Vizio OLED TV review: The best OLED TV value

Our Verdict

Vizio makes a huge splash in the OLED Idiot box market with the the Vizio OLED TV (OLED55-H1), a 4K powerhouse that punches far higher up its price.

For

Ultralow price for an OLED
Generally strong picture and sound quality
Outstanding viewing angles
SmartCast provides numerous, well-considered smart features and complimentary video content
Sleek screen aesthetic

Against

Minor issues with brightness and color accuracy
Gaming functioning could be better
Cumbersome stand up

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

Vizio makes a huge splash in the OLED Boob tube market with the the Vizio OLED Television set (OLED55-H1), a 4K powerhouse that punches far above its cost.

Pros

+
Ultralow price for an OLED
+
Generally strong picture and audio quality
+
Outstanding viewing angles
+
SmartCast provides numerous, well-considered smart features and free video content
+
Sleek screen aesthetic

Cons

-
Pocket-size problems with brightness and colour accuracy
-
Gaming performance could be better
-
Cumbersome stand

Vizio OLED Idiot box Central specs

Price: $1,299.99
Model Number: OLED55-H1
Screen Size: 55 inches
Resolution: 3,840 10 2,160
HDR: HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision
Refresh Rate: 120Hz
Ports: 4 HDMI, one USB
Audio: 30-watt speakers
Smart Goggle box Software: Vizio SmartCast
Size: 48.3 ten 30.half dozen x ii.ii inches [w/o stand]
Weight: 44.9 pounds [west/o stand]

Vizio'due south reputation for producing top-notch TVs at surprisingly low prices is not dimmed past its belated entrance into the OLED space. If anything, it's supercharged. The company'southward new Vizio OLED TV (OLED55-H1) is an OLED-engineering 4K set loaded with abundant smart features and, for its cost—hundreds of dollars lower than yous'll encounter from competitors LG and Sony—delivering a delicious viewing feel that matches some of the best TVs out there, not to mention the best Vizio Tv set correct at present.

The OLED55-H1 may exist one of the best OLED TVs based on price alone – enough that it won a 2021 Tom's Guide Accolade for the best TV value – merely information technology is not flawless. The images aren't every bit perfectly pristine as you'll find from a pricier panel, its gaming capabilities just miss the marking, and a design flub can brand dealing with initial setup a pain if you're not planning on hanging the attack the wall. But our Vizio OLED Boob tube review shows that those are pocket-sized prices to pay when the actual price y'all pay is so small-scale—and the list of what you get for that money is and so long.

Editor'due south Notation: Since this review was written, Vizio TVs have been updated with support for HBO Max . Nonetheless, our initial recommendations from the original review remain unchanged from when information technology outset ran in December of 2020.

Vizio OLED Boob tube review: Toll and availability

For our review, we assessed the 55-inch version of the Vizio H1 OLED, the OLED55-H1. Considering the 65-inch model (the OLED65-H1) shares all of the aforementioned core features and underlying technologies, we expect the functioning of both versions to exist comparable, and our recommendations for the OLED55-H1 may as well utilise to the larger ready.

55 inches: Vizio OLED55-H1 - $ane,299.99
65 inches: Vizio OLED65-H1 - $1,999.99

It'south also worth noting that the Vizio OLED TV has seen some steep discounts during major sales events. While the regular price of the 55-inch model puts it just a tad likewise loftier to exist on our list of the best TVs under $1000, it'due south not uncommon for the fix to sell for less than a grand during big sales, then proceed an eye out if you want an OLED at a existent deal.

Equally we caput into the end of the yr, we expect to see significant discounts to both sizes of the Vizio OLED, so keep an center on the best Black Fri TV deals to know when you lot can save big.

Vizio OLED Television review: Design

In several key ways, thin is the name of the game with the Vizio OLED55-H1. Yes, the screen itself is markedly slender (just nether three-eighths of an inch), as is typical from an OLED TV. And the dark metallic bezel surrounding that screen is then thin (less than one-8th of an inch) that it all but disappears into the jet-blackness brandish when the set is off.

Vizio OLED TV review — (Image credit: Vizio)

The back isn't quite every bit graceful. Though the bare screen is nonetheless visible on the top and sides, the large plastic enclosure housing the Boob tube'south components consumes the lesser ii-thirds and juts out nearly two inches.

Aside from some raised horizontal lines and four screw holes for securing a 300mm ten 200mm VESA wall mount, a Vizio logo is the only decoration visible on the enclosure. Two cover panels may exist removed to reveal the ports (see below) and channels for cable routing.

