What makes the company slightly different from Samsung or LG is that it’s not using QLED or OLED but ULED instead.

Hisense, probably a brand some of you have never heard of but the company is climbing the ranks fairly quickly. I actually owned a Hisense TV about 6-years ago and I found it to be a decent television for the price we paid. Since then, the company has really improved its products in both looks and quality. Now, they have just announced the new HiSense 4K ULED R8 Series which has Roku built-in.

What makes the company slightly different from Samsung or LG is that it’s not using QLED or OLED but ULED instead. Ultra Light Emitting Diode (ULED), has some similarities to OLED but is Hisense’s own technology. Hisense marketing head Andre Iannuzzi explained it this way back in 2017:

“I think what consumers will notice the most (about ULED) will be the sheer vividness of the color, the detail available in darker scenes, and the crisp, fluid motion that brings all the action on screen to life,” he said.

“The best thing is, consumers will get to experience it for longer. The brightness on an OLED display might begin to fade after three years, but a ULED screen will shine bright for up to 10.”

The Roku OS on the Hisense R8 Series will provide access to 500,000+ movies and TV episodes via thousands of free or paid channels including live TV, news, sports, hit movies, popular shows and more. There are hundreds of free channels, including The Roku Channel, the home for free and premium entertainment on the Roku platform.

“At Hisense, we understand that what matters most to viewers is the experience they have while watching TV,” said David Gold, Hisense USA Vice President, Consumer Electronics. “By partnering with Roku, we’ve combined our superior performance and quality with a world of content. The result is the R8F, which delivers an immersive viewing experience that’s perfect for relaxing with the family, enjoying a game, or experiencing your favorite movie or TV series.”

These new Hisense R8 Series Roku TV models will work with Google Assistant and are compatible with Amazon Alexa-enabled devices.

“This Hisense R8 Series television establishes an exciting new standard as a flagship model for Hisense, with incredible brightness and support for wide dynamic range features that can deliver a beautiful picture,” said David Sharp, VP of product management for Roku TV. “With the large library of 4K movies and TV shows available on the Roku platform, combined with support for features like HDR10, consumers should really enjoy this ULED 4K Roku TV.”

Here’s a rundown of features and specifications of the Hisense R8 Series with Roku provided to us by the company:

• ULED: Proprietary to Hisense, ULED technology takes an already great image and improves it in real-time, resulting in a brighter picture, higher contrast, smoother motion, and better visual processing.
• High-View Engine: The R8F automatically adjusts picture and sound settings based on the content without the need for complex menu adjustments. Sports fans see smoother motion, movie lovers see greater contrast and gamers immerse themselves in more vivid imagery and ultra-low lag times – all with seamlessly tuned audio.
• Wide Color Gamut: The R8F Series increases the total array of colors and hues on display to over 1 billion, meaning HDR content has brighter highlights, wider color-range and a deeper level of contrast for a more realistic image.
• Full-Array Local Dimming: With a large number of local dimming zones, the R8F offers better control of which areas of the screen are brighter and which remain darker, resulting in superior black detail and enhanced picture sharpness.
• Dolby Atmos: Dolby Atmos creates powerful, moving audio that fills your room and flows around you.
• Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range: Dolby Vision HDR transforms your TV experience with dramatic imaging that brings entertainment to life.
• Roku Platform Features:
  • Simple Home Screen: With Roku TV, it’s easy for consumers to watch what they love. The home screen lets people quickly switch between icons for cable, antenna, and gaming, as well as streaming channels. Consumers can stream free TV, live news, sports, and 500,000+ movies and TV episodes across thousands of channels.
  • Roku Zones: Search for a genre or topical subject for a curated selection of relevant content from channels across the Roku platform. Roku Zones are organized into browsable, categorized rows that may include new releases, titles that are free to watch, rentals and more.
  • 4K Spotlight Channel: A content-first, hand-curated selection of brilliant 4K entertainment from channels across the Roku platform, including categories such as Most Popular, Action, Drama, TV shows, 4K channels and more.
  • Roku Voice: Roku TV customers can use their voice remote or Roku mobile app to quickly set a sleep timer on their TV by saying things like “Go to sleep at 11 PM” They can also find movie results by searching for the top quotes from thousands of popular movies across the Roku platform.
  • Easy-to-use remote: Designed to fit comfortably in the hand, the simple Roku remote has everything people need to stream and control their TV, including one-touch access to popular channels like Netflix.
  • Free Roku mobile app: Control Roku TV, enjoy private listening with headphones, use Roku Voice, and more on iOS and Android.

The Hisense R8 Series 4K Ultra HD Roku TV will be available mid-December on Amazon and at Walmart for US$499.99 (55″) and US$699.99 (65″).