This 85-inch TV deal at $1,100 off made me reconsider paying up for OLED

Hisense/ZDNET

The TV launch season is here, and while the latest sets from Samsung, LG, and Sony will surely bring the appeal (and premium price tag), consider this Hisense model if you want both an immersively large screen and affordability. During Amazon's Spring Sale event, you can save up to $1,100 on the brand's flagship U8 series TV. 

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That's almost 40% off the 85-inch size, which comes in a Mini LED configuration that delivers bright and colorful imagery from our tests and expert eyes. With the specs you're getting for a TV of this scale and the fact that the current discount is just $20 shy of the Hisense U8 model's all-time low ($1,677 during Black Friday), I don't expect this deal to stay active for much longer.

What should you know about this TV model? It's a certified entertainment beast, from the demanding 85-inch dimension to the 144Hz native refresh rate (ideal for console gamers) with AMD FreeSync and Premium Pro VRR support to the Dolby Vision IQ and Atmos compatibility for a surround-like sound experience.

Also: I found 73 of the best Amazon Spring Sale TV deals from Samsung, TCL, Bose, and more

But the most impressive feature may be how bright the screen gets, with a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. That's plenty of luminance to outshine windows, lamps, and other ambient light sources, allowing you to enjoy your movies, shows, and games with fewer distractions. It's this uptick in brightness that makes such Mini LED sets more favorable than contrast-rich OLED TVs. 

Some downsides to consider are that you may notice a bit of blooming (a white glow around subjects in darker scenes), and our sibling company, CNET, found that black levels can be crushed in HDR mode, meaning some details in darker scenes can appear blurrier or faded away.

If you can shoulder those caveats, right now, you can save up to $1,100 on the 85-inch Hisense U8N, powered by Google TV. There are smaller discounts for the smaller sizes, but even then, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these models, considering their performance for the money.

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