Vizio E601I-A3

One thousand dollars is a sweet spot for HDTVs. When the price tag rolls over to four digits, it can be a lot harder to swallow than a product just brushing against costing a Cleveland, even if it's a big-ticket item. The Vizio E601I-A3 offers a pretty compelling case to spend just that much on a big-screen HDTV. As a 60-inch LED HDTV, the $999.99 (direct) E601I offers a big, bright picture and built-in Wi-Fi to access plenty of online services. It doesn't include 3D support, though, and its colors could stand to be more accurate (thankfully, you can calibrate the screen through plenty of settings to get it to that point). It's a great choice for a big HDTV, even if you can find slightly less expensive or slightly better screens.

Design
The E601 is large and a bit plain-looking, but not unattractively so. The bezel is a flat, glossy black to match the rectangular base, which is sturdy but doesn't let the screen pivot. There are no notable lights or accents on the bezel besides a metallic Vizio logo on the lower right corner. A thin row of buttons sits on the left edge of the HDTV for basic functions, but like most HDTV controls they're vestigial and you'll be using the remote most of the time. On the back are two HDMI ports, two USB ports, and component/composite video inputs sit facing the left of the screen, while the remaining two HDMI ports (for a total of four), RF connector for the built-in tuner (over-the-air or ClearQAM), Ethernet port, digital and analog audio inputs, and VGA input face down.

The remote control is streamlined over the last generation Vizio M3D550KD's?remote. Instead of a sliding design, it's simply one piece of plastic with a standard remote control on one side and a QWERTY keyboard on the other for inputting text. It feels sturdier in the hand, but its small, rubber buttons are a bit insensitive and it isn't backlit.

You can access a variety of online content and social networking services on the E601 through its built-in Wi-Fi or an Ethernet connection. By pressing the VIA (Vizio Internet Apps) button in the middle of the remote, you can bring up a list of services on the bottom of the screen. This is a convenient way to go through online offerings without interrupting what you're watching, but it doesn't have the easy-to-use thoughtfulness of a dedicated hub menu like on Samsung and LG HDTVs. You can access Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu videos and apps, Yahoo! Widgets, and Facebook, among other services.

Performance
We test HDTVs with a Konica-Minolta CS 200 ChromaMeter, DisplayMate test patterns, and SpectraCal's CalMAN software. After basic brightness and contrast calibration, the E601 reached a peak brightness of 250.88 cd/m2 and displayed a modest black level of 0.05 cd/m2, for a tested contrast ratio of 1:5,017. This is fine for a budget HDTV, but higher-end screens can reach black levels as low as 0.01 cd/m2 and hit contrast ratios into the six digits.

Color levels were generally accurate, but the E601 showed greens as slightly cool, as you can see from the CIE color comparison chart below (the squares represent the ideal color levels, and the circles represent measured color levels). The E601 has multiple color temperature adjustment settings, so you can tweak individual channels to suit your needs.

The Blu-ray release of Piranha looked bright and sharp on the E601I, but it was lacking in shadow detail and its colors looked slightly off without calibration. The sunny, lakeside scenes ran cool and looked slightly oversaturated, with greens and blues popping out more than the warm landscape and flesh tones. Dark, murky scenes under the water consumed fine details like the textures of scuba gear. In both cases, the picture became slightly pale for off-axis viewing; it was still very watchable if you sit near the side of the screen, but it loses most of its visual pop.

The E601 has only a poorly labeled setting to choose between prioritizing contrast (DRC) and energy efficiency (OPC). Neither setting seemed to noticeably affect the screen's picture or power consumption, which measured 118 watts under normal use. For an LED-lit HDTV, this isn't a particularly energy-efficient model, but it's not as power-hungry as plasma screens.

The E601 is a full-featured LED HDTV you can pick up for just south of $1,000, and it offers a big screen and solid performance for its price. It doesn't support 3D and its online services are less polished in their presentation than some other brands' HDTVs, but it's a very good HDTV if you want something very big for a small price tag. Its picture quality isn't especially great, though, and if you really want to save money on a big HDTV, consider instead our Editors' Choice budget plasma, the Samsung PN51E490B4F. It's only 51 inches and 720p resolution, but it's over $300 less than the E601 and supports 3D, with two pairs of active shutter 3D glasses included. You might want to also track down the the Vizio M3D550KD? or the?now-discontinued Sony Bravia KDL-46EX720?, both of which were Editors' Choices and include 3D and with better picture quality.

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