Amazon Fire TV Omni review: I wish this were better
Our Verdict
The Amazon Fire TV Omni is a big deal for Amazon, and Burn Tv set has never looked better, or been easier to use. But with disappointing performance and a cost that'south a trivial more premium than it deserves, it'southward not likely to make a splash.
For
- Premium design looks great
- Fire Television set has never been improve
- Easily-complimentary Alexa control is best voice interaction all the same
Against
- Mediocre display and audio
- A chip pricey for feature set
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Amazon Burn TV Omni is a big bargain for Amazon, and Fire Telly has never looked amend, or been easier to apply. But with disappointing operation and a price that'south a piddling more premium than it deserves, information technology's non probable to brand a splash.
Pros
- +
Premium blueprint looks swell
- +
Burn down TV has never been ameliorate
- +
Easily-free Alexa control is all-time vox interaction yet
Cons
- -
Mediocre brandish and audio
- -
A chip pricey for feature prepare
Amazon Fire Television receiver Omni: Specs
Toll: $829.99
Screen size: 65 inches
Resolution: 3840 ten 2160
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Refresh rate: 60Hz
Ports: three HDMI 2.0 + 1 HDMI ii.i with eARC
Sound: 2 x 8-watt
Smart TV software: Burn down TV Os
Size: 57.one ten 33.3 x 2.9 inches [west/o stand]
Weight: 42.five pounds [w/o stand]
Amazon has dabbled in the smart Television receiver game for a few years at present, letting TV manufacturers use the same software found on some of the best streaming devices, similar the Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Fire Goggle box Cube to ability value priced smart TVs. Merely the Amazon Fire Tv set Omni series represents a pretty dramatic change to that formula, every bit the first Amazon-powered smart TV to carry the Amazon brand instead of another manufacturer, as well equally the first of likely many Fire Boob tube models with built-in far field microphones for hands-costless voice control.
Amazon's smart Tv set software has always been at its best when showcasing built-in Alexa functionality, but the Amazon Fire TV Omni series takes this to a new level, enhancing that adequacy and pairing it with a better looking Goggle box than any Fire Tv we've seen before. Information technology's non a perfect product, but our Amazon Fire Goggle box Omni review explores the many means Amazon tries to make its new Fire TV the best Fire TV.
Amazon Fire TV Omni review: Toll and release date
Amazon released 2 new Fire TV model lines under the Amazon brand this yr, the Omni and the iv-Series Burn down TV. Of the two, the Omni is the more premium version, offering a higher-stop design and boasting built-in features (like hands-gratuitous Alexa) that the 4-Serial does not.
Our review centered around the 65-inch Fire Goggle box Omni, which sells for $829 through Amazon and All-time Buy.
- 43-inch (B08T6DZ81T) - $409
- 50-inch (B08T6F8YBH) - $509.99
- 55-inch (B08P3QVFMK) - $559.99
- 65-inch (B08T6J1HG8) - $829.99
- 75-inch (B08T6JZTH4) - $1,099.99
Of these several model sizes, most of the features are identical. The Fire Idiot box software is the same as any other Burn Boob tube, but the TV does have boosted hardware to offer back up for features like hands-gratuitous Alexa control.
The i key departure between the different screen size options is the improver of Dolby Vision HDR content, which is only supported on the 65 and 75-inch models. But, since none of the Amazon Fire Telly Omni models have local dimming, the actual touch of this format support is limited.
With the caveat that not all models have Dolby Vision, our general impressions of the 65-inch model we tested should apply equally to any screen size in the Omni model line.
Amazon Fire TV Omni review: Design
By most measures the new Amazon Fire Goggle box Omni serial is the all-time looking Fire Idiot box notwithstanding. The design improves upon past Burn down Boob tube models with a more streamlined chassis and silver-toned highlights that look a lot better than the boxy black plastic that featured on Fire TVs past. Much narrower bezels, metal trim, and sturdy metal feet mark this as a far more premium production.
