VIZIO V655 Review: The Best Entry-Level TV?

VIZIO V655: At First Glance

VIZIO is an American brand established by William Wang and two other individuals in 2002. The brand is well-known for manufacturing affordable televisions as well as soundbars.

So, in 2020, to expand its television collection, VIZIO released the VIZIO V655. This television is an entry-level TV that offers a 65-inch 4K display and a good number of ports.

Furthermore, like most VIZIO televisions, the VIZIO V655 comes with a reasonable price tag. To be more specific, when this review article was published in March 2022, the television was sold at $499.

I know you must be curious whether or not this television will offer adequate performance due to its inexpensive price tag. Why not read on to satisfy your curiosity?

VIZIO V655: Design, Dimension, and Weight

Starting off, the VIZIO V655 offers a basic design similar to its predecessor, the VIZIO V-series 2019. Specifically, the television features bezels of average thickness that encircle its display screen.

To give more details, these bezels measure 0.50-inch and are made of plastic with a matte-black finish. However, the bottom bezel is thicker than the sides and top bezels to make room for a white “VIZIO” logo that sits in the center.

Moving on, the VIZIO V655 comes with two V-shaped legs that are somewhat slim. Similar to the bezels, these legs have a plastic build and feature a matte-black finish.

Impressively, despite being slim and made of plastic, these legs are very robust and support the TV very well. However, the television might wobble a bit if you push it with force.

Also, it is worth mentioning that the legs are positioned near the edges of the television. Hence, you will need a rather large table or desk to place the television if it’s not going to be wall-mounted.

Turning the VIZIO V655 over to the back, you will discover a plain panel. Furthermore, this back panel features a strip in the middle that separates its upper part from the lower part.

Moreover, the upper part of the back panel is made of metal. Meanwhile, the lower part of the back panel is made of plastic.

Furthermore, the back panel contains four 400 x 200 mm VESA holes for wall-mounting the VIZIO V655. Besides, this VIZIO television is relatively slim, meaning it shouldn’t bulge out or look awkward if wall-mounted.

Sadly, VIZIO didn’t include a cable management system anywhere around the television. Thus, cables attached to the TV might look disorganized and messy if not manually arranged.

In terms of dimension and weight, the VIZIO V655 measures 1457.1 x 61.2 x 840.7 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 20400 g. In comparison, the VIZIO V655 is less heavy than most of its competitors.

For instance, the Samsung NU6900 65 and Samsung Q70R weigh 24992.9 g and 24300 g respectively.

Therefore, I will rate the VIZIO V655 an eight out of ten in this design review section.

VIZIO V655: Display Features and Picture Quality

In terms of display, the VIZIO V655 comes with a 65-inch LCD display that offers a 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution. A display such as this should be able to render crisp, clear, colorful, and well-detailed pictures.

This is all thanks to the 4K resolution that allows displays to deliver realistic picture quality. It would interest you to know that a 4K resolution display is four times better and clearer than the conventional HD resolution display.

In addition to its 4K resolution, the VIZIO V655’s display offers an impressively high contrast ratio. To be more specific, the TV’s display features a native contrast ratio of 5,257:1.

Thus, the display should be capable of rendering deep blacks. Consequently, the TV is ideal for watching movies with lots of dark or shady scenes such as horror movies.

In case you’re curious, the contrast ratio is simply the ratio between a display’s most luminous white and shadiest black.

Moving on, the VIZIO V655’s display doesn’t support any local dimming feature. Briefly, local dimming is a technique that boosts the contrast ratio and black level of an LCD/LED display by dimming backlight zones.

As a result, blacks on the display will look darker than they would without local dimming. Sadly, as said earlier, this television’s display doesn’t support local dimming.

Nevertheless, given that the VIZIO V655’s display already has a high contrast ratio, its lack of local dimming isn’t a major problem. However, the major problem with the display is its poor maximum brightness of 199 nits.

Thus, with such mediocre maximum display brightness, the VIZIO V655 isn’t suitable for usage in a well-lit environment. As a matter of fact, the television might struggle to keep up in moderately-lit areas.

To add to the list of this display’s downsides, it offers poor viewing angles. As a result, the display will lose picture quality and color accuracy when viewed from the sides or off-center.

Thus, the VIZIO V655 might not be the best television for a large room setting.

On the bright side of things, the VIZIO V655’s display supports HDR (High Dynamic Range). Specifically, the display support HDR formats such as HDR10, Dolby Vision, HDR 10+, and HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma).

Just so you know, HDR is a picture technology that enhances a display’s brightness and color accuracy when viewing HDR-supported content. Practically, HDR improves the highlights of images on the display, allowing them to look more lifelike and realistic.

For your information, HDR-supported content is mostly found on streaming apps like YouTube, Sling TV, and so on.

Moving on, the VIZIO V655’s display offers a poor response time of 22.3 milliseconds. Therefore, there will be noticeable blur trails when watching fast-moving content on the television.

Thus, the television might not be ideal for watching movies like Death Race, which have lots of fast-moving scenes. Just to be clear, response time is the time it takes a display to shift from one color to the other.

To make up for its bad response time, the VIZIO V655’s display offers a low input lag. Specifically, this display has an input lag of 10.6 milliseconds.

