Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) review

The Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) is a high-end 4K TV that combines the best of Vizio’s display technologies in one towering 85-inch package—and delivers the goods. With blinding brightness, strong color, and a few other key refinements from earlier P-Series Quantum sets, it doesn’t offer much to complain about.

Provided, that is, you can afford it, you have a room big enough to let it work the full extent of its magic, and you think you can live without 8K support for the foreseeable future. Priced at $3,299.99, it’s not cheap, and even if it’s one of the best TVs of its kind, there’s a decent chance it might not be the best TV for you.

Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) review: Pricing and availability

As the largest set in the P-Series Quantum family, the P85QX-J01 is also the most expensive, priced at $3,299.99. The full line of TVs in the P-Series include:

• P-Series Quantum 65" Class (P65Q9-J01): $1,149.99
• P-Series Quantum 75" Class (P75Q9-J01): $1,499.99
• P-Series Quantum X 85" Class (P85QX-J01): $3,299.99

It’s worth pointing out that the P85QX-J01 is substantially less expensive than other top-tier 85-inch TVs out there, and that its price is partially justified (on paper, at any rate) by Vizio’s claims about its superior performance. This is not a case where you may automatically expect the only substantive difference between models within a series to be the screen size.

Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) review: Design

To get the obvious out of the way immediately: As an 85-inch TV, the P85QX-J01 is big. It measures 74.5x42.6x3.3 inches and weighs just over 100 pounds without the stand attached. (Adding that contributes 2.7 inches more to the width and 10.5 inches more to the depth.) Because of this, you will need a lot of space available not just on your wall or entertainment center but on your floor or table for setup, and a minimum of two people just to move it around.

With bezels measuring only one-eighth inch on all four sides, the screen is almost an unrelieved rectangle of black when off. There’s a tiny Vizio logo in the lower-right corner and the trapezoidal Power light in the lower left, but otherwise, there’s just a lot of glass to look at.

The sides of the TV are textured metal, and with the exception of some vents, the rear panel is almost all textured plastic (again in black), with the 400x400mm VESA mounting ports in the middle (below a large Vizio logo) the prime feature. If you’d prefer to use the stand, it’s a traditional, two-piece, black-metal affair that matches well with the set’s aesthetics.

The power cable is on the left of the rear panel and the Power button is on the right, below the alcove containing the ports. Of those, two 4K 120Hz HDMI ports, three composite inputs, and a charging USB port are positioned outward for easy access.

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The remainder, comprising an Ethernet jack, the coaxial cable connector, outputs for both composite and optical audio, and two additional HDMI ports (one supporting eARC), face downward.

Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) review: Test results

Vizio heavily touts the P85QX-J01’s picture quality, in particular citing its use of Quantum Color (the company’s marketing term for its use of quantum dot technology) and use of 792 local dimming zones to improve brightness, blacks, and contrast along the set. So we put the set through our testing paces, using an X-Rite i1 Pro spectrophotometer, a SpectraCal VideoForge Pro pattern generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman calibration software, to determine how well reality matched Vizio’s claims.

By and large, it does. This is most true with respect to brightness, which—in the brighter picture modes—does hit Vizio’s advertised 3,000 nits. Granted, you are unlikely to see the set get this bright with most content you watch, especially if you stick to the darker modes (which I would advise), but even the lower bounds peg full-screen brightness for the P85QX-J01 in the range of 760–800 nits, which is substantially above what we saw with the Vizio P-Series Quantum (P65Q9-H1) last year. The P85QX-J01 easily delivers on Vizio’s promise of room-filling brightness.

Color is solid, too, with the set’s Delta-E (the difference between the color at the source and the color the TV displays, with lower numbers being better) ringing in at 3.46 for both Calibrated and Calibrated Dark modes. That’s a trifle higher than we see from other flagship sets, but thoroughly acceptable, if not exceptional. The P85QX-J01 also covered upwards of 99.99% of the Rec.709 color gamut for SDR content; with the wider UHDA-P3 color gamut for HDR content (very similar to DCI-P3), the set covered 98.15% and 98.09% in Calibrate and Calibrated Dark respectively. In all cases, these are superb results.

Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) review: Performance

The real-world performance of the P85QX-J01, however, is inextricably tied to its size. Simply put: Whereas you can get away with watching a 55- or 65-inch TV from fairly close, no picture on this 85-inch set looks if you’re positioned too close to the screen—the pixels are just far too noticeable.

This was most evident with movies like Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, which from four or five feet away looked grainier than the deserts of Arrakis, but from several steps farther back was sharp and clear, with well-defined contrasts between the dark and suffocating interior scenes and the parched, beige-choked exteriors.

For this set, you’ll want to sit a minimum of 11 or 12 feet away, and I had better luck still at 15, but your mileage (and living room) may vary. I had a similar experience watching the darker and grittier The Batman, where Gotham went from foggy, flat, and unappealing at a few feet to eye-popping at the other end of the room.

Video upscaled from 1080p tends to look fuzzy for the same reason, so I’d suggest avoiding lower-resolution video if you can; the 1080p version of Mission: Impossible—Fallout looked blurry, blotchy, and unappealing compared with the 4K one. I’d also recommend staying near the center of the screen, as the P85QX-J01’s off-angle viewing isn’t so hot, with colors and finer details graying and washing out once you get much past the corners.

