Lumio Vision 9 65-inch (2026) Review: The TV That Makes You Rethink What Indian Brands Can Build

Three weeks with the Lumio Vision 9 65-inch. Almost the entire second half of the IPL, two seasons of a show I had been putting off, and more YouTube rabbit holes than I care to admit. The thing that keeps coming back to me is not any single spec. It is the feeling of using a product built by people who actually think about how a TV lives in your home.

The ports face outward so you do not dislocate your shoulder wall-mounting it. The power cable is detachable and sits on the opposite side. The remote has just enough buttons and not one extra to confuse your parents. None of this shows up on a comparison chart but all of it separates a good TV from one you enjoy living with.

At an effective price under Rs 65,000 with credit card offers, the Vision 9 gives you QD-MiniLED picture quality, a 50W hexa-driver speaker system with dual subwoofers that can genuinely replace a budget soundbar, the fastest Google TV interface I have used on any television, and native 4K 144Hz gaming. The HDR tuning is not perfect and peak brightness falls a bit short of the claimed 800 nits. But for most living rooms and most use cases, this is the most complete 65-inch TV you can buy in India under Rs 75,000 right now.

If you have seen the 2025 Vision 9, you will recognise the look. Slim bezels, clean matte-black slab, two metal feet that hold the panel without wobble. Nothing screaming for attention. This is a TV that wants to disappear until you turn it on, and I mean that as a compliment.

The real story is in the small decisions. All ports sit on the left rear panel, facing outward. Wall-mount this and you can actually reach the HDMI ports like a normal person. Power cable on the right side, detachable. There is a satellite port for DD-Free Dish, USB 3.0 with exFAT support for local media, and full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 for your PS5 or Xbox. These sound like minor things until you have spent 20 minutes trying to plug an HDMI cable into a rear-facing port on a wall-mounted TV from another brand. Then they feel like someone finally listened.

The Minion 2 remote is slightly more ergonomic than last year's version. Shortcuts for Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video. A dedicated TLDR button for Lumio's content discovery app. An info button that pulls up metadata about whatever you are watching, for people who like knowing the director or codec. The real test of any remote is whether your parents can figure it out without calling you. This one passes.

The panel uses what Lumio calls EVA - Enhanced Vertical Alignment. Essentially a VA panel where the crystals are paired and angled to absorb excess backlight, giving better contrast and wider viewing angles than standard VA. Similar idea to what Sony does with X-Wide Angle on higher-end sets, but at this price. Combined with QD-MiniLED backlighting and Quantum Dot, Lumio claims a 7000:1 native contrast ratio, roughly 40 percent higher than standard VA.

In SDR, this TV is genuinely impressive. IPL on JioHotstar - greens looked vivid without being fake, skin tones natural, local dimming kept the scoreboard bright without washing out the rest. YouTube, Netflix, shows - all consistently good. Lumio's DOPE Display 2 tuning is claimed to be done by humans and it shows. There is none of that oversaturated budget MiniLED look that plagues this segment.

HDR is where I need to be honest and set expectations. Lumio claims 800 nits peak brightness. In practice, dark demanding HDR scenes look slightly dimmer than the punchy SDR experience might lead you to expect. Colour accuracy in HDR also needs manual effort - skin tones can lean warm or pink depending on content source, and gamma levels benefit from adjustment. The panel hardware is clearly capable of more, which suggests Lumio could fix this with software updates. For everyday content, you will not notice. For colour-critical work, you might.

Local dimming works well for most content. Occasional blooming in challenging scenes like bright text on black backgrounds (think movie credits), but during actual shows and movies, rarely distracting. Lumio's dimming algorithm is well-tuned for the zone count available.

Settings that worked for me after experimenting: SDR in Movie mode, brightness at 41-44, sharpness at 10, local dimming on high. HDR10 with gamma set to Dark, brightness at 47, saturation at 45. Dolby Vision Bright worked best for my room in both lit and dim conditions. The TV gives you granular control - gamma, hue, saturation, 11-point white balance - so you can fine-tune properly.

Viewing angles are improved over standard VA. For a normal living room seating arrangement, colours and contrast hold up fine. Beyond about 40 degrees off-axis, you will notice some shift. If people in your house regularly watch from steep side angles, keep that in mind.

Let me get this out of the way early. The Lumio Vision 9 is fast. Not "fast for the price" fast. Just fast.

MediaTek Pentonic 700, 3GB DDR4 RAM, faster onboard storage than most TVs in this segment. Boot time takes seconds, not the 30-to-45-second logo stare while your tea gets cold. App launches are quick. Switching between Netflix, YouTube, and JioHotstar is smooth. Google TV home screen scrolls without stutter. Lumio claims this is the fastest Google TV in India and after three weeks, I have no reason to argue.

What matters more than day-one speed is whether it stays this way. The 2025 Vision 9 was independently tested over six months by Sanket at 91mobiles and reportedly maintained performance without the sluggishness that plagues smart TVs after a few months. That is a bigger deal than any benchmark. The single most common complaint Indian smart TV owners have is not picture quality - it is the TV becoming slow over time. Early signs here are promising.

