Our Verdict
Like the 2014 version, the 2015 Vizio E is a pretty good TV, and especially good for the price. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles you get from some competing brands, but the picture quality is good. It's a great option both for those looking for a general use TV and those who want a good budget gaming TV.
- Good picture quality, for the price.
- Great gaming TV. The input lag and motion blur are both minimal.
- Poor gray uniformity, with several issues present onscreen.
- Poor viewing angle.
- The local dimming feature is ineffective. At best, it doesn't make a difference, and at worst it makes the whole picture look worse.
- The stand is wide-set, and is not adjustable. You'll need very wide surfaces for bigger E-series TVs.
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We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests are done with specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
The design of the Vizio E is quite nice. It’s not the thinnest TV in the world, but its bezel is quite slim, and the feet for the stand are pretty good-looking.
The feet are not adjustable, and they are set far apart. For larger TVs, this will necessitate a big surface on which to set the TV. It’s a stabler solution than the old Vizio E mount, but could be inconvenient.
The local dimming feature on this TV is ineffective. The entire screen gets darkened, bright spots included. With small objects like the circle in our test, there is no backlight blooming, but something a bit bigger will introduce a large amount of blooming. See here for more details.
The number of E-series TVs' dimming zones varies by size. 40-43" TVs have 5 dimming zones, 48" TVs have 6, 50-60" TVs have 12, and the 65" & 70" TVs have 16. Since the feature doesn't work well, the number of zones doesn't matter.
It's an improvement over last year's E-series gray uniformity, but you can still see each of the TV’s LEDs in the gray uniformity test, which makes it look like there is an ugly grid on the TV. The right and left sides of the screen, and especially the corners, are darker than the rest of the image, and there is noticeable dirty screen effect, too.
You get a bit more leeway with the Vizio E than with the more expensive Vizio P (the P loses picture quality at 19 degrees), but the viewing angle on this TV is still not ideal for off-axis viewing.
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.
Our set has some clouding, but nothing horrible. It's only noticeable with fully black images.
Upscaling of standard TV channels is below average for the E series. Setting 'Reduce Block Noise' to 'High' helps a little for removing h.264 artifacts.
720p upscaling is a bit better than 480p, but the result is sill soft and not as good as other TVs.
Blu-rays content looks good and sharp like it is supposed to be, without any image quality problems.
There isn’t too much reflection off of this TV, so it will be fine for watching with a couple of lights on.
Its maximum brightness is about average. Unless your room is very, very bright, this TV should work fine.
By default, the motion blur on this TV is very good. You can also make use of the 'Clear Action' feature to clarify the image even more. Enabling 'Clear Action' will dim the screen and add a bit of flickering to the picture, but it does have a noticeable effect on the blur. See here for an image of the 'Clear Action' setting's effect on blur.
There is no judder when watching a movie via 24p (on a Blu-ray player for example). However, it couldn't consistently do the reverse 3:2 pulldown when the signal is sent over 60p or 60i (this only matters for movies, not sports or gaming). Also, there is no motion interpolation (soap opera effect) on models 60" and lower. The 65" and 70" have that feature.
By default, the input lag for this TV is low, and that's constant across picture modes and inputs. Enabling 'Game Low Latency' did not affect our input lag, but using the Clear Action feature did increase input lag to 34.7 ms – a negligible difference.
Other reviewers have noted that the input lag time is higher for different sizes of this model. The 65" and 70" models are said to have particularly high lag times. Gamers looking at the largest sizes of the E-series may want to consider going with another TV.
Update: From further testing we have concluded that all current Vizio TVs that we have reviewed do not display 4:4:4, but 4:2:2. This is due to the TV inputs accepting 4:4:4 but actually displaying 4:2:2. 4:2:2 is better than 4:2:0, but slightly blurrier for text than 4:4:4.
The number of side HDMI-in ports changes by size. 32-40" TVs have 0, 43-60" TVs have 3, and 65-70" TVs have 4.
The frequency response is good at lower volumes, but it gets bad at higher volumes. There will also be noticeable pumping and compression artifacts present when pushed hard. The bass extension is not great for a TV, but it does get relatively loud.
Low distortion at very low volumes, however, there will be a significant rise in distortion at moderate volumes. There may also be some aliasing present in high frequencies.
The remote is decent, and there are just enough HDMI ports for most people to get by.
The smart features are so-so. There aren't that many apps available, but you'll have access to most of the main services (Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu Plus, etc). If you don't need a huge and varied software library on your TV and just need something for the occasional streaming movie, this is a fine choice.
You don’t get the QWERTY remote on the back of this like you do with the Vizio M and P-series, but the slimness and feel of this remote almost makes up for that. The glossy finish might be a nuisance for some – our remote picked up smudges and fingerprints very quickly. Note: The remote for the Vizio M and P will also work with this TV, and vice versa.