Vizio H1 OLED 4K TV Review

OLED65-H1 120Hz Smart TV

Intro

For 2020, Vizio entered the OLED TV market with a single model available in two screen sizes -55” and 65”. Since these are Vizio’s first OLED models, I thought I’d do a review of the 65” variant. Read on to learn more.

Design and Features

The OLED H1 is a very attractive display and follows the typical design scheme of other OLED display manufacturers from the likes of LG and Sony and is fashioned with very thin bezel accents and black borders that surround the glossy screen for a borderless appearance.

When viewed from the side you will immediately notice how thin the panel depth is on this display which is commonplace with OLED displays and makes them so aesthetically pleasing. But all is not perfect visually on the backside of this display… the Tv’s electronics have to go somewhere and that place is a plastic housing on the lower section of the panel which adds to the depth of the TV, bringing its maximum depth to approximately 2”.

The pedestal type stand has an unusual sloping/curved design which is designed to hold Vizio’s Elevate soundbar. The TV stand gives good stability. The build quality on the H1 is quite good and consists of solid construction and doesn’t feel or appear to be cheaply made.

Feature Highlights

• Ultra Color Spectrum – Bring your favorite entertainment to life with over a billion shades of color for intense colors and exceptional color accuracy.
• Innovative Borderless Design – With a luxurious bezel-less frame, a profile as thin as 4mm, and an intuitive cable management system, VIZIO OLED is the ultimate in next-generation beauty.
• ProGaming EngineTM – With 4K 120Hz gaming support, ProGaming Engine automatically optimizes Xbox and Playstation gameplay with a unique suite of gaming features that provide smoother graphics & more responsive gaming with VRR. VRR and auto low latency mode only compatible with Xbox One X
• VIZIO IQ Ultra TM Processor – Inside, VIZIO’s fastest, smartest chip – the revolutionary IQ Ultra processor™ offers best-in-class picture processing, a more powerful 4K upscaling engine and HDMI 2.1 connectivity.
• 4K Ultra HD (2160p resolution) – Enjoy breathtaking 4K movies and TV shows at 4 times the resolution of Full HD, and upscale your current content to Ultra HD-level picture quality.
• Dolby Vision HDR – Dolby Vision Transforms your TV experience with dramatic imaging – incredible brightness, contrast, and color that bring entertainment to life before your eyes. In addition, this TV supports HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG high dynamic range formats.
• VIZIO SmartCast – With lightning-fast navigation, enjoy instant access to the best selection of apps from top-tier streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, and many more right on the TV using the all-new smart remote or SmartCast Mobile app.
• The Center of Your Smart Home – Integrates seamlessly with Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa smart home devices – check on your front door camera, control the lights and TV with a single voice command – with this V-Series TV, the smart home possibilities are endless.
• Simple, Hands-Free Voice Control – Use your voice to control the TV with popular voice assistants including Siri, the Google Assistant and Alexa-enabled devices – turn your TV on/off, stream apps, and more. Apple HomeKit may not be available at the time of purchase.
• Works with Apple AirPlay & Chromecast Built-In – Stream, control, and share your favorite movies, shows, music, photos, and more from your Apple or Android devices directly to the TV. You can also wirelessly mirror content such as web pages and presentations to the big screen.
• Free Streaming Channels – Enjoy unlimited free viewing from specially curated channels – movies, TV shows, news and more. No fees, logins, or subscriptions.
• Infinite Contrast and perfect blacks and over 8 million self-illuminating pixels achieve perfect black levels and contrast with unprecedented detail and dimension.
• Block Content – Apps in VIZIO SmartCast offer parental controls so parents can control the content experience for their children.
• 4 UHD/HDR-Ready HDMI Ports – Future-ready HDMI 2.1 connectivity offers the highest audio quality with eARC and Dolby Atmos pass-through and the highest video performance from the newest 4K entertainment devices.
• DTS Virtual:X – Advanced virtual surround sound audio from the TV’s built-in speakers.
• Remote control – I really like the design of the supplied remote. It’s compact and well designed in my opinion primarily due to the button layout and the amount of spacing between the buttons which makes it easier to use without inadvertently pressing the wrong button. I also like the selection of shortcut buttons at the top of the remote for Vudu, Netflix, Prime Video, XUMO, Hulu and Redbox streaming services. The Remote does not have voice control.

