Are tier-one TVs worth the higher price tag when it comes to picture quality? Hisense, and 100 consumers, say no.
The Chinese manufacturer put its 50-inch, $500 H8 series 4K UHD TV to the test last month in a side-by-side comparison with Samsung’s equivalent 50KU6300 model, which carries a suggested $630 retail.
Also in the match-up was Vizio’s E50u-D2 SmartCast E-Series set, priced to retail for $520.
With the brands, bezels and bases masked, researchers asked shopping mall passersby to rate the three displays on picture quality, clarity, contrast, image sharpness, brightness and off-angle viewing.
The results: On average, the Hisense model scored within a “statistically negligible range” of Samsung’s entry, and outscored the Vizio on every image attribute, Hisense said.
“We are extremely proud of the picture technologies we put in every TV we make,” said Hisense Americas CEO Jerry Liu.
Liu said his parent company commits over 5 percent of global revenues to R&D, which along with “efficient supply chain management and innovative manufacturing processes enable us to bring the best picture quality to consumers at more affordable prices.”
Hisense, which licenses the Sharp brand for TVs and purchased that company’s massive flat-panel production facility in Mexico, plans to become the No. 3 TV brand in the U.S. within three years, Liu has said. It’s already tops in China’s TV market, a position it’s held for the past 13 consecutive years, Hisense said.
The shopping-mall study was commissioned by Hisense USA and conducted by Wakefield Research from Sept. 7-25 among 100 U.S. adults ages 18 and up.
