While somewhat unusual in a flat-panel driven market, particularly for a brand that’s a major TV force, Hisense continues to push the market envelope for 4K/UHD, laser-driven, short-throw projectors, along with a growing range of LCD-based sets.
Indeed, the entire opening remarks of Hisense president Lui Hong Xin during a CES 2018 keynote last week described the importance of Laser TV to the company.
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Joining the current 100-inch model will be 80- and 88-inch models. A high-end, 150-inch 4K/UHD model will be available in late 2018.
The projector’s large screen sizes fit well with Hisense’s official sponsorship of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Hisense plans to wrap a considerable amount of market promotion around the event, including sponsorship of U.S. men’s, women’s, and youth soccer teams and programs. A central part of that will be a Hisense-exclusive 4K stream version of the Fox Sports Go: 2018 FIFA World Cup Edition app, available only to Hisense 4K smart TVs.
Voice control and smart-TV platforms are also front and center, with Android TV and Google Assistant powering some models, while the Hisense Smart TV platform powers lower-series 4K models. Alexa voice control is available throughout the 4K lineup, including the Android TV-equipped models.
At the top of the flat-panel line, the 75-inch H10E includes Dolby Vision, HDR10 and brightness over 2,200 nits. The full-array backlight system now has 1,000 local dimming zones with the ULED technology’s quantum-dot panel enabling the color gamut to exceed 95 percent of P3. Android TV powers the UI, with voice search and home device control running through both the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
Next down the line is the H9E Plus series. These ULED/quantum-dot models have fewer local area dimming zones, but they retain both Dolby Vision and HDR10 in 65- and 55-inch sizes, along with Android TV, Google Assistant and Alexa voice control. The standard H9E models are HDR10 only and are powered by the Hisense Smart TV platform with Alexa voice control. The H9E models will be available in 50-, 55-, 65-, 75- and 86-inch screen sizes.
The lowest-priced models with local area dimming are the H8 models featuring standard, non-ULED design and HDR10. Available in 43-, 50-, 55- and 65-inch sizes, they are powered by Hisense Smart TV with Alexa capability.
Finally, rounding out the Hisense 4K/UHD models for 2018 is the H6E series. These drop local dimming but retain HDR10 and the Hisense Smart TV OS, with models at 43, 49, 55, 60 and 65 inches.