There's one thing non to like about the blueprint: the stand up. Measuring more than than 21 inches in length and extending out more than four inches in front end of and backside the OLED55-H1 when fastened, it'south a surprisingly bulky three-piece unit intended to cradle a soundbar. Even if yous corroborate of its attention-grabbing shape (which I, for the record, do not), information technology won't exactly seamlessly blend into nearly entertainment centers and doesn't comfortably support the gear up'southward otherwise slim profile. As it's also a chip catchy to install, using it might atomic number 82 to some starting time-fourth dimension frustration Vizio could have obviated with a simpler design.

Vizio OLED TV review: Ports

With the exception of the power connector, which is located on the left, all of the OLED55-H1's ports are on the right side of the rear panel. In the first and largest port bay are jacks for Ethernet, antenna, audio out (including optical), and 3 HDMI ports.

Though the labels for these all confront outward, y'all plug in cables up into the plastic enclosure, which can exist difficult to get correct specially if you lot have express light and room to move. (The combination of the sparse screen and the heavy stand makes moving the TV too much a dicey proffer, and then you'll desire to leave it in i place equally much every bit possible.) A fourth HDMI port, composite video outputs, and a USB 2.0 port are considerably more accessible on the edge of the console.

Vizio OLED TV review: Functioning

Well-nigh regardless of picture show mode, image quality on the OLED55-H1 looks excellent. Although there are noticeable differences, for example, betwixt the Bright, Calibrated, and Calibrated Dark modes in the Pasaana festival in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, each is valid and highly bonny, rendering the scene's juxtaposition of Technicolor-vivid costumes and craggly aliens against the planet'south oppressive desert properties in a unique only satisfying fashion. Onward, the palette-bursting Disney-Pixar fantasy-themed animated movie from earlier this year, Curiosity's fast-moving action romp Spider-Man: Far From Home, and the comic-book-animated compromise candidate between them, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, fare but besides in these areas.

OLED engineering gives TVs functionally infinite contrast levels, for the purest blacks you'll notice anywhere. On that score, the Vizio OLED55-H1 does non disappoint, and renders detailed spacescapes and fifty-fifty the Netflix splash screen with impressive allegiance. To become this dazzling issue, even so, you have to sacrifice some brightness compared with non-OLED TVs. It was particularly evident upwards against the TCL vi-Serial Roku Boob tube (R635), which boosts both that and color via QLED technology, and we saw it in both SDR and HDR mode. This should never be a deal-billow with an OLED set up, but information technology'due south worth keeping in mind.

The aggressive contrast you run into with OLED greatly elevates scenes where the relationship between calorie-free and dark is crucial, such as the major battles and Rey and Palpatine'due south final confrontation in The Rise of Skywalker. And it brings a realistic edge to the cartoony provenance of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Poetry and the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special.

You lot'll appreciate the picture'southward clarity, too, no matter where y'all're sitting. Even when you're viewing from extreme off angles, only the slightest distortion of colour (and hardly a distracting i) gives abroad that you're not viewing the set from direct on. The grayish cast that can then often exist visible on TVs when you lot're in the wrong position is nowhere to be plant hither.

The OLED55-H1 supports 3 different HDR formats: Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and HLG. I of these will actuate automatically when y'all play content that supports information technology, and each of the picture modes has a special HDR version that volition as well engage—you can't turn HDR or support on or off in any other way. Because the HDR-enhanced modes retained the same basic qualities every bit the originals, the motion picture in each was just as good with that role on as with information technology off.

Flaws in image quality are minor and, for this cost, thoroughly forgivable. The most significant is color. In Calibrated and Calibrated Dark modes, the OLED55-H1'southward Delta-East rating, which relates the deviation between colors input and displayed, registered equally about 4.3. This is essentially worse than we saw from either LG (2.9 for the LG BX OLED (2.ix) and ii.0 for the LG CX OLED), the Sony Bravia A8H OLED (one.five), or the TCL (2.2). Similarly, the OLED55-H1 covers only 97.viii% and 98.9% of the Rec. 709 color infinite in the same modes; all of our comparing TVs managed upwards of 99%. (All of our operation tests are conducted using an Ten-Rite i1 Pro 2 spectrophotometer, AccuPel 5000-DVG and SpectraCal VideoForge Pro pattern generators, and Portrait Displays' Calman Ultimate calibration software.)

In addition, when upscaled from 1080p, Mission: Impossible—Fallout became a little muddy and soft around the edges. And applying our 4K test pattern revealed a affect of overscan, with isolated portions of the bezel-hugging circles not completely visible on the screen.

