For reference, I last purchased a television in 2019: a discount TCL 55S425 for <$400.I was on a student's budget at the time, but since then I started a career and was promoted twice and now have money to spend on a quality product. I have been looking at televisions for about a year now, researching the best value for my application: a large living room in an apartment complex with huge windows and tons of ambient light.After watching tons of videos, reading forums and review sites, I was split between the TCL QM8 and the Hisense U88KM (U8K). Frustratingly, nearly all of the reviews have been for the 55" or 65" versions of the U8K, which for those unaware are VA panels instead of the IPS panel on the 75" version. However, I was able to find a video from "B The Installer" for the 75" version singing its praises.My primary viewing sources are YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, and DAZN sports. For any fellow DAZN users, you share my frustration with the low quality video streams, so when "Stop the FOMO" reviewed the 65" versions of the TCL & Hisense and reported that the U8K did better with low-bitrate content. With both reviews in mind, I knew which television was for me.And so far, I'm ecstatic with the 75U88KM.I placed the order a few weeks ago, and ended up calling Amazon support to get an update as it still hadn't updated in 2 weeks. I took the day off from work to receive the television, which was thankfully securely packaged in the box. This was a huge relief considering the scarcity of the TV and the fact that the first TCL I purchased 4 years ago was delivered with a broken screen.I naively unboxed it myself, which I do not recommend that you do. There's a bag taped to the rear of the inside of the box that contains the remote control, power cable, screws for the mounting feet, and the warranty manual & quick setup guide. The mounting feet are on top of the foam and clearly visible once you remove the box.To install the feet by yourself (which again, I do not recommend but I don't follow my own advice so why should I expect you the reader to?), I pushed the television over on its face (with the foam still supporting it) and then slid off the bottom cardboard. From there, I removed the bottom corners of the foam and used them to prop the television up enough to install the legs using the screws from the bag (M5 x 12mm). The legs are 14-1/2" long and once mounted provide just shy of 2-1/2" of clearance under the center IR receiver/microphone toggle and just over 2-1/2" for the rest of the television.After the feet are installed (there's a cable channel on one side of the feet so make sure you install them in the correct orientation), you can lift the television upright. Then, wait for help pick it up and placing it on your tv console. Do NOT lift this television by yourself! It's heavy and awkward and while I was able to do it, I really shouldn't have. And I especially shouldn't have lifted it twice when I realized it was too high for the old console and needed something lower. Be better than me.Once powered, I was blown away by the picture.The black portions of the screen are black. Like OLED levels black. I stared at the black sections and turned the TV off and on and couldn't see any difference, the dimmable zones were definitely working. The startup screen has bright white letters and boxes on black, I wasn't able to detect any noticeable bloom around the letters or box either.As an IPS screen, it is quite reflective. It's like a black mirror, especially compared to my old TCL which had a more matte finish. This was concerning to me as my apartment has tons of light, however I am happy to report that the screen does an excellent job of overpowering/mitigating the light. I used the LED flash on my phone to compare the point-source reflection for both U8K and my old TCL 55S425, and the U8K did a much better job of minimizing the glare.Once powered, the software needs to upgrade, I received version 0100DN0429 and updated to N0429_to_N0705. This screen is different shades of gray, so I was able to look for dirty screen effect, for which I found little to none. The photos make the corners look darker than they appeared in person. The update took maybe 15 minute, during which I was able to put all of the foam and packing materials back in the shipping box before realizing the bottom was a separate piece. I then took everything back out of the box, put the bottom section in, then put everything back in. Thankfully I didn't have to return the television because I had enough trouble fitting the foam and cardboard back into the box, I don't think I would have managed fitting the TV in there too.After updated, I was met with the GoogleTV interface, for better or worse. I enjoy it, especially coming from the RokuTV interface of my old TCL, but preferences are preferences. The menu navigated much faster than my old TCL as well, though occasionally there would be some slight symptoms of stutter but I attributed that to the RAM being empty as repeat instructions were much snappier. There's also a secret TURBO mode in the settings, though I can't tell if it actually helped or if it was just a placebo effect of seeing it turned ON.I opened YouTube and started playing HDR content to compare the televisions. I was metaphorically blown away by how vibrant the colors were, and how clear the image was. On my old TCL, it looked like I was watching a TV through a window that was in dire need of a good cleaning, but on the U8K it looked like the image was somehow 3D it was crisp. Your experience may be more jaded as I had not experience HDR content like this before (see TCL 55S425 reviews).As an IPS, the viewing angles are great though in my application the glare from the windows makes it difficult to see when viewing beyond 45 degrees or so, which is basically when I'm in the kitchen--which isn't the ideal viewing experience. Whereas previously I absolutely could not watch certain content during the day as the old TCL screen was too dim to make out any details (ex. the Witcher), I could see everything on the U8K even when positioning myself so that the window was directly mirrored in the television.I have not completely calibrated the television yet, there are many options in the settings menu but frustratingly some of them are "unavailable" when selected. I'm not sure if this is because I do not have the correct inputs installed to enable them or if they are waiting to be enable via a software update, but it's annoying. I also found that the settings would change based on the application, so when I would set the TV to Filmmaker mode and dial in the best picture for YouTube, opening Netflix would change the settings to Theater mode. I can change them back pretty quickly, but it's again... annoying.As for "Stop the FOMO"'s report of low bit-rate content looking great on the Hisense, I can agree. I was able to iron out the blockiness in the image when streaming from DAZN, though there's really only so much that can be done with that service. My partner and I have recently started watching "Chuck" on Prime Video, and the film grain was abundantly obvious on the old TCL. We were able to smooth out the grain in the settings of the U8K, and the image looks much cleaner.In conclusion, the hardware is excellent and works a treat for my application. The software is capable but sometimes clunky and stubborn. I'll update this review in a week or so once I get some more viewing time in, dial in the calibration, and get to know the "quirks and features" a bit better.