Amazon Fire TV Omni review: I wish this were better
Our Verdict
The Amazon Fire Television Omni is a big deal for Amazon, and Fire Telly has never looked amend, or been easier to use. Merely with disappointing functioning and a cost that'due south a niggling more than premium than it deserves, it's non likely to make a splash.
For
- Premium pattern looks great
- Fire TV has never been amend
- Hands-free Alexa control is best vox interaction yet
Against
- Mediocre display and audio
- A chip pricey for feature set
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Amazon Burn TV Omni is a big deal for Amazon, and Fire Telly has never looked better, or been easier to apply. But with disappointing performance and a cost that'southward a picayune more premium than it deserves, information technology's not likely to make a splash.
Pros
- +
Premium blueprint looks neat
- +
Fire TV has never been amend
- +
Hands-free Alexa control is best vox interaction yet
Cons
- -
Mediocre display and audio
- -
A bit pricey for feature set
Amazon Fire Television receiver Omni: Specs
Price: $829.99
Screen size: 65 inches
Resolution: 3840 x 2160
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Refresh rate: 60Hz
Ports: 3 HDMI ii.0 + 1 HDMI 2.1 with eARC
Audio: 2 ten 8-watt
Smart TV software: Burn down TV OS
Size: 57.1 x 33.3 x two.9 inches [w/o stand]
Weight: 42.5 pounds [west/o stand up]
Amazon has dabbled in the smart Television set game for a few years now, letting Television set manufacturers use the same software plant on some of the best streaming devices, like the Fire Television Stick 4K Max and Fire TV Cube to ability value priced smart TVs. But the Amazon Fire TV Omni series represents a pretty dramatic change to that formula, as the get-go Amazon-powered smart Television to acquit the Amazon brand instead of another manufacturer, every bit well as the first of likely many Fire TV models with congenital-in far field microphones for easily-gratis voice command.
Amazon's smart TV software has always been at its best when showcasing built-in Alexa functionality, but the Amazon Fire Tv set Omni serial takes this to a new level, enhancing that capability and pairing it with a better looking TV than any Fire TV we've seen before. It's non a perfect product, only our Amazon Burn Idiot box Omni review explores the many ways Amazon tries to make its new Burn TV the best Fire Idiot box.
Amazon Burn TV Omni review: Price and release date
Amazon released 2 new Fire Boob tube model lines under the Amazon make this year, the Omni and the 4-Serial Fire Tv. Of the two, the Omni is the more premium version, offering a higher-finish design and boasting congenital-in features (similar easily-free Alexa) that the iv-Serial does non.
Our review centered around the 65-inch Burn Television Omni, which sells for $829 through Amazon and Best Buy.
- 43-inch (B08T6DZ81T) - $409
- l-inch (B08T6F8YBH) - $509.99
- 55-inch (B08P3QVFMK) - $559.99
- 65-inch (B08T6J1HG8) - $829.99
- 75-inch (B08T6JZTH4) - $i,099.99
Of these several model sizes, near of the features are identical. The Fire TV software is the aforementioned as whatsoever other Fire Television set, but the TV does have additional hardware to offer support for features like hands-free Alexa control.
The one key difference between the different screen size options is the addition of Dolby Vision HDR content, which is only supported on the 65 and 75-inch models. But, since none of the Amazon Fire TV Omni models have local dimming, the bodily touch on of this format support is limited.
With the caveat that non all models have Dolby Vision, our general impressions of the 65-inch model nosotros tested should utilize equally to any screen size in the Omni model line.
Amazon Burn down Television receiver Omni review: Blueprint
By most measures the new Amazon Burn TV Omni series is the best looking Fire Idiot box yet. The pattern improves upon past Burn down Tv models with a more than streamlined chassis and silverish-toned highlights that look a lot meliorate than the boxy black plastic that featured on Fire TVs past. Much narrower bezels, metal trim, and sturdy metal anxiety marking this as a far more premium product.
The back of the chassis is bones matte blackness plastic, as expected, only instead of the usual boxy blueprint favored by many cheap TVs, Omni takes a sleeker approach, with rounded edges and rounded tapered edges. Nosotros've come a long way from the 2017 Westinghouse Amazon Fire TV, with its plasticy construction and chunky design.
Measuring 57.one ten 33.three 10 two.ix inches and at 42.5 pounds, it's easily assembled and mounted past two people. If you desire to hang it on the wall, the Tv will accept whatsoever 400 millimeter x 200 millimeter VESA hardware, including those establish in our list of the best TV mounts.
