When comparing Samsung MU7000 Series 40" (UN40MU7000) vs VIZIO P-Series 55" (P55-E1), the Slant community recommends VIZIO P-Series 55" (P55-E1) for most people. In the question“What are the best TVs?” VIZIO P-Series 55" (P55-E1) is ranked 8th while Samsung MU7000 Series 40" (UN40MU7000) is ranked 30th. The most important reason people chose VIZIO P-Series 55" (P55-E1) is:
Suitable for gaming, movies, and sports, the VIZIO P-series is one of the most versatile TVs in its price range. While the combination of low input lag and fast response time makes the TV suitable for gaming;, the VIZIO P-series also does a great job of processing highly dynamic content, such as sports. Furthermore, the TV’s uniform blacks, excellent local dimming, and reasonably high peak brightness makes it an attractive option for home theater.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Great well-rounded option
The MU7000 is a great well-rounded option for watching movies, gaming, and sports. Its picture quality is decent, it has low input lag and low motion blur, and the screen uniformity is great. It can also be used as a PC monitor.
Pro Remote has a voice command feature
The MU7000's remote has a voice command feature that can perform actions as you physically would with the remote, and it can even be used to adjust settings directly.
Pro Intuitive user interface
The MU7000 runs on the Tizen smart platform, known for its simplicity and intuitiveness.
It’s easy to navigate and access all the functions of features of the TV - the whole menu of the Tizen OS is organized around a menu known as the “Smart Hub” which contains everything: apps, settings, input switching, etc.
It also has a section for quick access to frequently used items.
Pro Decent for casual movies/TV watching
The MU7000 is a decent pick if you're a casual viewer. You'll get a great 4K/SDR experience, but the HDR performance might be lacklustre due to the lack of local dimming and low HDR peak brightness.
Pro Decent for gaming
The MU7000 is decent for gaming thanks to the fairly low input lag and barely noticeable motion blur. Its input lag of ~20ms contributes to a responsive gaming experience, and the panel's response time of ~20ms means it can handle motion fairly well - most don't notice any visible trails behind fast-moving objects.
Pro Can be used as a PC monitor
The MU7000 is suitable as a PC monitor because of its relatively small screen size of 40". It can be used up front thanks to the small minimal viewing distance, and it has full 4:4:4 color support that ensures text or shapes with clear, hard edges are not blurry.
Pro Decent picture quality
The MU7000 looks good with really deep black levels and sufficient peak brightness levels for most content.
Dark scenes look amazing thanks to the panel’s contrast ratio of roughly 6300:1, which means it’s capable of producing blacks that are 6300 times darker than the brightest white pixel the screen can produce.
It gets bright enough for SDR content with a peak brightness level of ~350 nits, which is sufficient for making colors pop.
The best viewing experience will be in a dark environment where the panel won’t have to compete with light as the MU7000’s screen can’t get bright enough to perform as well in bright environments.
Pro Highly versatile
Suitable for gaming, movies, and sports, the VIZIO P-series is one of the most versatile TVs in its price range. While the combination of low input lag and fast response time makes the TV suitable for gaming;, the VIZIO P-series also does a great job of processing highly dynamic content, such as sports. Furthermore, the TV’s uniform blacks, excellent local dimming, and reasonably high peak brightness makes it an attractive option for home theater.
Pro Good for gaming
It has great motion blur handling abilities and a dedicated gaming HDMI port with a reduced input lag of 15.9 ms makes the VIZIO P-series quite suitable for gaming.
The TV’s excellent motion blur handling is directly related to its ability to change the color of each pixel 80% of the way in just 3.9 ms so you won't notice any trails on rapidly moving objects. The VIZIO P-series by far outperforms all the competitors on the market when it comes to this.
Pro Picture looks good from an angle
The 55-inch model of the VIZIO P-series has excellent viewing angles because of its IPS panel which preserves correct colors and shades no matter the angle between the viewer and the panel. This property makes the TV ideal for watching with a group.
