VIZIO D55U D1 Review: Decent, But Full of Disappointments

VIZIO D55U D1: At First Glance

Since entering the TV market in 2002, VIZIO keeps striving to uphold its standards and become one of the best. Furthermore, the brand is well-known for manufacturing affordable televisions with adequate performance and features.

Hence, in 2016, VIZIO released the D-series, a lineup of 25 television models that varies in size and features. The VIZIO D55U D1, which is the priority of this review, is a television among this lineup that comes with a 4K UHD display.

Apart from its 4K display, this TV offers numerous outstanding features such as a low input lag and fast response time. However, unlike most VIZIO televisions that I have come across, the VIZIO D55U D1 is a bit pricey.

Specifically, the television had a price tag of $859.99 in March 2022 when I wrote this review article. Nevertheless, does this 6-year-old TV offer enough features to meet up the standards of buyers nowadays?

Why not continue reading to find an answer to that question?

VIZIO D55U D1: Design, Dimension, and Weight

Design-wise, the VIZIO D55U D1 doesn’t particularly look good, but it also doesn’t look bad – the television features an average-looking design. To begin with, this VIZIO television comes with somewhat thick bezels that measure 0.55-inch.

These bezels surround the display of the TV and are composed of plastic with a matte-black finish. Furthermore, at the middle of the bottom bezel, you will find a “VIZIO” inscription that has a white finish.

However, due to the thickness of these bezels, they might cause a bit of distraction when watching the television.

That said, the VIZIO D55U D1 comes with a pair of V-shaped legs. Similar to the bezels, these legs are made of plastic and feature a matte-black finish.

Although the legs are made of plastic, they support the television very well and make it stand firmly. However, these legs are positioned very close to the edges of the television.

Hence, if you don’t plan to wall-mount the VIZIO D55U D1, you will need a fairly large table to place it on. Speaking of wall-mounting, this television features four 200 x 200 mm VESA holes on its back panel for mounting it on the wall.

Moreover, the television’s back panel is made of plastic with a plain black finish. Sadly, like the bezels, the back panel of this television is relatively thick.

Therefore, whenever the VIZIO D55U D1 is wall-mounted, it might stick out of the wall and look somewhat awkward. To add to the woes, the back panel of this television doesn’t have any form of a cable management system.

As a result, when cables are attached to the television, you have to manually arrange them to make them look a bit organized.

In terms of size and weight, the VIZIO D55U D1 measures 1238.5 x 64 x 721.1 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 16601.4 g. Compared to one of its closest competitors (Samsung NU6900 55), this VIZIO television weighs significantly more.

To be more specific, the Samsung NU6900 55 weighs just 7800 g and measures 1239.5 x 58.4 x 713.7 mm (W x D x H).

In conclusion, the VIZIO D55U D1 offers a design that is quite disappointing for an $800+ television. Basically, every part of the television is somewhat thick including its bezels.

As a matter of fact, the television weighs significantly more than most of its competitors. Hence, I will rate the VIZIO D55U D1 a seven out of ten in this design review section.

VIZIO D55U D1: Display Features and Picture Quality

The VIZIO D55U D1 features a 55-inch LCD display with a 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution. This display should be able to produce colorful and clear images due to its 4K UHD resolution.

Adding to its 4K resolution, the VIZIO D55U D1’s display comes with an impressive contrast ratio of 4,356:1. Due to this, the display is capable of producing deep blacks, making the television ideal for dark room viewing.

That’s not all, thanks to its display’s high contrast ratio, this VIZIO television is also suitable for watching movies with lots of dark or shadowy scenes. A few movies that I’m sure you’ll love that have lots of dark scenes include The Batman and Ghost Rider.

With all that being said, I know you must be curious to know what the term “contrast ratio” means. Hence, to satisfy your curiosity, contrast ratio is the difference between the whitest whites and the darkest blacks that a display can render.

To make things better, despite its high contrast ratio, the VIZIO D55U D1’s display supports local dimming. Briefly, local dimming is a technique that increases the black level and contrast ratio of an LCD/LED display.

