VIZIO P-Series 55" (P55-E1) vs TCL R617 55" (55R617)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Regarding the overall picture quality, the TCL R617 performs on par with the noticeably pricier high-end TVs. In its price range, the TV offers exceptional performance no matter if it is placed in a dark or bright environment.

It can reproduce a wide range of bright and vibrant colors as well as some truly inky blacks because of its wide color gamut, high color accuracy, excellent gamma tracking, high native contrast ratio, and stellar peak brightness.

Colors pop and look realistic thanks to the low average color error dE of 2.33, which is noticeably below the color error margin that can be spotted by a human eye. Also, colors don't look flat due to the TV's near perfect gamma tracking. The colors look very bright thanks to the TV's high overall peak brightness that is measured at more than 700 nits. No other TV in this price range can get that bright.

Dark scenes look profound thanks to the high native contrast ratio and excellent uniformity of its blacks. The TV's native contrast ratio is measured at around 6000:1, which is significantly above what its competitors offer.

With this TV you will not have problems associated with reflections and glare even in fairly bright environments thanks to the TV's amazing brightness and semi-gloss screen finish that helps it to diffuse reflections fairly well.

The TV's peak brightness measures at around 700 nits, which is far above what the other TVs in this price range offer.