Vizio has proven that it’s quite capable of making quality, reasonably priced TVs, but has drifted away from its initial reputation as a strictly low-cost brand. The company’s recent models have been a bit more expensive than comparable TVs from Hisense and TCL, but now that supply chain issues have forced the latter two to bump up their prices, all three companies are once again on an even playing field, and Vizio’s P-series of LED TVs competes directly with the Hisense U8G and TCL 4K 6-Series lines. The 65-inch Vizio P65Q9-J01 we tested is available for $1,299.99, and offers excellent HDR color performance, strong contrast, plenty of gaming features, and the streaming benefits of both Apple AirPlay and Google Cast. It lags behind the U8G in brightness, and its SDR colors are a bit off out of the box, but it’s still a very appealing choice.
Unassuming, Accessible Style
The P65Q9 looks simple and stylish, like the Vizio M-Series. The sides and top of the screen are framed by a thin plastic band that extends back over the chassis of the TV, and the bottom edge features a half-inch brushed gunmetal strip with a silver Vizio logo in the lower right corner. The TV sits on two long, flat metal legs that match the color of the bottom bezel.
The power connector is near the left side of the back of the TV, facing down, while all other connections can be found near the right side, facing right. They include four HDMI ports (one eARC and two others that supports 4K120), a USB 2.0 port, an Ethernet port, a 3.5mm audio output, an optical audio output, and an antenna/cable connection. You won’t find any analog video inputs on the TV, or a USB 3.0 port.
The included remote is a simple, slim black plastic wand with a large, circular navigation pad near the center. Dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Crackle, Disney+, Netflix, Peacock, and Tubi sit above the pad, along with a button for Vizio’s own Pluto TV-powered Watch Free+ service, and menu, power, and input buttons. A volume rocker, mute button, and microphone button for using the TV’s voice features (by speaking into the pinhole microphone near the top of the remote) sit below the pad.
SmartCast: Stream From Any Phone or Computer
Vizio’s SmartCast smart TV platform drives the P65Q9, just like it does the company’s other TVs. It’s a fairly simple and direct interface, built around a small core of apps and services and some strong local device streaming features. Most major names are here, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube (though HBO Max and Twitch are missing).
It supports both Apple AirPlay and Google Cast, which means you can mirror your smartphone, tablet, or computer screen, whether it uses Android, iOS, macOS, or Windows. The platform also enables voice search and TV control with the microphone-equipped remote, along with simple information requests like weather forecasts (though it can’t control smart home devices like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant).
Vizio P-Series Picture Performance
The Vizio P65Q9-J01 is a 4K TV with a 120Hz refresh rate. It supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and hybrid log gamma (HLG).
We test TVs using a Klein K-80 colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman software with methodology based on Imaging Science Foundation’s calibration techniques.
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Out of the box, displaying an SDR signal in Calibrated mode, the P65Q9 shows a peak brightness of 311.912cd/m^2 with a full-screen white field and 439.805cd/m^2 with an 18% white field, and a black level of 0.01cd/m^2. That isn’t very impressive even for an SDR signal, but that’s because the Calibrated mode sets the backlight relatively low; turning the backlight to maximum results in a 522.101cd/m^2 peak brightness with a full-screen white field and a 735.019cd/m^2 peak brightness with an 18% white field, again with an 0.01cd/m^2 black level. Curiously, switching to an HDR signal doesn’t improve contrast past that. In HDR10 Calibrated mode, the P65Q9 showed a peak brightness of 508.156cd/m^2 on a full-screen white field and 700.619cd/m^2 on an 18% white field, slightly lower than the maxed-out SDR picture. It still keeps the 0.01cd/m^2 black level, though, resulting in a very strong 70,062:1 contrast ratio.
The above charts show the P65Q9’s color levels with an SDR signal compared against Rec.709 broadcast standards and with an HDR signal compared against DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. Surprisingly, SDR colors are unimpressive out of the box, with greens and reds running a bit skewed and undersaturated (though whites, blues, and secondary colors are all quite accurate). The TV actually fares better in HDR, coloring nearly the entire DCI-P3 color space with generally close-to-true primary colors, though cyans drift a bit green.
Viewing Experience
BBC’s Planet Earth II looks bright and colorful on the P65Q9. The greens of plants and the blues of water and sky look vibrant without appearing oversaturated, and more muted tones like bark and rocks look natural. Fine details like fur can be clearly discerned both under bright light and in shade.
The red of Deadpool’s costume in Deadpool looks properly full and balanced in the overcast opening scenes of the film. During the burning lab fight, the flames look rich and bright, and shadow details are clear in the darker parts of the frame.
The party scenes in The Great Gatsby show off the P65Q9’s strong contrast. The whites of servants’ jackets and balloons look bright, while the cuts and contours of black suits and dark hair can be easily seen. Skin tones also appear natural against the stark blacks and whites.
Gaming Features and Input Lag
For gaming, the P65Q9 features a 120Hz refresh rate with support for variable refresh rate (VRR) and AMD FreeSync. Testing input lag with an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix, we got numbers that were very good but slightly confusing.
In Calibrated mode, the TV shows a very high input lag of 119.4 milliseconds; that’s normal for this mode. In Gaming mode, we recorded a good-but-not-amazing input lag of 12.7ms. However, staying in Calibrated mode but manually turning on Game Low Latency under the Gaming Engine menu produced an input lag of 7.1ms. This combination is the best of both worlds, providing the strong color accuracy of Calibrated mode and an input lag that’s even lower than it is in the separate Game mode, and well under our 20ms threshold to consider a TV to be good for gaming.
An Affordable Flagship TV
Vizio’s 2021 P-series is much brighter than its MQ6 series, and offers slightly stronger HDR color performance than its OLED TV. With low input lag for gaming and the flexibility of Apple AirPlay and Google Cast in its SmartCast platform, the P-series is quite appealing. Even with these benefits, however, it fails to overtake the Hisense U8G series, which offers higher contrast with a blazingly bright panel, more accurate SDR colors, and hands-free Google Assistant through its Android TV platform. It doesn’t have Apple AirPlay, but that’s the only edge Vizio has over it, which is why the Hisense U8G remains our Editors’ Choice winner. The Roku TV-powered TCL 4K 6-Series is another strong choice, featuring Apple AirPlay but no Google Cast or Google Assistant, while the Hisense U7G is a more affordable alternative that lags behind all three other TVs in contrast and color.
