Real Life experience of TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba etc. vs Sony/LG/Samsung TV

[Ryzen]

Recently I purchased a 43 inch UHD TV. Before I bought it I went through a lot of reviews, comparison etc. All the reviews suggested to go for TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba etc if you are on a budget as these TVs offer better specs (Dolby Vision. ATMOS DTS X, higher brightness, Quantum Dot layer for more vibrant colour etc.) After reading reviews even on international forums, you will go for these TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba TVs if you are on a budget. These TVs are reviewed with best quality contents (UHD BDs, High Bitrate UHD streaming etc.), practically providing TVs with best possible contents to have best output from TVs. But real world experience is quite different, streaming services like JioHotstar, SonyLiv, Zee5 provides low bitrate content compared to UHD Blu-ray Discs and among these JioHotstar in "Asli 4K" look worse than 720p Netflix stream. Quality of DTH/IPTV (Airtel or JioTv+) are not great either. Most of the contents we Indians watch are not from best quality sources. In these situation what matters the most is "Picture Processing" and "Upscaling" of low bitrate contents and this is where TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba struggles. If you compare a Dolby Vision content on Hisense QLED tv and a budget Sony/LG/Samsung Tv, Hisense will win even with its lower price tag. But when it comes to watching low bitrate 1080p content all these TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba TVs looks crap compared to Sony/LG/Samsung TVs. So, if real world experience matters to you, if you are buying a TV on a budget, go for Sony/LG/Samsung rather than TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba. Recently I bought Hisense Q6Q 43inch at 29K at a retail store ignoring LG UR75006 2025 or Samsung UE84. I saved may be 1-2k max by going for Hisense but after brining it home I realised I made the mistake. Indian OTTs look horrible on it as compared to entry level 4K TV from Sony of 2022. Colours are inconsistent across the board, it’s like for every channel I switch I have tweak the colour for make it watchable.


TLDR: Do not fall for TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba based on review, real world experience of Sony/LG/Samsung is far better even with inferior specs.

 

[Akshr]

Sony TVs have the best up scaling and the higher end Sonys do it even better. The processors keep improving.

Its consistently called out by all TV reviewers, that Sony performs the best with SDR and low end content.

If you only watch netflix, primevideo, apple tv, hotstar 4k content, this shouldn't matter much.

Also TVs need to be calibrated, the filmmaker mode are usually better on the samsung, sony, lgs.

 

[ItsBabu]

Recently I purchased a 43 inch UHD TV. Before I bought it I went through a lot of reviews, comparison etc. All the reviews suggested to go for TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba etc if you are on a budget as these TVs offer better specs (Dolby Vision. ATMOS DTS X, higher brightness, Quantum Dot layer for more vibrant colour etc.) After reading reviews even on international forums, you will go for these TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba TVs if you are on a budget. These TVs are reviewed with best quality contents (UHD BDs, High Bitrate UHD streaming etc.), practically providing TVs with best possible contents to have best output from TVs. But real world experience is quite different, streaming services like JioHotstar, SonyLiv, Zee5 provides low bitrate content compared to UHD Blu-ray Discs and among these JioHotstar in "Asli 4K" look worse than 720p Netflix stream. Quality of DTH/IPTV (Airtel or JioTv+) are not great either. Most of the contents we Indians watch are not from best quality sources. In these situation what matters the most is "Picture Processing" and "Upscaling" of low bitrate contents and this is where TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba struggles. If you compare a Dolby Vision content on Hisense QLED tv and a budget Sony/LG/Samsung Tv, Hisense will win even with its lower price tag. But when it comes to watching low bitrate 1080p content all these TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba TVs looks crap compared to Sony/LG/Samsung TVs. So, if real world experience matters to you, if you are buying a TV on a budget, go for Sony/LG/Samsung rather than TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba. Recently I bought Hisense Q6Q 43inch at 29K at a retail store ignoring LG UR75006 2025 or Samsung UE84. I saved may be 1-2k max by going for Hisense but after brining it home I realised I made the mistake. Indian OTTs look horrible on it as compared to entry level 4K TV from Sony of 2022. Colours are inconsistent across the board, it’s like for every channel I switch I have tweak the colour for make it watchable.


TLDR: Do not fall for TCL/Hisense/Vu/Toshiba based on review, real world experience of Sony/LG/Samsung is far better even with inferior specs.

Agree. I have a Sony Bravia 2 and SDR content is upscaling to HD very well. Even Youtube videos with 720p is looking decent and watchable. Sometimes I feel that the actual youtube video is remastered in HD but no it's a magic of upscaling engine in Sony.

 

[shuv]

What if you use some outboard streamer like AppleTV/Amazon Fire? If the streamer does the heavy lifting, does the TV still struggle with non 4k content?

 

[mark2gp]

Have had a vu 40 fhd dumb tv for 7 years now. Used a fire stick in the past and.now an airtel xatream box. Amazing picture. The board had to be replaced (hisense) 4 years ago and again repaired last month. Both cases got repaired.by the.local lloyd/Haier svc guys. Vfm, service is a problem.

