Vizio P Series Quantum 2020  TV Review

The Vizio P65Q9-H1 has an excellent design and looks nearly identical to its predecessor, the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019. It's simple and clean, with thin borders on all sides.

Update 07/08/2025: The number of dead LEDs has increased significantly since the last longevity update.

Update 04/17/2025: Multiple dark spots have appeared over the last few months, mostly near the bottom edge of the screen. This TV has a full-array backlight, meaning the LEDs are placed directly behind the screen, so these dark spots are likely failed LEDs in the backlight. The overall brightness of the screen hasn't decreased that much since the beginning, but these failures appeared suddenly, so the entire backlight may be starting to fail.

The feet are set almost as wide as the TV itself and aren't reversible, so you need a large table if you don't plan on wall-mounting it. They support the TV well, but there's still a bit of wobble.

Footprint of the 65" stand: 50.7" x 11.7"

The back is nearly identical to the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019. It's a lightly textured plastic, and there's no cable management.

The borders are thin and aren't distracting.

The TV is fairly thin and doesn't stick out much when wall-mounted.

The build quality is great. It's entirely made out of plastic, but it feels sturdy and doesn't flex much. The stand supports the TV well, allowing for just a small amount of wobble.

Update 11/03/2021: We retested the contrast with local dimming on 'Medium' instead of 'High'. Contrast is much better with the 'Medium' and 'Low' settings:

• High: 6089:1
• Medium: 11610:1
• Low: 11840:1

The Vizio P65Q9-H1 has an outstanding contrast ratio and can produce deep blacks. It's better with local dimming enabled, but not by much. Note that the contrast ratio can vary between units.

Update 02/15/2021: We updated the TV to the latest firmware and retested the SDR peak brightness. The 2% and 10% sustained windows became more dim, while the 25%, 50%, and 100% windows got brighter. The review has been updated.

Excellent SDR peak brightness. It varies a lot depending on the scene, but overall, it's enough to overcome glare in a bright environment.

We measured the SDR peak brightness after calibration, using the 'Calibrated Dark' Picture Mode, with Backlight at max, Active Full-Array set to 'High', Gamma set to 2.2, and Color Temperature set to 'Warm'.

If you don't mind losing a bit of image accuracy, you can get a brighter picture using the 'Vivid' Picture Mode, with Backlight at max, Active Full-Array set to 'High', Gamma set to 2.2, and Color Temperature set to 'Cool'. We achieved a peak brightness of 1101 cd/m² in the 10% window using these settings.

Update 07/28/2021: Added the real content local dimming videos.

Update 12/16/2020: We've retested the local dimming with the latest firmware version 5.10.15.5-4. Not much has changed, but like the Vizio P Series Quantum X 2020, we now recommend using the 'Medium' setting as it causes less blooming than the 'High' setting.

The Vizio P Series Quantum has a decent full-array local dimming feature. It performs zone transitions relatively well, as it can follow slow-moving objects pretty closely, but it lags when there's faster movement. While zone transitions are visible when playing our test pattern, it isn't as bad in regular content.

There's a fair amount of blooming, more so in regular content than with our test pattern. It tends to make dark areas look grayish or over-brighten dark spots that have some form of light. It isn't always noticeable, but it can be distracting. Blooming isn't uniform, as some areas bloom more intensely than others. Unfortunately, subtitles aren't handled well. They're very bright, and there's a lot of blooming around them.

Even though the circle in our test pattern dims a lot when it's moving around quickly, it doesn't seem to be an issue in regular content. Unlike the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019, we find almost no difference between the 'Medium and the 'High' setting (local dimming is called Active Full-Array in the settings). We recommend using the 'Medium' setting.

On the 'High' setting, small highlights like stars look okay and aren't crushed. That said, there's blooming, and it doesn't happen on every star, which makes the screen look blotchy.

Update 07/28/2021: Added the real content local dimming videos.

The local dimming in Game Mode is decent and looks the same as outside of Game Mode.

Update 02/15/2021: We updated the TV to the latest firmware and retested the HDR peak brightness. The 2% and 10% sustained windows became more dim, while the 25%, 50%, and 100% windows got brighter. The review has been updated.

Great HDR peak brightness. Like in SDR, there's a lot of brightness variability when displaying different content. It can get very bright, enough to deliver a good HDR experience. The successor to this TV, the Vizio P Series Quantum 2021, gets even brighter in HDR.

We measured the HDR peak brightness before calibration, using the 'Calibrated Dark' Picture Mode, with Backlight at max, Active Full-Array set to 'High', Gamma set to '2.2', and Color Temperature set to 'Warm'.

If you don't mind losing image accuracy, set the Picture Mode to 'Vivid', with Active Full-Array set to 'High', and Color Temperature set to 'Cool'. We achieved a peak brightness of 1090 cd/m² in the 10% window using these settings.

