A Crash Course in TV High-Tech Smart TVs, Courtesy of VIZIO
Spy.com may receive financial compensation from affiliate and advertising partnerships on this page and/or when you make a purchase after clicking through partnership links.
Television shopping 20 years ago looks downright quaint compared to the elaborate metrics and smart features you can shop for today. Screen size, once the extent of technical specification, is now a baseline topped with the TV’s smart capabilities, streaming apps, and UHD, OLED screen quality.
Today's Top Deals
Shopping for a new TV now means navigating a dizzying alphabet soup of acronyms and tech speak, most of it brand-specific which only adds to the confusion. And while the kid at the big-box store certainly means well, asking questions may only result in a hard sales pitch that doesn’t weigh all of your options.
Investing in a new smart TV from VIZIO comes down to a few simple decisions: LCD/LED vs QLED, resolution, and of course, price. We’ll break it down for you with a minimum of jargon, and also point out a great option from VIZIO in each category.
LCD/LED TV’s
First, a basic terminology lesson. An LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is the transparent panel inside your TV that creates the image. But since an LCD can’t create its own light, it needs a light source behind it. Older LCD TVs use a fluorescent backlight; newer ones use LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) placed either behind or around the screen. The more LEDs, the better the image brightness and contrast.
VIZIO V-Series TVs
LEARN MORE
VIZIO’s V-Series TVs are designed with a full array LED backlight with active pixel tuning that distributes the light evenly across the picture and automatically adapts to the content for a richer contrast and color accuracy. This model also comes with Dolby Vision and High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology that enhances the picture’s performance and WatchFree+, a free software that gives viewers access to 260+ free channels and over 6,000 titles without a subscription, login, or monthly fees.
WHAT ABOUT QLED?
QLED (Quantum Light Emitting Diodes) TVs are an advanced form of LED TVs — the “Quantum” refers to quantum dots, or microscopic molecules that react to the LED backlight by creating different colors, thus improving the color performance over regular LED sets. Think of QLED TVs as a midway point between LED and OLED — QLED sets tend to have a brighter picture, which matters if you’re putting one in a room that gets lots of sunlight, but OLED sets still have a superior picture overall.
VIZIO 65" Quantum Pro 4K QLED HDR Smart TV
LEARN MORE
The VIZIO 65” Quantum Pro 4K QLED HDR Smart TV is a great QLED option for any home, with up to 1000 nits of peak brightness and anti-reflective film to battle natural sunlight, tri-band Wi-Fi 6E connectivity for amazingly smooth streaming or gaming performance, and VIZIO’s IQ Ultra+ Processor. This is a 65-inch set that punches well above its weight limit in the $700 class of big screens. Other great QLED options from VIZIO are their M-Series models.
HIGH RESOLUTION FOR THE NEW YEAR — OR ULTRA-HIGH?
The nomenclature gets muddy fast when describing a TV set’s resolution, or the number of pixels that compose the TV’s picture. More pixels, more detail. So much more high-quality TVs means more pixels being jammed into the screen.
It was not so long ago that the gold standard for TV resolution was HD, or 720p, which translates into a million or so pixels. Then came 1080p — the Full HD TVs, which have about 2 million pixels. Then came 4K, or Ultra High Definition (UHD) — which is the most accessible top-of-the-line TV today. And, yes, 8K has entered the chat, with a whopping 33 million pixels of detail. And while 8K streaming and broadcasts are still probably a ways off (the standard is still HD, with many streaming services like Netflix and Apple TV+ ramping up their 4K offerings), it’s inevitable.
D-Series 43-Inch Full HD Smart TV
learn more
VIZIO has a wide selection of Full HD TVs — again, still the standard in broadcasting and streaming, and a fine gaming performance — led by the D-Series 43-Inch Full HD Smart TV, which has full-array LED backlighting, creating a superior picture to edge-lit LED backlight sets. VIZIO’s D-Series sets are all Full HD and armed with the VIZIO Home platform for prime streaming capabilities.
VIZIO V-Series Smart TVs
LEARN MORE
One step up into entry-level 4K brilliance brings you to VIZIO’s V-Series sets, ranging in size from 43 to 75 inches, all with full-array backlighting, compatible with Wi-Fi 6E, and three 2.1 HDMI ports for gaming consoles or streaming devices (or, more likely, both). The V-Series 43” 4K Smart TV will only set you back $250, amazingly enough, while the V-Series 75” 4K Smart TV is still a great deal at around $630.
More Top Deals from SPY
