LCD TV Reviews

Price: $1,000 At A Glance: Impressive overall performance • Outstanding value • 2D only

It’s long been true that if you wait long enough, the price of technology will drop down to meet your budget. Flat-screen HDTVs are prime examples. We’ve recently seen manufacturers respond to the current global financial malaise by squeezing their beans hard enough to produce decent sets for around $1,000. While it’s difficult to say if this trend is due to economic conditions or pressure from price-aggressive new manufacturers, Vizio has been in the vanguard of the young guns making life difficult for traditional HDTV companies. And the company’s not standing still. Exhibit A: Vizio’s new $1,000 E601i-A3. Like its big brother, the 70-inch, $2000 E701i-A3, it’s a true budget buster, but for a change, the budget they’re busting isn’t yours.

Our budget entry hails from a company that's devoted to producing inexpensive flat-panel displays: Vizio, formerly known as V, Inc. The 42-inch GV42L is a 768p LCD HDTV that costs just $1,500. You can buy the GV42L direct from www.viziotv.com, but it's fitting that you can also find this TV on the shelf at Costco; like everybody's favorite wholesaler, the GV42L gives you a lot for your dollar.

Price: $2,200 At A Glance: Excellent 2D and 3D performance • Inexpensive, lightweight, passive 3D glasses • Poor ergonomics

When Tom Norton reviewed the 65-inch Vizio XVT3D650SV 3D LED-edgelit LCD TV last year (see review here), he found it to be an excellent performer in most respects. However, its list price of $3,700 kept many potential buyers away—and, along with the few problems he did find, kept him from bestowing HT's Top Picks designation.

PRICE $1,250

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Great black levels and screen uniformity
Mostly accurate color
Good set of streaming options
Low-glare screen
Minus
No gamma presets or adjustments

THE VERDICT
While it’s not quite the deal you get with Vizio’s lower-cost E series HDTVs, this M series set offers excellent performance at a very good price.

Vizio opted to take some bold steps for their 2014 lineup of LCD TVs. The first was to get rid of 3D—no huge loss there, since most folks don’t watch 3D outside of movie theaters anyway. The second was to add a full-array local-dimming backlight—and not just to some of the new models, but to all of them. The entry-level 55-inch E series set that we reviewed in the July/August issue featured 12 dimmable zones. For the 60-inch M602i-B3 under scrutiny here, that number gets bumped up to 36. Do all those extra zones make the M602i-B3’s black-level performance three times as good? Read on to find out.

PRICE $1,100

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Effective peak brightness with HDR sources
Can display extended color
Good overall picture uniformity and upscaling
Minus
Mild artifacts from local-dimming backlight
No off-air tuner
Only one HDMI 2.0a input

THE VERDICT
Vizio’s new M Series set offers substantial performance improvements over last year’s model and does so at an even lower price.

Ultra HDTVs that support the display of programs with high dynamic range, also known as HDR, have quickly become the norm. If you’re out and about shopping for a new set, there’s a good chance that you’ll be taking home one of these TVs. Of course, the benefit to a state-of-the-art feature like HDR becoming standard is that prices for sets that include it will drop. How low? How about $1,100? That’s what Vizio charges for their 65-inch M65-E0 LCD Ultra HDTV.

PRICE $1,000

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Good image contrast
Crisp picture detail
Affordable price
Minus
Limited off-center viewing angle
Limited HDR brightness
Cluttered screen interface

THE VERDICT
When it comes to TVs, Vizio has always been serious about keeping the quality high and the prices low. That program continues with the company’s new M-Series Quantum, making this set worthy of serious consideration.

Veteran videophiles will recall the days when flat-panel TVs were almost impossibly expensive. But bigscreen set prices have dropped dramatically in recent years. We might "blame" Vizio for that, as it was among the first companies to challenge the status quo. Today it's not the only one offering affordable TVs, but its newest M-Series Quantum models make a strong case for the company's continued design and marketing savvy.

PRICE $2,200

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Handles all HDR formats, including HDR10+
Exceptional performance
Affordable price
Minus
Limited off-center viewing
Poor remote control
Slow and cluttered Smart TV menu

THE VERDICT
Though saddled with a cluttered onscreen interface and less than ideal remote, the Vizio P-Series Quantum X's outstanding performance, particularly with HDR, more than compensates.

What would you pay for a 75-inch Ultra HDTV that's bright enough to handle virtually all high dynamic range programs without having to perform the tone mapping most 4K/HDR sets require? How about $4,000? If it was 2018, that would be a serious answer, but it's 2020 and we now have Vizio's 75-inch P-Series Quantum X, a model that claims to deliver uncompromised HDR performance for just $2,200. Does Vizio's flagship live up to the company's ambitious specs? Let's take a look.