The Vizio M8 Series Quantum 2020 is a good mid-range 4k TV. Like its predecessor, the Vizio M Series Quantum 2019, it sports a VA panel that can produce deep blacks for a great dark room viewing experience. It has an excellent HDR color gamut, allowing it to display rich and saturated colors in HDR content. Its response time is decent, input lag is low, and it supports variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing when gaming. It handles reflections decently well and gets bright enough to overcome glare, but not quite bright enough to make highlights stand out in HDR content. Its VA panel's viewing angles are quite narrow, so it isn't the best option for large seating areas, as the image looks inaccurate when viewed from the side. Lastly, while it has a full-array local dimming feature, its sub-par implementation results in a lot of blooming around bright objects.
At the time of writing, this TV is difficult to find through most major retailers. We'll provide links once they're available. Our unit was purchased from Walmart.
Our Verdict
The Vizio M Series Quantum 2020 is a good TV overall. Like most VA panel TVs, it delivers deep blacks, making it a great choice to watch movies or play video games in the dark. It has a decent response time and low input lag, and it can display proper chroma 4:4:4 when using it as a PC monitor. It overcomes glare easily in a well-lit environment but doesn't get bright enough to deliver a satisfying HDR experience. Also, its poor viewing angles make it less suitable for large rooms or wide seating areas.
- High contrast ratio.
- Decent response time.
- Gets bright enough to fight glare.
- Poor viewing angles.
- Dirty screen effect.
The Vizio M Series Quantum is great for watching movies. Its high contrast ratio allows it to produce deep blacks, great for watching movies in the dark. It upscales 1080p content well and can remove judder from low frame rate content. It has a full-array local dimming feature; however, it doesn't perform well, as it causes a lot of blooming around bright objects.
- High contrast ratio.
- Decent black uniformity.
- Doesn't stutter much in low frame rate content.
- Sub-par local dimming.
- Dirty screen effect.
The Vizio M Series Quantum is decent for watching TV shows. It provides good visibility in well-lit environments, as it gets bright enough to fight glare and has decent reflection handling. Its VA panel has poor viewing angles, so it isn't ideal if you like walking around while watching TV. Vizio's SmartCast platform is easy to use, but its app selection is limited because there's no app store. You can safely leave it on the same channel or programming all day since its VA panel is immune to permanent burn-in.
- Decent reflection handling.
- Gets bright enough to fight glare.
- Poor viewing angles.
- Dirty screen effect.
The Vizio M Series Quantum is decent for watching sports. It has a decent response time and a Black Frame Insertion feature to deliver fast-moving scenes with minimal motion blur. It handles reflections decently well and gets bright enough to overcome glare. Unfortunately, its VA panel's narrow viewing angles might be an issue, especially if you like watching with a big group of people. There's a fair amount of dirty screen effect on our unit; however, this can vary between individual units.
- Decent response time.
- Decent reflection handling.
- Gets bright enough to fight glare.
- Poor viewing angles.
- Dirty screen effect.
The Vizio M Series Quantum is great for gaming. Its decent response time results in only a short blur trail behind fast-moving objects, and it has an optional Black Frame Insertion feature to improve motion clarity. It has incredibly low input lag, providing a responsive gaming experience. It's well-suited for dark room gaming, as it has a high contrast ratio and exceptional black uniformity. The refresh rate is limited to 60Hz, but on the bright side, it supports variable refresh rate technology to reduce screen tearing.
- Low input lag.
- Decent response time.
- Variable refresh rate.
- Dirty screen effect.
The Vizio M Series Quantum is good for watching movies in HDR. It has a high contrast ratio and exceptional black uniformity, making it an excellent choice for dark rooms. It can produce rich and vibrant colors due to its excellent color gamut, but it doesn't get bright enough to make highlights stand out in HDR content. Also, the local dimming causes a lot of blooming around bright objects and can be distracting.
- High contrast ratio.
- Excellent HDR color gamut.
