Sylvox 55-inch Deck Pro QLED 2.0 Outdoor TV Review

Sylvox’s Deck Pro QLED 2.0 Outdoor TV is priced well for a model design that withstands the elements ($2,299 for the 55-inch model we tested), and it has a QLED panel that delivers the widest color we’ve seen in this segment. Wide color isn’t the same as accurate color, though, and while it’s described as a partial-sun TV, it’s actually slightly dimmer than the full-shade SunBriteTV Veranda 3 and doesn’t come close to its promised 1,000-nit light output. With superior picture quality, the Veranda 3 remains our Editors’ Choice winner for outdoor TVs.

Design, port and remote

The Deck Pro QLED is chunky in design, which is necessary to make it suitable for outdoor use. The 55-inch model is 3.5 inches thick, with 0.7-inch bezels on the top and sides of the screen and a 1.1-inch bezel on the bottom. Flat surfaces and stark 90-degree angles make the Deck Pro look very boxy, and the slightly knobby texture of its black scratch-resistant aluminum body really gives the impression it’s meant to withstand the elements.

On the back of the TV, all ports are hidden behind a foam-gasket door that screws closed. Options include three HDMI ports (one eARC, one UART for control with an RS-232 system), two USB 2 ports, an optical audio output, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an Ethernet port, an antenna/cable connector, and a port For power cables with a metal arm that locks the cable in place. They all point straight down, and the wires can run out through the bottom of the back of the TV between the door’s foam gasket.

All this adds up to a rugged build with an IP55 rating, meaning the TV can withstand dirt and even a gentle hose (but you won’t have the power to wash it). With an operating temperature of -22 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, it can also handle most climates.

Like most outdoor TVs, the Deck Pro QLED doesn’t come with a stand. You’ll need to mount it on a wall or buy a table or floor stand separately.

The large, flat remote is rated IP55 with a screw-shut battery door and sealed membrane buttons. It’s a flat, rectangular black stick with a circular navigation pad in the middle surrounded by menu buttons. A number pad and dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix and YouTube sit above the navigation pad, while the volume and channel rocker and playback controls are below.

Google TV: Standard Smart TV features

Google TV is the Deck Pro QLED’s smart TV platform, a vast improvement over the old and fuzzy NetRange interface in the Full-Sun pool series ($2,199 for 55 inches) and a slight upgrade from the Android TV platform in Sylvox’s 2023 Deck Pro models and SunBriteTV Veranda 3 .

Google TV is a full-featured system with support for all major streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Netflix, Twitch, and YouTube. It has Google Cast and Apple AirPlay for local streaming from phones, tablets, Macs and Chrome tabs, along with the Google Assistant voice assistant. Since the TV doesn’t have a far-field microphone array, Google Assistant can only be accessed via the remote microphone. Of the outdoor TVs we tested, only the pricier Samsung Terrace ($9,999.99 for 65-inch full-sun model), with its Tizen OS interface, has hands-free voice assistant capabilities.

Performance: Colorful, but not very accurate

The Deck Pro QLED 2.0 is a 4K TV with a 60Hz refresh rate. It supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in HDR10, but not Dolby Vision It has an ATSC 1.0 tuner for over-the-air broadcasts, but not ATSC 3.0 for 1080p and 4K broadcasts.

We test the TV with a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator and Portrait Display’s Kalman software. Outdoor TVs are meant to be viewed outside in varying and unpredictable weather and lighting conditions, so they typically prefer light output versus deep blacks. With that in mind, the Deck Pro’s LED backlight doesn’t have local dimming, and so its black level (a feature for which lower numbers are better) is through the roof compared to most indoor TVs.

Out of the box in movie mode with SDR signals, the Deck Pro QLED shows a peak brightness of 506 nits with a full-screen white field and nearly identical results using 18% white field. These settings result in a black level of 0.52cd/m^2. With an HDR signal, peak brightness goes to 644 nits with a black level of 0.81cd/m^2 for an effective contrast ratio of 767:1. For reference, the SunBriteTV Veranda Series 3 has a high peak brightness of 723 nits, a low black level of 0.2cd/m^2, and a contrast ratio of 3,631:1. Silvox’s Pool series (1,121 nit peak brightness, 3,097:1 contrast ratio) and Samsung’s Terrace (1,404 nit peak brightness, 7,606:1 contrast ratio) are designed for use under full sunlight and are much brighter, but the former is hindered by itself. quirks while the latter is much more expensive than other outdoor TVs we’ve seen.

