Vizio M6 Series Quantum 2021 TV Review

The Vizio MQ6 is one of two TVs in the M Series lineup, sitting below the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021, which has more features. It's a new TV in 2021, and it sits above the entry-level Vizio V5 Series 2021. It competes with other budget-friendly models like the Hisense U6G, TCL 5 Series/S546 2021 QLED, and the Samsung AU8000.

The Vizio MQ6 looks nearly identical to the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021, except it has a different stand. It features the same thin borders with a thicker bottom bezel. It has a pretty simple design and should look good in any setup.

The feet are basic and are set wide apart. They raise the screen about three inches off the table, so you can place a soundbar in front without blocking the screen. Unlike the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021, the height of the stand can't be adjusted.

Footprint of the 65 inch TV: 44.9" x 11.8".

The back of the Vizio MQ6 has a pretty basic design besides the Vizio logo in the center. The back panel is metal, while the bottom part where the inputs are is made of plastic. Unfortunately, there's no cable management.

The Vizio MQ6 is even thinner than the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021, likely because it doesn't have the extra electronics required for the full-array local dimming feature.

The Vizio M65Q6 has decent build quality. It's very similar to the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021 in terms of style and materials used. It's well-put-together, and the stand supports the monitor well with minimal wobble. The metal on the back feels nice, and even though there's some flex on the plastic near the VESA holes, it feels solid.

The Vizio MQ6 has an outstanding native contrast, so it displays deep blacks when viewed in the dark. Unfortunately, there's no local dimming feature to improve it. There's a Local Contrast setting that doesn't improve the contrast with our test pattern, but it's possible it does with real content. Keep in mind that contrast can vary between individual units.

The SDR brightness is okay. It doesn't get as bright as the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021, so visibility might be an issue in really bright rooms. Luckily, brightness doesn't vary at all between different scenes.

We tested the SDR brightness after calibration in the 'Calibrated Dark' Picture Mode with the Backlight at its max, Gamma set to '2.2', and the Color Temperature set to 'Warm'.

We tried to get a brighter image using the 'Bright' Picture Mode with the Color Temperature on 'Normal', Local Contrast on 'High', and Gamma set to '1.8'. However, we measured 320 cd/m² in the 10% window using these settings, so the difference is minimal.

The Vizio MQ6 doesn't have a local dimming feature. The videos are for reference only, so you can see how backlight on this display performs and compare it to a similar product with local dimming. Vizio advertises it as having a 'Full-Array Backlight' because it uses direct LED backlighting with LEDs placed along the back of the screen. We list the backlight as 'Direct' to remain consistent with other reviews.

Once again, there's no local dimming feature. The videos are for reference only, so you can see how backlight on this display performs and compare it to a similar product with local dimming.

The Vizio M6 has a disappointing HDR brightness. It's about the same with real content as the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021, but without a local dimming feature to boost highlights, colors don't pop the way the creator intended. EOTF follows the target fairly well until the roll off at the peak brightness, but some brighter scenes are slightly over-brightened.

We tested it before calibration in the 'Calibrated Dark' HDR Picture Mode with Tone Mapping set to '100'; this is just another name for the Backlight setting in HDR. We also set the Gamma to '2.2' and Color Temperature to 'Warm'.

If you find the image is too dim, use the same settings as above but set the Gamma to '1.8' with the Color Temperature on 'Standard'. This makes the image appear brighter as you can see in this EOTF, but it doesn't change the peak brightness.

The HDR brightness in Game Mode is the same as outside of it because you don't need to change the Picture Mode. You only need to enable Game Low Latency to be in Game Mode.

Our unit of the Vizio M6 Series has mediocre gray uniformity. The dark bands are even noticeable with real content, like during slow panning shots or sports with large areas of bright colors like hockey. Uniformity can vary between units, so you may not experience the same issue. Uniformity is better in near-dark scenes, but you can still notice the banding.

This TV has fantastic black uniformity with minimal blooming around the center cross. However, because it lacks a local dimming feature, it can't produce those deep black levels needed for a proper dark room viewing experience.

The Vizio MQ6 has poor viewing angles, and it's even worse than other VA panel TVs we've tested. The image looks inaccurate as soon as you move off-center, and colors shift a lot when viewing from very wide angles.

There's an Enhanced Viewing Angle setting that we didn't use during testing. However, we also measured it with it enabled to see if it would make a difference. It slightly improves the results, but doesn't make a visual difference:

• Color Washout Graph
• Color Washout: 20°
• Color Shift Graph
• Color Shift: 18°
• Lightness Graph
• Brightness Loss: 27°
• Black Level Raise: 13°
• Gamma Shift: 16°

The reflection handling is good. It looks more like the Vizio V Series 2020 than the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021 because it absorbs more light. This should help if you want to place the TV in a room with a couple of lights around, like small lamps.

The out-of-the-box accuracy is great. There's minimal inaccuracy to most colors, except for saturated reds and blues. White balance is a bit off, but it's not too bad, and the color temperature is close to the 6500K target. Gamma doesn't follow the 2.2 target all that well because dark scenes are too dark and bright scenes are over-brightened. Keep in mind that accuracy can vary between units.

