Vizio V Series 2019
TV REVIEW
The Vizio V Series 2019 is a budget entry-level 4k LED TV with decent picture quality. It has a high native contrast ratio that delivers deep blacks but lacks a local dimming feature to improve dark room performance. The TV can get decently bright in SDR, but not bright enough in HDR. It doesn't have a wide color gamut and can't deliver an HDR image with saturated colors and highlights that pop. Motion on the V Series looks smooth, but fast-moving content has a slightly long blur trail. Unfortunately, the TV lacks any advanced features to make motion look crisper. It has a low input lag, which is great for casual gaming.
Note that there are different variants of the V Series, some of which include local dimming. See our table of differences between sizes and variants.
| Design | 7.0 |
| Picture Quality | 7.4 |
| Motion | 6.9 |
| Inputs | 8.8 |
| Sound Quality | 5.8 |
| Smart Features | 6.8 |
- Deep uniform blacks.
- Low input lag.
- Can't get very bright.
- HDR doesn't add much.
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Market Context
The Vizio V Series 2019 is a budget VA panel TV. It sits below the Vizio M Series and it is the replacement of last year's D Series 4k and E Series. The V Series' main competitors are budget models from other manufacturers, like the Samsung RU7100, the LG UK6300, or the TCL 5 Series S517.
Design
The Vizio V Series has a decent design. It has a wide stand that supports the TV well and only allows moderate wobble. The back of the TV is very plain and there is no provision for cable management. When you look at the TV from the side, you can clearly distinguish the compartment that houses the electronics because it is thicker than the rest of the screen. The build quality is decent and the TV feels very solid, even though it's mostly made of plastic.
The stand is made of very good quality plastic. It supports the TV well and only allows a little wobble. It is almost as wide as the TV and you will need a large table to place it on. Unfortunately, there are some grooves that prevent you from reversing the legs to make the footprint smaller.
Footprint of the 50" stand: 40.75" x 10.1"
The back of the TV is very plain. It consists of two parts: the top is metal, whereas the bottom one is made of solid plastic with a slight texture. The back resembles the TCL 5 Series S517 a lot. There is no cable management.
The Vizio V505-G9 is a thin TV overall. It is thinner than last year's Vizio E Series 2018 and Vizio D Series 4k 2018. The top part is much thinner, but the lower part, where most of the electronics are housed, is noticeably thicker. If you decide to wall mount it, however, it will not stick out a lot.
Picture Quality
The Vizio V Series 2019 has a decent picture quality. It can display deep blacks thanks to the high native contrast ratio, but lacks a local dimming feature to further improve dark room performance. It can get decently bright in SDR and is more suitable for a dim room. Unfortunately, HDR content is not displayed as its creator intended, as the TV does not have a wide color gamut and can't get very bright in HDR. The V Series has mediocre viewing angles and decent gray uniformity that won't disappoint sports fans. It can handle reflections well, and you can place it in a room with a few lights without issue.
The native contrast ratio is excellent. It can deliver deep blacks in a dark room and this improves picture quality. It is an improvement over last year's Vizio D Series 4k 2018. Unfortunately, the TV lacks a local dimming feature to improve dark room performance.
The Vizio V505-G9 is available in multiple sizes and two major variants. We tested the Vxx5 variant. There is no local dimming feature in this variant. There is an option called Backlight Control and in the tooltip, it says that it dims the backlight locally. However, this is not local dimming. The above video is for reference only.
Note: The other variant is the Vxx6 and supports local dimming, but we have not tested it so we cannot comment on its performance. You can find out more about the sizes and variants here.
The Vizio V Series 2019 has decent SDR peak brightness and it is suitable for an average lit room. It is not as bright as the D Series 4k 2018, but is very similar to the TCL S517.
We measured the peak brightness after calibration, using the 'Calibrated dark' Picture Mode, 'Normal' Color Temperature, and with the Backlight set to '100.' We use these settings because they give the most accurate image, and this is the maximum brightness that you can get with these settings.
