 nits at 2%, just over 6100 nits at 5%, and around 6000 nits at 10%. At full-screen white window, however, luminance dropped to around 1100 nits.
As for the 8000-nit quote by Hisense, the company clarified that it is an instantaneous peak brightness spec that lasts for a very small duration. Even so, 6000 nits on small HDR windows is an extraordinary result for a television.
For HDR content, this means the 116UX has considerable headroom for small highlights such as reflections, sunlight, explosions, and bright lights. It can also get substantially brighter at full screen.
Now, when it comes to colours, the Calman measurement showed 99.3%, and for BT.2020 coverage, the score came in at 92.23%. Again, for context, these are excellent numbers for an LCD TV. This is where the RGB Mini LED architecture makes the most sense. It is not simply about making the TV brighter. It is about maintaining colour intensity as brightness increases.
The Calman ColorChecker test produced an average Delta E 2000 of 4.63, which is not class-leading and means there are deviations in some colours from the reference. The grayscale measurement was better but still not perfect. The average Delta E 2000 was 3.9. So, this isn’t a perfectly colour-accurate display, even if its strengths lie in colour volume, gamut coverage, and brightness.
The few test videos I played looked impressive, and the sound from the 110-watt 6.2.2 speaker setup also felt loud and expansive.
Alas, I couldn’t watch enough content to verify the real-world performance of the TV. Things like upscaling, motion handling, and gaming experience are therefore missing from this piece. Specs-wise, the Hisense 116UX features a 165Hz refresh rate, VRR, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support. So, technically packed for high-end gaming.
The RGB LED tech may be new, but with the 116UX, Hisense has effectively demonstrated where LCD-based TV displays would go next. The combination of a 116-inch screen, extremely high HDR brightness, and close to 100% BT.2020 coverage makes it technologically significant.
In my brief time with it, the Hisense TV has left a strong impression on me, particularly because of the numbers from Calman. Still, I had this lingering realisation that it costs about Rs 30 lakh and is not competing for the average premium-TV buyer.
Rather, the few richie-rich folks who want an opulent screen experience would consider this. As for the rest of us, the company recently launched the UR8s RGB LED TV, which starts at Rs 119000 for the 55-inch model. I look forward to testing and extensively experiencing these more accessible Hisense UR series of RGB LED TVs.
Until then, keep reading Digit.in for similar stories.
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