Aside from these caveats, and a tinge of judder visible during a couple of films’ faster-moving action scenes, the P85QX-J01 produces an attractive picture with all types of content, even if that’s accompanied by a veritable wall of light on par with what you’ll get from the sun (at least at certain times of day). For me, this made the Calibrated Dark picture mode ideal for almost every application, and I found myself sticking to it whether I was immersing myself in the sparkling Colombian colors of the Disney-Pixar film Encanto, the Web-slinging fantasia of Spider-Man: No Way Home, or just watching lower-key YouTube videos. That said, the Bright mode (this TV’s version of Standard) was a suitable alternative for some things (such as Encanto), but under most circumstances, you won’t need or want this set to be any brighter than it already is.

Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) review: Audio

Unfortunately, the P85QX-J01’s audio performance does not live up to its visuals. The sound produced by the dual 15-watt speakers doesn’t sound bad, but it has a slightly tinny, one-dimensional quality that doesn’t quite ignite the imagination. Straight dialogue came off the best, though everything sounded okay at lower volume levels.

Don’t raise the volume too high, though. Whereas the heavy bass foundation of The Knife’s “Silent Shout” sounds balanced and focused when quieter, distortion and ragged edges are detectable almost immediately once you go above 50. The P85QX-J01 handles treble a bit better, with above-the-staff soprano singing not clipping but also not sounding as shimmering and full as it ought to. Listening at lower levels is definitely the way to go, or you may want to consider picking up one of Tom’s Guide’s best soundbars.

Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) review: Gaming

Vizio calls the P85QX-J01 its “best TV for next-gen console gaming,” and it is, indeed, pretty good. Measured using a 4K Leo Bodnar tester, the TV’s input lag registered 14.4ms in Game mode—hardly the lowest we’ve seen, but well below our 20ms threshold for satisfying gaming. Support for gamer-targeted features like 4K 120Hz and Variable Refresh Rate (which we verified by plugging in our Xbox Series X console), and AMD’s FreeSync further sweetens the deal.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla looked gorgeous when played on the P85QX-J01, with the wintry landscapes and the HDR-kissed sunrises all but glowing on the screen. Fast running and action scenes rendered smoothly, never piercing the illusion that I was marathoning through Medieval Norway and England.

Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) review: Smart features

As with Vizio’s other TVs, SmartCast drives the P85QX-J01. It’s a clean and simple-to-navigate operating system, looking like a no-frills Google TV, and it’s good at serving you up a lot of things to watch in various categories both static (Trending Now, on-demand video) and fluid (there were Father’s Day and Pride groupings to be found in early June). A menu bar at the top of the screen takes you to dedicated screens for Live TV, Free, Movies, Shows, Apps, and Extras (where you can set up features like Amazon Alexa, Apple AirPlay and HomeKit, and Google Assistant).

The default app selection has improved a lot since last year, and you can tweak the app bar to highlight the services you’re most interested in. But finding new apps remains a chore — you can’t just search for them, you have to flip through pages of possibilities — and there aren’t a lot of other customization choices to tailor the home screen to your personal preferences.

For that reason, you may prefer to use the remote’s voice-control function, which you activate by holding down the remote’s Microphone button while speaking what you want. In our tests, it was quite good, understanding a range of both general and specific commands. It was fast, too, never taking more than a second or two to process requests.

Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) review: Remote

The P85QX-J01’s remote control has been streamlined from what we’ve seen with previous Vizio TVs. The primary absences this time around are the number pad and the channel rocker. The Volume rocker and Mute button have been moved to the down-center area those other buttons used to occupy, and the Microphone button has been added below the control wheel (where the Home button used to be), but just about everything else is nearly the same.

Seven shortcut buttons at the top provide instant access to Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, PlutoTV, iHeart Radio, Tubi, and Vizio’s own Watch Free content service. That’s also where you can find the Home and Settings buttons. It’s a fine, intuitive layout that makes sense given the remote’s short stature (it’s just over 6 inches in length), and it’s easy to use regardless of your hand size. The remote still doesn’t have a backlight, however, which may make the keys easy to mistake in a dark room. (Then again, considering how bright the TV gets, this may well never be a problem.)

Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) review: Verdict

The Vizio P-Series Quantum X 85-inch (P85QX-J01) checks all the boxes, and if you need its power (particularly at room brightening), it would be a no-brainer for everyone—if it were available in a different size. But its 85-inch class complicates things, and not just those who want arresting picture quality but lack the room to take full advantage of it.

Though we are only at the threshold of the 8K era, it is still staring us in the face—and as we’ve already seen with sets like the LG QNED MiniLED 99 Series and the TCL Roku TV 6-Series, 8K bursts into its own on larger screens. If you don’t have to stand 15 feet away for all the details to fully resolve themselves into the picture you’re craving, why would you want to?

There’s a ton to love about the P85QX-J01, and there may be no better way right now of transforming one side of your living room into an all-purpose entertainment wall. But if $3,299 is affordable by 85-inch TV standards, it’s still a lot of money, not least with a TV that may soon be obsolete (if it isn’t technically already). Vizio deserves real credit for bringing all the pieces together with the P85QX-J01, but you may be better off taking a wait-and-see approach or going with a smaller set altogether and probably sacrificing some of the brightness. We suspect 85-inch TVs are going to prove considerably more important in the years to come, but this 4K TV, at this point, likely falls just short for most people.