Vu 55Vibe DV Smart QLED TV Review: A well-rounded smart TV that offers excellent value

Pros:

Impressive picture quality for the segment

Compliant with Dolby Vision/ Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus

Clear and punchy sound output

The attached soundbar can be used as a Bluetooth speaker

Good connectivity options including HDMI 2.1 and eARC

Access to TV settings on the fly, ample picture tweaks

Smooth and lag-free Google TV UI

Affordable

Cons:

Refresh rate limited to 60 Hz  

Ports are hard to reach; placement needs to be better

Overall Rating: 4.2/5

Price: Rs 36,990

It’s been a while since we reviewed a Vu TV. Our past experience with smart TVs from the brand has been largely positive. Their new Vibe DV series, probably due to the integrated soundbar, reminds me of their older Cinema TV range which earned our recommendations back in the day. Let’s check if their new smart TV vibes with us as well as its predecessor.

Vu 55Vibe DV Smart QLED TV - Design and connectivity: 8/10

Like most TV these days, this one sports a near bezel-less design on three sides. The bottom bezel is relatively thicker, not too thick though, and right below it is the integrated soundbar. Draped in all black with a sizable golden company logo on the bar makes it look elegant. The TV can be wall-mounted or placed on a desk using the bundled plastic stands. They hold the TV in place without a wobble. A wall-mounting kit is also included.

You get a voice enabled remote in the package and a pair of batteries to power it. The remote is just the right size and uncluttered with only the necessary function keys and a bunch of hotkeys present. It also has a dedicated WiFi key to connect or switch to a different network quickly. The remote is lean at the top and broad at the bottom which allows you to place it vertically on a flat surface if you prefer. It operates over Bluetooth and needs to be paired with the TV during initial setup.  

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The connectivity department has a good spread. You get two HDMI 2.0 ports and one newer HDMI 2.1 port which supports eARC, which is great to see on a budget TV. In addition, you have two USB 2.0 ports, Optical audio out, A/V input, 3.5 mm headphone out and a LAN port. Wireless connectivity options include Bluetooth 5.3 and dual band WiFi with support for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks.  

While all the key bases are covered, we weren’t too pleased with the placement of ports; it could have been a lot smarter. They are placed closer to the centre of the TV rather than near the edge, making them very difficult to access once you wall-mount the TV. The placement would have been passable for a smaller screen size up to 43-inch, but it is unacceptable for a 55-inch TV. The ports need to be closer to the edge for a TV this big.

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Vu 55Vibe DV Smart QLED TV - Features and specifications: 8.5/10

Our Vibe DV TV had a 55-inch panel with an Ultra HD resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and a 60 Hz refresh rate. The exact panel type wasn’t specified; QLED is not a panel. The refresh rate is one area where the company has cut corners to keep the cost down. 120 Hz or higher is fast becoming the norm on newer TVs these days. While 60 Hz won’t matter as much when watching videos on OTT platforms, one can expect a bit of motion blur in certain console games on this TV.

The brightness is rated at 400 nits with no mention of the contrast ratio or the colour depth. It supports HDR10, HLG as well as Dolby Vision, which covers most popular HDR formats. This TV is powered by a quad-core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz. You get 2 GB RAM and 16 GB internal storage, a bulk of which is taken up by the OS and preinstalled apps, leaving you with a little over 5 GB for your use. That is a little lower than most Google/ Android TVs with 16 GB storage.

On that topic, the Vu Vibe DV TV runs Google TV OS and has Chromecast built in to cast content from your phone or tablet on the TV. It is also compliant with Apple Airplay and Home Kit. Last but not the least, and in fact one of its key features is the integrated soundbar with a rated output of 88 Watts RMS with support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Plus for a hint of surround sound. The soundbar can also be used as a Bluetooth speaker to play audio on it from bluetooth enabled devices without switching on the screen; a handy feature to have.

Vu 55Vibe DV Smart QLED TV - OS and User Interface: 8.5/10

The Vu 55Vibe DV runs the latest Google TV OS based on Android TV 12. The UI is quite polished, lag-free and assigns a higher weightage to content discovery rather than installed apps. It shows you suggested content from various OTT platforms which the AI believes would interest you. Their subscriptions need to be purchased separately though. Suggestions feel vague at first but tend to get better over time as it understands your taste.  

