Is a Xumo TV worth it?

Last week, Xumo announced that it’s bringing a 55- and 65-inch TV to Target for $250 and $360, respectively, both from manufacturer Hisense. While neither of these TVs are new to the world (Hisense Xumo TVs have been exclusively available at Best Buy for a little while alongside Pioneer-branded TVs), the addition of another big-box retailer carrying the sets means more eyes — and presumably more questions — are cropping up about what exactly a Xumo TV is. Maybe more importantly based on how inexpensive they are: Is it worth considering a Hisense Xumo TV?

What is Xumo?

The name Xumo might not be as prevalent in the TV space as Google or Roku, but the company has been around for over a decade. Originally, Xumo was an over-the-internet TV service, delivering hundreds of free channels on Vizio and Panasonic TVs starting in 2015, and then adding LG and Funai to the list. After eventually being acquired by Comcast, and then a part of a joint venture with Charter, we got Xumo Play, the Xumo Stream Box, and Xumo TV, with the latter being the streaming OS interface.

So really, the name Xumo encompasses three different products or services. Xumo Play is a free advertising-based streaming television (FAST) service with over 350 live channels and a large selection of movies available to watch at any time. You can add Xumo Play through the Google Store or Apple App Store, or watch on the web through Xumo’s site. While it’s free, there are ads you’ll have to sit through.

The Xumo Stream Box is a streaming device, much like a Roku Ultra or the Google TV Streamer, that uses the Xumo TV OS, except it’s just for Spectrum or Xfinity subscribers.

Xumo TV is the OS that comes on the Hisense TVs now available at Target (and the models available at Best Buy). You can access the Xumo Play free channels and movies (with ads) or use a large number of streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+, Max, and all the big ones you’d expect, although FuboTV is a major one that’s not currently available. There’s a full searchable list on the Xumo website (spoiler for F1 fans like myself, the F1 TV app is not available).

Should you consider a Hisense Xumo TV?

Xumo

We haven’t put the specific Hisense model in question — namely the A6HX — through its paces in a review, and my local Target didn’t have any samples in stock yet when I went to take a look today. Even so, there are certain things you’ll be able to expect from an entry-level Hisense TV — not only that but from an entry model that’s a couple of generations old at this point (we’ve seen the K and N series since).

Brightness output won’t be very high, although enough if you can control the light in your room at all. They don’t have any dimming zones, so whenever there’s a bright section to one part of the screen, the rest will look gray as opposed to black. Color accuracy and gamut coverage will be lacking, although acceptable for everyday viewing (just make sure to put it into one of the Theater picture modes for the best accuracy out of the box). Viewing angle on these less-expensive panels is also usually not great, so sit front and center.

While the A6HX supports VRR for gaming (yay), it’s only HDMI Forum VRR and not FreeSync or G-Sync Compatible (boo). It’s also still a native 60Hz panel though, so don’t expect to play anything at 120Hz. There’s an eARC for uncompressed audio support.

Overall, I expect these Hisense Xumo TVs will be … fine. It’s a decent inexpensive secondary TV to have, but I wouldn’t use it as your main display. There have been some improvements to panels and electronics over the past couple of years that the A6HX won’t benefit from. In a broad sense, TVs are a get-what-you-pay-for proposition. Unlike economics, over the years we see high-end features trickle down to midrange and budget models. This past year we saw a proliferation of mini-LEDs with hundreds of dimming zones reach the $500 price point, but major picture quality improvements still elude the really low-priced sets. One thing these have going for them is that they’re made by Hisense and not Element, onn, or Insignia. At the very least, Hisense knows what it’s doing with TVs.

Why Xumo?

So the question is: Why Xumo? Well, really, the question is: Why not Google or Roku? Both Google and Roku deliver well-integrated UI that are fast and responsive, although especially with Google, sprinkled with a healthy helping of sponsored content and ads. Organizationally, the Xumo interface is similar to Google TV, with a splash screen for highlighted content, a row of selections that includes programs you’re currently watching, trending content, and recommended picks, followed by a horizontal scroll of the apps installed on your TV. Most importantly, Xumo doesn’t include UI ads. For now, at least.

The main draw are the 350+ channels that are available to stream for free through the Xumo Play app. It includes some local channels, but you’ll have to look up if that includes your local channels. In Los Angeles, for example, I can see ABC7 and KCAL, although it only includes news programs and doesn’t have regular daytime or primetime broadcasts. There are others from major metropolitan markets like New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco that look to have the same type of coverage. For free access to local channels, the Hisense TVs have an ATSC antenna connection, although it’s not ATSC 3.0. Google and Roku have similar collections of channels through Google TV Freeplay and the Roku Channel, respectively.

I wouldn’t put it on the same tier as Google OS or Roku, but the Hisense Xumo TV is a decent inexpensive alternative, especially if you are worried your Google OS is tracking you (and it absolutely is).