Input lag is the time it takes a display to register a signal input from external sources such as a wireless PS4 gamepad. Thus, input lag is one of the most crucial factors to look out for when determining a display’s gaming abilities.

Also, for a television to be considered ideal for gaming, its display must have an input lag of 15 milliseconds or lower. Well, as we can see above, the VIZIO V655’s display has an input lag that is lower than 15 milliseconds.

Thus, the VIZIO V655 is a suitable choice for gamers.

In conclusion, the VIZIO V655 has a decent display performance and supports HDR. However, the TV’s display lacks in two major areas which include the viewing angles and maximum brightness.

Therefore, I will offer the VIZIO V655 a rating of seven out of ten in this display review section.

VIZIO V655: Sound Features

To begin with, the VIZIO V655 comes with a pair of 8-watts speakers. Although these speakers offer decent audio quality, they aren’t loud enough for a large room setting.

Also, the television lacks a subwoofer, meaning its speakers won’t be able to deliver adequate bass. Hence, bass-heavy movies might not be ideal to watch on the VIZIO V655.

However, if you are a person that loves bass-heavy movies, it is recommended you purchase a soundbar. On the plus side, the VIZIO V655’s speakers are capable of delivering clear dialogue.

For clarity, dialogue is the sound produced during a conversation between two or more individuals in a movie or TV show. To add to its clear dialogue production, this television offers an impressive distortion performance.

This was proven through the result of the television on a THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) test. For clarity, the THD test is an audio test that measures the total amount of distortion that a sound system or device can produce.

In addition to that, a score of 1% or less on this test indicates that the sound system produces minimal distortion. On the contrary, a score above 1% means the sound system produces noticeable distortion.

Thankfully, on the THD test, the VIZIO V655 delivered a score of 0.45%. As a result, at a maximum or moderate volume level, the distortion that the television’s speakers will produce will be very minimal.

In case you’re curious, distortion in this context is the change of audio signals. Thereby, resulting in a sound system or speaker producing disturbing or less appealing sound quality.

All in all, I will rate the VIZIO V655 an eight out of ten in this sound review section.

VIZIO V655: Ports and Connectivity Features

Considering the ports, the VIZIO V655 comes with a good selection of ports. Additionally, some of these ports are found on the right side of the television’s back while others are directly on the back.

Moreover, the right-facing ports comprise three HDMI ports including one that supports ARC (Audio Return Channel). Thus, using the ARC-supported HMDI port, you can connect a soundbar to the VIZIO V655.

In addition to the three HDMI ports, you will also find a USB port among the right-facing ports. Meanwhile, among the ports directly on the television’s back, there is an RF connector, an optical audio port, and some composite input.

That’s not all, there is also an Ethernet port and analog audio RCA ports among the ports directly on the TV’s back. However, for wireless connectivity, the VIZIO V655 comes with an in-built dual-band 802.11n WIFI.

Sadly, this VIZIO television doesn’t feature Bluetooth. Now that we know about the TV’s ports and wireless connectivity options, let us now discuss its remote control.

To start with, like most VIZIO smart televisions, the VIZIO V655 comes with an XRT140 remote control. Furthermore, this remote is of medium size with a plastic body and a matte-black finish.

In addition to that, the remote comes with quite a number of buttons. Some of these buttons include a full number pad, a circular navigation button, and volume and channel rockers.

Also, the remote has dedicated buttons that allow quick access to Vudu, Netflix, Prime Video, Xumu, Hulu, and Redbox. Moreover, for brand recognition, VIZIO included its logo at the bottom of the remote.

However, it is worth noting that the remote does not come with a built-in mic for voice input.

In conclusion, the VIZIO V655 offers a good selection of ports and a remote with lots of functional buttons. However, the TV lacks Bluetooth.

Therefore, I will rate the VIZIO V655 an eight out of ten in this ports and connectivity review section.

VIZIO V655: Smart Features

Like most VIZIO smart TVs, the VIZIO V655 employs the SmartCast operating system version 1.40. This operating system isn’t particularly smooth, but it offers an easy-to-use interface.

However, there are constant advertisements on the interface of this operating system. To make matters worse, users cannot disable the ads.

On a positive note, the SmartCast operating system has a wide range of pre-installed streaming services. Among these streaming services are Netflix, YouTube, Vudu, Hulu, Redbox, and Amazon Prime Video.

Sadly, unlike other OS’ like ROKU TV and Android OS, VIZIO’s SmartCast doesn’t have a built-in App store where you can download more streaming services. Thus, you are limited to the pre-installed streaming services and applications on the operating system.

Nevertheless, the VIZIO V655 comes with a built-in Chromecast that allows you to stream/cast content from your smart devices to the TV.

In conclusion, the VIZIO V655 offers a decent smart OS that has several streaming services and apps. However, the operating system contains ads and doesn’t come with an app store.

Thus, I will offer the VIZIO V655 a rating of eight out of ten in this smart features review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The VIZIO V655 is a smart television that offers good picture quality and performance. To be more specific, the television’s display features an excellent contrast ratio and an impressively low input lag.

Moreover, the television comes with a good port selection as well as an excellent sound performance. However, the TV has its fair share of downsides that may make buyers rethink their decision.

These downsides include poor viewing angles, lack of Bluetooth, and poor response time. Nonetheless, for an entry-level television, the VIZIO V655 has decent performance and features, which makes it worth considering.

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