Pro Can increase media's frame rate
This TV is an excellent choice for those who like to ‘speed up’ the regular 30FPS media, sourced from cable/satellite boxes or old DVDs as it can boost up low frame rate content up to a whopping 120 frames per second rate. Some people call it a ‘soap opera effect’, but technically the process is called interpolation. Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that this TV’s biggest competitor: the TCL P607 cannot interpolate motion.
Pro Compatible with HDR media
The VIZIO P-series is suitable for HDR-enhanced content because of its full HDR10 and Dolby Vision support. The HDR10 and Dolby Vision are currently the two flagship HDR formats used in the multimedia industry, which means that all the new HDR movies and shows are compliant with either one of those formats.
It’s also worth noting that in the HDR field, the VIZIO P-series outperforms its competitors, including the Samsung MU8000 which lacks Dolby Vision support.
Pro Good build quality
The VIZIO P-series feels solid and rugged because its frame and stand are built from high-quality metal. In comparison, the most significant competitors of the VIZIO P-series: Samsung MU8000 and TCL P607 have their frames and stands built from plastic.
Pro Has an excellent remote app
This TV comes with a brilliant, well-integrated phone and tablet application which can transform your smart gadget into a fully-functional remote. The application is particularly handy when you need to input some text, for example, while searching content on YouTube or Netflix.
Pro Compatible with current-gen consoles
This TV works fine with all the current generation consoles, including the Xbox One X, PS4 Pro, and Wii U, because of its 4K 60 Hz support.
Cons
Con Pretty expensive for a 40" TV
Other similarly priced TVs are 49" and above, while this specific model of the MU7000 (UN40MU7000) is only 40".
Con Glare might be an issue
The MU7000 might not be able to handle environments with lots of light, such as sunlight pouring into a living room with no curtains. Its panel is only average at handling reflections, and the brightness levels peak at ~350 nits which isn't really sufficient for fighting glare.
Con Speakers produce distortion at high volumes
The MU7000's speakers produces distortion that starts getting noticeable at around ≥40% of max volume.
Con Not suitable for group watching
The MU7000 has a narrow viewing angle that makes it unsuitable for group watching.
Audience sitting away from the center of the screen will not experience the same picture as those sitting in the center, because the picture quality starts to deteriorate significantly when viewing from just ≥20° away from the screen's center.
Con Might require some color calibration out of the box
The MU7000's colors might look off to some viewers out of the box due to its high white balance. Switching to the "Movie" option in "Picture Mode" should be enough to remedy this for most, but only calibration can fix this for some viewers.
Con Interface has ads
There are ads that can't be removed on the MU7000's interface.
Con Lacks support for Dolby Vision
The MU7000 currently supports the HDR10 format only.
Con HDR performance is lacking
The main drawback of the MU7000 is its HDR performance.
While it has a wide color gamut that allows it to reproduce the wide range of colors necessary for true HDR playback, it can’t get bright enough to take advantage of it. At only ~300 nits of brightness, it's pretty hard for HDR pictures to pop.
It also doesn’t have local dimming, so its black levels can’t be improved further for better HDR performance.
Con Bad for HDR gaming
This TV is not a good choice for HDR gaming because its dedicated gaming HDMI port does not have enough bandwidth to support the HDR-enchanted input. This means that you will have to use a regular HDMI input port to feed the TV with the HDR content. The problem here is that the regular HDMI input has 43.5 ms input lag which is too high for fast-paced, competitive gaming.
Con The 55-inch model has low contrast
The 55-inch VIZIO P-series TV has significantly lower picture quality than the 65-inch and 75-inch models. The 65-inch and 75-inch models use a VA panel while the 55-inch model has an IPS panel. The main difference between those is that the VA panel has, on average, four times higher contrast ratio than the IPS panel; Thus, the VA panel can reproduce more vibrant and more in-depth scenes.