Hisense H50A6200UK review: The pound-per-inch ratio is strong here

Hisense has made no secret of its ambition to become a meaningful player in the high-end TV arena, but it’s pragmatic enough to realise it has far more visibility (and credibility) at the opposite end of the market. That’s why the Hisense A6200 range is four-strong and eye-catchingly priced, with the H50A6200UK 50in model costing £379, the H43A6200UL 43in model a mere £329 and the 55in (H55A6200UK) and 65in (H65A6200UK) going for £479 and £699 respectively.

A 50in 4K LED TV for under £400 is not something every TV brand can offer and that price is, let’s face it, only going to go one way. So is the 50A6200 a bargain or a false economy?

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Hisense H50A6200 review: What you need to know

The Hisense A6200 LED LCD series has a native 4K UHD resolution, uses direct-lit LED backlighting and runs the brand’s VIDAA U Smart TV platform, which still powers up, tragically, with the Hisense Russia 2018 World Cup logo. There’s HDR support for both the open-standard HDR 10 and broadcast-friendly HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) formats, too.

While the 50A6200 is priced assertively, it may have to get more aggressive still to put proper distance between it and some higher-profile brands. Both Samsung, with the UE50NU7400, and LG, with its 50UK6750PLD, have 50in 4K models for well under £500, although admittedly they are both a little longer in the tooth than this Chinese rival.

Hisense H50A6200 review: Design, build and features

TV design is a tricky discipline at the best of times and, when a TV is built down to a price, it becomes almost an afterthought. So the no-frills design shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Build quality is perfectly acceptable, though, and while the direct-backlight configuration means the Hisense 50A6200’s black bezels are a little chunky by modern standards, it’s by no means an ugly thing.

The worst offenders are the feet, which are cheap-feeling and positioned awkwardly at either end of the frame. It’s another of those TVs that necessitates a support that’s almost as wide as the screen itself, so check the width of your rack before buying.

Of the three HDMI inputs provided at the rear, two are full-bandwidth HDMI 2.0b ports that support 4K HDR video at a higher frame rate (60Hz), bit-depth or chroma. There are a couple of USB sockets, which are handy if you want to go old school and play a video from a file. Alternatively, you can use them to power an external HDMI streaming dongle such as an Amazon Fire TV Stick or a Roku Streaming Stick+ without having to occupy an extra socket at the mains.

Operation is via a large old-school infrared remote. Again, you can’t go expecting design flourishes at this sort of money but at least it’s logically laid out and I like the fact that it has four big direct-access buttons to the TV’s built-in Amazon, Netflix, YouTube and Freeview Play apps.

The VIDAA U Smart TV platform is serviceable enough – in some ways it’s preferable to the more accomplished South Korean alternatives, which tend to load on the options until navigation gets intimidating. It’s not all that quick in operation, but it does have all the obvious streaming and catchup options read to roll. And it also gives access to a remarkably thorough suite of calibration options, although it’s doubtful anyone wanting to keep costs down to this extent is going to pay to have their budget 50in TV calibrated.

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Hisense H50A6200 review: Performance

Picture performance is a combination of pleasantly surprising and sadly predictable. Viewing angles, for instance, fall heavily into that second category. This TV uses a VA-type LCD panel, which means if you’re sitting any more than 20-degrees off-axis, colours take on a washed-out appearance across the whole frame.

More pleasantly surprising and, again, typical of the VA-type panel used here is the 50A6200’s reasonably deep black level. If you select the TV’s “Cinema night” mode, colours look natural and realistic – at least as far as standard dynamic range (SDR) content is concerned.

Although HDR content is supported, the HiSense’s technical limitations mean HDR content isn’t presented in a very convincingly manner. A peak brightness of just 200nits (when HDR content routinely demands 1,000 or 4,000nits) means HDR images look washed-out rather than vibrant.

Highlights are severely clipped and the colour palette is muted where it should be vivid. The panel covers a mere 84% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut used in HDR, which explains why colours look so dull.

Screen uniformity is below par, with noticeable banding in darker tones and a visible “dirty screen effect”, while the left and right sides of the screen are noticeably brighter than the centre.

The 60Hz panel also spells problems for motion tracking. The Hisense H50A6200 has no motion interpolation and, as a consequence, can’t reduce motion blur. Slow pans in 24fps content are particularly troublesome, juddering obviously.

It’s not all bad news, though. As an upscaler of sub-4K content, the 50A6200 serves up clean images with few issues, but they’re a little on the soft side compared to top-tier brands.

And the Hisense does make some sense as a budget-orientated big screen for gamers. Despite the lack of a dedicated game mode, the Hisense 50A6200 has an input lag of only 27ms for both 1080p SDR and 4K HDR. This is where the lack of motion interpolation or significant video-processing algorithms works to the Hisense’s advantage.

Finally, sound quality from the 50A6200’s built-in speakers isn’t bad and far from the worst we’ve experienced. They can go surprisingly loud and have considerable body, although it should go without saying that even a budget sound bar will deliver a big audio upgrade on the Hisense’s sound.

Hisense H50A6200 review: Verdict

It has its ups and downs, but considering the price and the screen size, the Hisense H50A6200UK delivers a decent performance for the money.

In particular, its performance with standard dynamic range content is decent, with natural-looking colours out of the box and a reasonably deep black level. Plus, it’s a good option for gamers on a budget.

It has big flaws, the biggest of which is that it might as well not support HDR. For under £400, however, this TV money delivers reasonably good value for money.