Vizio - 40 Class - Led - V-series Review
TechRadar Verdict
Its picture show performance has a lot of room for improvement, merely if you're after a versatile TV with a load of features in a variety of screen sizes the Vizio Five-Serial is a nice alternative to more expensive options from Samsung, LG and Sony.
Pros
- +
Decent upscaling
- +
Affordable
- +
WatchFree Vizio app
Cons
- -
Poor dissimilarity
- -
Desaturated images
- -
Atrocious off-centrality viewing
I-minute review
The V- in the Vizio V-Series TVs has e'er stood for 'value', but you could easily debate that it should stand for 'versatile' instead, as it's i of the most feature-rich TVs in the budget category. With back up for HDR (HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision and HLG) plus Chromecast built-in and AirPlay, the V-Serial is a veritable swiss army knife of upkeep TVs.
Unfortunately, despite all these technologies, the V-Series is still a pretty upkeep-oriented ready and its picture is but off-white – contrast isn't off-the-charts and its color saturation could apply some piece of work, as well. Its biggest issue is that of awful off-axis viewing (more than 45 degrees) that turns what is a fine and acceptable pic to a really desaturated mess.
If you tin can stay perfectly in forepart of it, don't heed less-than-stellar image quality and tin can deal with a few problems in speed and performance, however, information technology'south an affordable TV series that packs in a lot of the engineering that makes the top TVs from Samsung, LG and Samsung the best in the earth.
Price analysis and release date
Technically part of the 2021 drove, the latest Vizio Five-Series screens are bachelor in nine sizes, starting with uber affordable 40-inch V405 and shooting all the fashion up to 75 inches with the V755-H4. Here's the consummate breakdown:
- 40-inches: Vizio V405 ($229)
- 43-inches: Vizio V435-H11 ($279)
- 50-inches: Vizio V505X ($299)
- 55-inches: Vizio V555 ($339)
- 58-inches: Vizio V585 ($349)
- 60-inches: Vizio V605 ($399)
- 65-inches: Vizio V655-H9 ($469)
- 70-inches: Vizio V705-H3 ($659)
- 75-inches: Vizio V755-H4 ($799)
Without a doubt, this pricing structure makes the Vizio V-Series ane of the cheapest proper noun-brand TVs on the market - rivaled only past the TCL four-Series, the Hisense H65 Series and Samsung TU7000, though the latter doesn't offer HDR, let lonely both the HDR10+ and Dolby Vision variants.
For the coin, we're all the same fractional to the TCL 4-Series, but if y'all tin spare a bit more than it'due south probably worth skipping the super-budget market and jumping upwards to a meliorate mid-range model similar the TCL 6-Serial (R635) or Hisense H8G Quantum.
Blueprint
Despite its modest, mostly plastic exterior the Five-Series has a lot going for it in terms of design - some of the models use HDMI 2.ane and full array lighting. These are specs you'd notice on much costlier screens so to get them on any budget model is somewhat miraculous.
Speaking of ports, Vizio is offering iii HDMI ports, 1 of which is eARC-enabled, and has blended inputs as well. For sound output you've got a standard analog audio output as well as a digital audio output plus one USB two.0 port (1A).
Unlike last yr'due south lineup, there seems to be a bit more consistency to the series this year with the entirety of the series using full array lighting rather than simply a few models and that should ensure a more reliable feel regardless of which screen size you pick.
What volition be dissimilar, and this will matter later, is that smaller models don't have as many local dimming zones as the larger models, but Vizio isn't listing specifics on its official website.
The IR remote, while nicely laid out with hot keys for several fundamental streaming services, is IR-based. What that ways is that you won't be able to use it as a vocalism remote, making searching for shows just a tad harder than it should be, and you'll need line of sight to the bottom of the Television which means you lot'll demand to exist careful about soundbar placement.
Overall, the Vizio V-Series design for 2020 is functional and unobtrusive, if not meticulously planned out or outright gorgeous.
Smart Idiot box (SmartCast)
Like other Vizio TVs, the Five-Serial uses the company'southward proprietary SmartCast platform that acts equally both a Chromecast congenital-in system with AirPlay as well every bit a standard smart platform with apps like Netflix, Hulu and others.
The complete lineup of apps on SmartCast currently includes Netflix, Amazon Prime number Video, Hulu, Vudu, Apple TV, YouTube, YouTube Tv set, Xumo, Peacock, CBS All-Access, Fandango and a few music streaming apps like Pandora, Tidal and iHeartRadio. In fact, the only major app missing, as far as we tin tell, is HBO Max – which is a bummer simply not a bargain-breaker.
On acme of all those apps, SmartCast as well has Vizio's WatchFree app that allows you to stream some content for complimentary with ads. Information technology doesn't have the absolute all-time pick of content, but it's yet an invaluable resources for cord-cutters who want live cable-free, and a dandy alternative to channel surfing for folks who even so have a box.
For smart dwelling enthusiasts, SmartCast integrates with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant smart speakers, just neither assistant is included on the device itself.
The big bug with it, especially on the V-Series, is that information technology doesn't always perform well, especially when you starting time wake the TV upward from balance way. In particular we had problems getting the Chromecast and AirPlay modes to work properly and SmartCast would often hang on an all-grey screen when woken upwardly. The home screen would somewhen populate itself with content after about five seconds but, if you didn't know that would happen, information technology could feel like the Telly was frozen.
If you can overlook those hiccups and slower functioning speeds, however, SmartCast is a decent, versatile alternative to some 4K streaming media players.
Performance
When the serial is as broad as the V-Series is, it can exist difficult to brand sweeping statements nigh the whole collection. That being said, cheers to some commonalities across the series like the IQ Active Processor and multi-HDR support, nosotros can paint with a slightly broad stroke first before getting into the specifics of each particular model.
The common thread linking the series together is the new IQ Agile Processor that'due south responsible for upscaling Hard disk drive to 4K resolution and the V-Gaming Engine that reduces input latency and turns on Game Way automatically.
For the virtually part, both are pretty bully - the upscaling engine used past the V-Series does a bully task of turning older HD video into decent 4K, and while it never looks as robust or vibrant as native 4K content, information technology's a lot better than comparable 1080p TV pictures.
Unfortunately, though, yous're not getting a color-saturated epitome or ane with a load of dissimilarity, especially if yous're sitting off-axis to the Tv. From the sides or down below, the Television loses most of its colour saturation and contrast goes from OK black levels down to a milky greyness. That won't matter as much if you can stay directly in forepart of it at all times, just folks with bigger living rooms might struggle to see the same value others might.
Similarly, motion is just and so-so. It's a 60Hz VA panel on the 43-inch V435-H11 we picked up from Best Buy for review, and although it has a number of tricks to deal with fast movement sequences but it won't e'er look as adept as native 120Hz panels. The limited refresh rates ways you won't be able to hit native 4K / 120Hz with the PS5 or Xbox Series X, just y'all will likely see stone-steady 4K / 60Hz gameplay when those consoles come out in November.
The other pocket-sized issue nosotros noticed later using the TV for a few weeks was that the top row of LED backlights began to dim - and that was just subsequently two weeks. The consequence wasn't incredibly noticeable if you didn't know what to await for, merely virtually every piece of content nosotros watched from that point on had the slightly dimmer top section.
Should you buy the Vizio V-Serial (2020)?
Purchase it if...
Don't buy information technology if...
- Don't miss our guide to the entire Vizio 2020 Idiot box lineup
Source: https://www.techradar.com/reviews/vizio-v-series-2020
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