Review: Vizio E-Series 32-inch 1080P Smart TV (E32-C1)

Vizio is one of the most successful selling brands within the lower price pool due to their well balanced mixture of quality and value. Like Sharp, they seek to provide as much detail as possible while making sure the price tag stands out as a bargain. This model is no different as it looks great for a 32-inch screen that barely breaks the bank.

The E32-C1 helps keep the price you pay for auxiliary TVs as low as possible. By auxiliary, I mean those locations in the home outside of the main viewing area. Since most consumers prefer to shoot for 50-inches or higher for living room spaces, TVs that fall smaller in size typically find themselves in dens, bedrooms, loft areas, offices and garages. TVs like these are popular for holiday sales such as Black Friday because you might be able to find one for around $199, which makes finding that TV for the garage for use during your favorite games not so unfeasible.

The design itself is simple and similar to most other TVs of it’s size outside of the fact that it uses feet over the typical stand. It features a single color tone and a physical depth that you’ve been used to over the last 3-4 years (it obviously isn’t going to look paper thin like the latest/expensive OLED screens). Glare from the screen is moderate and mostly unnoticeable once it’s turned on.

Picture quality is there as 1080p looks splendid at just 32-inches. At this size of TV, 720p would look great, so you can rest assured that at 1080p you are going to get the detail you’d hope for. It offers solid clarity and the colors are vivid with just the right calibration. Refresh rate is 120hz which is nice to see that even the smallest of budget TVs have moved past 60hz, leading to a clear image with little to no artifacts or bars during high motion scenes. So this important if you plan to use the TV for any kind of fast paces sports. It does feature a calibrated picture mode which looks good out of the box, but we were able to find a better picture calibrating it ourselves. I would recommend doing this using your own eyes and personal judgement since calibration discs aren’t always cheap–making it a bit overkill to buy one for use on such a low-priced TV unless you plan to calibrate all your TVs with it.

Blacks are decently deep and require very little to tweak just right. There is little to no bleeding around the edges and no noticeable clouding in the screen. Viewing angle is limited to around 120 degrees and you begin to lose image when you go further than that. There few quirks remind you of the price you paid, but by no means make it a bad purchase. The benefits greatly outweigh the quirks for sure.

One of the nicest benefits is the fact that it is a Smart TV. At this price, you used to be limited to non-smart TVs, but the time is finally here that even the smallest and most affordable of LED TVs have apps and internet now. All of your favorite apps are found in the app menu, including Netflix, HuluPlus, Amazon Instant Video, VuDu, YouTube and more. There are also music options such as iHeartRadio and Spotify. This gives you hours and hours (and hours) of potential entertainment. Not bad for a TV that falls under $300 (especially if you find it closer to $200).

Link: Find the E32-C1 on Amazon

The E32-C1 offers both wired and wireless internet with wired (ethernet) being your best bet if it’s available. If running an ethernet cable to it is out of the question, then simply connect the TV to your network via WiFi to enjoy all of its Smart features over the air. We found that WiFi gets a solid signal within 30-40 feet (straight line) from the source (including through walls). Beyond that you begin to lose bars. With a good connection, there is little to no buffering troubles or lag when it comes to streaming video. If the TV is further than 40ft from the source (router), you may find your video pausing once in a blue moon for a few seconds. During our tests, we didn’t have any troubles with this, but its still something to keep in mind. For us, at the longer distance, we mostly experienced longer load times when initially beginning a stream.

The menu system and apps aren’t exactly lightning fast, but then again this TV isn’t going to compare to the upper-end lines of TVs that offer insane processing power inside. There is no quad-core chip inside this one, so you will find the menus and app load times can be a little laggy at times. This is to be expected with an E-Series model, but still doesn’t affect its value as you never used to get apps at all within this price range.

Connectivity-wise, you will find everything you would look for in a TV. You have 2 HDMI ports (both HDMI 1.4) on the back along with a shared component and composite input. There is a coaxial (cable/antenna) input, ethernet for wired internet and one USB port. You also have both analog and optical (digital) outputs for sound.

Sound quality is exactly what you would expect to find in a TV of its size (or any flat TV for that matter). It isn’t going to show up a soundbar or entertainment system, but it will sound like a standalone TV. Slightly tinny at times with a slight presence of bass. If you are looking for more, you’d be best investing into a cheap soundbar or wiring it into an external zone from your receiver if you really know how to play up the house.

The Vizio remote that comes with it is simple, offers a few shortcuts to things like Netflix and gets the job done. It won’t take on your other equipment, but you also won’t find it limited in anyway for controlling the TV itself. It feels good in the hand and the buttons are just right. It also looks nice to the eyes.

Our Conclusion

Overall, the TV is a great buy. The picture looks great and requires just a little tweaking to get there. 1080p vs 720p which simply means a cleaner picture and the Smart TV functionality as well as WiFi support is simply a deal sealer for this one.

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Specifications:

VIZIO Internet Apps PLUS.

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