The Vizio P-series is a good, affordable 4k TV. With the exception of its motion blur and viewing angle, its picture quality is great, and it would make a good TV for general use.
Our Verdict
The Vizio P Series is a great TV. If you want a 4k TV, the Vizio P Series is a great budget option. If you don't care about 4k, the choice isn't as clear. Even though it is better than the E Series and M Series, it costs almost twice as much, so the price to quality ratio isn't as good. But if you don't mind the price difference, go for the Vizio P Series.
-
Great black uniformity, even with local dimming turned off.
-
Very low input lag.
-
Very bright. It currently holds our maximum white luminance record.
-
Poor viewing angle (except the 55"). The TV's colors change significantly when you view it from an angle.
-
It has a very long motion blur trail on full-color transitions.
-
Sub par upscaling. Lower resolution content look soft.
- 7.4 Mixed Usage
- 8.1 Movies
- 7.0 TV Shows
- 7.0 Sports
- 8.0 Video Games
- 6.8 HDR Movies
- 5.3 HDR Gaming
- 5.5 PC Monitor
- Updated Mar 01, 2017: Review published.
- Updated Mar 19, 2015: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Oct 10, 2014: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Test Results
Contrary to the cheaper Vizio TVs, the P Series feels like a higher-end TV. It might not be the thinnest LED TV, but it is still less bulky than some high end Sony TVs.
The stand isn't the most stable, but it has a small footprint.
With the local dimming feature off, the contrast ratio is good. Surprisingly, the local dimming did change our black level measurement on our checkboard pattern (it didn't on the E or M Series). We measured a black of 0.023 cd/m2 instead of 0.030 cd/m2. Of course, with that feature, the black level is even lower on larger black areas. The 55" has a native contrast ratio a lot lower than the other sizes, around 1,000:1.
The backlight is a bit slow to dim when transitioning from light to dark, so there is a trail of blooming that follows the dot around the screen in our test. This video was filmed under 'Calibrated Dark' preset. Under 'Calibrated', it is not as aggressive, except for the top and bottom letterboxes.
It has less DSE than most of the other TVs we have reviewed, but a considerable amount of deviation in the uniformity.
The 60" Vizio P we reviewed lost picture quality pretty quickly when viewed at an angle. It’s not a problem if you sit directly in front of it, but this is not an ideal TV for even relatively minor deviations from a centered position. The 55” version has an IPS panel, and therefore does not have that same problem.
Update 01/06/2017: We have changed the methodology of testing. Since this is an old TV which we don't have anymore, we extrapolated the results from 2016 TVs.
The black uniformity of this TV is good. There is a bit of flashlighting in the top right corner, but it's very minor.
The white balance is good out of the box if you select the calibrated picture mode. The colorspace could be better though.
The red color is still slightly off after calibration. The lowest dE2000 we could get on the red is 2.3339. The white balance is perfect on the other hand.
When 'Reduce Block Noise' is set to 'High', the picture becomes too soft. 'Med' is a good compromise.
Upscaled 1080p looks soft on this 4k TV. The Samsung JU7100 does a better job at keeping the original sharpness of 1080p content.
On HDMI 4, the 4k picture looks great. On HMDI 5 however, it looks a little bit over-processed.
The Vizio P Series reflects slightly more than average. It is not significant, so do not worry about a few overhead lights.
It gets very bright, and can handle itself well in a bright room. It would do fine even if it was surrounded by windows or other sources of bright light.
This TV has a good deal of overshoot on some transitions, which means there could be a fairly lengthy trail on some movement. This trail will be visible regardless of whether 'Smooth Motion Effect' or 'Clear Action' are enabled.
Using the ‘Game Low Latency’ feature drops input lag to a very low 18.7 msecs, but only on HDMI 5. On HDMI 1-4, the lowest it gets is 45.5 msecs. Without GLL, HDMI 5 has an input lag of 85.5 msecs (84.3 with interpolation), and HDMI 1-4 has one of 103.9 (102.9 with interpolation).
Poor bass extension, but the TV gets relatively loud. The frequency response isn't too bad, and the pumping is minimal under louder volumes.
The distortion level is decent when the TV is very quiet, but there is a noticeable rise as the volume increases.
Major Apps Available
The app selection is limited, and the full smart menu can take a while to navigate. The dedicated app buttons (Netflix, Amazon Instant, iHeart Radio) make it quick and easy to open those three apps, though.
It comes with a pretty standard remote. It has a QWERTY keyboard on the back, which makes entering text much faster.
