Vizio P Series 2018 TV Review

The design of the Vizio P Series 2018 is very good. The stand is metallic and resembles last years, but the legs have a more round finish. It is very wide and so you will need a wide table to fit this TV. If wall mounted, the inputs are easily accessible. The borders are metallic and the TV has a premium feel. The build quality is also very good and will keep most people happy.

The stand of the Vizio P65-F1 is metallic. It is very sleek and supports the TV well as it does not allow any wobbling.

The footprint of the 65" is 50.8" by 11.7"

The back of the TV is plastic. There is no cable management, however, the inputs are close to the edge and are easy to access if the TV is wall mounted.

The borders of this Vizio P series 2018 are metallic and very thin. The bezel is very thin and there is some gap between the edge of the bezel and the LCD panel.

The maximum thickness of the Vizio P65-F1 is similar to the Vizio P series 2017 from last year. As with most 2018 Vizio models, a look from the side reveals more about the structure of the TV (screen and electronics compartment).

The build quality is very good and has a more premium design. The silver finish on the stand and the borders along with the lack of gaps add to this TV's high-end feel.

The contrast of the Vizio P65-F1 is great. The local dimming does a great job at enhancing the TV's contrast, providing even deeper blacks. The results are certainly better than the Vizio M series 2018 and comparable to the TCL R617

The SDR peak brightness is very good. The brightness of the TV is higher on smaller window sizes so highlights on darker scenes will appear bright. It is slightly better than the P Series 2017 for small windows, as it boosts their brightness rather than dimming them.

All this brightness testing was done in the Calibrated Dark picture mode, because it has the best picture quality. In the Vivid picture mode, the TV can reach a peak brightness of 968 cd/m² for a short time.

Update 08/27/2018: The SDR peak brightness has been retested with the latest firmware (1.0.18.4) and it remains in the same ballpark.

The 2018 P-Series has good local dimming. The 65" model we tested is a FALD panel with 100 local dimming zones that perform quite a good job in dimming the blacks and enhancing the contrast. There is very little clouding as the algorithm is very aggressive. This results in somewhat dimmer whites but without sacrificing detail.

The 55" model (Vizio P55-F1) has only 56 local dimming zones whereas the 75" (Vizio P75-F1) has 120. These variations might have an impact on the local dimming effectiveness of these models.

Update 01/02/2019: The name for Vizio's local dimming feature has been renamed from Xtreme Black Engine Pro to Active Full Array.

Update 03/21/2019: We have been contacted by readers who have had issues with pulsing local dimming in some scenes on this TV (see this discussion thread. Please let us know in the discussions if you also experience this problem.

The HDR peak brightness is good and a definite improvement from last years' model. In dark HDR scenes, the TV displays small bright details well, but still falls short of the brightness level achieved by the Sony X900F and the TCL R617.

Update 08/27/2018: The HDR peak brightness has been retested with the latest firmware (1.0.18.4) and it remains in the same ballpark.

The gray uniformity of this Vizio P series 2018 is decent. It is a slight improvement from the P Series 2017, but some clouding will be visible especially in panning shots and this might annoy sports fans.

In darker scenes (5% gray) things are slightly better but you might still be able to spot minor clouding.

Update 07/27/2018: The gray uniformity of TVs varies between units, and we have received reports of bad uniformity on some Vizio P Series TVs. We don't know how widespread this issue us, but will update the review as we learn more.

The black uniformity of this Vizio P Series 2018 is very good, both with local dimming disabled and when it is enabled. There is a little clouding, but most people will not notice.

The viewing angles of the P65-F1 is bad. This is typical for a VA panel where as soon as there is an increase in viewing angle, blacks turn gray, then the colors shift and finally, brightness diminishes. This TV is not your best option if viewing angle is of importance.

Reflection handling is very good. A great improvement from the 2017 P Series.

Just like the M Series 2018, the semi-gloss filter helps diffuse direct reflections and glare even in bright environments. However, some people will notice some direct reflections, but most people won't be bothered.

The out-of-the-box color accuracy of the P series 2018 is remarkable and this is a big improvement from last years model.

The best results were obtained with the Picture mode set to Calibrated Dark and both the white balance dE and the color dE are below 3. At these values most people will not notice any imperfections. The colors were a little warm and the overall TV shows a slightly higher gamma than our target of 2.2, so the image is slightly dark.