Practically, this technique involves dimming the backlight zones behind the LED/LCD display, making blacks look extremely deep. Hence, with local dimming, blacks on the VIZIO D55U D1’s display will look really dark than they would without local dimming.

Regrettably, this television’s display offers a mediocre maximum brightness of 272 cd/m² (nits). Honestly, considering the $850+ price tag of the VIZIO D55U D1, this maximum display brightness is really disappointing.

As a matter of fact, there are numerous televisions out there with less than a $500 price tag that features way better maximum display brightness. For example, the Toshiba 50UL3B63DG which cost only $450.67 (as of March 2022) has a maximum display brightness of 350 nits.

Well, the consequence of its display’s mediocre brightness is that VIZIO D55U D1 won’t be suitable for usage in well-lit or bright areas. When I thought things couldn’t get any worse, this television’s display offers poor viewing angles.

Therefore, pictures will lose quality and colors will look washed out when watching the television off-center or from the sides. As a result, to get an adequate viewing experience, I suggest you watch the VIZIO D55U D1 directly from the center.

In addition to its poor viewing angles, the VIZIO D55U D1’s display doesn’t support HDR (High Dynamic Range). Just so you know, HDR is a picture-enhancing technique that boosts the brightness and color accuracy of a display.

Basically, HDR adds more details and highlights to images on HDR-supported television. Thereby, making the images more realistic and lifelike.

Hence, it is so disappointing and sad that this television’s display doesn’t support HDR. On a positive note, the VIZIO D55U D1’s display offers a fast response time of 12.3 milliseconds.

Thus, there will be minimal blur trails when watching fast-moving content on this VIZIO television. Therefore, if you love watching sports or movies from the Fast and Furious franchise, the VIZIO D55U D1 is for you.

Apart from its fast response time, this television’s display also features a remarkably low input lag of 13.4 milliseconds. If you are wondering, input lag refers to the time it takes a display to register a signal input.

Furthermore, signal inputs can be from basic devices such as the wireless gamepad of an XBOX 360 console. Besides, for a television to be considered good for gaming, its display must have an input lag of 15 ms or less.

Obviously, the VIZIO D55U D1’s display meets this criterion. Hence, we can deem the television fit for gaming.

In conclusion, the VIZIO D55U D1 offers decent display specs including a remarkable contrast ratio, low input lag, and fast response time. However, the display of the television lacks in some major areas.

For example, the display offers mediocre brightness, poor viewing angles, and doesn’t support HDR. Thus, I will offer the VIZIO D55U D1 a rating of seven out of ten in this display review section.

VIZIO D55U D1: Sound Features

For the sound department, the VIZIO D55U D1 comes with a pair of 10-watts speakers. Hence, these speakers produce a total sound output of 20-watts, which is considered loud enough to fill a large room.

Besides, the television’s speakers generate adequate sound quality that is very appealing to hear. However, this VIZIO TV lacks a built-in subwoofer, meaning its speakers won’t be able to produce an adequate amount of bass.

Therefore, bass-heavy movies or movies with lots of rumbling and thumping sounds might not be ideal to watch on the VIZIO D55U D1. Nevertheless, you can always purchase a soundbar to help support the bass production of the television’s speakers.

On a brighter note, the VIZIO D55U D1’s speakers are capable of delivering clear and understandable dialogue. Dialogue is the sound generated when multiple characters are discussing in a movie or TV show.

Besides its speakers’ clear dialogue production, the VIZIO D55U D1 comes with multiple sound technologies. These sound technologies include DTS TruSurround and DTS Studio Sound.

First and foremost, DTS TruSurround improves the surround sound production of the television’s speakers. Thereby, allowing them to deliver an immersive and cinematic audio quality.

Meanwhile, DTS Studio Sound enhances the loudness of the VIZIO D55U D1’s speakers, making the TV suitable for most room settings.

Having said that, let us talk about the distortion performance of the VIZIO D55U D1. To start with, this television offers a good distortion performance which was proven via its result on a THD test.

For clarity, the THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) test is a sound test to measures the amount of distortion a speaker or sound system can generate. Additionally, on this sound test, a score of 1% or below implies that the sound system delivers minimal distortion.

