Basically every major product category has seen massive inflation over the past decade. Every category, that is, except TVs. For some reason, year in and year out, brands compete not only to make the best and brightest but also the best cheap models.
The new Vizio 4K TV (its literal model name) costs $328 for a 55-inch model, has excellent built-in casting and every app you could possibly want, and does Dolby Vision high dynamic range. It doesn’t have fancy backlighting for perfect black levels, but if you need a screen for cheap for a bedroom, office, garage, vacation home, corner bar, what have you, there really isn’t much this one can’t do pretty darn well.
Five years ago, a TV with specs like this would have been around a thousand bucks. Reverse inflation sure is nice for average viewers. Now you can get the massive 86-inch model for under a thousand bucks.
A New Black Box
TVs have gotten so good that the vast majority of us really don’t need to follow trends on the high end anymore. For well under $500, this model has all the features we’ve come to expect from higher-end TVs, including fit and finish.
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Photograph: Parker Hall
It’s a simple black box with legs on either side of the screen. I’d prefer a pedestal mount, but I can’t get picky at this price, and you may or may not have a wall mount or other type of mount planned. The legs keep it steady enough on my TV stand, and a nice 2-inch thick case makes it easy to move the TV around without fear of breaking it.
Like all modern TVs, this one has super-thin bezels and is nearly all screen when turned on. It runs on Vizio’s SmartCast operating system, which is one of the better in-house smart TV interfaces we regularly test. It makes for easy casting between both Android phones (thanks to Chromecast) and iPhones (thanks to AirPlay 2), and it has its own variety of decent built-in apps for everything from Netflix to Apple TV. All of them work just fine in my testing, though I prefer my trusty Roku interface when given the choice.
Setup is quick and painless. Just plug in the TV, log in to your apps, and it’s off to the races. It comes with three built-in HDMI ports (one eARC for soundbar or receiver setup), which is more than enough for most modern homes. I plugged in my Nintendo Switch and Panasonic 4K Blu-Ray player and was watching Ferris Bueller in no time.