If you do not care about image accuracy, you can obtain higher brightness levels. We were able to reach 309 nits on our 10% window in 'Vivid' Picture mode.
The HDR peak brightness is disappointing. The TV has a weird behavior when it displays whites. In normal content when it is displaying dark scenes, the entire screen is dimmed, but as soon as something bright appears on the scene the entire scene brightens. This can be distracting at times, and it happens in HDR even when Backlight Control is set to 'Off.'
We measured the peak brightness after calibration, using the 'Calibrated Dark' Picture Mode, 'Normal' Color Temperature, and with the Backlight set to '50.' We use these settings because they give the most accurate image and this is the maximum brightness that you can get with these settings.
If you do not care about image accuracy, you can obtain higher brightness levels. In 'Vivid' Picture mode, we were able to reach 306 nits on all window sizes.
The V Series 2019 has decent gray uniformity. The edges and especially the corners are darker than the center of the screen. There is some dirty screen effect, but not too much to bother casual sports fans. In darker scenes, the uniformity issues at the edges remain, but the center of the screen is much more uniform.
The viewing angles are mediocre. The gray levels rise fast as you move off angle, and the gamma shifts dramatically at small angles as well. This makes the image look washed out at fairly small angles. This TV is not the best choice if you have a room with a wide seating arrangement, although it is a good performance for a VA panel. This performance is similar to the TCL 3 Series S305.
Note: During our testing, the black level reached 1.98x its zero degrees value, but never quite reached 2x. If it had reached 2x, the Black Level Raise would have scored worse and that would have affected the entire viewing angle scoring. This is potentially a problem with our scoring system that we'll revisit in a future test bench update.
This TV has good reflection handling, very similar to last year's Vizio D Series 4k 2018. The TV has a semi-gloss screen finish that diffuses reflections across the screen, reducing their intensity. You should have no issues with reflections with this TV unless you place it across from a bright window.
The accuracy of the Vizio V Series 2019 with our pre-calibration settings is good. Both the white balance dE and the color dE are slightly lower than 3, and thus mostly enthusiasts will notice the gray and the color inaccuracies. The gamma doesn't follow the curve all too well, and thus some scenes are slightly darker whereas others are slightly brighter than they should be. The color temperature is warm and the image has a reddish-yellow tint.
After calibration, the V Series has excellent accuracy. Both the white balance dE and the color dE are lowered. Any remaining inaccuracies can only be spotted with the aid of a colorimeter. The gamma tracks the curve better, although some very bright scenes continue to look darker. The color temperature is very closer to the target of 6500K, but maintains a slightly warmer tint.
You can see our recommended settings here.
Upscaling of low-quality content like DVDs is slightly worse than average. The V Series 2019's upscaling of 480p content is slightly better than the D Series 4k 2018 and is more like the upscaling of the Vizio P Series Quantum.
Upscaling of 720p, like content from a cable box, is slightly worse than average. The upscaling of 720p content on the V Series is a little better than the D Series 4k 2018 and is more similar to the upscaling of the Vizio P Series Quantum.
Upscaling of 1080p, like most Blu-rays, is very similar to other TVs like the Samsung Q70R. There are no visible artifacts or jaggedness.
The Vizio V505-G9 has a decent color gamut, but not wide enough to deliver good HDR performance. It is very similar to last year's D Series 4k 2018.
The EOTF follows the input stimulus well, until it starts to roll off very early to smooth the transition towards the TV's peak brightness. The 'Game' mode EOTF is very similar as we can see here.
If you find HDR too dim, check out our recommendations here. With these settings, the V Series 2019 is noticeably brighter in HDR, as shown in this EOTF.
We also measured the tone mapping at 50% stimulus to see if the TV is prioritizing brightness over color accuracy. The results for the Rec. 2020 color space are shown here, and the results for the DCI-P3 color space are shown here. The tone mapping is much better at the 50% stimulus. We usually perform these extra tests when the tone mapping is really bad, which is usually the case on budget, dim TVs.
