Vizio P659-G1 Review: A Good Value TV Worth Your Money?

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Vizio P659-G1: At First Glance

Vizio is an American company that was founded in 2002 by William Wang and two others. It is known for producing TVs and soundbars at competitive prices.

In this review, we will be discussing the Vizio P659-G1 which is one of Vizio’s TVs. At the time I wrote this review in February 2022, this TV starts at $1,799.99 which is quite a hefty price tag.

Are you curious as to whether the Vizio P659-G1 is worth its price or not? Read this review to the end to satisfy your curiosity.

Vizio P659-G1: Design, Dimension, and Weight

The Vizio P659-G1 might not look as stylish as some expensive TVs, but it is still gorgeous and has its own unique look. This Vizio TV is built from a plastic material with a matte black finish.

Now let’s look at the design of this TV starting from its front view. The front view is dominated by a 65-inch display.

The top and side bezels of the display are very slim, but the bottom bezel is a bit large and has a silver finish.

In a bid to support the Vizio P659-G1 on a desk, it comes with a pair of V-shaped legs which are identical to that of the 2019 Vizio P Series Quantum X. The pair of legs has a silver textured finish and supports the TV well enough.

However, these legs will not totally prevent the TV from wobbling when pushed. Furthermore, the legs are attached almost edge to edge of the TV, so you’ll need a fairly large table to place it.

Moving on to the back view of the TV, the Vizio P659-G1 has a plain backside with some vent at the bottom. You will find some buttons for basic TV controls at the left edge of the TV back.

To the right side of the TV’s back, you will also find the power port. In addition to those, all the input ports are also located at the back of the TV.

However, some of the input ports located at the back of the TV might be difficult to access when you mount the TV on the wall. Speaking of wall-mounting the TV, there are 400 x 400 VESA holes that make it easy to mount.

Thankfully, the TV is quite slim with only a thickness of 69.1 mm hence, it should fit perfectly on the wall without bulging out. For its overall dimension, the TV measures 1448.1 x 69.1 x 831.6 mm (W x D x H).

When it comes to its weight, the Vizio P659-G1 weighs 24600 g. In terms of weight and size, the Vizio P659-G1 is lighter and slimmer than the TCL 65Q825 despite both having the same display size.

Specifically, the TCL 65Q825 weighs 31706.1 g and measures 1445.2 x 78.7 x 835.7 mm (W x H x D).

In conclusion, the Vizio P659-G1 has a gorgeous design and a more compact form factor than a similarly sized TV. Hence, I’ll be rating it an eight in this section of the review.

Vizio P659-G1: Display Features and Picture Quality

The Vizio P659-G1 boasts a 65-inch QLED display. QLED (Quantum dot LED) is a type of display technology that improves brightness and color.

This technology allows the Vizio P659-G1 to favorably compete with rival TVs for picture performance.

Also, thanks to its 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution, this TV display delivers very crisp and clear images. It might also interest you to know that 4K UHD resolution is four times sharper than Full HD.

Moving on to the other display features, let’s start with the contrast ratio. The contrast ratio refers to the difference between the darkest and lightest portions on a display.

That said, the Vizio P659-G1 recorded an excellent native contrast of 4,268: 1. The implication of this is that black scenes in movies will look darker.

Furthermore, the Vizio P659-G1’s local dimming is extremely high. This is because the LCD uses light-emitting diodes that cover the entire back of the screen for backlighting.

As a result, the black scenes in movies will get even darker and more enjoyable.

Beyond the incredible black levels, if you watch TV in a well-lit room, then it is important that the TV should be able to produce enough brightness. This will enable the TV to counter reflections from the rays of light.

Impressively the Vizio P659-G1 registers a peak brightness of 435 nits when watching none-HDR content. This is an exceptional brightness value which implies that you will have no issue with the legibility of this TV in bright environments.

Speaking of overcoming reflections, the Vizio P659-G1 reflection handling is excellent. This is because the display has a semi-gloss coating that diffuses the reflection of light from bulbs, lamps, and the sun.

Moving on, let’s discuss the viewing angles. For those who watch TV with a large group of people, a good viewing angle is important.

Unfortunately, just like most VA panel-type TVs, the Vizio P659-G1 has poor viewing angles. This is because, at broader angles, black levels begin to rise and the brightness drops.

Thus, in other to get the best view, you will need to be seated directly in front of the TV. By “directly” I mean direct view, not literally directly in front!

On a positive note, the Vizio P659-G1 supports HDR10 (High Dynamic Range) format. This format helps to improve screen brightness and make the display colors pop.

Also when you watch HDR content, it makes images look more life-like.

Another feat of this TV’s display is the Quantum dot technology which boosts picture performance, allowing a wide color gamut coverage. Speaking of color gamut, it is the number of colors a TV display can produce.

Impressively the Vizio P659-G1 registers an excellent score. Specifically, the Vizio P659-G1 records a gamut coverage of 98% on the DCI P3 color space.

Thus, by virtue of this outstanding score, this TV is sure to deliver quality and colorful images.

Aside from the Vizio P659-G1 incredibly colorful display, the TV has good motion handling properties.

Basically, the Vizio P659-G1 recorded a fast response time of 8.4 ms. To add to the good news, the TV also has a very low input lag – making it a great choice for gaming.

To be more detailed, response time is the average time taken for a TV to transition between colors. On the other hand, input lag is the slight delay between the input signal and the output on the screen.

For clarity, an input signal could mean input from a gamepad.

In conclusion, the Vizio P659-G1 delivers an outstanding display performance but has a poor viewing angle. To this end, I’ll be rating it a nine in this section of the review.

