Vizio V Series 2020 TV Review

The Vizio V Series is Vizio's lowest-end model in the 2020 lineup and replaces the Vizio V Series 2019. Its main competitors are the Hisense H6570G, the LG UN6950, and the Samsung TU7000.

The Vizio V Series' design is decent and looks almost identical to the Vizio V Series 2019. It's simple, and there's nothing that really stands out. The borders are thin but not as thin as other higher-end Vizio TVs, such as the Vizio P Series Quantum 2020.

The feet are set almost as wide as the TV, and there's no alternate narrow position, so you need a large surface to put the TV on if you don't plan on wall-mounting it. They support the TV well and don't wobble much.

Footprint of the 65" stand: 49.8" x 12.0"

The back of the TV is plain. The top half is metal, while the bottom half is plastic. There's no cable management, and some of the inputs are back-facing, which isn't ideal if you want to wall-mount the TV.

The borders are a bit thicker than those on Vizio's higher-end TVs, but they aren't too distracting.

The TV is relatively thin and shouldn't stick out much when wall-mounted unless you use the back-facing ports.

The build quality is okay. It's a mix of metal and plastic, and while it doesn't feel particularly premium, there aren't any issues with the construction except for a little bit of flex on the back, towards the middle of the bottom half. The stand supports the TV well and doesn't wobble much.

This TV has an excellent contrast ratio and can produce deep blacks for a great dark room viewing experience. Unfortunately, there's no local dimming to enhance it further. Note that the contrast ratio can vary between individual units.

This TV doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video above is provided for reference only.

Poor SDR peak brightness. It maintains consistent brightness across different content, but it isn't bright enough to combat glare, so it's better suited for a dark to moderately-lit room.

We measured the SDR peak brightness after calibration in the 'Calibrated Dark' Picture Mode, with Gamma set to '2.2', and Color Temperature set to 'Warm'.

We can achieve a slightly brighter image using the default 'Bright' Picture mode; however, the difference isn't really noticeable, as it only goes up to 226 cd/m² in the 50% window.

The HDR peak brightness is bad, and about the same as in SDR. It isn't enough to make highlights stand out, so HDR content doesn't look much different from SDR.

We measured the HDR peak brightness before calibration in the 'Calibrated Dark' Picture Mode, with Gamma set to 2.2, and Color Temperature set to 'Warm'.

Just like in SDR, you can get a slightly brighter image using the default 'Bright' Picture Mode, but it only goes up to 227 cd/m² in the 50% window.

Gray uniformity on our unit is mediocre. There's vignetting at the corners and a fair amount of dirty screen effect (DSE) in the center. The DSE is slightly better in dark scenes, but the backlight bleed is much more noticeable. Note that gray uniformity can vary between individual units.

This TV has poor viewing angles, typical of most VA panels. Images look washed out when viewed from the sides, so it isn't ideal for large rooms with wide seating areas.

Black uniformity on our unit is great. There's a bit of clouding at the bottom of the screen, and some backlight bleed along the edges. Note that black uniformity can vary between individual units.

This TV has good reflection handling; however, visibility can still be an issue in well-lit rooms due to the TV's low brightness.

Before calibration, the color accuracy is good. Most colors are only slightly inaccurate, but yellow is visibly off, and so is the white balance. The color temperature is on the warm side, resulting in a reddish tint. Gamma follows the target relatively well; however, some dark scenes are too dark, and bright scenes are too bright. Note that color accuracy can vary between individual units.

After calibration, color accuracy is exceptional. White balance is almost perfect, and the color temperature is much closer to our 6500K target. There are still inaccuracies with a few colors, but they're hard to spot. Gamma is better, except that bright scenes are now too dark.

You can see our recommended settings here.

Upscaling of 480p content, such as from DVDs, is decent.

This TV upscales 720p content well, but it isn't as good as most other recent 4k TVs. If you want a similar, entry-level TV that does a better job at upscaling 720p content, check out the TCL 4 Series 2020.

This TV upscales 1080p content well with no visible artifacts.

This TV displays 4k content perfectly.

This TV can't display an 8k signal.

This TV uses a BGR sub-pixel structure. While this doesn't affect picture quality, it can affect how text is rendered when using the TV as a PC monitor. You can read more about it here.

Unfortunately, the Vizio V Series can't display a wide color gamut in HDR content. The EOTF follows the PQ curve relatively well, with a sharp roll-off towards its peak brightness. The 'Game' mode EOTF is nearly identical, as you can see here.

If you find HDR content too dim, you can make it brighter by setting the Picture Mode to 'Calibrated Dark', Gamma to '1.8', Color Temperature to 'Standard', Local Contrast to 'High', Backlight Control to 'On', and Black Detail to 'High'. These settings result in a brighter image, as you can see in this EOTF.

This TV has a mediocre color volume, mostly due to its lack of a wide color gamut and low brightness. It has difficulty displaying very bright colors, as well as dark and saturated colors.

Excellent gradient handling. There's only some minor banding in the greens and grays. Setting Contour Smoothing to 'High' removes most of it, but it can cause a loss of fine details in some scenes.

There are no signs of temporary image retention; however, it can vary between individual units.

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

This TV has mediocre response time. As a result, there's a noticeable blur trail behind fast-moving objects. If response time is important to you, then look into the Samsung TU6980.

The backlight is flicker-free when the brightness is set to max. However, if it's set to anything below that, the backlight flickers at 480Hz in all picture modes.

This TV doesn't have an optional Black Frame Insertion feature.

This TV doesn't have a motion interpolation feature.

Due to the TV's slower response time, there's very little stutter in lower frame content.

This TV can remove judder from 24p sources and native apps, but not from 60p/60i sources. To do so, enable Film Mode.

This TV doesn't support any variable refresh rate technology.

The Vizio V655-H19's input lag is outstanding. To get the lowest input lag, set Game Low Latency to 'On'. Setting it to 'Auto' enables the 'Auto Low Latency Mode', which turns on Game Low Latency when a game is launched from a compatible device, such as an Xbox or PC.