17-05-2025
Lumio Vision 9 review: Does it live up to its ‘fast TV' claims?
You probably haven't heard of Lumio, and I wouldn't blame you one bit. The brand, whose name is a portmanteau of 'lumens' (a measure of brightness) and 'I/O' (Input Output), is a new face in the Indian consumer tech space. Behind Lumio is the less snazzy-sounding Circuit House Technologies, a motley crew of very familiar faces—mostly ex-Xiaomi folks who made Xiaomi TVs a household name—that have come together to do home entertainment right.
Both their debutant products, the QLED Vision 7 and the flagship Mini-LED Vision 9, aim their crosshairs on the big guns in the segment, TVs that Lumio claims are part of a 'slow TV epidemic'—slow to boot, slow to navigate and slow to fire up apps. Yet, does Lumio shake things up enough to merit consideration against rather well-established brands? Is the 'India's fastest TV' claim legit? And is the Vision 9 ( ₹59,999) worth its flagship billing? You've come to the right place to find out.
Design & Build
Sturdy, well-built yet unassuming is how I'd describe the Vision 9, with no particular design flourishes to set its all-black plastic body apart, save for the subtle Lumio branding on the bottom bezel. Thin, barely-there bezels give the sole 55-inch variant an expansive, immersive feel, and although I felt the metal stand played it too safe design wise, it does its job keeping the TV steady when placed on a table.
There's an almost-Jobsian level of detail to the design of the back panel, clean and uncluttered, a nice touch for something that's often overlooked and barely ever seen. Handier though is the well-labelled and easily accessible (even if wall mounted) port area, and the ports check the boxes as well, with 3 HDMI 2.1 (including 1 eARC), 3 USB, LAN, optical out, mini AV-in, audio out and even a port for cable input for those who haven't yet cut the cord.
As bog-standard as the Lumio Vision 9 may look mounted on a wall, the brand has ensured you'll remember you're using a Lumio TV…via an altogether unlikely companion, the stubby and aptly named Minion remote. Finished in a premium gunmetal grey plastic, the stocky little remote is comfortable to hold and satisfyingly tactile with each button press.
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Display and Audio
All the action's rightfully focused on the front, where the Vision 9's 4K QD-(Quantum Dot) Mini LED panel packed with 1920 mini-LEDs allows for very precise control over local dimming while yielding up to 900 nits peak of brightness in HDR content. What this translates into is deep, just-short-of-OLED black levels and impressive brightness levels to handle even the infamously dark Game of Thrones episodeThe Long Night with a sense of confidence. The way the TV managed to preserve detail well across the shadows and the highlights oftentimes led me to notice detail that I've missed in a previous viewing on another TV.
While Dolby Vision and HDR10 support is a given, what is more impressive is how well-tuned the colors are, straight out of the box. The Vision 9 forgoes the vibrant, oversaturated tuning on many TVs and shows a fair amount of restraint when tastefully amplifying colors in the Movie mode preset.
For most content on Netflix and Apple TV+, I found myself switching between a very colour accurate Movie and Standard mode, and the brightness and details make watching animated content and bright scenes a joy to watch, albeit sometimes with almost eye-searing levels of brightness.
Coupled with 24W speakers in a quad driver setup (2 tweeters + 2 full range) and its unusually large 800mL acoustic cavities, the Vision 9 does well to offer an excellent cinema-in-a-box packagee—bass is competent, vocals are clear enough, and while the Dolby Atmos output won't replace a multi-channel home theater system, it's no pushover and won't have you searching for soundbars to pair with the TV.
Gamers looking for a perfect companion for their PS5 will enjoy the HDR visuals and low latency, but the 60Hz capped refresh rate and no support for variable refresh rate will likely limit its appeal to casual gamers.
Performance
For someone with an ageing Android TV that's sadly only four years old, the Vision 9 didn't just surprise, it actually took me aback the first couple of times I used it. No more waiting for the TV to slowly start up after the power fluctuated or worse still, waiting for the TV to catch up as you navigated the content-filled wall of recommendations, the Vision 9 takes a somewhat smug-sounding BOSS processor, a faster Wi-Fi chipset and 3GB of snappy DDR4 memory to deliver a shot in the arm for the Google TV interface.
Apps launch promptly, multitasking between apps is devoid of any lag and apps load content and get out of the way, so you spend less time browsing and navigating and more time watching. Does it solve the interminable decision making as to which show to actually watch? Sadly, that one's on you.
With the performance headroom on the Vision 9, the idea is that the TV should continue to remain snappy even years down the line, something one couldn't test in the three weeks I had the TV with me. What I did notice is how Lumio has tried to distinguish itself with content curation via its TLDR app. The app pulls in live sports scores, match schedules and the latest chartbusters into a single intuitively designed dashboard, and I liked the direction the app's taken.
Verdict
Cue Avneet Kaur asking 'Bunty, tera TV slow hai kya?" and if the camera pans across to you nodding in agreement, the Lumio Vision 9 certainly does enough right to merit being shortlisted (and selected) in a sub-1-lakh segment, and punches well above its price point. The brand has launched with a 2-year comprehensive warranty and 300+ service centers covering a claimed 19,000+ PIN codes, which comes as a reassurance for customers unaccustomed to the new name.
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