Vizio 86-inch Smart TV and 2.1 Soundbar Review: An Affordable Big Screen With a Few Big Tradeoffs

I find budget TVs to be a great refresher if you’re like me and you’ve spent too long agonizing over the QLEDs, OLEDs, and all that high-falutin, high-end picture technology. Even still, the $1,000 Vizio 86-inch Smart TV pushes the boundaries of size and capabilities. If budget TVs are all about tradeoffs, then this big boy has plenty. Make no mistake with this review, there’s plenty to like too if you just want a big, big television to revel in that sense of excess. 

The V4K86C-0804 pairs better when you link it with one of the latest Vizio 2.1 soundbars. The company sent us one of these audio units for review with the TV, and overall it’s a seamless experience that seems the bare minimum for this size of TV at $170. The latest budget-end 2.1 soundbars come with the branded “Quickfit” system that involves you skewing in two attachment points to the TV, allowing you to slot it under the television with little fuss. It is a good option if you want a cheaper soundbar to fill the room, but it may not match the full boisterousness of an 86-inch display.

The 86-incher is an interesting option at $1,000 MSRP for its mammoth size. For comparison, TCL’s 85S551G Google TV is $1,300 MSRP at 85 inches (though you’ll find it on sale regularly for hundreds less). Still, most people don’t have the space for such a big TV, and those that do will still be giving up on the quality benefits of mini-LED. There is the big Vizio Quantum and Quantum Pro QLEDs going for at or less than Vizio’s 86-inch LED. And don’t let the size steer you away from a deal. You can find fair-sized, quality LED TVs from other budget-type TV makers like Hisense’s U7N that cost hundreds of dollars less if you knock a few inches off.

There is a use case for these types of displays. My office watched a week and a half of the 2024 Paris Olympics action with Vizio’s 86-inch 4K TV. The screen was so large, it wouldn’t even fit on the table we brought with us to a new office space. Instead, it sat on the floor but was so big it kept the entire Giz staff entertained with a few spare chairs and a single loveseat. As far as my coworkers were concerned, the size meant they could sit back and enjoy, despite the very limited viewing angles.

As great as it was to have the entire team enjoying the TV at once, it was far from a perfect experience. For one, Vizio’s TV doesn’t come with an ethernet port. It’s a well-known tradeoff with the brand of cheaper TVs, but it means my enjoyment of this quadrennial event is beholden to my WiFi speeds. That wouldn’t prove as big of an issue if the TV did not recognize my office WiFi. Instead, I was signed on with more spotty “guest” WiFi at slower internet speeds. If I was hoping to use Peacock’s multi-view streams of four events at once, I was dealing with constant jaggies and interruptions.

But there’s a lot to like, especially when you’re paying a measly $1,000 for a 4K TV that’s as wide as a golf cart. It’s a DLED TV, so you can’t expect such picture quality you’ll find on 4K QLED like Sony’s Bravia 7, but you’re also not paying the more than $2,000 MSRP for the 65-inch or bigger version of the TV. It’s about as much as you’d spend on fellow big TVs from budget brands like TCL

Vizio 86-inch 4K Smart TV Review: Design and UI

There’s a Severe Lack of HDMI and Ethernet Ports

There are a few options for how you can set up your 86-inch TV. The feet go on far to the ends of the TV, 63 inches apart. You better have a big TV stand to set it up on, or else get ready to drill in for the wall mount. 

You’ll likely need a little to help put the feet on this big boy, but once they’re on, I found the 86-inch screen is very, very stable. I could rack it with most of my strength and not even hear the plastic strain. Part of that is because it’s a thick TV. It measures nearly 17 inches deep at its thickest end. That’s really not a big deal unless you plan to hang it from a wall. 

This is yet another television that decides to stick its power cord on the opposite end of its relatively few HDMI ports. There’s also only one eARC HDMI port that will be your main choice for your consoles. However, if you opt for the Vizio soundbar you’ll need to make hard choices as Vizio requires you to stick your audio through the eARC port. That leaves a scant two other HDMI ports available for any other devices.

In the end, the TV’s port selection leaves a lot of options off the table. Just to remark on the lack of an ethernet port, there’s no real way to install drivers to have the internet go through HDMI or the single USB-Type A port. The U.S. is full of zip codes where certain telecom companies have monopolies on the internet. If you’re somebody who’s constantly annoyed at WiFi interruptions or poor connections, this budget TV doesn’t make things any easier.

At the very least, Vizio’s redesigned UI is now easier than ever to navigate. My internet connection didn’t help, but once the main page loaded it’s plenty easy to find your most-used apps and services from the folders found right next to your apps and inputs. Vizio’s updated UI lets you access your apps easily without any jumbled menus or unnecessary clicking around—and that’s the most importat thing. The TV and settings menus are also straightforward, and they avoids all the unnecessary clicking around I get on LG TVs. Simply put, the UI does the job.