Most other details will be discussed elsewhere in this review, but one stood out for its design as much as the functionality. Merely below the display is a small bar, which includes a hardware switch, that deactivates the built-in far field microphones that the TV uses for room-listening Alexa interaction. The switch is easy to access, and like shooting fish in a barrel to switch back and forth, but it'south a little hard to tell what's on and what's off. Thankfully, there's also an easy to see LED indicator that glows scarlet when the mics are disabled.
Amazon Fire Television set Omni review: Ports
The Omni series is outfitted with three HDMI two.0 ports and a unmarried HDMI ii.1 port with eARC. There's an Ethernet port to complement the congenital-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and a single USB port. The TV likewise boasts a coaxial connection for antenna and cable, a 3.5 millimeter audio jack for speakers or headphones, and an optical digital audio output for connecting older sound equipment.
There'due south also a connection for an included IR emitter. This unusual characteristic lets you use the Idiot box's built-in Alexa capabilities to control other devices in your domicile amusement setup, with the TV using the IR emitter to control any hardware that would normally require a standard remote control. In some means, it'due south similar to some of the best universal remotes.
Amazon Fire Television Omni review: Operation
The biggest promise of the Burn down Television Omni is in performance. The 65-inch screen is bigger than most Fire TVs, and offers support for HDR formats like HDR10 and Dolby Vision. And, given the higher price tag and more than stylish blueprint, it's entirely reasonable to call up that the Omni would outperform other Fire-powered smart TVs.
Unfortunately, that was simply partly true. During my time with the Television, I couldn't help but feel that the set was held back by the relatively basic LCD console and direct LED backlight.
Watching The Tomorrow War, Chris Pratt'south fourth dimension-displaced soldier looked skilful in action scenes, with decent motility handling preventing well-nigh of the obvious judder or smearing y'all might see on a cheaper ready. The 4K panel handled the nuts of resolution and color fairly well, and the CGI aliens look properly detailed in all their toothy celebrity.
HDR content offers a expert differential between nighttime and bright, though some dark scenes lose a piddling bit of detail in shadowy scenes. One scene inside a dark alien ship provided a skillful showcase for the TV's HDR capabilities. Handheld flashlights lit up every bit blazing bright points of calorie-free, and as they swept beyond the dark, alien ship interiors the HDR managed to preserve the illumination of the flashlight beams without losing the depth of the darker surroundings. It wasn't perfect, and the shadowy portions of the scene ofttimes lost some detail into a mass of undifferentiated darks, just it was about as expert as you lot can get from direct LED backlighting without whatsoever discrete dimming zones.
Looking at single-color examination screens the Omni offered surprisingly decent viewing angles, with noticeable color shifting beyond 45 degrees from center, but not drastic. Tones remain recognizable, if a little done out, but even out at steep angles content should be pretty watchable.
The TV also handled colour adequately well. Watching scenes from CGI-blithe kids shows Lost in Oz, the bright palette of colors seemed vibrant and varied. Reds and pinks looked a fleck oversaturated, but otherwise, the color reproduction looked fine to the unaided middle. Contrast leaves a scrap to exist desired, and the brightness may need some adjustment, only the overall upshot is inoffensive.
Bright unmarried-color test screens do evidence some slight vignetting on the corners of the screen, and dorsum light isn't perfectly consistent, just y'all'll but detect it in certain circumstances. When viewing normal content, with varied backgrounds and moving objects and people on screen, it'due south not noticeable at all.
Switching betwixt standard and movie manner did offering noticeable improvement in picture quality, switching to a dissimilar color temperature and offering more lifelike skin tones without significantly sacrificing the range of colour available.
As expected, the Idiot box offers decent 4K gaming back up at upwards to 60 Hz, only no higher, since the Goggle box uses a 60Hz panel. The TV does support HDR10 and Dolby Vision for gaming, and supports 10-bit color at 24, 50 and 60 Hz refresh rates.
Automatic switching to game mode was uncomplicated and seamless. Play testing with Assassinator's Creed Valhalla, I was pleased to see decent color quality in everything from sundrenched Viking villages to bathetic glowing interfaces, and HDR content seemed to display properly with a healthy mix of bright glow and deep shadows.
