M558-G1: At First Glance
VIZIO televisions are known to offers adequate performance at a reasonable price. Fortunately, the M558-G1 – a VIZIO television released in 2019 with a 4K display – isn’t an exception.
To give more details, when I published this review article in March 2022, the VIZIO M558-G1 had a price tag of $773.94. Despite its reasonable price tag, this television provides exceptional features and performance that some expensive televisions lack.
To mention a few, this VIZIO television offers a low input lag, great picture quality, and a brilliant SmartCast OS. However, there are no televisions in the market that is all good.
Thus, the VIZIO M558-G1 should come with one or two flaws. How about you continue reading to find out more about this television and its flaws?
M558-G1: Design, Dimension, and Weight
The VIZIO M558-G1 has a clean and minimalist design with fairly thin bezels. These bezels surround the television’s display and are made of high-quality plastic with a matte-black finish.
Moreover, at the right edge of the bottom bezel, you will find a white “VIZIO” logo that glorifies the front view of the TV. Like the bezels, the VIZIO M558-G1 comes with a pair of legs that are made of plastic with a matte-black finish.
Furthermore, even though they are made of plastic, these television’s legs are very rigid and solid. Hence, they should offer enough support for the television with minimal wobbles when nudged.
On the downside, the legs are set at the extreme edges of the television. Due to this, you will require a fairly large table to place the VIZIO M558-G1 if you aren’t planning to mount it on the wall.
What if you are planning to mount the TV on the wall? Well, you can do that with the help of four VESA 400 x 200 mount holes on the television’s back panel.
Moreover, the back panel of this VIZIO television composes of a mixture of metal and hard plastic. To be more specific, the top part of the back panel is made of metal while the bottom part is plastic.
Regardless, this back panel is very slim and not bulky. Hence, if the VIZIO M558-G1 is mounted on the wall, it should look pretty and not bulge out of the wall.
Sadly, as with most televisions nowadays, there is no form of a cable management system on the television’s back panel.
For the dimension and weight, the VIZIO M558-G1 measures 1234.2 x 72.4 x 718.3 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 16300 g. Compared to most 55-inch television, this VIZIO television is somewhat heavy.
For example, the Insignia NS-55DF710NA19 weighs 13290 g and measures 1242.0 x 83.8 x 726.4 mm (W x D x H).
In conclusion, the VIZIO M558-G1 offers a decent design with slim matte-black bezels and legs. However, this television is somewhat heavier than most of its 55-inch competitors.
Thus, it is ideal to rate the VIZIO M558-G1 an eight out of ten in this design review section.
M558-G1: Display Features and Picture Quality
The VIZIO M558-G1 comes with a 55-inch LCD display and 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution. Moreover, this television’s display should be able to offer crisp and clear picture quality thanks to its 4K UHD resolution.
Besides that, the display comes with an excellent contrast ratio of 4,598:1. I know you must be wondering what I mean by contrast ratio, well let me explain.
A display’s contrast ratio is a ratio between the display’s brightest white to its darkest black. Furthermore, the contrast ratio of a display primarily determines the black level of display.
In other words, it determines how deep the blacks the display will be able to render. Well, with a contrast ratio as high as 4,598:1, the VIZIO M558-G1’s display should be able to render deeply-rich blacks.
Hence, the television is ideal for watching movies with lots of dark and shadowy scenes such as the latest The Batman movie. Asides from that, thanks to its good display contrast ratio, the TV is suitable for dark room viewing.
In order to further enhance its black level, the VIZIO M558-G1’s display supports local dimming. Local dimming is a technique that involves dimming the backlight layers of LCD/LED displays to improve their contrast ratio.
Hence, with this technique, blacks on the VIZIO M558-G1’s display will look extremely deep. Thereby, improving the display’s darkroom performance, contrast ratio, black level, and overall picture quality.
This display not only supports local dimming but also supports HDR (High Dynamic Range). Thus, when the television is displaying HDR-supported content, the display’s brightness and color production will increase.
As a result, making the picture on the display more realistic and lifelike. For your information, HDR-supported content can be found on streaming platforms such as Netflix and HBO max.
Sadly, even though the VIZIO M558-G1’s display supports HDR, it offers a substandard brightness. To be more specific, the display comes with a maximum brightness of 421 cd/m² (nits).
Although this maximum brightness is enough for moderately-lit areas, it may struggle to keep up in well-lit and bright environments. Apart from having a substandard maximum brightness, this television’s display also features poor viewing angles.
As a result, whenever you view the VIZIO M558-G1 off-center or from extreme angles, colors are going to look washed out. Thereby, reducing the picture quality of the display.
On a positive note, the VIZIO M558-G1’s display offers a fast response time of 11.4 ms. As a result, movies from the Fast and Furious franchise that has lots of fast-moving scenes will be good to watch on the television.
This is because there will be minimal blur trails when the display is viewing those fast-moving scenes thanks to its fast response time. Just in case you’re wondering, a display’s response time is the time that the display takes to change from one color to another.
Besides being good for watching content with lots of fast-moving scenes, the VIZIO M558-G1 is also good for playing video games. This is because its display offers a low input lag of 20.6 ms (milliseconds).
To be clear, input lag is the amount of time that it will take a display to register a signal input. Moreover, signal input can be from different sources including a wireless gamepad.
In conclusion, the VIZIO M558-G1 offers an outstanding display performance with a good contrast ratio and fast response time. However, the only major flaw that the television’s display has is its poor viewing angles.
Asides from that, the display is flawless. Hence, I will rate the VIZIO M558-G1 a nine out of ten in this display features and picture quality review section.