While we could massage 781-nit peak brightness with an SDR signal from the Deck Pro QLED and the backlight manually pushed to maximum, the same settings with an HDR signal resulted in lower numbers. Since all other TVs we’ve tested show equal or higher brightness with HDR signals, and HDR content itself is designed to be brighter than SDR content, we’re taking the highest HDR peak brightness level for consistency.

Based on our testing, the Deck Pro QLED puts out less light than the stated 1,000-nit peak brightness Sylvox claims. A Silvox spokesperson said the low brightness is due to the use of a QLED film and a blue LED backlight system instead of white LEDs, which “may affect the accuracy of professional brightness tests.” This seems like a flimsy excuse because I’ve tested many QLED TVs and haven’t seen significant deviations in brightness as described.

Colors behave strangely on the Deck Pro QLED. The chart above shows the TV’s color levels in movie mode with an SDR signal compared to Rec.709 broadcast standards and with an HDR signal compared to DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. SDR whites are very accurate, although magentas are quite warm and colors oversaturated compared to broadcast standards. Oversaturation, at least, is an understandable tweak, as it can help the TV look more vibrant under partial sunlight while more muted colors will be washed out.

Switching to an HDR signal makes magentas more accurate but whites incredibly cold and cyans heavily blue. Movie mode doesn’t do much, as it only sets the TV to its second-warmest color temperature setting. Switching to the warmest setting reduces white and cyan skewing a bit, but not nearly enough, and it pushes magentas further towards red.

The Pool series shows a similar but less severe quirk in color accuracy, while both the Samsung Terrace and SunbrightTV Veranda 3 are much closer than they should be. The Deck Pro QLED has the widest color gamut of any outdoor TV we’ve tested so far, but it’s not a reasonable trade-off if accuracy suffers.

The Deck Pro QLED is a partial-sun outdoor TV, meaning it’s bright enough for viewing outside in indirect sunlight, but it doesn’t have nearly enough light output or the anti-glare matte screen finish that works so well in full sun exposure. A very bright day. TV pictures are visible and colors look brighter if you can at least gather some shade and reduce direct glare. As with any TV, contrast and shadow detail will be reduced when fighting against any significant ambient light sources. There’s a limit to how dark a screen can look in sunlight, which is why black levels on outdoor TVs are forgivable.

Despite the cooler-than-ideal color balance, the Deck Pro QLED’s HDR movie mode still produced the BBC’s “Lion” episode. dynasty Looks great Tony Lion’s fur looks well balanced and the greens of the grass pop nicely. Too many cool whites and cyans make the picture less accurate, but they also make sky blues too vivid (which is why the Standard, Vivid, and Store Demo modes for TVs tend to lean that way). It’s not so intense as to look unnatural, but that’s not exactly what the director, documentarian and editor intended.

If you can put the Deck Pro QLED in the shade, high-contrast content like a party scene The Great Gatsby Preserves shadow detail in extremes. The cut and contours of the black suit are generally understood, while the white parts of the balloon and shirt still look very bright. The darkest details can instantly disappear under sunlight, but that’s only the case with all but the most glare-proof TVs. The aforementioned whites in the scene also look cooler than they should, showing a lower color balance than the TV ideal

The Deck Pro QLED’s wide color touch spears and Munsil Ultra HD benchmarks make the footage on display really pop, but the cool color balance, even in Movie mode, gives nature scenes a slightly unnatural look. It’s vibrant and eye-catching, but it borders on cartoony, especially the cloudless sky blues. Snow-filled scenes have very strong highlight detail, so falling snow, snowflakes and clouds are easily seen.

Gaming Performance: No frills, but fast

The 60Hz Deck Pro QLED is pretty bare-bones in terms of gaming features, even without variable refresh rate (VRR). It is responsive, though.

Using an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix, we measured an input lag of just 2.3 milliseconds in game mode. That’s extremely low, and well below the 10ms threshold we use to consider a TV good for gaming.

Verdict: A decent outdoor TV

The Sylvox Deck Pro QLED 2.0 is a strange outdoor television that doesn’t quite live up to its promise. It has all the weatherproofing that’s standard with this type of TV, and its QLED panel delivers wide, vibrant colors, but they’re overly cool and sometimes skewed. Its light output also fails to impress, falling short of its advertised 1,000-nit brightness. It’s adequate for viewing in the shade and in limited partial sunlight, but it’s not as bright as the SunBriteTV Veranda 3, which has more accurate colors and deeper blacks. While the Sylvox Deck Pro QLED 2.0 is slightly more affordable and runs the slightly more up-to-date Google TV platform, the SunBriteTV Veranda 3 looks better and thus remains our Editors’ Choice for outdoor TVs.