Hisense 100" Laser TV Review - A 4K UHD, Smart Projector with Screen

The Hisense 100” Laser TV, as Hisense calls it, consists of an ultra short throw, very smart projector, combined with a 100” 16:9 screen designed for rooms with ambient light.  The combination is impressive. This model reviewed is the 100L8D, (the 100L8E version is shipping, this D version has received a firmware upgrade).

There are more Hisense Laser TVs getting ready to ship, including a larger 120” and a smaller one as well.  We’ll be posting about both.

The list price of this "D" model had, until recently, been $9999.   The new Hisense 100L8E version has been shipping much of 2018, but our D version (originally without Alexa) is all they had for us to review.  The good news, is that even the newer E version (currently shipping), has just dropped in price to $7999!  Nice.

Since this laser TV is based on a ultra short throw projector, you'll note in the photo player below, there's even credenza like furniture designed to fit the Hisense.  The convenience of ultra short throw (UST) makes projection practical in living rooms, dens, and other non-home theaters.  There are far more people interested in 100 inch images than there are folks willing to dedicate an entire room as a home theater, and that bodes very well for this Hisense Laser TV and other UST projectors coming out and designed for home use.

I should point out, that unlike most projectors, the Hisense does have a built in TV tuner. That truly does make it a laser TV, rather than a monitor, or "just" a projector.

The projector sits just over four inches back from the screen, so find yourself a nice credenza, or table.  There’s even AV furniture designed for this Hisense.  The system includes on board speakers, and also a separate, powered, Bluetooth subwoofer, which comes packaged in a separate box.  For this review, instead of them shipping me their screen, I’m using what I’m assured is the near identical Screen Innovations Black Diamond ALR screen (also 100”) which sits in my testing room.

Regarding the photos in this review: Some projectors do not photograph as well as others, when shooting scenes from movies, sports, etc.  Laser projectors for some reason, seem to give my Canon 60D (a semi-pro) dSLR fits.  In this case, the images are definitely exhibiting a noticeable purplish caste, that simply doesn’t exist when viewing the projector live. Or rather, any very slight such bias, is greatly magnified. I do not attempt to correct for such shifts, preferring to always show unedited color. –art

 Hisense is a pretty new name to projectors, but they have been in the North American TV market for at least a few years.  Since I’m pretty much projector focused, I would notice their rather massively large booths at major trade shows like CES.  Still, until they first announced this projector, they weren’t on my radar. For those not familiar, Hisense is a Chinese manufacturer with roughly $15 Billion (US) in annual revenues, focused on electronics including smart phones and even appliances.  For perspective in size, LG is just slightly larger (about $17 Billion US).  What that means, is that while you may not be familiar with Hisense, they are a serious player, and it is a name you will hear more and more of.

Enough background.  Below is a summary of highlights, and then we’ll talk about some special features on the next page, after that, hardware info and two picture quality pages.  Measurements and performance follows that, and a summary.  We also have calibration settings for this projector.

To start things off, though, I think the most surprising and impressive thing about the Hisense 100” Laser TV, is its effective “wow” brightness, thanks to the combination of a healthy amount of lumens, UST design and pairing with an ALR screen to minimize picture degradation due to ambient light!