Connectivity

• 4 HDMI inputs – HDCP 2.2 compliant
• HDMI inputs 2&3 HDMI 2.1 compliant
• HDMI 1 input supports eARC/ARC
• 1 Composite video input
• 1 USB input
• 1 Ethernet input
• 1 RF input for antenna/cable/satellite
• 1 Digital optical audio output
• 1 RCA analog audio output
• Dual-band Wi-Fi (802.11ac 2.4/5Ghz)

Performance

As mentioned earlier in this article, this is Vizio’s first OLED TV and I was eager to check out its performance. I will tell you right from the start I was very impressed with its overall picture quality and it definitely lives up to the OLED benchmark standards I’ve seen from its rivals, namely LG and Sony.

The H1 has remarkable picture quality and to my eyes was not substantially lacking in any crucial areas of picture quality performance. OLEDs are known for their striking contrast and black levels and the H1 delivered these two picture quality attributes in abundance.

The color performance was very good on this TV and delivered an intense and dynamic color palette. The boldness of these colors brought a true sense of realism to onscreen images that kept my eyes fixated on what I was watching. I must point out; however, that color accuracy was not as good as what I would typically see on LG and Sony OLED TVs. This was not a major takeaway from the TV’s performance. That being said, to get the most accurate picture quality out of the Vizio H1 without having it calibrated, use the “Calibrated or “Calibrated Dark” picture modes.

Picture detail and clarity were top-notch on the Vizio H1. Fine detail and image texture were brought to life on this display with a great sense of realism and were further enhanced by the display’s awesome clarity and image transparency.

OLED TVs don’t suffer from contrast and color saturation loss when viewed from wide angles. So the H1 has perfect performance when viewed from very wide angles.

Picture brightness – To my eyes, the H1 has a vividly bright picture when viewed in a well-lit room and will do fine in a room that is not overly bright and kept away from areas in your viewing environment that have a lot of bright natural lighting present. That being said, The H1 is not as bright as other OLED TVs from LG and Sony. Rtings.com has posted “real scene” SDR (standard dynamic range) peak brightness at 265 nits, and HDR (high dynamic range) peak brightness at 497 nits.

Motion handling – The H1 does a good job of reducing or eliminating motion blur while watching fast action content. If you do experience motion judder you can use the “Judder Reduction” feature under the “Motion Control” tab to help reduce or eliminate motion judder.

Gaming performance – I didn’t test this TV’s gaming ability but I did do some research and how it currently performs and since there have been reported issues I decided to mention those issues within this review. The Vizio H1 supports HDMI 2.1 and claims support for advanced gaming features such as VRR, FreeSync, and 4K 120Hz. In actual use what I found was that the VRR feature did not work properly and didn’t work with any HDMI ports, and constantly tears with 4K and 1440p content. Hopefully, Vizio will resolve these issues with future firmware updates.

But in the meantime, all of you gamers out there hoping to use this TV with Sony’s PS5 and the Xbox Series X will be sadly disappointed. That being said, the H1 has good input lag specs and measures approximately 21.0 ms with 1080p @ 60Hz and 4K @ 60Hz content.

Vizio’s SmartCast smart TV platform has most of the popular apps preinstalled such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Vudu, Apple TV, YouTube, YouTube TV and more. Vizio’s SmartCast doesn’t allow you to add more apps, so if you’re looking to add more, you’re out of luck. There is a workaround for this issue…since the H1 has Chromecast built-in, you can cast additional content from a smartphone or tablet.

Vizio’s SmartCast is easy to use and generally provides smooth operation, however, that is not always the case since it doesn’t always perform well and is not as responsive as other smart TV platforms when trying to execute certain tasks.

Sound quality – The H1 had decent audio quality for a flat panel design and the DTS Virtual:X feature helps boost sound quality by delivering a wide, full-bodied soundstage that can fill your room with decent simulated-surround sound. However, bass output was lacking which comes as no surprise due to the limited size of the TV’s speakers. Dialogue was clean and clear and remained intelligible even at higher volume levels.

Conclusion

If you are in the market for an affordable OLED TV, especially when compared to LG and Sony’s offerings, and has very good OLED TV picture quality, then you may want to consider the Vizio H1. It does have its shortcomings with the biggest being its HDMI 2.1 gaming features not working properly. But Vizio should work out those bugs with a firmware update.

Vizio’s H1 visually dazzled me with its beautiful and pristine OLED picture quality and is one OLED display I could proudly own based on my viewing satisfaction. Although this would be contingent on Vizio fixing the H1’s HDMI 2.1 issues.