- Decent black uniformity.
- Doesn't stutter much in low frame rate content.
- Mediocre HDR peak brightness.
- Sub-par local dimming.
- Dirty screen effect.
The Vizio M Series Quantum is great for gaming in HDR. It has a decent response time and low input lag, and it supports variable refresh rate technology to minimize screen tearing. It performs remarkably well in dark rooms thanks to its high contrast ratio and exceptional black uniformity. Its excellent color gamut allows it to produce a wide range of colors in HDR content, but sadly, it doesn't get bright enough to make highlights pop.
- High contrast ratio.
- Low input lag.
- Decent response time.
- Excellent HDR color gamut.
- Variable refresh rate.
- Mediocre HDR peak brightness.
- Sub-par local dimming.
- Dirty screen effect.
The Vizio M Series Quantum is a good TV for use as a PC monitor. It has low input lag and a decent response time to make the desktop experience feel smooth and responsive. It supports most common resolutions and can display chroma 4:4:4 for optimal text clarity. Unfortunately, it has poor viewing angles, so the edges of the screen can look washed out if you sit too close. On the upside, you don't have to worry about permanent burn-in, as its VA panel is immune to it.
- Low input lag.
- Decent response time.
- Decent reflection handling.
- Poor viewing angles.
- Dirty screen effect.
Changelog
- Updated Oct 20, 2021: We updated the 'Voice Control' results to be more consistent with our other reviews.
- Updated Aug 02, 2021: Added the real content local dimming videos.
- Updated Mar 01, 2021: Converted to Test Bench 1.6.
- Updated Jan 13, 2021: We've retested the local dimming to check on the flashing issue in Dolby Vision content.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We reviewed the 65" Vizio M Series Quantum 2020 (M65Q8-H1), and we expect our results to be valid for the 55" (M55Q8-H1) model as well. There's an M7 variant of this TV, which has a few differences, such as the number of local dimming zones. There's a Black Friday model that's only available at a 70" size, which has slightly reduced features, such as having three HDMI ports instead of four. It likely has a different number of local dimming zones; however, we aren't able to confirm it. If you come across this model, please let us know in the discussions below.
| Size | Model | Black Friday Model | Dimming Zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55" | M55Q8-H1 | 90 | |
| 65" | M65Q8-H1 | 90 | |
| 70" | M706x-H3 | Unknown |
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their M Series 2020 doesn't correspond to our review, let us know, and we will update the review. Note that some tests, such as gray uniformity, may vary between individual units.
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Popular TV Comparisons
The Vizio M Series 2020 is a good TV for most uses. However, there are better TVs in the same price range, like the Hisense H8G. The Hisense has a much better local dimming feature and more apps through the Google Play Store. For more options, check out our recommendations for the best TVs, the best 4k TVs, and the best 4k gaming TVs.
The TCL R635 is a bit better than the Vizio M8 Series Quantum 2020. The TCL gets a lot brighter, it has faster response time, and it can remove judder from all sources. On the other hand, the Vizio has better color accuracy and lower input lag.
The Vizio M8 Series Quantum 2020 and the Hisense H8G are very similar TVs overall, with only a couple of differences. The Vizio has a higher contrast ratio, better color gamut, and variable refresh rate support. On the other hand, the Hisense has a better local dimming feature, faster response time, and it gets brighter.
For most uses, the Vizio M8 Series Quantum 2020 is much better than the Sony X750H. The Vizio has full-array local dimming, higher peak brightness, and a significantly better HDR color gamut. It also has better color accuracy, a Black Frame Insertion feature, and variable refresh rate support. The Sony's backlight is completely flicker-free, and its Android TV platform gives access to more apps through the Google Play Store.
The Vizio M8 Series Quantum 2020 is much better than the Samsung TU8000. The Vizio has a full-array local dimming feature, significantly better color gamut and gradient handling, and gets a lot brighter in SDR and HDR. The Samsung has better black uniformity, and it can interpolate lower frame rate content.
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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