Vizio E series is picture-quality king of the budget TVs
Vizio E series is picture-quality king of the budget TVs
1:31

Vizio E series is picture-quality king of the budget TVs

TVs
[MUSIC] If you want the best picture for the least amount of money, the Vizio E Series is our serious consideration. There are plenty of TVs that perform better, but all the ones I've tested cost more than this. The 65 inch model you see here cost just 700 bucks now, at the beginning of September, and I'm betting it gets even cheaper when Black Friday and the holiday sales kick in. The E series is also available in other sizes, both smaller and larger. The styling is nothing special, with a sharply bevelled edge made of basic black plastic. A silver strip along the bottom, provides some panache, but the overall look is still pretty generic. I'm no fan of Visio Smart TV system with screens dominated by a bunch of tv shows and movies you probably don't care about. App access is limited to the few you see here along the bottom. To stream more to the TV, you'll have to cast it from your phone. Support for voice control from Alexa and Google Home speakers is decent however. Vizio also builds in a new service, called WatchFree, with a bunch of live-streaming TV shows and some movies. It's definitely not top tier content, even the Fox Sports and NBC channels aren't the same ones on cable. But is 100% free and easy to browse in grid format. The main appeal of the E series is its very impressive picture for the price. In my test, its fully arrayed local dimming led to deep black holes and rich contrast, and despite the small number of dimming zones, blooming astray illumination wasn't an issue. Colors were accurate and 4K HDR content in particular looked impressive, over all the E series is the best performing TV in its price class period. [MUSIC]

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