Hisense Mini LED Reliability: Great Picture, Questionable Longevity?

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shubz

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Hi All

My journey with Hisense Mini LED TVs started with the U8H. To be fair, the value for money was incredible. In South Africa these TVs were often available for well under R20k, and for movies, gaming, HDR content and overall picture quality, it felt like a lot of TV for the price.

Unfortunately, my U8H developed a dead pixel within two years. Credit where it's due, Hisense handled the warranty claim and refunded me.

With that refund, I upgraded to the U8K. On paper it looked like the perfect successor, but in reality it was buggy as hell. Software issues, instability and general quirks were enough for me to return it within a week.

Next came the U8N, which has honestly been fantastic from a picture-quality perspective. Gaming looks incredible, movies look incredible, brightness is insane, and local dimming performance is excellent. However, after roughly 45 months of ownership, I've now started seeing random vertical lines appearing across the panel.

This leaves me feeling conflicted.

On one hand, every Hisense U-Series TV I've owned has delivered a stunning viewing experience and incredible bang for buck. On the other hand, I've now had:

  • U8H: Dead pixel within 2 years
  • U8K: Returned due to software issues within a week
  • U8N: Vertical line issues after approximately 45 months
Am I just unlucky, or are others seeing similar long-term reliability issues with these Mini LED panels?

It's all good getting a replacement TV every couple of years while under warranty, but what happens when one of these issues shows up out of warranty? That's what worries me most. The repair cost of a panel replacement can often make the TV economically unrepairable.

I'm now considering alternatives for my next purchase and would love to hear from owners of:

  • TCL (C855, C845, C765, etc.)
  • Xiaomi Mini LED models
  • Any other Mini LED brands in a similar price range
Have you found them to be more reliable in the long run? Do they match the Hisense U-Series for picture quality, gaming performance and HDR impact?

I'm not trying to bash Hisense because when these TVs are working, they're phenomenal. I'm just starting to question whether the long-term durability matches the picture quality.

Would love to hear your experiences. Am I alone here, or have others had similar reliability concerns with the U-Series?
 
shubz said:
Hi All

My journey with Hisense Mini LED TVs started with the U8H. To be fair, the value for money was incredible. In South Africa these TVs were often available for well under R20k, and for movies, gaming, HDR content and overall picture quality, it felt like a lot of TV for the price.

Unfortunately, my U8H developed a dead pixel within two years. Credit where it's due, Hisense handled the warranty claim and refunded me.

With that refund, I upgraded to the U8K. On paper it looked like the perfect successor, but in reality it was buggy as hell. Software issues, instability and general quirks were enough for me to return it within a week.

Next came the U8N, which has honestly been fantastic from a picture-quality perspective. Gaming looks incredible, movies look incredible, brightness is insane, and local dimming performance is excellent. However, after roughly 45 months of ownership, I've now started seeing random vertical lines appearing across the panel.

This leaves me feeling conflicted.

Snip!
Click to expand...

Who does the dusting/cleaning in your house?
 
shubz said:
Hi All

My journey with Hisense Mini LED TVs started with the U8H. To be fair, the value for money was incredible. In South Africa these TVs were often available for well under R20k, and for movies, gaming, HDR content and overall picture quality, it felt like a lot of TV for the price.

Unfortunately, my U8H developed a dead pixel within two years. Credit where it's due, Hisense handled the warranty claim and refunded me.

With that refund, I upgraded to the U8K. On paper it looked like the perfect successor, but in reality it was buggy as hell. Software issues, instability and general quirks were enough for me to return it within a week.

Next came the U8N, which has honestly been fantastic from a picture-quality perspective. Gaming looks incredible, movies look incredible, brightness is insane, and local dimming performance is excellent. However, after roughly 45 months of ownership, I've now started seeing random vertical lines appearing across the panel.

This leaves me feeling conflicted.

On one hand, every Hisense U-Series TV I've owned has delivered a stunning viewing experience and incredible bang for buck. On the other hand, I've now had:

  • U8H: Dead pixel within 2 years
  • U8K: Returned due to software issues within a week
  • U8N: Vertical line issues after approximately 45 months
Am I just unlucky, or are others seeing similar long-term reliability issues with these Mini LED panels?

It's all good getting a replacement TV every couple of years while under warranty, but what happens when one of these issues shows up out of warranty? That's what worries me most. The repair cost of a panel replacement can often make the TV economically unrepairable.

I'm now considering alternatives for my next purchase and would love to hear from owners of:

  • TCL (C855, C845, C765, etc.)
  • Xiaomi Mini LED models
  • Any other Mini LED brands in a similar price range
Have you found them to be more reliable in the long run? Do they match the Hisense U-Series for picture quality, gaming performance and HDR impact?

I'm not trying to bash Hisense because when these TVs are working, they're phenomenal. I'm just starting to question whether the long-term durability matches the picture quality.