Vizio P659-G1: Sound Features

For the sound unit, the Vizio P659-G1 lacks some key performance qualities. Basically, the sound isn’t anything to write home about.

To start with, the TV comes with two 10-watts speakers. In other words, this TV uses a 20-watts speaker which is located at the bottom back of the TV.

Meanwhile, the TV’s sound is a bit balanced and can get moderately loud. However, it won’t be suitable for noisy surroundings.

Unfortunately, the Vizio P659-G1 doesn’t feature a subwoofer, thus the bass levels are pretty much flat. Since it doesn’t produce much bass, the audio will be disappointing for gamers and movie lovers.

This is because there won’t be much rumble or thump from movies or game audio. On the positive side, the dialogue of this TV is quite audible.

By dialogue, I’m referring to the conversation between different characters in a movie or TV show. Hence, the audibility of dialogues will enable you to recognize the characters that produce which sound.

In addition to that, the Vizio P659-G1 also features some sound technologies like DTS Studio Sound and Dolby Digital Plus. These technologies provide overall clarity, surround sound, and immersive audio performance.

Moving on to the sound distortion, this is the alteration of sound output in contrast to its input. That said, the Vizio P659-G1 had a considerable amount of distortion from the total harmonic distortion (THD) test.

However, before I tell you about the result of the test, you should be aware that the ideal distortion value is a maximum of 1%. Meanwhile, the Vizio P659-G1 recorded a 0.054 THD at average volume.

This implies that only minimal distortion will be noticed at average volume. Although at maximum volume, the distortion increases slightly to 0.240 THD, however, the audio quality is still decent.

In summary, the Vizio P659-G1’s sound performance is a bit decent even though it doesn’t feature a subwoofer. Therefore, this TV deserves a rating of seven in this section of the review.

Vizio P659-G1: Ports and Connectivity Features

As mentioned in the design section, the Vizio P659-G1’s inputs are located at the back of the TV. These inputs are divided into two sections in an L-shaped manner close to the left edge of the TV.

While some of these ports are located on the side, others are down-facing. To begin with, the side-facing ports are four in number.

These ports include one 2.0 USB port for connecting external storage devices. Furthermore, you can also find two HDMI ports, one of which supports 1080p resolution and higher resolutions.

The last side-facing port on this TV is the Composite In for connecting your DVD/VCR players.

For the down-facing ports, they include three HDMI ports with an ARC (Audio Return Channel) compatible port. There is also a digital optical out and an Audio out port for sending audio signals to a home theater or a soundbar.

Furthermore, the down-facing ports also include the cable/antenna port for cable TV connection. Lastly, you will find an Ethernet port for wired internet connectivity among the down-facing ports.

In terms of wireless connectivity, the Vizio P659-G1 comes with an in-built WiFi 802.11ac Dual Band for wireless internet connectivity. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have Bluetooth.

Having said so much in this section, let’s talk about the remote control of the Vizio P659-G1. This TV features the usual Vizio remote control.

The remote is built with solid plastic and has a matte black finish. However, you can also get the remote in a mixed black and silver finish.

The remote looks slim and curvy with quite a number of functional buttons. Starting from the top of the remote, there are the power and input buttons.

Further below are a series of dedicated buttons for quick access to some streaming apps. Speaking of the apps, they include VUDU, Netflix, Amazon Prime, XUMO, Crackle, and iHeart Radio.

Next, we have the menu and exit buttons with a square-shaped navigational pad below them. Also, there are other buttons like the channel, volume, and numerical keys.

Basically, there isn’t much about the remote, but it does the job.

In conclusion, the Vizio P659-G1 is impressively rich in port choices. However, the remote control is pretty much basic with no support for voice control.

Therefore, I”ll be rating this television an eight in this section of the article.

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Vizio P659-G1: Smart Features

The Vizio P659-G1 comes with Vizio’s proprietary smart TV OS known as SmartCast. It has a well-organized interface that is easy to use and navigate.

However, the transition is not smooth and it lags a lot. Nevertheless, with the recent OS update, the platform is a bit responsive.

On the OS interface, you will find a row of pre-installed apps to select from at the bottom of the screen. There is also a row that displays TV shows above the app tiles.

Speaking of the pre-installed apps on the interface, they include Amazon Prime, VUDU, Netflix, Hulu, iHeart Radio, and the likes. Sadly, the OS is limited to just the pre-installed apps, as users won’t be able to install more.

Meanwhile, if an app is not available on the screen menu, users can stream from their smartphones to the TV. This can be achieved with the help of the in-built Chromecast.

In addition, the Vizio P659-G1 SmartCast supports AirPlay2 which allows users to mirror their screen and stream music to the TV. Moreover, the SmartCast supports the integration of voice assistants like Alexa, Apple HomeKit for interaction with Siri, and Google Assitant.

Furthermore, the SmartCast platform supports universal search which makes it easier to search for content from different services.

In summary, the Vizio P659-G1 has a decent smart TV platform. However, the platform’s responsiveness is poor.

Hence, I’ll be rating this TV a seven in this section of the article.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The VIZIO P659-G1 offers a lot in its display department including a Quantum dot technology that improves brightness and color. However, there are still some display features that limit the achievements of the display such as its poor viewing angles.

Despite the poor viewing angles, this TV gets some other things right such as its wealthy collection of ports. It also has a more compact form factor than some competitors of the same size.

In conclusion, the VIZIO P659-G1 might go for a relatively high price, but in my opinion, it offers great value for your money. Hence, if you like it, do not hesitate to buy it.

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