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Vizio P-Series Quantum aims high, costs $2100 for 65 inches – CNET

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Judging from its specs, the P-Series Quantum looks like Vizio’s best TV yet.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Would you pay two grand for a 65-inch Vizio ?

That’s the essential question posed by the all-new P-Series Quantum, which just started shipping for $2,100 from major retailers and Vizio.com. 

Vizio certainly tempts picture quality aficionados with the right specs. The company claims a searing 2,000 nits of peak brightness, which, if true, would make it among the brightest TVs I’ve ever measured. Equally important is its prodigious number of full-array local dimming zones — 192 — which should allow it to minimize blooming and maximize local contrast. Finally, its quantum dots likely achieve a wider color gamut, which has been a relative weakness of past Vizio sets I’ve reviewed, including the M-Series.

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The Quantum was first announced in April along with Vizio’s step-down M-Series, reviewed last month, and non-Quantum P-Series (review coming soon). It’s available in only one size: 65 inches. Vizio says it considered making a larger size, say 75 inches, but decided not to for cost reasons. My take: If it’s tough to imagine paying two grand for a 65-inch Vizio, how about twice that for a 75 incher?

65-inch TV shoppers in the $2,000-ish price bracket have plenty of great options right now. The most compelling are 2017 LG OLED TVs like the B7A at $2,300. Although it will certainly be brighter, I’d be surprised if the Quantum outperformed those OLED TVs overall. 

Other contenders include the excellent Samsung Q8 (also $2,300) and Sony X900F ($2,000), both of which fall short of the Quantum’s lofty specs. Finally, the money-no-object, I-just-want-the-best-picture crowd might be curious how the Quantum compares with the Samsung Q9 ($3,000) and 2018 OLEDs like the LG C8 ($3,500).

I expect to review the Q9 and the Quantum, as well as whatever other high-end TVs Sony may have up its sleeve, in the next couple of months. In the meantime, anxious Twitter friends, hang tight.