Michael Crider
If you’ve been waiting for someone to offer competition to LG in the growing OLED TV space, then your prayers have been answered. Vizio announced its first consumer-ready OLED TV back at CES in January, and today it’s announcing that the sets will be available sometime this fall. The best part: the 55-inch model starts at $1300.
That’s incredibly competitive—you can’t find a new LG model at that price, unless you’re looking at a great sale on a year-old TV. Sony also makes OLED TVs, but they’re even more expensive because they’re sourcing panels from LG. Hisense previously made a few but dipped out of the market earlier this year.
The 55-inch model is the Vizio OLED55-H1, and there’s a 65-inch version (OLED65-H1) for $2000. That’s also pretty decent in terms of competition. For the sake of comparison, LG’s cheapest 55-inch OLED, the B9 series, has a retail price of $1600. Because high-end TVs often get significant discounts, a $1000 Vizio OLED around Black Friday wouldn’t be out of the question. And for that matter, neither would a $1000 LG OLED, because competition is a wonderful thing.
The Vizio H1 series comes with the company’s suite of software features, including the updated SmartCast, the Iq Active image processor, and the ProGaming Engine for automatically optimizing the picture for Xbox and PlayStation. Of course, both models have 4K resolution and a maximum of 120Hz refresh.
Vizio’s more contemporary designs are launching much earlier. The new V, M, and P series sets, ranging from the $230 V405 40-inch TV to the insane P85QX-H1 85-inch set at $3000, will go on sale starting today at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and the rest of the usual suspects. The new Elevate sound bar, with rotating speakers for Atmos surround, will debut sometime in the fall for $1000.