Amazon Burn TV Omni review: Test results
Our lab testing detailed the good and bad of the Burn down TV Omni, and while the Television set isn't bad to wait at, it's inappreciably the best you tin become for the money. It's (mostly) a pace up from our previous favorite Amazon smart TV, the Toshiba C350 Burn down Television, cheers to easily-free control and a slick new design, but it'due south a closer match up than information technology probably should be given the nearly $300 price difference between the two. And compared with competitors like the Vizio M-Series Quantum MQ6 and the TCL 5-Serial Roku Television (S535), it'southward clear that Amazon'south first Fire TV still has room for improvement.
The Amazon Omni offered middling colour gamut functioning, reproducing 96% of the Rec 709 color space. While that is an improvement over the Toshiba C350 Burn down Idiot box (95%), it's notwithstanding a far weep from the TCL 5-Series Roku TV (99.8%) and the Vizio M-Series Quantum MQ6 (99.96%). It'south also worth noting that these less expensive competitors offering one other thing that the Omni does not: QLED. Quantum dot enhancement delivers better colour and brightness, and it's almost get a standard feature in this price range, but there are no QLED options in the Fire Idiot box family.
Colour accuracy tests told a similar story. The Omni's Delta-E average of iv.4 isn't great (closer to zero is better) – it's more common in the bargain-priced models we normally see Fire Television receiver running on. But compared to the competition, it's some other point against the Omni. The TCL 5-Series Roku Telly (ane.76) and the Vizio MQ6 (1.68) both fall into the pretty peachy category with excellent out-of-the-box accurateness, and even the Toshiba C350 Fire TV did better (1.67).
The i expanse where the Omni managed to concur its own was brightness. With a measured peak brightness of 494 nits, it surpassed both QLED competitors like the TCL five-Serial (391 nits) and the Vizio K-Series MQ6 (299 nits), as well as the previous top Fire TV, the Toshiba C350 (227 nits).
Gaming was some other affair. When tested with a 4K Leo Bodnar point lag tester, the Omni had a lag time of 9.eight milliseconds. That'south an first-class result, and i that puts it alongside the Vizio M-Serial Breakthrough MQ6 (10ms) and the Toshiba C350 Fire TV (9.7ms).
Amazon Fire Tv set Omni review: Audio
For being Amazon'due south top-of-the-line Burn Television, the Omni has surprisingly pedestrian sound. With a pair of 8-watt speakers providing stereo sound, the TV offers reasonably loud volume levels, but when set to the levels that are probable to exist used for casual Boob tube watching, the TV struggles with bass – bass comes through nicely higher up 20% volume, only any quieter and the low-cease drops out completely, throwing off the mix.
Whether we were watching the opening raid in Michael B. Hashemite kingdom of jordan'south Without Remorse or the crazy state of Oz in Lost in Oz, the Omni did provide decent clarity of dialogue and sound effects. At mid-range volumes (betwixt xxx and 60%), the TV does produce a solid mix of bass and treble, and even manages to avoid some of the baloney we normally hear at college volumes. The stereo speakers too provide decent right/left separation.
However, if yous want fuller, richer sound than the Television receiver'southward viii-watt speakers can produce, you'll do well to go one of the best soundbars to level up the sound. The Omni'due south built-in speakers are expert, merely not dandy, on their ain.
Amazon Fire TV Omni review: Smart features
Compared to other affordable smart TV platforms, Amazon Fire Television receiver is i of the smartest you can get. That starts with built-in Alexa, complete with far field microphones built into the Tv set that mind to the room the aforementioned way an Amazon Alexa speaker does.
A physical switch lets you turn the microphones off if the thought of your TV listening to all of your conversations makes your privacy radar sound an alarm. Merely that'southward not the only manner to savour voice command, since the remote offers a congenital-in microphone with simple press-to-talk access for Alexa control.
In our testing, Alexa was quick and responsive, whether I used the room-listening microphones or the mic-enabled remote command. Finding and playing content was simple, with the power to search for shows by title or genre, or to search for everything done by a certain actor or director.
Control of bones Boob tube functions, from ability and book command to turning on closed captions or opening specific apps, was all smooth and functioned without the sort of irritating repetition that used to plague many voice interaction features. With all of the smooth that Amazon has given Alexa over the terminal several years, the Omni boasts 1 of the nearly usable voice control features I've tested.
