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Vizio’s 2019 4K TVs are now available, AirPlay 2 coming soon

Vizio’s 2019 4K TVs are now available, AirPlay 2 coming soon

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Image: Vizio

Vizio has announced that its latest 4K TVs are now available at retailers. The company’s TVs have always stuck a very impressive price to performance balance, and that seems likely to carry on this year with more local dimming zones and improved brightness performance in several models. Plus, Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit will soon be coming to Vizio TVs new and old.

The TV lineup is led by the P-Series Quantum X, Vizio’s flagship 4K HDR model that comes in 65-inch ($2,199.99) and 75-inch ($3,499.99) sizes. Those are obviously a step up from the prices that most consumers associate with Vizio, but the company believes the P-Series Quantum X can compete with the very best 4K TVs on the market right now. With 384 or 480 local dimming zones, the Quantum X can approach OLEDs in terms of black level, but it can get significant brighter with a peak brightness of 3000 nits in the 65-inch model.

Image: Vizio

The standard 2019 P-Series Quantum comes in the same two sizes, with lower but still very respectable specs for dimming zones (up to 240) and brightness (up to 1,200 nits). It costs $2,499.99 or $1,399.99. As you can see, moving up to a 75-inch TV doesn’t come cheap.

Stepping down to the M-Series is where we hit that sub-$1,000 mark. For many consumers, the M-Series hits that ideal mix of good image quality and appealing price. The $999.99 65-inch M-Series has quantum dot technology for expanded HDR color reproduction, 90 local dimming zones, and can hit a peak brightness of 600 nits. Those things are also all true of the 55-inch version, which is $799.99. Somewhat confusingly, Vizio will offer a secondary, less expensive SKU of the M-Series with far fewer dimming zones (20 maximum) and a lower 400-nit peak brightness. It retains quantum dot color, and in exchange for settling on more modest specs, you pay less money — $899.99 for the 65-inch or $699.99 for the 55. The M-Series also comes in 50 ($549.99) and 43-inch ($399.99) models for those of you who might need something smaller.

Image: Vizio

The entry-level V-Series is where you lose out on local dimming, brightness performance, and quantum dot. On the plus side, even the V-Series supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10. It ranges from $1,199.99 for a 77-inch model to $259.99 for a 40-inch panel. Here’s the entire 2019 Vizio lineup, complete with the number of local dimming zones and peak brightness for each set:

With the SmartCast 3.0 update, users will finally be able to customize the row of streaming apps on their TV’s home screen to their liking. Vizio’s list of built-in services hits all the big ones — Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Vudu, etc. — but remains somewhat small. As always with Vizio TVs, you’ve got the option of casting content from any app that supports Chromecast to the TV screen. And the company notes that Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit are coming sometime this summer. Once that happens, you’ll be able to control Vizio’s TVs with Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, or Google Assistant.