As 4K technology quietly creeps into the mainstream, Vizio is set to make its 4K/UHD TV debut, unveiling its new P-Series TVs at an event in New York next week. However, ahead of the big-city fanfare, Vizio’s Ultra High Definition TVs have begun to make quiet appearances online — namely on a little shopping site called Amazon. And if you know Vizio, you won’t be surprised to learn these babies are priced to move.
Upon its release next week, Vizio’s new 60-inch P602ui-B3 will cost a cool $1,700. Jumping into the fray with the biggest names in the industry such as Sony, the Korean titans LG and Samsung, Panasonic, and others, Vizio’s new P2ui-B3 TVs are poised to make a similar splash as the company’s HD lineup, which regularly offers a powerful punch of performance at very affordable pricing.
Compare Vizio’s new set to LG’s entry-level 60-incher for instance, the 60UB8200, which costs a whopping $800 more at $2,500 — and that’s on the heels of a recent price drop. Samsung doesn’t offer a 60-inch TV at the lower tier, but its lowest comparable entry-level set, the 55-inch HU6950, is only $100 cheaper, with a good deal less screen real estate. And you’ll have to go all the way down to Sony’s 48.5-inch X850B to reach the $1,700 line in a 4K/UHD TV.
In addition to its 60-inch set, Vizio will also offer a 55-inch model at $1,400 (though we always recommend sticking with 60-inches or larger to take advantage of 4K/UHD resolution), and a massive 70-inch model for $2,500. In other words, Vizio’s sets are super inexpensive — low enough to put a serious wrench in the gears of the current 4K/UHD marketplace.
But will they perform?
If our short experience viewing them at CES 2014 is anything to go by, we think the answer is yes. Plus, they’re loaded with a healthy bundle of features that may help them turn some heads. Apart from their high pixel density, the TVs all pack full-array direct LED backlighting which should translate into excellent screen uniformity. Even more encouraging: all three sets offer Vizio’s impressive local dimming tech, which allows the TVs to reach deeper contrasts between light and dark, with less of the “halo effect” that is often the scourge of LED panels. The 55 and 60-inch models both have 64 active LED zones to dynamically adjust lighting across the panel, and the 70-inch boosts that to 72.
Related: LG’s 4K/UHD LED TV lineup ranges from $1,000 to $100,000
Other features include all the options we expect from a new 4K/UHD panel, including HDMI 2.0 to display 4K content at up to 60 fps (frames per second), as well as the HEVC codec to allow 4K streaming video. In fact, the brightest feather in Vizio’s 4K cap might just be the new TVs’ compatibility with Netflix 4K content at launch, something Panasonic is still trying to lock down for its latest sets.
We’ll have a hands-on look at Vizio’s new 4K/UHD sets at the official event next week, but if you can’t wait, you can pre-order them now, with a delivery date slated for September 24.
