Confession: I will purchase any gadget I can control with my phone.
Light bulbs, thermostats, doorbells, garage door openers, sous vide cookers. Seriously. If you can control it with your phone, there is a very good possibility that I own it! So it should come as no surprise when a marketing agency offered your very own TV Addict a free television in exchange for a review on theTVaddict.com, I said yes. Not so much for the “free” aspect*, but rather because VIZIO’s 2017 M50-E1 SmartCast TV big selling point is an accompanying iPhone and Android app. But more on that in a bit.
*** Full Disclosure: While this television was in fact offered to me free in exchange for a review on theTVaddict.com, it did in fact cost me several hundreds of dollars to ship to my hometown of Toronto Canada. So when I say I like this television, I actually mean it!
So what did I think of the VIZIO’s 2017 M50-E1 SmartCast?
Well for starters, it’s beautiful and everything I need in a television. It’s flat, thin, and has the smallest of bezels around the border of the screen. The television is also state-of-the-art in that its offers picture in 4k + HDR. And while I don’t pretend to be an expert in the area of resolution or display, I do spend a lot of time in front of a screen, and found the display delivered high contrast, deep blacks and an overall eye-pleasing picture quality. All for a very reasonable price. (see: Bestbuy)
But honestly, what separates a television from the pack these days when most of them provide a quality picture at a reasonable price? In a word: Smartcast!
The Vizio SmartCast app turns any mobile device (iOS and Android) into an amazing touchscreen remote. It not only allows you to set up and control your television, but serves as an all-in-one place to find your favourite shows and movies. Entertainment from Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, Showtime and many more can all be found built in within the beautifully designed and surprisingly intuitive app.
Cooler still, I am no longer at the mercy of my cable company’s antiquated and technologically neutered set-top box that may-or-may-not have been developed in the 90’s! Thanks to SmartCast, I simply open the app, search for my favourite show and cast it directly to the television. Suffice it to say, Smartcast alone is truly worth the price of admission and not just because I no longer have to replace dead “AAA” batteries or waste time searching through the couch cushions for the dreaded remote.
Also working in this TV’s favour, it’s somewhat future proof thanks to built-in compatibility with Google Home and the Google Assistant. Alas, these features were not something I could test because I’m already firmly planted on Team Amazon Echo’s corner as of this posting, but it’s nice to know should I decide to switch the option is there.
Vizio’s M50-E1 can be found at many of your favourite retails including Best Buy, Walmart, B&H, Dell, Costco and Sam’s Club.