Please help me choose my first TV

[timbsb]

Hi everyone,

I am going to buy my first 4k TV and really would appreciate your help. My budget is anything up to 500 pounds and I want a 50 inch screen, I live in Scotland. After a lot of research I came up with two choices: The HisenseU7QF or the SamsungAU9000. The Samsungs is better for gaming I think, as it supports a variable refresh rate, but the Hisense is a QLED panel so I thought it would be better in terms of HDR and overall viewing experience. However, I do like Samsungs software more. Not sure about speaker quality but that is also quite important for me as I don’t think Ive got the money for a soundbar. Any other suggestions are highly welcome!! Thanks in advance

 

[Dodgexander]

Speaker quality won't be great on either. But depending on what you're used to it may be fine. I've known people to be impressed with built in sound on TVs, and those who've been appalled. As a general rule, if you're someone who's always used built in TV speakers, you'll probably be fine, but if you are someone who has experience with dedicated speakers, then you may find the sound quality poor. The only way to get good sound built into a TV is to shop for larger models and spend more money. You'd be better off spending less on a TV, and budget for a budget soundbar instead if its a priority.

As for picture quality, any tv you buy now will be fine for SDR but the difference between one TV and another with picture quality now is exclusively about HDR. With the two models you picked out the Hisense has local dimming and a higher peak brightness so it will have less problems in HDR picture mode compared to the Samsung, which when HDR is used will look too dark or washed out.

If you're a streamer and you wish to enjoy shows in HDR, I'd go for the Hisense to mitigate some of the problems, it won't be perfect, but it will be much better than the Samsung.

If you're mainly watching broadcast TV, or SDR and have a plan to avoid HDR then the Samsung may be better for you. Its built-in apps are better.

I wouldn't worry about the Samsung's gaming features so much. It may accept a 120hz signal, but it can only display 60hz, so it's not going to be a lot better than the Hisense for gaming.