Our Verdict
There is no doubt that the Vizio E Series is a great TV for its price. It is an incredible value if you don't need the latest gadgets like 3D, hundreds of apps, or motion interpolation. Demanding users will still want to spend a little bit more, though, to get better screen uniformity.
- Great gaming TV. It has low input lag and an effective blur reduction feature.
- Great overall picture quality, both in dark and bright rooms.
- Poor gray uniformity. You can actually see every single LED behind the screen.
- The full array local dimming feature makes the picture worse. See the Q&A section for more details.
- Limited viewing angle. As with most TVs, the colors change when you view it at an angle.
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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 Series is really simple. Only a small black border around the screen. The TV is quite thick due to its full array backlight.
The stand is flat. Only three screws hold the TV to the base at the center. It doesn't feel very strong, but at least the TV is light.
In a dark room, the blacks are deep. We didn't turn on the local dimming feature because the zones are very large and it messes with the picture (see the Q&A section for details) too much.
Our unit had a few brighter spots. Nothing too extreme, and it wasn't noticeable with normal footage.
At first glance, the gray uniformity seems really good. But if you look more attentively, you can see every single LED behind the LCD layer. In the picture above, you can see a 14x8 grid. This creates a significant dirty screen effect when an object moves over a solid background (like when watching sports).
As with every TV with a contrast ratio higher than 1,000:1, the Vizio E Series loses saturation at an angle. It's not a deal breaker, though.
The amount of reflection is average-good. Nothing to worry about here.
The motion blur is average when all features are turned off. However, it does have a very effective feature to reduce the amount of blur without increasing input lag (more details in the Q&A section).
The Vizio E Series LED TV has very low input lag. You won't notice it in video games - even fast ones. You don't need to put the TV in game mode to have lag that is this low.