Google Play Store is available here to download a lot more apps if needed. There isn’t too much bloatware on this TV barring apps for a few popular OTT apps, which is good. A dedicated settings button on the remote gives you access to all the settings of the TV on the fly irrespective of the app or input in use. The UI is fairly simple and the learning curve isn’t steep even for someone new to smart TVs. There are a good amount of video settings to tinker with to tweak the picture to your liking.

The TV boots in around 35 seconds when you turn on the power, which is perfectly acceptable for Android/Google TVs. Post that, the TV comes back on in just a couple of seconds from standby mode. Strangely, there is no power LED or any visual indicator to suggest if the TV is in standby mode or switched off from the mains.

Vu 55Vibe DV Smart QLED TV - Picture quality: 8/10

I quite liked the picture quality of this TV, and especially the colour reproduction. Several budget QLED TVs that we have tested tend to have over-saturated colours or eye-piercing brightness in certain parts of the screen, but that’s not the case here. The colours on the Vu Vibe DV feel lively yet natural for most parts and that too on the default settings. You can finetune the picture further for even better accuracy, contrast and sharpness.  

You get a good amount of picture tweaks ranging from the usual brightness, contrast, sharpness adjustment to colour temperature, adaptive contrast and more. There are a lot of automatic picture adjustments too, some of which can be left enabled as they do a good job. I generally switch things like auto contrast off in most TVs. All these options are spread across too many different headers under Picture settings and can be a chore to find or revisit. The company should consider clubbing them under fewer headers.

You also get picture presets if you aren’t adventurous. The Standard mode with Warm 2 option under colour temperature should work well for most. Similarly, the Cinema preset in HDR mode gives best results. The 4K panel is fairly bright without going overboard and offers good contrast, with details in dark areas in high contrast scenes in our test videos clearly visible. There was hardly any flickering either in such scenes. The black levels, though not perfect, are above average, and perfectly acceptable for the segment.  

This TV supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision, and 4K HDR content encoded in those formats look sharp and vibrant on this screen. The TV flashes a corresponding HDR format logo when playing the content and the picture presets change accordingly too. The HDR performance is more than decent but do not expect OLED or Mini LED level performance given its modest brightness level. But then, those TVs are way more expensive than this.

4K SDR content looks sharp on this TV too with accurate colours and ample detail. 1080p Full HD content as well as most 720p videos are upscaled really well and look sharp and vibrant. Anything lower than 720p looks a bit too soft, which is the case with most large TVs. The viewing angles are reasonably broad for this Vu TV and you can spot some colour shift only from really wide angles. There was no visible backlight bleeding on the unit we received, which is good.

Vu 55Vibe DV Smart QLED TV - Audio quality: 8.5/10

As I mentioned earlier, the TV comes with an integrated soundbar with 88 Watts rated output. It is fitted with four speakers - two main units and two tweeters, that deliver loud and punchy sound output. The bass understandably doesn’t have the same depth and thump as an external soundbar with a dedicated subwoofer, but the dialogue clarity is very good and there’s a fair degree of warmth in the sound. Overall the sound output is quite pleasant and better than most TVs in this price bracket.

The audio can get sufficiently loud and is generally adequate in the 25 to 30% range. I don’t remember taking the volume beyond 50% during the course of my testing. It does a very good job when watching news or sports or other dialogue-heavy content on OTT platforms, and doesn’t feel deficient in music and movies either. Yes, you may miss the extra thump in action sequences but this is one of the few TVs that won’t make you start looking for an external speaker system from the get go.  

Though the TV speakers are compliant  with Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital/ Plus, don’t expect theatre-like sound. They are TV speakers after all, so it’s best to keep your expectations in check. If you seek better sound quality, you can always plug in a soundbar or a speaker system in one of the many audio outputs available here like Bluetooth, optical, HDMI etc.

Vu 55Vibe DV Smart QLED TV - Price and verdict

The Vu 55Vibe DV Smart QLED TV is priced at Rs 36,990 and you get either a 1-year or a 3-year warranty on the product depending on whether you buy it online or offline. It is often spotted selling closer to 32K during online sales. That makes it one of the most affordable QLED TVs around with a good all-round feature set. Its impressive picture quality, loud and punchy sound output, good connectivity options and a broad app ecosystem courtesy of Google TV OS at a competitive price point make it easy for us to recommend this TV to anybody looking for a solid 55-inch option around Rs 35,000.