The Vizio P-Series has been a very good TV choice for a couple years now, but always sat in a grey area between two price categories. It’s generally a few hundred dollars cheaper than comparable Sony, Samsung, or LG TVs that offer better performance, while staying a few hundred dollars more than TVs from the likes of companies like TCL that aren’t as good but manage to stay under the $1,000 threshold.
So which way did Vizio go this year: Skimp on performance to lower the price, or raise performance to compete with the old guard? Thankfully, it did the latter. Compared to the previous model, the P659-G1 Quantum (See in at Target) has more light output, more dimming zones, wider color gamut coverage thanks to Vizio’s quantum color, and an updated user interface, and most importantly it retains features like low input gaming and a 240Hz effective refresh rate.
Vizio P659-G1 Quantum 4K HDR TV – Design and Features
The styling of the Vizio P659-G1 hasn't changed much from the P65-F1, which to me is a good thing. The stand and very thin bezels are the same metallic aluminum silver with textured sides, the width of the legs is still a little over 50 inches with a depth of just under a foot, and the max width of the TV is about 2.75 inches. The TV is sturdy on its feet, or it can be attached to a VESA wall mount. Some added cable management would have been nice, but that's a minor gripe. There’s an unobtrusive power indicator at the bottom left of the screen where the IR receiver is for the remote. Overall, the TV has a nice, sleek look to it.
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The back is a hard plastic. Around the back on the right side are three buttons for power, volume, and an input selector if you ever find yourself close enough to use them. All the connections are in the same area. They’re split between side- and down-facing orientation. Down-facing connections are three HDMI (one with ARC), optical out, stereo RCA, cable, and Ethernet complimented by two more HDMI, component video with shared composite A/V, and a USB 2.0 port all side-facing. HDMI 1-4 are v2.0b, while the HDMI 5 port is v1.4 and supports 1080p at 120Hz, although not HDR. All are HDCP 2.2.
One of the biggest improvements to the P659-G1 Quantum over last year is the inclusion of Vizio’s quantum color technology (hence the name) that used to be limited to its high-end PQ displays. (In addition to the 2019 P-Series, quantum color has been added to the sub-$1,000 M-Series as well.) The quantum dot technology allows for wider, and more accurate, color gamut coverage.
Even more impressive is that local dimming zones have doubled, now numbering 200.
The P659-G1 features up to 1,100 nits of peak brightness which is a boost over last year. Even more impressive is that local dimming zones have doubled, now numbering 200. That’s more even than the high-end PQ65-F1. More dimming zones means better contrast control and less blooming in an image with bright highlights, which is pretty important for HDR. The TV supports HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision – including the low-latency version on the Xbox One.
The SmartCast TV interface has been upgraded (to 3.0). It is still easy to use and the sluggish speed of the previous version has gotten a little better. The number of pre-installed apps has increased from 18 to 30, and a tab for WatchFree – over 100 channels through PlutoTV including the IGN channel – has been added. There isn’t an app store, although Vizio is constantly expanding its app offerings. If you like casting, you can use Chromecast to watch content from your computer or mobile device.
I’ve come to really like casting and with the Vizio it works easily. The P659-G1 can be voice-controlled by your Google Assistant or Alexa if you use those home ecosystems, and if you’re an Apple user, HomeKit and AirPlay 2 support are being added this summer. The improvements are good and welcome, especially the increase in interface speed response, but it stills falls short of Roku’s speed.
The remote is unchanged, which is unfortunate. The design is dated, it has more buttons than I tend to use which makes the layout a little confusing, and I find myself constantly looking at it to find the button I need. There isn’t a mic on it for voice control, although as mentioned above, if you have Alexa, Google Assistant or (soon) a HomeKit device you can use those to voice control the TV. You can download a remote app for your mobile device which works well, and certainly makes entering search terms less of a chore.
Vizio P659-G1 Quantum 4K HDR TV – Testing and Gaming
Testing was done with a Photo Research PR-650 spectroradiometer, a Konica Minolta LS-100 luminance meter, and CalMAN 2018 calibration software. HDR patterns were from Diversified Video Solutions’ UltraHD/HDR-10 Test Pattern Suite. SDR patterns were from an AV Foundry VideoForge Classic pattern generator.
As far as test results go, the term DeltaE is used to indicate how accurate a measurement value is when measuring the grayscale and color accuracy of a display. A value of 1 or lower is considered perfect as any deviation from the color is imperceptible to the human eye. A value of 3 or lower is excellent and difficult to see any difference without scrutiny. Above 3 you can start to see distinct alterations in the intended color and that being displayed by the monitor. I used the Calibrated setting for both SDR and HDR material except where noted.