M558-G1: Sound Features
The VIZIO M558-G1 comes with a pair of 10-watt speakers that offers decent audio quality. Besides, these speakers can get very loud to the extent that they should be able to fill a fairly large room with sound.
However, there are significant pumping and audio compression at louder volumes. In addition to that, the television lacks a subwoofer, meaning it will produce limited bass.
Hence, movies with lots of rumbling and thumping sounds aren’t a good choice to watch on the VIZIO M558-G1. On a positive note, the speakers of the television are capable of generating clear and crisp dialogue.
Dialogue is the sound produced when two or more people are having a conversation in a movie or TV show. Apart from its speakers’ clear dialogue production, the VIZIO M558-G1 offers multiple sound technologies for enhanced sound quality.
Firstly, the television comes with Dolby Digital Plus which allows its speakers to deliver high-quality audio when viewing content from streaming services. Lastly, this VIZIO television features DTS TruSurround.
This is a sound technology that enables the television’s speakers to provide enhanced and virtual surround sound. Hence, with DTS TruSurround, there will be an illusion that sound is coming from different angles of your environment.
Thereby, improving the sound and viewing experience of the VIZIO M558-G1.
Moving on, the VIZIO M558-G1 offers an incredible distortion performance which was proven via its Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) test result. Briefly, the THD test is an audio test that calculates the distortion level of an audio device, sound system, or speaker.
Furthermore, according to the test, if a sound system delivers a score of 1% or below, that means it generates minimal distortion. On the other hand, if the sound system’s score is above 1%, that means it produces a noticeable and significant amount of distortion.
Gladly, the VIZIO M558-G1 delivered a score of 0.084% on the Total Harmonic Distortion test. Thus, even at the maximum volume level, the television’s speakers will produce little to no distortion.
In fact, at a moderate volume level, distortion will be absolutely absent from the television. If you’re curious, distortion in this context refers to the deformation of original audio frequencies.
In doing so, enabling a sound system or speaker to generate disturbing and unappealing sound quality.
All in all, in this sound features review section, I will be rating the VIZIO M558-G1 an eight out of ten.
M558-G1: Ports and Connectivity Features
To begin with, the VIZIO M558-G1 comes with a good number of ports. Besides, all the ports are located on the left of the television alongside its controls.
Therefore, when the television is mounted on the wall, the ports are going to be easy to access.
That said, the VIZIO M558-G1 comes with four HDMI ports, two of which support ARC (Audio Return Channel). Hence, by using either of the two HDMI-ARC ports, users will be able to connect a soundbar to the television.
Moreover, HDMI ports aren’t the only ports that the television features, it also comes with a USB port. In addition to that, the television has an Ethernet port, RF connector, one composite in, and digital optical audio out
In terms of wireless connectivity, the VIZIO M558-G1 features 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi Direct. However, this VIZIO television lacks Bluetooth.
Expectedly, the VIZIO M558-G1 comes with remote control. To give more details, the remote is an XRT136 remote control that features a plastic body with a sleek black finish.
Furthermore, you should find a large square-shaped navigation button that sits close to the top part of the remote. Besides, above this navigation button, there are about six buttons for quick access to streaming services.
These streaming services are Xumo, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crackle, iHeartRadio, and Vudu. In addition to that, the VIZIO M558-G1’s remote control features a full number pad at its bottom part.
However, it is worth mentioning that the remote control lacks a built-in mic for voice input. Nevertheless, I will rate the VIZIO M558-G1 an eight out of ten in this ports and connectivity review section.
M558-G1: Smart Features
The VIZIO M558-G1 comes with the SmartCast operating system. This operating system offers a feature-rich interface that is smooth, lag-free, and easy to navigate.
Besides that, the OS comes with various applications and streaming services. The streaming services include the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, and HBO.
However, these streaming services are not free, you need to pay a particular amount monthly to have access. Before you get sad about that, I would love to inform you that the SmartCast OS offers a free streaming channel called WatchFree.
With WatchFree, you have access to tons of content ranging from sports to kid shows, all for free without monthly subscriptions. To make things even better, the VIZIO M558-G1 comes with an in-built Chromecast.
Hence, with the help of the Chromecast, you will be able to cast/share content from your smart devices to the television. In addition to its built-in Chromecast, this VIZIO television supports voice AIs such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
Sadly, neither the VIZIO M558-G1 nor its XRT136 remote control features a built-in microphone. Hence, to make use of the voice AIs, you have to purchase an Amazon Echo or a Google Nest speaker.
All things considered, I will rate the VIZIO M558-G1 a nine out of ten in this smart features review section.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, the VIZIO M558-G1 is a smart television that runs on the Smartcast operating system. Moreover, this operating system offers lots of streaming services such as Amazon Video, Hulu, and Vudu.
When this review article was published in March 2022, the VIZIO M558-G1 had a price tag of $773.94.
Sadly, the VIZIO M558-G1 lacks Bluetooth.
The VIZIO M558-G1 weighs 16300 g and measures 1234.2 x 72.4 x 718.3 mm (W x D x H).
The VIZIO M558-G1 comes with four HDMI ports including two that support ARC (Audio Return Channel).
Conclusion
The VIZIO M558-G1 is a reasonably priced 4K television that offers exceptional performance. To be more specific, this television delivers a good picture quality, an outstanding sound performance, and a good number of ports.
In addition to that, the television supports HDR for enhancing its picture quality. In fact, the display of this VIZIO television has a low input lag, making the television suitable for gamers.
However, the TV lacks Bluetooth and its display offers disappointing viewing angles. Nevertheless, if you need a well-priced television that won’t disappoint, you should give the VIZIO M558-G1 a chance.
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