However, a score above 1% means that the sound system delivers a noticeable amount of distortion. Fortunately, the VIZIO D55U D1 scored 0.144% on the THD test.

Hence, either at a maximum or moderate volume level, this television’s speakers will generate a minimal amount of distortion. If you’re curious, distortion in this context is the change of original sound frequencies.

Thereby, allowing a sound system or speaker to deliver disturbing or less pleasant sound quality.

All things considered, I will rate the VIZIO D55U D1 an eight out of ten in this sound features review section.

VIZIO D55U D1: Ports and Connectivity Features

Port-wise, the VIZIO D55U D1 features a sufficient amount of ports. However, before talking about these ports in detail, it is important to know where they are located.

To begin with, the television’s ports are divided into two positions on the television’s back. Specifically, some of the ports are left-facing while others are downward-facing.

The left-facing ports include two HDMI ports, a USB port, and a shared composite video input. That’s not all, you will also find a shared component input among the left-facing ports.

Meanwhile, the downward-facing ports include three HDMI ports, one of which is compatible with ARC (Audio Return Channel). Hence, with the help of the single ARC-HDMI port, users will be able to connect a soundbar to the VIZIO D55U D1.

Moreover, other downward-facing ports include an Ethernet port, an RF port, and digital optical audio out.

That said, for wireless connectivity, the VIZIO D55U D1 comes with a built-in 802.11ac/a/b/g/n WiFi. However, this television lacks Bluetooth, which is so disappointing due to its price tag.

Moving forward, let us briefly analyze the included remote control. Considering the $850+ price tag of the VIZIO D55U D1, one would expect a voice-supported remote control.

However, sorry to burst your bubbles, but this VIZIO television comes with a basic XRT122 remote control that doesn’t support voice input. Nevertheless, the remote features a plastic body with a sleek glossy-black finish and lots of functional buttons.

Some of these buttons include a box-shaped navigation button, a full number pad, and vertical volume and channel rockers. Besides that, the remote also comes with dedicated buttons for quick access to Netflix, Xumo, and iHeartRadio.

In conclusion, the VIZIO D55U D1 features an excellent port selection. However, despite its heavy price tag, the television lacks a voice-supported remote control and Bluetooth.

Thus, I will offer the VIZIO D55U D1 a rating of eight out of ten in this ports and connectivity review section.

VIZIO D55U D1: Smart Features

As a VIZIO smart television, one would expect the VIZIO D55U D1 to come with the SmartCast operating system. However, this television doesn’t feature an OS at all.

Instead, it comes with the V.I.A (VIZIO Internet Apps) Plus smart platform. Just so you know, the V.I.A smart platform is mostly found in much older VIZIO smart TV models.

Furthermore, this smart platform has a user-friendly interface that makes navigation seamless and easy. However, the major issue with the smart platform is the annoying pop-up ads on its interface.

To make things even worse, there is no means of disabling these annoying ads. Looking on the bright side, the V.I.A Plus offers numerous pre-installed streaming services and applications.

Some of these streaming services and apps are iHeartRadio, Hulu, Disney+, Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, and so on. Besides, like most operating systems such as the Android TV OS, the V.I.A Plus features a built-in app store called the VIZIO App Store.

Hence, if you are not okay with the pre-installed streaming services and apps, you can simply download more from this app store.

All things considered, I will rate the VIZIO D55U D1 an eight out of ten in this smart features review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

In my opinion, the VIZIO D55U D1 offers average overall performance. Specifically, with a price tag of $859.99, this television has poor viewing angles, mediocre brightness, and doesn’t support HDR.

Besides that, the television doesn’t come with Bluetooth and lacks a voice-supported remote control. However, that doesn’t mean the TV is all bad, it also has some great features.

Some of these features include a high contrast ratio, a good number of ports, and adequate sound performance. Also, the television’s display offers a low input lag, which makes the television ideal for gaming.

Hence, if you are a gamer or can overlook its downsides, the VIZIO D55U D1 is worth considering.

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