The TV doesn’t have all the game bar features you’ll find on the latest Sony and Samsung TVs, which let you quickly modify the VRR, check HDR settings, or switch the resolution without going through too many menus. 

Vizio 86-inch 4K Smart TV Review: Visual Quality

There’s Only So Much You Can Get Out of DLED, But What’s There Works

There’s only so much quality you can expect from DLED technology. We’re at the point where OLED and mini-LED are so ubiquitous we’re eyeing a future of tandem OLEDs, micro-LED, or even NanoLED as the next big thing. However, a 4K TV is still a 4K TV, and the viewing experience on Vizio’s screen is still pretty damn good once you hone in on the right settings.

I found that there are not many settings you really need to change to get the most cinematic experience. I ended up sticking with Calibrated mode for most non-game content, and Game Mode for both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. The TV was also automatically set to “warm” colors, which means when I play a 4K Blu-Ray of The Matrix it would appear far more green than what its actually supposed to be. My suggestion is to switch it back to “normal” for a more theater-like experience.

There are a few advanced options that you may want to stray away from. Active Pixel Tuning will result in an overly sharpened image with an extra bit of unwanted smoothing. You’ll want to keep backlight control on for the sake of better contrast. The Black Detail setting, which is supposed to improve details in dark areas of the screen, doesn’t help much with contrast but simply boosts the lights more. It could be useful for those gaming and wanting to spot enemies in the shadows, and it’s the sort of option you’d usually find on modern TV’s game bar settings.

A direct LED TV is never going to have the same level of contrast as mini-LED or more expensive TVs, but this Vizio is not a slouch. The blacks were, on the whole, fairly deep. Still, in movies like Oppenheimer, certain scenes will look far more gray than they should, even under Calibrated Dark settings. You’ll still get great 4K quality that’s all the easier to see across the room with the 86-inch Vizio’s bulky size. Better yet, there wasn’t nearly as much reflection and direct glare as I anticipated even when the TV was positioned directly next to an open window.

Gaming is also a fine time on the 86-inch Vizio. The gameplay on both PS5 and Xbox Series X was smooth at their max FPS. The colors on games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor were nice and vibrant, as much as you might need them to be.

That being said, this being a DLED the viewing angles are restricted to directly in front of the TV, and nowhere else. Even a few degrees offline you’ll see the color morph and decay. You’ll need to keep it just within the silhouette of the TV to get the best viewing experience. As long as you toe the line, it’s a fine viewing experience.

Vizio 2.1 Soundbar Review: Design and Sound Quality

It’s a Relatively Cheap Soundbar that’s Real Easy to Install

The hardest part of installing my 30-inch SV210M 2.1 Soundbar was taking it out of the oddly-shaped box. It’s obviously meant to pair well with Vizio’s specific software suite. The Quickfit system is fairly simple and effective, though it’s not exactly locking the soundbar into place. It’s merely a good way of tucking the audio under the TV and making it easier to swipe the dust off from under the TV and soundbar. 

Vizio wants users to plug it directly into the TV’s eARC HDMI port. It immediately takes command of your TV’s sound controls, and it becomes operable with a remote or Vizio app. It adds a deeper sense of bass to the room than it would with just the in-built TV speakers thanks to the addition of the subwoofer. The sub does need a bit of room to make the most of it, but if you’re lacking any extra room you probably shouldn’t be looking for an 86-inch TV.

There is more depth to the effect of the sound, and the soundbar does a good job of staying consistent in different parts of the room. Now, this isn’t nearly as broad a difference as you might get with the stereo of the Vizio 5.1 and the extra surround speakers. With just the $170 2.1 soundbar, it feels like it doesn’t quite match up to the bombastic nature of an 86-inch screen. Instead, it feels more like a budget-friendly addition to a more conservative display. The 5.1 Soundbar SE, which costs $220, might be the better option if you want to make the most of this TV’s size. 

Vizio 86-inch 4K Smart TV and 2.1 Soundbar Review: Verdict

Everything Works As Intended, But Very Few People Really Need an 86-inch TV

I’d ask anybody considering an 86-inch TV to inspect their living arrangements and break out the tape measure, whether it’s a Vizio or not. If there is plenty of space for this “budget” massive screen in your room then it comes down to whether the lack of an ethernet port, three HDMI ports, or the picture quality is a deal breaker. 

But it’s a fine viewing and listening experience once you get it all set up to the best of your ability. You really have to do the extra work to see if your own setup will accommodate the 86-inch Smart TV, not just because of the size but because of its own limitations. All that aside, you’ll still find the 4K viewing experience is a good one. It’s better to go into it without any bright-eyed visions of big-screen bliss, especially if your main hope is to save a few hundred bucks on your display.