The color volume on this Vizio V Series is mediocre. The TV cannot display a full range of colors across a range of brightnesses, and this is due to the limited color gamut. Just like the D Series 4k 2018, the V Series can't display rich colors, and darker color shades will be crushed.
We don't expect VA panels to experience permanent image retention, as the VA panel in our long-term test appears immune.
Motion
The Vizio V Series has decent motion handling. The TV's response time is fast, but a small blur trail is visible behind fast-moving content. This small blur smooths out transitions and makes movies and lower fps content display without much stutter. The TV uses PWM to dim its backlight, and the flicker frequency is 480Hz which is unlikely to bother most people. It does not support any advanced image processing features like motion interpolation or Black Frame Insertion that could help make the image crisper. The Vizio V Series can display judder-free movies over 24p signal and when playing from native apps.
The Vizio V Series has a good response time. There is a little more motion blur trail behind fast-moving content than what is found on most TVs, but not too much. Also, there is some overshoot in the 0-20% transition, which can cause some haloing in really dark scenes, but it otherwise shouldn't be very noticeable.
Unfortunately, the TV doesn't have any option to lower its flicker frequency to make the motion crisper.
The Vizio V Series does not have a motion interpolation feature.
The response time is fast, but not so fast that it creates an annoying stutter. Motion in movies or other lower fps content looks good.
The Vizio V Series can remove judder from most sources. Unfortunately, it can't deliver judder-free movies over a 60p or a 60i signal, like from a cable box.
See our recommended settings on how to remove judder here.
The TV has a native refresh rate of 60Hz. It doesn't support any advanced gaming features like FreeSync.
Inputs
The Vizio V Series 2019 has an excellent low input lag and can support the most common resolutions. It does not support 120Hz at any resolution due to the 60Hz panel, but can display proper 4:4:4 in all of its supported resolutions.
The Vizio V505-G9 has an excellent low input lag. Even though we measured the same input lag in all modes, we still recommend enabling Game Low Latency, as there may be some scenarios we didn't test for that require it to be enabled.
All ports have the same low input lag and the V Series can display proper chroma 4:4:4 in all pictures modes as long as you enable Full Chroma 4:4:4.
The TV does not support an Auto Low Latency Mode, so remember to set Game Low Latency to 'On' to ensure that you will have the lowest input lag every time you need it.
The Vizio V Series supports the most common resolutions but can't display any 120 Hz signal due to the 60Hz panel. It supports proper chroma 4:4:4 in all resolutions as long as you enable Full Chroma 4:4:4 for the input in use. You can also use the 'Computer' picture mode, as it always has proper 4:4:4.
Sound Quality
The sound quality of the Vizio V Series is disappointing. It can't produce much bass and can only get moderately loud, which is not good for noisy environments. It can, however, produce clear and intelligible dialog. For a better sound, a soundbar or dedicated speakers are recommended.
The frequency response of the Vizio V Series 2019 is disappointing. Low-frequency extension (LFE) is at about 143Hz. This means this TV doesn't produce any thump or rumble and won't have much body to its bass either. The response above the LFE point is okay, and the TV can produce intelligible dialog. This TV doesn't get very loud and seems to be producing some compression and pumping artifacts close to the maximum volume.
Smart Features
The Vizio V Series has decent smart features. Just like all of the latest Vizio TVs, it has a Chromecast built-in software that allows you to cast to the TV from almost any app on your phone. Its palette of apps is very limited and there is no way to add more. However, the most popular apps are already there. The interface is not smooth and hangs often, but it is intuitive and easy to use. The remote is very basic and cannot voice control the TV. However, the Vizio V Series integrates well with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. The remote app can control all TV settings and acts as a remote replacement.
The interface is basic and simple to navigate. It has some low frame rate animations and it's not smooth. However, the most distracting issue is the time it takes for the "SmartCast" home menu to appear and for the apps to launch. Sometimes when you change a significant setting like the 'Full Chroma 4:4:4', the TV won't respond to the action you do on the remote for a couple of seconds, although the menu is still displayed.
The Vizio V Series, just like all Vizios, does not have ads in its interface or its SmartCast app.