Colors and shadows of the Vizio P65-F1 after calibration are outstanding. The already great accuracy becomes almost perfect in all aspects of our measurements. Color dE and white balance dE are very small, whereas the gamma curve is followed perfectly at 2.2. Finally, the color temperature is almost perfect

Note: Calibration can be performed very easily with the help of the Smartcast app, as no on-screen menu is necessary.

You can see our recommended settings here.

Upscaling of low-quality content such as DVDs is a bit more blocky, and there is more noise, similar to the P Series 2017. This is visible when viewing DVDs.

The upscaling performance is very similar to performance the M Series 2017

Upscaling of 720p content such as cable is a bit softer than most other TVs.

1080p content such as Blu-rays look good. The image remains clear and sharp.

Native 4k content such as UHD Blu-rays or high-quality streaming content is displayed without any issues.

Update 12/04/2018: We have received a few reports that the 55" P Series uses a different sub-pixel structure, and this may be noticeable when using it as a PC. There is an open discussion on this here.

This Vizio P series 2018 has a good wide color gamut. It is a slight improvement from the 2017 model. And up to par with the Sony X900F.

The HDR EOTF in Calibrated Dark with Backlight at 50 follows the target PQ quite well. If you find HDR content too dark you can raise the Backlight to 100 to raise the EOTF. This will have a result of almost everything being brighter, as shown in this plot.

Enabling the Game Low Latency setting while gaming does not affect the game EOTF. The default EOTF in the Computer Picture mode a.k.a. PC mode overshoots the target PQ curve a bit, but when the Gamma setting is set to 2.2, like it is in Calibrated Dark, the EOTF becomes identical to that of Calibrated Dark.

The Vizio P Series 65 has decent color volume. In the P3 volume, it covers the gamut well; a slight improvement from last year's model. In both color volumes, the darker colors are not displayed very well, and blues can't get very bright.

The Vizio P65-F1 has decent gradient. There is small banding almost everywhere, medium banding in dark green and grey, but no major banding at all. 8-bit banding is not visible since this is a 10-bit panel. The performance is slightly worse than the Vizio P Series 2017.

There is no gradient smoothing feature, but the Reduce Noise feature may reduce banding in low-quality content, at the cost of some loss of fine details.

No image retention is present on the Vizio P65-F1. This is in line with TVs that use VA panels.

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

The Vizio P65-F1 has an excellent response time. The pixels change luminosity very fast and this is great for fast-moving content.

Update 07/30/2019: The P Series has received an update that changes the backlight flicker to 120Hz. The picture and score have been updated to reflect the change.

The P series uses PWM and amplitude to dim its backlight. It flickers at 960Hz. This frequency is so fast that almost no-one can notice it. It is only flicker-free when the backlight level is set at maximum (100).

This does produce motion with less noticeable duplications than last year's P Series 2017 or the TCL 6 Series R617.

The BFI mode on the P Series 2018 is activated by setting Clear Motion to On. Just like the M-Series 2018, when BFI is enabled the perceived screen brightness is not reduced. This is because the brightness spikes higher than before to compensate for the off cycles.

The 2018 P series motion interpolation is excellent. The TV can interpolate both 30fps content and 60fps content up to 120 Hz. To do that, you must set the Reduce judder to interpolate 30Hz content, and set the Reduce Motion Blur to interpolate 60Hz content.

Motion interpolation stops when there's too much motion, and there are some visible artifacts when interpolating. Interpolation is nearly perfect during slow moving shots

This Vizio P65-F1 is decent at being stutter free. There will be some stutter on slow fps content, because of the very fast response time of this TV. Most people will not notice it, but if you find that it bothers you, you can enable motion interpolation to reduce it.

The TV has an option to remove judder. This only works if the signal is 24p or if it comes through a Native App. When a 24p signal is coming through a 60p or a 60i source (like a cable box), the TV's option to remove judder does not work. In this case, to remove judder you must enable motion interpolation with a very low setting, so as to avoid potential artifacts.

The Vizio P65-F1 does not support VRR.

Update 05/17/2019: There is an issue with firmware version 2.1.7.1. When on HDMI 5 with 'Game Mode' enabled, there is no sound. Our model did not see this update automatically, so it is possible that it is either a gradual roll-out, or that Vizio has stopped rolling it out. If you are prompted to update to 2.1.7.1, we recommend against installing it.

Just like the P Series 2017, this year's model has excellent low input lag for SDR content. However, this year's model also has great input lag for HDR content as well.

