Vizio 28" 720p Smart LED TV

We were looking to add a TV to our kitchen prep area and didn't want to make any connections at all except power. Screen size wasn't important, and a search for the cheapest Smart TV led me to this unit and a vendor offering "Grade A refurbished in Like New Condition" for $119.99 with free shipping. One week later it was here. It arrived very securely and professionally packed in a plain brown box, with a remote and base but no user's manual, the whole thing double-boxed for good measure. This is the fourth TV I've purchased online in the past year and, although the other three were brand-new and factory sealed, none of them were this well packed. In fact, one of them arrived with a badly-cracked screen. This Vizio arrived as the vendor represented, in like-new condition. Whatever connectivity issues other reviewers complained about must have been addressed in firmware updates, because all I had to do was select my wireless network, enter my password, and I was off to the races. Signing into and using Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Pandora, IHeartRadio and YouTube was fast and easy. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that although this TV was (and still is) marketed by Amazon as 720p, it actually supports 1080p. You can verify that yourself on the manufacturer's website. In fact, this unit seems to be essentially a smaller version of my 50" Vizio E50-C1. It has all the bells and whistles, including ARC (search "Audio Return Channel" to learn more), and CEC ("Consumer Electronic Control"). Basically, ARC and CEC allow the TV to recognize and "talk" to your other components, like a surround sound receiver or Blu-Ray player, making setup and use of your home entertainment system much easier. The only problem with these standards is that most manufacturers either implement them partially, or not at all. Vizio has the most comprehensive ARC/CEC implementation I've seen yet. For example, I use the Vizio remote to control everything, and when I turn on the Blu-Ray player, the TV and surround sound receiver automatically change to the correct inputs, no manual switching required. In terms of performance, the E28 seems almost identical to my E50. Although I always adjust my TVs manually using Video Essentials and color filters, the Vizios have pretty good color balance right out of the box. The E series come with an impressive array of adjustments, far in excess of the standard brightness/contrast/saturation/tint/sharpness settings, giving the user very precise control over the picture. There are even test patterns baked in, so you can fine-tune the picture yourself without specialized program materials as long as you have color filters on hand. They also offer an "auto brightness" setting. It's very interesting from a technical perspective, but in practice, it doesn't work all that well. It seems to sample the brightness of the program material rather than ambient light, and as a result the automatic adjustments can be inaccurate and distracting. You can easily turn it on or off as you prefer, though. The E-series is an entry-level product line and doesn't offer the finest picture quality, although for such a low-cost set, it's more than adequate. The only gripe I have is that the picture gets "grainy" and washed-out pretty rapidly once you move away from a 0º viewing angle. It's not as bad as an old LCD set, but it's something to keep in mind, depending upon the layout of your viewing area. In terms of sound this TV, like most modern sets, has a tiny bezel to accomodate the largest possible screen in the smallest possible case. Despite some inventive tweaks like DTS TruSurround and custom equalizer settings, speaker size and placement are very much secondary considerations, and as a result, sound quality suffers. If you put this set up against other "slim bezel" TVs, the sound should be comparable. But if you're going from an eight- or ten-year-old flat panel TV with decent-sized, front-firing speakers, you may find the sound quality disappointing. The good news is that there are digital (HDMI) and analog (3.5 mm) outputs, so connecting to headphones, a sound bar, an inexpensive stereo amplifier or even a good set of PC speakers is simple and effective. You can switch the TV's analog audio output from "fixed" to "variable", allowing you to leave your external amplifier untouched and control the volume with the TV remote. All things considered, for $120 shipped, this feature-rich TV is an easy five stars.