If you’re a casual viewer with an easy-to-please approach, the V-Series is a solid choice. Most of the content you’ll encounter will look good enough—especially if you’re upgrading to 4K resolution for the first time. Plus, there aren’t very many TVs in this price bracket that offer Auto Low Latency Mode, so if you’re a gamer shopping on a budget (and you don’t mind a dim TV), the V-Series is worth a look. If you want a brighter picture and better HDR performance, you’ll have to spend a bit more on something like the TCL 5-Series or the Samsung TU8000, both of which were released last year but can still be found in stores.

Aside from smart TV systems, biggest difference is probably the settings, of which the Vizio has more picture quality adjustment options than the simplistic-by-design TCL. So if you know your way around a TV menu, or want to be able to dial in the picture even on an inexpensive TV, the Vizio is the better choice, as long as you don't mind an extra hoop or two to watch HBO.

The V-Series has an intuitive remote and supports hands-free voice commands. But a few tweaks to its Smart TV platform SmartCast would go a long way with improving the overall user experience. Vizio released its 2023 Smart TV lineup in the summer of 2022.

The Vizio V-Series is a solid TV for the price, if you can live with low brightness and poor HDR performance.

You won’t go far wrong with this budget TV from Vizio. For the price the picture is very good, although the colors aren’t particularly accurate and there’s no motion compensation. With most material, you won’t have any complaints.

It's okay for watching movies in dark rooms because it has a high native contrast ratio with good black uniformity, but it doesn't have a local dimming feature to further improve the contrast. It's decent for watching TV shows and okay for watching sports in well-lit rooms as it has good reflection handling, but it doesn't get bright enough to fight glare, and it has a narrow viewing angle that makes the image look washed out from the sides. It's also decent for gaming, thanks to its variable refresh rate (VRR) support to reduce screen tearing, low input lag, and quick response time. Sadly, it doesn't deliver a satisfying HDR experience because it has low peak brightness and doesn't display the wide range of colors needed for HDR.

When it comes down to it, the V-Series is designed to be used right out of the box by people who simply want to have a big screen and don’t care about the specifics. The perfect use case would be putting it in the garage or man cave or game room — somewhere that you just want a big screen for occasional movies or games, and something you don’t have to fuss with or gawk over. If what you want is a lot of screen real estate for a low price — and that’s about it — then the V-Series is worth checking out.