 

[Akshr]

What if you use some outboard streamer like AppleTV/Amazon Fire? If the streamer does the heavy lifting, does the TV still struggle with non 4k content?

some folks have reported that apple tv 4k 2022 upscaling is as good as the sonys

 

[Ryzen]

some folks have reported that apple tv 4k 2022 upscaling is as good as the sonys

Whatever I have read, Nvidia Shield TV has good AI upscaling but Apple TV 4K is only decent compared to Sony's upscaling.

 

[SatMumbai]

OP's version is one way of looking at it.. Especially when you have a price difference of 1K or 2K, I am even surprised why would you not chose top tier brand? In my experience, the price premium these brands ask compared to TCL/ Hisense in premium category (like mini LED), this is where the gap gets blurry especially the super high pricing. Sony's strength is color reproduction (or color tuning out of the box) and upscaling is a very distant second, if you combine with Apple TV or NVidia Shield. I always use Apple TV to watch any content, and the difference of PQ on my 46" Toshiba (14 year old 1080p TV) to the Sony OLED is not as much as the brands wants you to believe in. I am happily buying a mini LED TV from TCL or Hisense this festival season (a 65" or 75" size) as it is super hard to beat these TVs in VFM department!

 

[shuv]

The panel of my MI 75" TV has given up. Wasn't able to raise a complaint on the MI website. Called up a local gentleman who repairs flat panels. He tried his best for 4 hours but to no avail. The picture quality was pretty damn good while it worked, better than a Samsung Frame 65 from the same era.
Hence, I'm looking at the cheap TVs again. If it lasts for 4 years, it still works out to be cheaper than the big 3. Plus, I'm old school when it comes to TVs. Don't have a BDP, all content is streamed. The idea of spending 300k and above on a TV is ridiculous to me. My viewing distance dictates 75" and above. Waiting for the deals the online retailers roll out during the festivities.
I use a Fire TV Cube/Box(?) with the MI and the ATV4K with the Frame. The MI apps were laggy, and Tizen has issues with eARC to the 6014.

 

[Ryzen]

OP's version is one way of looking at it.. Especially when you have a price difference of 1K or 2K, I am even surprised why would you not chose top tier brand? In my experience, the price premium these brands ask compared to TCL/ Hisense in premium category (like mini LED), this is where the gap gets blurry especially the super high pricing. Sony's strength is color reproduction (or color tuning out of the box) and upscaling is a very distant second, if you combine with Apple TV or NVidia Shield. I always use Apple TV to watch any content, and the difference of PQ on my 46" Toshiba (14 year old 1080p TV) to the Sony OLED is not as much as the brands wants you to believe in. I am happily buying a mini LED TV from TCL or Hisense this festival season (a 65" or 75" size) as it is super hard to beat these TVs in VFM department!

I totally agree with you. Actually I am using Sony as my primary TV at home. This Hisense TV is kind of a temporary solution at my residence for next few months only. So I wanted to keep my expenses at minimum and after all the hype in internet about Hisense and TCL I wanted to try it once. As you pointed out the difference gets practical in premium range (mini LED) section. I was just sharing my thoughts...I am cosnidering Apple TV 4K for this Hisense TV. Hope this will improve things little bit.

 

[rpanand25]

What about performance of TCL higher models like C6K, c7K and C8k? Their performance on various fronts seems more than acceptable vis a vis the bigger 3 brands whose premium does not appear to be justified. For normal viewers who are not extra finicky I think these will do. Longevity of panel is not guaranteed irrespective of brand given the user reviews here and abroad.
Anyone who has real world experience of the higher mini led models of TCL and Hisense with comparable models of big three, pl respond.

 

[Onri]

Not sure if my query fits in here, but I feel there could be others like me who would be looking for this answer, so asking anyway.
I have a toshiba 55 u7980 connected to Denon 760h and Firestick 4k.. I am fairly satisfied with the picture quality but there seems to be room for improvement.. Would it make sense for me to upgrade to one of the premium brands like Sony or LG? LG OLED is high on my wishlist.. But I don't want to upgrade unless there is a considerable improvement in picture quality, which is my key upgrade parameter.

 

[mgdelhi]

Not sure if my query fits in here, but I feel there could be others like me who would be looking for this answer, so asking anyway.
I have a toshiba 55 u7980 connected to Denon 760h and Firestick 4k.. I am fairly satisfied with the picture quality but there seems to be room for improvement.. Would it make sense for me to upgrade to one of the premium brands like Sony or LG? LG OLED is high on my wishlist.. But I don't want to upgrade unless there is a considerable improvement in picture quality, which is my key upgrade parameter.

You can take your firestick 4K to a LG showroom (or Croma, etc.) and check with your preferred OTT app/contents. This will give you real time comparison rather than a HFV forum member telling you because they may have different viewing preferences.

Connect firestick through your mobile phone 5G hotspot and a power bank before leaving home.