Would love to hear your experiences. Am I alone here, or have others had similar reliability concerns with the U-Series?
Click to expand...

i have heard only good things about the TCL but almost everyone i know has only just bought it recently so i have zero idea about longevity of it - Xiaomi seems cheap so IMHO its going to be a much of a muchness with all the other cheap TV brands ie the longevity and reliability should be similar to Hisense and LG and Skyworth etc ..... Samsung is falling into the same category now and its warranty policy seems stingier than the others

the backlights on my Hisense went after two years - and to be fair they fixed it under warranty but just as the warranty period was expiring it started showing symptoms that the backlights were gong AGAIN - Hisense claimed that theres nothing wrong with it and a couple of months after the warranty expired ...... the TV just refused to start up - needless to say no more Hisense in my future (and it wasn't a bad TV by any means)

sadly there is very little that you can really call a premium TV brand nowadays - they all have the same longevity, reliability issues and are all just crap boxes built with planned obsolescence in mind and every brand has similar claimed specs even when those specs have really little to do with actual reality ie if it breaks faster they get you to upgrade faster and all the brands are doing it so you land up being like a dog chasing its own tail looking for the reliable long lasting model which does not exist at all right now ..... all sad but true IMHO
 
shubz said:
Hi All

My journey with Hisense Mini LED TVs started with the U8H. To be fair, the value for money was incredible. In South Africa these TVs were often available for well under R20k, and for movies, gaming, HDR content and overall picture quality, it felt like a lot of TV for the price.

Unfortunately, my U8H developed a dead pixel within two years. Credit where it's due, Hisense handled the warranty claim and refunded me.

With that refund, I upgraded to the U8K. On paper it looked like the perfect successor, but in reality it was buggy as hell. Software issues, instability and general quirks were enough for me to return it within a week.

Next came the U8N, which has honestly been fantastic from a picture-quality perspective. Gaming looks incredible, movies look incredible, brightness is insane, and local dimming performance is excellent. However, after roughly 45 months of ownership, I've now started seeing random vertical lines appearing across the panel.

This leaves me feeling conflicted.

On one hand, every Hisense U-Series TV I've owned has delivered a stunning viewing experience and incredible bang for buck. On the other hand, I've now had:

  • U8H: Dead pixel within 2 years
  • U8K: Returned due to software issues within a week
  • U8N: Vertical line issues after approximately 45 months
Am I just unlucky, or are others seeing similar long-term reliability issues with these Mini LED panels?

It's all good getting a replacement TV every couple of years while under warranty, but what happens when one of these issues shows up out of warranty? That's what worries me most. The repair cost of a panel replacement can often make the TV economically unrepairable.

I'm now considering alternatives for my next purchase and would love to hear from owners of:

  • TCL (C855, C845, C765, etc.)
  • Xiaomi Mini LED models
  • Any other Mini LED brands in a similar price range
Have you found them to be more reliable in the long run? Do they match the Hisense U-Series for picture quality, gaming performance and HDR impact?

I'm not trying to bash Hisense because when these TVs are working, they're phenomenal. I'm just starting to question whether the long-term durability matches the picture quality.

Would love to hear your experiences. Am I alone here, or have others had similar reliability concerns with the U-Series?
Click to expand...
How big is the TV? 1 dead pixel how did you pick it up?
Plus the software issue didn't they give you a firmware update?
 
Lupus said:
How big is the TV? 1 dead pixel how did you pick it up?
Plus the software issue didn't they give you a firmware update?
Click to expand...
65 inch, dead pixel was hard to miss, maybe it was more than one, tech came to my house gave it one look and said panel busted, we will refund you. Hisense isn't stingy on refunds, its just a schlep to change out. Last model they changed the VESA points so I had to fit a different bracket. Vidaa is horrific, updated it but for some reason the tv was slow and unresposive even in its native app screen.
 
shubz said:
65 inch, dead pixel was hard to miss, maybe it was more than one, tech came to my house gave it one look and said panel busted, we will refund you. Hisense isn't stingy on refunds, its just a schlep to change out. Last model they changed the VESA points so I had to fit a different bracket. Vidaa is horrific, updated it but for some reason the tv was slow and unresposive even in its native app screen.
Click to expand...
So why use Vidaa? Just use another device, never used it on my two
 
How did you have all these TV’s for so long when they only came out like 3 years ago?

But this is the price you also pay for being a first adopter.
 
Lupus said:
So why use Vidaa? Just use another device, never used it on my two
Click to expand...
vidaa alone wasnt the issue, when on xbox or mi box the tv would shut down every ten minutes , as if its not receiving signal, followed all the steps as recommended by hisense support and online forums, still did it, at that point I was frustarted enough to just add the 2k and buy the u8n which had also just launched.
 
SauRoNZA said:
How did you have all these TV’s for so long when they only came out like 3 years ago?

But this is the price you also pay for being a first adopter.
Click to expand...
The u8h I had for less than two years, the u8k for less than two days and the u8n will be two years in October this year, hisense also churns out models like nothing, the upgrade to the u8n is also discontinues as per Hisense , the next in line is the mini rgb led which jumps from a 20k tv to a 39k tv , current top tiered hisense for 20k is the U7Q 75 inch , this is all as per the Hisense Brand shop in Canal Walk.
 
Johnatan56 said:
The monitors pixels per inch are a lot higher usually, and you sell a lot more TVs usually.
Click to expand...
Pixels per square inch will be the same on a TV and a monitor of the same size and resolution. 4k 32" TV would have the same ppi as a 4k 32" TV, as they would both be 137ppi.
In SA the tax for monitors doesn't help, but otherwise monitors generally use better quality panels, higher refresh rates, not subsidised by ads or streaming services, lower input lag.
 
Yeah you bought an inferior brand, got burned more than once, and kept going back.

Definition of insanity.
 
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