HDMI port 5 is a low bandwidth port that doesn't support HDR, but has much lower input lag than the other ports, making it excellent for SDR gaming. Again we conducted all tests on HDMI ports 1, 2 and 5: ports 1 and 2 have similar input lags, but port 5 has much lower lag for all resolutions that it can support, including 4k @ 60 Hz @ 4:2:0.

Chroma 4:4:4 only shown properly in Computer mode.

All of the most common resolutions are supported on HDMI ports 1-4, and most on port 5.

HDMI Port 5 supports a 4k @ 60 Hz input, but only at 4:2:0. It does not support 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 because it does not have the necessary bandwidth. It also doesn't support HDR.

Ports 1-4 support all common formats including chroma 4:4:4 and 4:2:2, but only when 'Full UHD Color' is enabled for the port being used.

4:4:4 color is only shown properly when the TV is set to Computer mode. Sharpness at 0 means no added sharpness. It is automatically greyed out in Computer mode.

Update 07/31/2018: We have received reports that there are issues with sending a 4k HDR signal from a game console including the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro. These issues appear to be isolated and we have been unable to reproduce the problem.

Update 12/04/2018: We have received a few reports that the 55" P Series uses a different sub-pixel structure, and this may be noticeable when using it as a PC. There is an open discussion on this here.

Update 11/14/2019: Vizio has added support for HDR10+ on many 2019 and 2018 models. Unfortunately, we no longer have the 2018 models, so we're unable to confirm if they support HDR10+.

4k @ 60Hz @ 4:4:4 HDR works for all ports except HDMI 5.

Just like the M Series 2018, the P Series 2018 has dedicated ports for a shared component and composite input.

The rear inputs include an 'analog audio out' for use with wireless headphones without the need for an adaptor. Also, a 'Cable/Antenna' input is present for the TV tuner that returns with this year's model.

To get the optical DTS to work we had manually switch to bitstream, as with the auto setting the signal would stay in PCM. CEC is needed for ARC passthrough (setting name: CEC).

The frequency response is sub-par. LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 120Hz, meaning this TV doesn't produce any thump or rumble, and doesn't have much punch or body to its bass either. The response above the LFE point is not very even either and lacks a bit of detail, which is not ideal for producing dialogs, especially at higher volumes. Additionally, it doesn't have a room correction system either, that's why it wasn't able to remove the modes of test room around 200Hz. On the upside, it reached 87.2dB SPL at maximum volume, which is above average.

The distortion performance is about average. The overall amount of THD produced is elevated, especially between 1KHz and 2KHz, which could make the sound of that region a bit harsh. On the upside, there is not a big jump in THD at maximum volumes.

The interface of the P65-F1 is decent. It is slow and basic, there are no animations and the apps load slowly. The TV shows and movies tabs are noticeably laggy. The TV slows down to a trickle for half a second then speeds through the next movies.

Update 10/04/2018: We have received some reports of lagging or freezing when changing inputs, which appears to be a bug related to the 'CEC' option and compatibility with certain devices. We haven't been able to recreate this issue with our Yamaha RX-V379.

The TV's interface does not have ads. There is a scrolling banner in the main app page for suggested content that can not be disabled and can bother some people.

The Vizio P65-F1, just like the M series 2018, comes with 18 preloaded apps:

Netflix, Prime Video, Crackle, VUDU, iHeart Radio, YouTube, Newsy, Dove channel, Curiosity stream, Con TV, Pluto TV, Haystack TV, Xumo, Plex, Fandango Now, NBC, YouTube TV and Hulu.

Update 06/19/2018: 3 preloaded apps were missing from the app list. They have been added to the review.

Update 07/31/2018: Support for 4K HDR streaming on Amazon Video has been added with firmware version 1.0.18.4. The review has been updated.

Update 11/15/2018: Vizio has added a 'WatchFree' input via a firmware update. This uses the free Pluto TV service on the backend, and is well integrated.

The remote control is lightweight with small buttons. There are 6 button shortcuts for Vudu, Netflix, Amazon Video, Xumo, Crackle and iHeart radio.

There is no voice control built into the remote or on the TV, but you can connect a Google Home or Amazon Alexa device if you have one.

The Vizio P Series 2018 has 3 buttons:

• a power button,
• an input button, and
• a volume rocker.

• Batteries
• Remote
• Manual

• 61" Power Cable