Hisense E8Q and E8: what they ship with and what can come off

First things first, because it saves half an hour of searching: these televisions do not run Android. There is no ADB, no pm disable and no list of packages to go through. On the Hisense spec sheet the operating system field reads VIDAA U8.5 on the E8Q and HomeOS U9 on the E8, which are the same system under two labels, and neither of them supports anything this site explains elsewhere.

What you actually can do with one is covered in full in cleaning up a Hisense with VIDAA. This page is about the other thing: what the E8Q and E8 documentation says, what it does not say, and one promo block its own table contradicts.

The page promises Wi-Fi 6E and the table says Wi-Fi 5#

This is the find, and it is worth quoting both sides.

All four E8Q pages on hisense.es carry a promo block headed "Connectivity" that reads, in the Spanish original: "Stay connected. The newest consoles, faster data transfer and lower latency. Add every external device with last-generation wired and wireless connectivity. WiFi6E, HDMI 2.1, AirPlay, Bluetooth, Share to TV, WISA Ready."

Further down, in the specification table on that same page, the field Tecnología WiFi reads IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac(2.4G and 5G).

That is Wi-Fi 5. There is no ax anywhere, so it is not Wi-Fi 6; and Wi-Fi 6E also needs a 6 GHz band, while the sheet declares only 2.4 and 5. On all four pages: 50E8Q, 55E8Q, 65E8Q and 75E8Q. The four E8S sheets declare the same 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, but at least they do not promise otherwise in the body text.

We are not going to settle it. The page contradicts itself, and until Hisense says which of the two holds, that figure is unusable. If you were buying one to hang off your router's 6 GHz band, plan for Wi-Fi 5 or run a cable: the ethernet port is there on all eight.

The same television, two systems depending on the country#

On hisense.es the system field of the 50E8S, 65E8S and 75E8S reads HomeOS U9. On hisense.pt, the pages for the 55E8S, 65E8S and 75E8S read VIDAA U9 in the Interface do Utilizador field. Those are the same two models where the lists overlap (65 and 75) with two different labels depending on which site you open.

The E8Q is more consistent: VIDAA U8.5 on all four sizes, in Spain and in Portugal. Here the label does not shift within the series, unlike the E7.

Underneath it is the same closed system. You settle it by looking at the set, not the site: Settings → System → About shows the name and the version. If it says VIDAA or HomeOS, there is no Google Play store, no built-in Chromecast and no Assistant.

Mini LED with real zones, and still the panel lottery#

There is local dimming here: the Local Dimming field says yes on all eight models, and the zone field carries a number. The count by size:

• 50E8Q: 160 zones. 55E8Q: 160. 65E8Q: 220. 75E8Q: 240.
• 50E8S: 144 zones. 55E8S: 128. 65E8S: 160. 75E8S: 180.

Two things stand out. The 55E8S has fewer zones than the 50E8S, which is smaller. And the 75E8Q, at 240, has more zones than any E8S.

What Mini LED does not fix is the panel type, which still jumps around inside the same series:

• 50E8Q, 55E8Q and 65E8Q, VA panel: 5,000:1 contrast.
• 75E8Q, ADS panel: 1,200:1.
• 50E8S and 55E8S, VA panel: 5,000:1.
• 65E8S and 75E8S, ADS panel: 1,000:1.

Five times less declared contrast for changing size, with the same badge on the box. Typical brightness runs 400 to 500 nits and the peak field says 600 nits on seven of the eight. The exception is the 50E8S, which declares 1,300 nits of peak: nearly double the rest of the range, the far pricier 75E8Q included. Black level is 0.2 nits on all of them except the 75E8S, which says 0.8nits.

The 144 Hz and the eARC share a port#

All eight models declare 144 Hz of V Sync frequency, but not on every input. The HDMI layout is identical across the eight:

• HDMI 1 and HDMI 2: HDMI2.1 compliant( ALLM, 4K 60Hz). Sixty hertz, and that is that.
• HDMI 3: HDMI2.1 (eARC, ALLM, VRR, 4K 144Hz).
• HDMI 4: HDMI2.1 ( ALLM, VRR, 4K 144Hz).

Same trap as on the E7 PRO: the fast ones are 3 and 4, and eARC sits on 3, that is, on one of the two fast ports. Put the soundbar on 3 and you have a single 144 Hz port left for the console.

Input lag is not to be trusted. The three E8Q sheets that fill the field say 13.8ms; the 75E8Q has no such field at all. And the three E8S sheets on hisense.es say 0, which is not a figure but an empty cell. The Portuguese page for the 55E8S does carry values: 7ms(4K 120Hz), 10ms(4K 60Hz), and it adds two fields the Spanish site does not have: HSR240 and a refresh range of 4K 48-144Hz, 2K 48-240Hz.

One connectivity note does separate the two series: the E8Q keeps an AV input and a headphone output (1（mini） in both fields) while the Portuguese sheet for the 55E8S declares 0 for audio input, headphone output and composite input. The sound is not the same either: the Sonido - especial field on the E8S reads Tuned by Devialet, and on the E8Q that does not appear at all.

Three spec sheets published blank#

This is why two sites have to be cross-read. The 55E8S page on hisense.es carries the heading "Especificaciones técnicas" and below it the whole table empty: no panel, no system, no HDMI, nothing. On hisense.pt the same happens with the 50E8S and with the 65E8Q.

The gaps are complementary, luckily: what is missing in Spain is in Portugal and the other way round. That completes the series. But it means neither site, on its own, publishes the full range.

There are more half-filled fields. The Spanish 50E8Q declares - in both energy classes and the 55E8Q declares TBD; the Portuguese page for that same 55E8Q does say E for SDR and G for HDR. Off-mode and annual consumption say NA on the seven hisense.es sheets that have a table; the Portuguese one for the 55E8S puts - in the annual field, which amounts to the same.

What Hisense does not publish#

The memory. Neither RAM nor storage, on any of the fourteen sheets reviewed across both sites: the field simply does not exist. And it stings more than on an Android, because with no ADB there is no df -h /data to run.

Nor is there a zone count per axis, nor window-measured brightness, nor how many years of system updates it will get.

What it ships with and what can come off#

The sheet itself lists the preinstalled apps: Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, MAX, SkyShowtime, DAZN, Movistar+, YouTube and PlutoTV in every country, plus miTele, Atres Player and RTVE a la Carta in Spain. They are there by commercial deal, not because the set needs them.

On VIDAA you remove whichever the system lets you: select the icon on the home screen and, if a bin appears, it goes. If no bin appears, it stays, and no command or trick will change that. What you can do with all of them is reorder them and push them to the end.

What actually changes the experience is not the apps but the privacy settings: content recognition ships switched on, and it analyses what comes in over HDMI and the aerial too. That, and personalised advertising, are turned off from the menus, and it is walked through step by step in the VIDAA guide.

If you own one#

What is missing from these televisions is exactly what the maker will not say. If you own an E8Q or an E8S, the most useful thing you can send is what Settings → System → About says on your unit, and which Wi-Fi band it offers when connecting: if a 6 GHz network shows up in the list, the promo block was right and the table is wrong.

Two or three answers would close a question that Hisense's own site does not close today.