Update 09/30/2020: After warming up the TV for three hours to remeasure input lag, the backlight became visible, and we noticed uniformity issues. You can see the photo here, but note that this is taken on a phone and not our usual camera setup. If you have this TV and notice this issue, let us know.

Gray uniformity on our unit of the Vizio P Series Quantum is okay. The corners and edges are darker, and there's visible dirty screen effect in the center. Uniformity is better in dark scenes, but still not that great, especially on the left side of the screen. Note that gray uniformity can vary between units.

Update 01/08/2021: We reuploaded the black uniformity photos because there was an issue with the original photos. This improved the results, and the review has been updated.

The black uniformity is great. There's a bit of clouding without local dimming, and it's noticeable in the corners. However, with local dimming, there's no clouding and only a bit of blooming around the center cross. Note that black uniformity may vary between units.

Like most VA panel TVs, the Vizio P65Q9-H1 has poor viewing angles, which isn't ideal for large rooms or wide seating areas. There's an Enhanced Viewing Angle feature that can help improve viewing angles slightly, but it causes spatial dithering.

Update 10/14/2020: We've retested the reflection handling and determined that the performance is more in-line with the Vizio P Series Quantum X 2020's. The score has been updated accordingly.

Excellent reflection handling. It handles ambient light well and even though it may not be the best choice to place it opposite a window, it still performs well in bright rooms.

Out-of-the-box, the Vizio P65Q9-H1 has good color accuracy. Most color inaccuracies are relatively minor, but white balance is off, and the color temperature is on the warm side, resulting in a slight reddish tint. Gamma follows the target reasonably well; however, both dark and bright scenes are over-brightened. Note that color accuracy can vary between units.

After calibration, the color accuracy is exceptional. White balance and gamma are nearly perfect, and the remaining color inaccuracies shouldn't be noticeable. The color temperature is much closer to our 6500K target.

You can see our recommended setting here.

480p content, like from DVDs, looks decent and there aren't many artifacts.

The Vizio P65Q9-H1 upscales 720p content, like from cable boxes, fairly well.

1080p content looks good, and there are no issues with the upscaling.

Update 10/26/2020: We've retested the Enhanced Viewing Angle feature. It now works but it causes dithering, as you can see in this photo.

4k content is displayed perfectly.

The Vizio P Series Quantum 2020 can't display an 8k signal.

This TV uses a BGR sub-pixel structure and may affect text clarity when using it as a PC monitor. You can read more about it here.

The Vizio P65Q9-H1 has an excellent HDR color gamut. It has near full coverage of the commonly-used DCI P3 color space and great coverage of the wider Rec. 2020. The EOTF follows the PQ curve almost perfectly until the roll-off, and the 'Game' mode EOTF is nearly identical. If you find HDR content too dim, you can get a brighter image by setting the Picture Mode to 'Calibrated Dark', Active Full-Array to 'High', Gamma to '1.8', Backlight to max, and Local Contrast to 'Medium'. These settings result in a much brighter image, as you can see in this EOTF.

Great color volume. It displays dark and saturated colors well, but it has a hard time with bright blues, which is typical for LCDs.

Great gradient handling. There'a bit of banding in the greens and reds, but it's most noticeable in the grays. Enabling Signal Noise in the Reduce Noise menu doesn't seem to help much.

There are no signs of temporary image retention. Note that temporary image retention can vary between units.

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

The Vizio P Series Quantum has excellent response time. However, there's image duplication due to the backlight's 120Hz flicker.

Update 10/26/2020: We uploaded the wrong backlight chart picture. It has been fixed.

The backlight is flicker-free when the brightness is at max, but anything below that, the backlight flickers at 120Hz.

The Vizio P65Q9-H1 has an optional Black Frame Insertion (BFI) feature to improve motion clarity. Enabling it lowers the backlight's flickering frequency to 60Hz. Unfortunately, there's terrible strobe crosstalk, resulting in image duplication. To use BFI, turn on Clear Action.

This TV can interpolate lower frame rate content up to 120fps to make motion look smoother, otherwise known as the 'Soap Opera Effect'. It does a pretty good job in quiet to moderately fast-moving scenes, but there are artifacts if the action gets too intense. To interpolate 30fps content, increase Judder Reduction, and for 60fps content, increase Blur Reduction. These settings need to be adjusted depending on the content that you're watching.

Due to the TV's fast response time, lower frame rate content can appear to stutter, since each frame is held for longer. If stutter bothers you, enabling motion interpolation can help.

This TV can remove judder from 24p sources and native apps, but not from 60p or 60i sources. To remove judder, enable Film Mode. Unlike the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019, setting Judder Reduction to '1' doesn't remove judder from 60p/60i sources.