First off, Quantum dot technology ideally increases the color accuracy of a display, and that is very apparent with the Vizio P659-G1. Honestly, there wasn’t much to improve on from the P65-F1 that had DeltaE values consistently under 3.0 for grayscale and 2.0 for color. Yet, for the majority of measurements, it did improve. With SDR, the average DeltaE for the primary and secondary color points (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, and white) was 1.6, which is very good. White was the only value over 2 (at 3.6) where you might see a blue-green tint to the brightest white on screen.
HDR measurements were extraordinary.
Grayscale average was a little high too, in comparison, at 3.6. Again, there’s a slight blue-green coloration to grays and whites, but it’s pretty minor. In the Calibrated setting (both with SDR and HDR), the default gamma setting is 2.1. I found that it tracked a little under that and bumped the setting up to 2.2 which gave me an average gamma of 2.15. Setting it to 2.4 gave me an average of 2.32. ColorChecker values (which measures colors like dark and light skin tone, foliage, and purple) averaged 2.8 – overall; an excellent score.
HDR measurements were extraordinary. ColorChecker DeltaE was 0.77 with some values, like red, at 0.2. Grayscale tracking was more of the same, with a slight bump at 70% intensity, although that value was still only 2.0 and imperceptible unless you’re closely studying the color. The HDR EOTF curve (basically how well the TV properly converts HDR brightness information on screen) tracks very well with a slight dip under the curve at 70%. So the P659-G1 does an excellent job translating the intent of a movie or games’ creative team on screen in terms of brightness. HDR gamut coverage is equally impressive, reaching 97.9% of P3 and 82.7% of BT.2020.
The brightness output on the P659-G1 is slightly better than last year’s P65. In the Calibrated picture mode, peak brightness measured just over 900 nits. It’s possible to get over 1000 by changing to the Standard or Vivid picture mode, but it sacrifices some color accuracy. I wasn’t left wanting more brightness in Calibrated mode.
How does it look with something other than test patterns? In short, pretty amazing.
Enough of the numbers, how does it look with something other than test patterns? In short, pretty amazing. The colors in Shadow of the Tomb Raider looked beautiful and life-like and there was great shadow depth and detail while sneaking around at night or through caverns. Even with the curtains open during the day I was able to navigate around enemies by the light of the moon without giving away my position.
As I stood on an island beach and cast my fishing line in Sea of Thieves, the bright sunlight shimmered over the blue waves creating an idyllic scene. The P659-G1 aptly accentuated the beauty of the game, one that I’ve found to be a relaxing respite from the world. That is, until a skeleton runs up to you with a barrel of gunpowder and blows you to the afterlife. C’est la vie.
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With games like Mortal Combat 11, input lag can be a gamechanger – in a bad way. There are two ways to access the P659-G1's Game Low Latency mode; either select the Game picture mode, or turn on Game Low Latency in the picture settings in any picture mode. In both cases, turning on Game Low Latency disables things like noise reduction, film mode, and motion blur reduction – extra processing that adds to the lag (this is what all TVs do to combat input lag, and is perfectly acceptable for gaming).
I chose to use the second method and stayed in the Calibrated picture mode. Outside of game mode on HDMI 1-4, I measured a lag of 98.1ms with a Leo Bodnar lag tester in 1080p. With game mode on that went down to 31.4ms. It’s easy to feel the difference between the two and I didn’t feel quite as inept at fighting with it on. If you want even less lag, HDMI 5 gets down to 20.3ms. The tradeoff is there's no HDR, and if you want to run it at 120Hz it has to be 1080p. MK11 still looked great at 1080p and was super smooth with the Xbox outputting 120Hz, but detail wasn’t as crisp as it was in 4K and I really missed the HDR. In 4K HDR, the game is gorgeous and the colors are vibrant and the fire effects of Scorpion are brilliant.
The benefit of the extra local dimming zones is obvious while Han pilots the Millennium Falcon through the Maw in Solo. As the light from the Falcon’s hyperdrive recedes into the darkness, there is little to no extra bloom as the backlight adjusts to the highlight. The lightning effects of the summa-verminoth as it wakes crackled brilliantly out of the darkness.
Purchasing Guide
The Vizio P659-G1 Quantum 4K HDR TV has an MSRP of $1,400 and is the same price online as it just launched.