The accuracy after calibration is nearly-perfect. Any remaining inaccuracies to the color, white balance, and gamma are almost impossible to spot with the human eye.

You can see our recommended settings here.

Like other Vizio TVs, the Vizio MQ6 doesn't properly upscale 480p content. On this model, you can even see the individual pixels with real content, creating a moire-like effect. You can see them in all the upscaling photos, but they're harder to spot in person.

This TV upscales 720p content fairly well, but there are some artifacts and it's not as good as other 4k TVs.

Fortunately, there aren't any issues displaying 1080p content like from Blu-rays.

The Vizio M65Q6-J09 displays native 4k content perfectly, with no obvious issues. You can see the moire-like effect if you zoom in on the picture, but it's hard to see in person.

This is a 4k TV that can't display an 8k signal.

This TV uses a BGR sub-pixel structure, which doesn't affect image quality, but it can affect text clarity when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can read more about it here.

Thanks to the quantum dot layer, the Vizio MQ6 displays an excellent color gamut. It has fantastic coverage of the commonly-used DCI P3 color space and decent coverage of the wider Rec. 2020. Tone mapping is a bit worse than the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021, making colors look less accurate.

The Vizio MQ6 has decent color volume. It's helped by the wide color gamut, but it struggles to display really bright and really dark colors.

The gradient handling is excellent. There's some slight banding in the darker shades of green, red, and grey, but it's hard to notice. Setting Contour Smoothing to 'High' or 'Medium' helps smooth out gradients in the test pattern and real content, but 'Low' doesn't do much.

There aren't any signs of temporary image retention, but this can vary between units. You can see here the vertical bands caused by the gray uniformity issues, and this isn't image retention.

We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.

The Vizio M65Q6 has a slow response time, creating a blur trail behind fast-moving objects. The response time is even slower in the 0-100% transition, which is typical of VA panels, but this is because there's more overshoot.

This TV uses pulse-width modulation (PWM) to dim its backlight at any setting below its max. The 480Hz flicker may create image duplication.

The Vizio MQ6 doesn't have an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion. The backlight always flickers at 480Hz unless it's at its max.

There's no motion interpolation feature.

Due to the slow response time, there isn't much stutter with lower-frame rate content.

The Vizio M65Q6 can remove judder from native 24p sources like Blu-rays or native apps. This helps with the appearance of motion in movies.

Like the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021, the Vizio MQ6 features support for FreeSync variable refresh rate technology. As the Xbox Series X supports both HDMI Forum VRR and FreeSync, there's no way to tell which one is active and if the TV supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The Vizio M65Q6-J09 has incredible low input lag as long as you enable Game Low Latency. The input lag doesn't change with VRR enabled or when gaming with 4k or 1080p content, which is great.

This TV supports all common resolutions at 60Hz, like 1080p, 1440p, and 4k. It also displays chroma 4:4:4 with all of its supported resolutions, which helps with text clarity when using it as a PC monitor. You need to create a custom resolution from your PC for 1440p signals, but that doesn't affect the picture quality. As with some other HDMI 2.0 TVs, it accepts 1080p and 1440p signals at 120Hz, but it skips frames.

As it's limited to a 60Hz panel, it doesn't support any 120Hz signals from the PS5 or Xbox Series X. There's an Auto Low Latency Mode that switches the TV into Game Mode when you launch a game from a compatible device.

Vizio advertises the TV as having three HDMI 2.1 inputs, but it doesn't support any signal above the HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, like 4k @ 60Hz with chroma 4:4:4 and 10-bit color depth.

The Vizio MQ6 doesn't have an audio analog output like the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021, but it has composite inputs which is great if you have a DVD player or old gaming consoles.

The Vizio M6 Series Quantum has eARC support, allowing you to send high-quality audio to a compatible receiver using a single HDMI connection. It's advertised to support DTS:X audio formats via eARC, but we couldn't get it to work with our receiver as it would play the DTS-HD Master Audio format. It seems like this is an issue on our end, so we left the DTS:X as 'Yes', but if you experience the same thing, let us know.

The Vizio M65Q6-J09 has a mediocre frequency response. It has a fairly well-balanced sound profile for dialogue, but it doesn't get very loud. It also doesn't produce much bass, if at all.

The distortion performance is okay. There isn't much distortion at moderate listening levels, but it increases a lot at its max volume. However, not everyone may hear it and it depends on the content.

The Vizio SmartCast is user-friendly, but it's not as advanced as some other smart systems. Menu navigation also feels a bit choppy, and even though we didn't experience any bugs during testing, Vizio TVs are known to be buggy.

There are ads in the home screen, which isn't something we noticed with the Vizio M7 Series Quantum 2021. Sadly, there's no way to disable them.

The SmartCast system comes with a great selection of pre-installed, web-based apps, but there's no app store so you can't download any extra apps. You can cast almost anything you want from your phone using the Google Chromecast and Apple AirPlay 2 support.

The Vizio M65Q6-J09 comes with the new Vizio remote that features a basic design with shortcut buttons to popular streaming devices. It also has a mic for voice control, and you can ask it to change inputs and open apps, but it can't search for specific content in apps or change certain settings.

There's a single button on the bottom left side to turn the TV On/Off and change inputs.

• Remote control (with 2x AAA batteries)
• User guides