Update 10/26/2020: We've retested the VRR with the new firmware (version 5.10.13.1-2). It only works at 4k @ 60Hz, but the VRR range is smaller, from 48-60Hz. At 4k 120Hz, the screen is still tearing a lot when VRR is enabled. Also, VRR doesn't work at 1440p @ 60Hz, and at 1440p @ 120Hz, enabling VRR causes visible artifacts. It can detect G-SYNC on an NVIDIA RTX 3080 graphics card, but turning on VRR causes a crash and requires resetting the PC.

The Vizio P65Q9-H1 is advertised to have HDMI Forum VRR support. However, it doesn't seem to be working at this time, even though our connected Xbox indicates that it's functioning correctly. It also caused a few crashes when enabled. We suspect that this is a bug that'll likely be fixed in a future firmware update. To turn on VRR, set Game Low Latency and Variable Refresh Rate to 'On'.

Update 10/26/2020: We've retested the input lag with the latest firmware (version 5.10.13.1-2) and an HDMI 2.1 source. The 4k with VRR input is measured at 60Hz since VRR doesn't work at 4k @ 120Hz.

Update 09/30/2020: Remeasured the input lag at 1080p @ 60Hz because it was much lower compared to 2019 Vizio TVs and the Vizio P Series Quantum X 2020. The input lag only slightly increased, and the review has been updated.

The Vizio P65Q9-H1 has excellent low input lag, a nice improvement from the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019. Motion interpolation is usable when gaming; however, it adds significant input lag and isn't recommended.

To get the lowest input lag, set Game Low Latency to 'On'. You can also set it to 'Auto' if you want to enable the 'Auto Low Latency Mode', which turns the mode on automatically when the TV detects a game launching from a compatible device. For signals that require full bandwidth, Vizio removed the Full UHD Color settings, so there's nothing to change.

For PC use, set Game Low Latency to 'On'. Vizio has removed the 'Computer' mode.

Note: We encountered a few issues while testing the input lag. The first is that the TV skips frames when playing 1080p or 1440p content at 120Hz with Game Low Latency on. The second is that the input lag results are very inconsistent at 120Hz, as they vary wildly between each run. Testing was done on multiple computers, and we couldn't get consistent results on any of them. We suspect that this is a bug; we'll retest it once an update is available.

Using its latest firmware, version 5.41.29.10-1, the Vizio P Series Quantum 2020 supports most common resolutions under the HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, but there are some issues with signals that require HDMI 2.1 bandwidth. It displays 4k @ 120Hz outside of Game Mode, but it skips frames with Game Low Latency enabled. It also skips frames with 1080p and 1440p signals in Game Mode, but both work without issue outside of Game Mode. For 1440p signals, you need to create a custom resolution from your PC.

For chroma 4:4:4, it displays it properly with 60Hz signals, and for 1440p @ 60Hz signals with chroma 4:4:4, you need to set your PC to 'RGB' instead of 'YCbCr444'. As for 1080p, 1440p, and 4k signals at 120Hz with chroma 4:4:4, the TV accepts the signal, but text looks blurry.

This TV supports HDMI 2.1 on ports 3 and 4, as they're the only ones that accept a 4k @ 120Hz signal. That said, the TV's 'Auto Low Latency Mode' works on all ports.

The Vizio P65Q9-H1 supports eARC, allowing it to pass high-quality audio like Dolby Atmos via TrueHD over an HDMI connection. To use it, set eARC to 'On', and Digital Audio Out to 'Auto'.

The Vizio P65Q9-H1 has an okay frequency response. It's reasonably well-balanced, and dialogue comes across clearly. Unfortunately, it lacks bass extension to produce a thumping or rumbling sound. On the bright side, it gets very loud without adding too much compression at max volume.

Decent distortion performance. There's almost no distortion at all when playing at moderate volume levels. Even at max volume, it's extremely low and shouldn't be audible.

Update 11/11/2020: The SmartCast version was incorrectly listed as version 1.60, when it's in fact version 1.40.

Vizio's SmartCast platform is decent. It's easy to use, but it's a little buggy. In addition to the issues mentioned in the input lag and supported resolution sections, the interface crashes from time to time.

There aren't any ads on the home screen, only suggested content from Vizio to promote their WatchFree feature.

There's a reasonable number of apps that come pre-installed. However, there's no way to add more since Vizio doesn't have an app store.

Update 11/03/2021: We updated the voice control results for consistency with our other reviews. Although the remote doesn't have built-in voice control, the companion app does. With it, you can change inputs or launch specific apps, but you can't search for content or adjust settings.

The remote has changed slightly from the Vizio P Series Quantum 2019. It now has a circular navigation pad, but otherwise, it provides the same functions.

The TV's controls are located on the right backside of the TV. It allows you to turn the TV On/Off, change the input source, and adjust the volume.

• User guide
• Remote control
• 2x AAA batteries