The growing list of Alexa skills and smart home capabilities is also quite impressive. You can control a huge number of smart abode devices with spoken commands, and you can use the Tv set's included IR equalizer to also control not-smart devices like Blu Ray players and cable boxes.
Hereafter smart features include functions like Zoom calling when a compatible USB photographic camera is plugged in. Other promised features will include the Alexa Shortcut Panel, which volition let yous select common Alexa skills using the directional pad of the remote, instead of vocalisation control, and Alexa Domicile Theater, which will use Echo speakers to pair wirelessly through the Alexa app to create a multi-channel surround sound setup. (Still, information technology bears repeating, these are forthcoming smart features nosotros could not test during our evaluation, though nosotros'll revisit them when the opportunity comes up.)
The recently-revamped Amazon Fire Television receiver interface is a little cleaner and more easily navigated than in the past. With multiple rows of content suggestions organized past recently used apps, recommendations of free and premium content, movies and shows on Amazon endemic services like Prime number Video and IMDb TV. Only it does this without relegating other apps and services to the lower (and less-visible) parts of the carte, instead focusing on offering what the user wants to run into from their own preferred apps. Amazon still gets a prominent place in the mix, but it's meliorate tuned in to the reality of users that may be subscribed to several streaming services. Overall it's an improved interface, and information technology offers a lot more than Burn down TV seemed to in previous iterations.
The app shop is besides profoundly improved, with more highlights right at the offset, including both free and paid streaming services, sports apps, cable replacement services, new releases and Alexa-enabled services. It also has a minor selection of recommended games, for those few people who care near running games on their smart TV.
Outside of those highlights, the app browsing feel is much better than it used to be, with a tile-based interface that offers little thumbnail images to requite yous a sense of what the app is almost. It's not perfect, and the app selection nonetheless has more than the usual number of low quality apps with questionable value, simply finding what you desire should be easier than ever earlier.
Amazon Burn down Goggle box Omni review: Remote control
The remote that comes with the Fire TV Omni will look extremely familiar to anyone who'due south used a Fire TV product in the past, with the fairly elementary pattern dominated by a ring-shaped directional pad, some basic media control buttons, volume control and a few additional buttons you lot won't notice on the remotes of Burn TV devices similar the Cube.
Volume command is joined past aqueduct upwards and down buttons, and a alive Idiot box button lets you jump correct to your antenna or cablevision aqueduct guide. It also has buttons for muting audio, accessing settings menus and even picture-in-a-picture show. The remote has iv dedicated app buttons for Amazon Prime number Video, Netflix, Disney Plus, and Hulu.
A defended push up pinnacle lets y'all activate Alexa and speak directly into the mic enabled remote control if you are not using the TV's built-in far-field mics.
Amazon Fire Tv Omni review: Verdict
The Amazon Fire Goggle box Omni is clearly a play to evangelize a more than premium Fire TV experience, from the improved design to the introduction of currently-sectional features, like easily-gratis Alexa, and the hope of existence the first to ringlet out upcoming features, similar video calling. And information technology makes sense, this is Amazon's first Fire TV to get designed in-house and conduct the Amazon brand name. Information technology's also the most expensive Fire Boob tube yet.
But the more luxe look and refreshed interface run headlong into the reality of the hardware. With a middling display and speakers, the more than premium Fire Television Omni doesn't deliver a better feel where it counts most: In viewing Television and movies. Instead, it offers a ameliorate version of what came before, a great platform for Alexa fans and Amazon Prime number Video diehards, but a smart TV experience that withal finds itself falling backside other affordable offerings.
At this price, other smart TVs deliver better moving picture, cheers to QLED displays and backlights with local dimming. The editor'south selection TCL 6-Series Roku Tv hands outpaces it, but even the step down TCL 5-Series Roku Television (S535) delivers better value at a better cost. And, unfortunately, the Omni isn't even the best Fire Television set on the market. The more affordable Toshiba C350 Fire TV may not take room-listening mics for Alexa use, but it delivers better picture performance than the Omni, while however providing all of the other perks of Fire TV.
The Amazon Fire Tv set Omni is a adept TV, but it's non a bully Television. It volition sell well, thanks to aggressive promotion from Amazon and Best Purchase, probable with big sales discounts this holiday flavor, and it will put the showtime Amazon-made smart TV into homes across the country and earth. But if Amazon actually wants a standout smart Tv to showcase Fire TV and all its capabilities, I hope the next generation Omni is better than this one.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/amazon-fire-tv-omni
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