Android 14, Google TV, 10,000-plus apps, Google Cast, Google Photos integration. Listed as ready for Google Gemini whenever that arrives for televisions.

Beyond stock Google TV, Lumio ships TLDR - its own content discovery app with a dedicated remote button. It aggregates content from Netflix, Prime, JioHotstar, SonyLIV, Zee5, Aha, Hoichoi, Apple TV, and FanCode into one browsable interface. Filter by language (eight supported with strong South Indian focus), by genre, or browse franchise collections that group all films in a series.

The Sports tab is the highlight. Live match cards with scores and streaming links, upcoming matches with timings, finished results in compact cards, tournament pages for IPL, WPL, and other events. Highlights grouped by tournament and match. Covers cricket, football, tennis, badminton, kabaddi, hockey, motorsports.

Music tab integrates YouTube Music with trending tracks, top 10 charts, curated playlists, and songs trending on YouTube Shorts.

Is TLDR perfect? No. It is young and the content partner list needs to grow. Search works across all tabs but filtering could be more refined. But the intent is clear and the execution is already useful - solve the "what should I watch" problem that plagues every household with six OTT subscriptions and zero patience to check each app.

Gaming is the biggest upgrade over the 2025 model. Last year was a 60Hz panel. This one does native 4K at 144Hz, 1080p at 240Hz, supports VRR, and has ALLM. For the price, you would typically need to spend Rs 20,000 more to get these specs.

I tested it with a PS5 over HDMI 2.1. At 4K 144Hz, the fluidity is immediately obvious compared to any 60Hz panel. Input lag is low, motion handling during fast sequences is clean, and competitive or action-heavy titles feel responsive and smooth.

One caveat that other reviewers have also noted - colour vibrancy in some games feels slightly muted compared to the SDR viewing experience. Does not ruin anything, but it stops this from being a perfect gaming display.

I am going to say something that rarely applies to a television: the built-in speakers on this thing are genuinely good.

50W hexa-driver setup. Two dedicated subwoofers, two mid-range woofers, two tweeters, each tuned for their own frequency range. Lumio claims bass response down to 38Hz and in practice, you feel it. Cricket commentary has weight. Dialogue in Netflix shows is clear without being thin. When an action sequence hits, the bass lands in your chest instead of just rattling the back panel. This is the first Lumio TV with dual integrated subwoofers and it makes a material difference.

Dolby Atmos is supported. Lumio's DGS 2.2 tuning adds richness that makes movie nights work without external speakers.

Will it replace a dedicated Rs 15,000 soundbar? No. Will it make you question whether you need one right away? Absolutely. For a household that does not want another remote and another box in the living room, that matters more than any speaker wattage number.

Let's take a look at the competition in the same price range:

Xiaomi QLED TV X Pro 65 (Rs 64,999): Solid PatchWall plus Google TV combo and good value, but no MiniLED, no local dimming, 60Hz native panel, and weaker 34W speakers. The Lumio is a tier above in picture quality, gaming, and audio.

TCL C645 65-inch QLED (Rs 65,990): Better peak brightness and 56W Dolby Atmos speakers. Faster game accelerator mode. But no MiniLED backlighting, no 144Hz native, and software is not as polished as Lumio's Google TV implementation.

Hisense U7Q 65-inch Mini LED (Rs 69,999): Closest hardware competitor - Mini LED, 144Hz, VRR. Runs VIDAA OS which is fast but app-limited. After-sales in India is inconsistent. Lumio wins on audio, software speed, and design details.

Samsung Crystal 4K 65 (Rs 72,990 approx): Brand legacy and service network are unmatched. But at this price, Samsung gives you a basic LED panel, no MiniLED, no local dimming, 60Hz. You are paying for the logo and the warranty, not the hardware.

Who Should Buy It

• You want the fastest Google TV experience under Rs 1 lakh
• Built-in TV audio that genuinely skips the budget soundbar purchase appeals to you
• You game on PS5, Xbox Series X, or PC and want native 4K 144Hz under Rs 75,000
• Thoughtful product design - port placement, remote layout, cable management - matters to you
• You are comfortable buying from a newer brand that is still building its service network

Who Should Skip It

• Dark-room HDR viewing is your primary use case and you demand the best local dimming and peak brightness in the segment
• You watch from extreme off-axis angles regularly
• Brand legacy and a nationwide service infrastructure tested over decades matters more than specs-per-rupee
• You are not willing to spend time manually tuning HDR colour settings

The Lumio Vision 9 65-inch is not a perfect TV. HDR tuning needs work, peak brightness does not fully meet its own claims, and the dimming zone count leaves room for improvement.

But here is what stays with me after three weeks. This TV feels like it was designed by people who use televisions, not just people who sell them. The port placement, cable management, remote layout, software speed, audio quality - these are not spec sheet wins. These are decisions that come from genuine curiosity about how a product lives in someone's home. That is rarer than any MiniLED zone count.

If Lumio keeps iterating at this pace, the bigger brands should be paying very close attention.