Vizio touts its ProGaming Engine as a way to ameliorate game on consoles, and the OLED55-H1's 120Hz maximum refresh rate should aid with that. Our evaluation of the Tv set in Game Mode with a Leo Bodnar Lag Tester showed an input lag of 21 milliseconds, only barely to a higher place the 20-millisecond threshold we prefer in the best gaming TVs, and more than y'all'll see from the Sony Bravia A8H OLED (18ms), or the LG BX OLED (14.5ms) or LG CX OLED (13.1ms). Fifty-fifty so, in nigh situations, your gameplay probably won't be affected that much.

Vizio OLED Boob tube review: Audio

Hardcore audiophiles will undoubtedly want to add together a soundbar to the OLED55-H1 to maximize their listening enjoyment with the set. But no one else volition need to carp—the Television set sounds quite practiced. Also its fine trebles and mids, its bass presence is notably above average; it falls brusque of collapsing your chest in The Knife'south bass-heavy track "Silent Shout," but it's solid and consistent, even at lower volumes, and adds reasonable oomph to music and movies alike.

Although minute baloney is detectable upwards of 90% of the Telly's volume range, the set's output is articulate and powerful at lower levels. In our testing, nosotros had no problem filling a living room with movie and music sound at book 35 and below—the walls weren't shaking, but if you don't demand that, the OLED55-H1's audio will not disappoint you lot.

(And if you are i of those hardcore audiophiles who won't accept the walls not rattling, check out our roundup of the best soundbars.)

Vizio OLED TV review: Smart TV features

Vizio's SmartCast platform has improved tremendously since its launch, and information technology offers myriad options for accessing a broad range of content. A dynamic, constantly moving carousel near the top of the page and a static line below it surface enough of movies, TV shows, music videos, news, and other things you lot might non find on your own if y'all're drowning in providers. Below that is a customizable row of apps for major services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV, Disney+, YouTube, Vudu, HBO Max and more. Farther down are a serial of gratuitous channels and personalized recommendations. A navigation bar provides a handy place to fire up movies, series, free content, and tutorials and marketplace-oriented, Vizio-specific productions.

In example that's still not enough, the set makes it easy to stream video from other devices via Google Cast (for Android and Chrome) and AirPlay 2 (for iOS and macOS). This is especially handy if you lot want to grab something on a service that Vizio does not support natively via its integrated apps.

You have still more options. You can pair the TV with a product supporting Amazon Alexa or Google Abode to enable vocalization controls. And if your telephone uses iOS rather than Android, Apple HomeKit makes it possible for you to control your smart habitation devices with Siri.

Vizio OLED TV review: Remote control

With the OLED55-H1'south numerous smart features, the remote tin can be dedicated to just the basics y'all need for everyday functioning. Measuring nearly vi.8x1.8 inches, and with a gently rounded dorsum that makes it comfortable to hold for longer periods, it has a clean design that puts just the right number of bones controls at your (literal) fingertips. The Home button is dead centre, with the circular navigational pad and Bill of fare, Info, Back, CC, and Volume and Channel buttons all inside close proximity. Dedicated buttons at the pinnacle of the remote instantly open Vudu, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Xumo, Hulu, and Redbox.

If yous don't care for the remote, or if y'all just want to consolidate your devices, you can download the Vizio SmartCast Mobile app and turn your phone into a remote capable of completely controlling the OLED55-H1 and other Vizio products. Though I similar the physical remote, SmartCast Mobile provides an first-class alternative with every chip as much functionality (and maybe a little more convenience).

Vizio OLED Idiot box review: Verdict

With the Vizio OLED Television set (OLED55-H1), Vizio has smashed open up the lower end of the OLED market place, and if I were LG or Sony, I'd be worried correct now. This fix may not quite match their lower-priced models in terms of moving-picture show quality or depth of features, merely the entry-level LG BX OLED and more premium LG CX OLED are priced at $1,599 and $1,799 respectively, and the Sony Bravia A8H OLED rings in at $1,899. Paying simply $1,299 for all you lot get with the OLED55-H1 is a no-brainer, and the microscopic sacrifices y'all have to make to get that cost are a sure-fire to justify.

Sure, for sheer value, you however tin can't beat out the TCL 6-Series Roku TV (R635), which boasts astonishing visuals and costs nigh half as much—but it's non an OLED. Vizio's Tv set is every bit impressive in its course every bit the half-dozen-Series is in its own, and one of the best 4K TVs around. If you've been slavering over the pictures you see on OLED panels, only have been put off past the prices, the Vizio OLED Tv (OLED55-H1) is the TV you've been waiting for.

Matthew Murray is the head of testing for Hereafter, coordinating and conducting product testing at Tom'south Guide and other Future publications. He has previously covered technology and functioning arts for multiple publications, edited numerous books, and worked as a theatre critic for more 16 years.