Our Verdict
The Vizio M65-F0 is a good TV for mixed usage. It has good picture quality and works well in a dark room. It also has great motion handling and excellent low input lag, perfect for gaming or fast-moving action scenes.
- Deep and uniform blacks
- Excellent low input lag
- Fast response time
- Image degrades when viewed at an angle
Good TV for watching movies in a dark room. The native contrast is good, but not as good as most VA TVs. The local dimming feature is decent, but not very effective at boosting the black levels. It has excellent black uniformity with very little clouding.
Decent TV for watching TV Shows in a bright room. The Vizio M Series 2018 has good reflection handling and gets decently bright, but can't overcome glare in a very bright room. The viewing angle is bad, and if you like to work around the house while watching TV, you will be disappointed.
Good TV for watching Sports during the day. The Vizio M65-F0 has good reflection handling and great peak brightness but it can't overcome bright glare. The viewing angle is bad, which isn't great for watching the big game with a group of friends.
Great TV for playing video games. Input lag is excellent and low across all supported resolutions and modes as long as Game Modeis used. There is very little motion blur and it has a great flicker feature that can improve the clarity of motion without significantly reducing the brightness.
Good TV for watching movies in HDR. The native contrast ratio is excellent, and dark room performance is great. The local dimming feature is poor, and isn't very efficient. It doesn't support a wide color gamut and some scenes will lack detail in HDR.
Great TV for gaming in HDR. It has excellent low input lag and there is very little motion blur thanks to the fast pixel response time. Decent brightness with HDR content and it has good dark room performance. It doesn't support a wide color gamut which negatively affects the color volume.
Good performance when used as a PC Monitor. The pixel response time is fast and it has great low input lag so navigating with a mouse feels responsive. It supports chroma 4:4:4 and text looks crisp. The viewing angle is bad and it will need to placed a few feet away from the viewing area otherwise the edge of the screen will fade.
Changelog
- Updated May 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.5.
- Updated Feb 21, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.4.
- Updated Feb 28, 2019: Converted to Test Bench 1.3.
- Updated Aug 15, 2018: We have retested the SDR Peak Brightness on the latest firmware (1.0.18.4) and it remains the same.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 65" Vizio M65-F0. For the most part, we expect our review to be valid for the 55" version (Vizio M55-F0), and the 70" version (Vizio M70-F3).
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Vizio M-Series 2018 doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review.
| Size | Model | Alternative Name | Clear Action | Effective Refresh Rate | Real Refresh Rate | Local Dimming Zones |
| 55" | M55-F0 | M Series 55 | 360 | 120 Hz | 60 Hz | 32 |
| 65" | M65-F0 | M Series 65 | 360 | 120 Hz | 60 Hz | 40 |
| 70" | M70-F3 | M Series 70 | 360 | 120 Hz | 60 Hz | 48 |
Popular TV Comparisons
The Vizio M-Series 2018 is a good mid-range 4k TV with a few minor flaws. It is a good improvement over the 2017 M-Series but faces some tough competition. See our recommendations for the best smart TVs and the best TVs.
The Vizio M Series 2018 is better than the Samsung NU7100. The Vizio has a local dimming feature to enhance dark room performance, can get brighter in SDR, and can handle the reflections of a bright room better. Motion is crisper on the Vizio, thanks to the faster response time. The Samsung NU7100 has deep, uniform blacks but lacks the local dimming to improve the dark room performance. The NU7100 has a motion interpolation feature to enhance motion, and a lower input lag, which is great for video games.
The TCL 6 Series 2018 is slightly better than the Vizio M Series 2018. The TCL can get brighter to fight glare in a bright room, but can also display deeper blacks in a dark room since it has a better native contrast ratio and support for local dimming. Also, the TCL R617 has a lower input lag, which is great if you play video games. It has better HDR performance and better motion handling features, as it has support for motion interpolation. The Vizio M Series 2018, on the other hand, has better reflection handling and better gray uniformity, which is great if you watch sports in a room with many lights.
The Vizio P Series 2018 is better than the Vizio M Series 2018. The P Series has a more advanced local dimming feature that delivers deeper blacks and better dark room performance. Motion can look smoother on the P Series as it has a faster response time, as well as an optional motion interpolation feature that can increase the frame rate of low frame rate content.
The Vizio M Series 2018 is a bit better than the Vizio E Series 2018. The Vizio M Series 2018 has better local dimming which allows it to display better blacks in a dark room, and at the same time, it can get brighter so that you can also place it in a bright room without any issues. The M Series 2018 also has better HDR performance, whereas the Vizio E Series 2018 has slightly better reflection handling, which is great if you watch TV shows.
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 use 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
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
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