The back of the chassis is basic matte black plastic, as expected, only instead of the usual boxy design favored past many cheap TVs, Omni takes a sleeker arroyo, with rounded edges and rounded tapered edges. We've come a long mode from the 2017 Westinghouse Amazon Fire Television receiver, with its plasticy construction and chunky design.
Measuring 57.one x 33.three x 2.9 inches and at 42.5 pounds, it's easily assembled and mounted by two people. If you desire to hang information technology on the wall, the TV will accept whatever 400 millimeter x 200 millimeter VESA hardware, including those institute in our list of the best Goggle box mounts.
Most other details will be discussed elsewhere in this review, but one stood out for its pattern every bit much as the functionality. Only below the brandish is a pocket-sized bar, which includes a hardware switch, that deactivates the congenital-in far field microphones that the Television uses for room-listening Alexa interaction. The switch is piece of cake to admission, and easy to switch dorsum and forth, but it'due south a piffling difficult to tell what's on and what's off. Thankfully, there's besides an easy to come across LED indicator that glows cherry when the mics are disabled.
Amazon Fire TV Omni review: Ports
The Omni serial is outfitted with iii HDMI 2.0 ports and a unmarried HDMI 2.1 port with eARC. There'southward an Ethernet port to complement the congenital-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and a single USB port. The Goggle box too boasts a coaxial connection for antenna and cable, a 3.5 millimeter audio jack for speakers or headphones, and an optical digital sound output for connecting older audio equipment.
There's likewise a connection for an included IR emitter. This unusual feature lets yous use the Boob tube'southward built-in Alexa capabilities to control other devices in your abode amusement setup, with the Television using the IR emitter to control any hardware that would normally require a standard remote control. In some means, it'due south like to some of the best universal remotes.
Amazon Fire TV Omni review: Performance
The biggest hope of the Fire TV Omni is in performance. The 65-inch screen is bigger than most Burn down TVs, and offers support for HDR formats like HDR10 and Dolby Vision. And, given the higher toll tag and more stylish design, it's entirely reasonable to think that the Omni would outperform other Burn-powered smart TVs.
Unfortunately, that was merely partly true. During my fourth dimension with the Telly, I couldn't aid but feel that the set was held back past the relatively basic LCD panel and direct LED backlight.
Watching The Tomorrow State of war, Chris Pratt's time-displaced soldier looked good in activity scenes, with decent motion handling preventing about of the obvious judder or smearing yous might come across on a cheaper set. The 4K console handled the basics of resolution and color fairly well, and the CGI aliens look properly detailed in all their toothy celebrity.
HDR content offers a good differential between dark and bright, though some night scenes lose a picayune chip of detail in shadowy scenes. 1 scene inside a dark alien ship provided a good showcase for the Idiot box'due south HDR capabilities. Handheld flashlights lit up as blazing bright points of light, 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 environment. It wasn't perfect, and the shadowy portions of the scene often lost some detail into a mass of undifferentiated darks, merely it was about as skillful as you can go from direct LED backlighting without any discrete dimming zones.
Looking at single-colour test screens the Omni offered surprisingly decent viewing angles, with noticeable colour shifting beyond 45 degrees from heart, but non drastic. Tones remain recognizable, if a trivial washed out, but even out at steep angles content should be pretty watchable.
The TV as well handled color fairly 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, only otherwise, the color reproduction looked fine to the unaided middle. Dissimilarity leaves a bit to be desired, and the brightness may need some adjustment, but the overall result is inoffensive.
Bright single-colour test screens do show some slight vignetting on the corners of the screen, and back light isn't perfectly consistent, but yous'll only notice it in certain circumstances. When viewing normal content, with varied backgrounds and moving objects and people on screen, it's not noticeable at all.
Switching between standard and movie way did offering noticeable improvement in picture quality, switching to a dissimilar colour temperature and offer more lifelike skin tones without significantly sacrificing the range of color available.
Equally expected, the Goggle box offers decent 4K gaming support at up to sixty Hz, but no higher, since the Tv uses a 60Hz panel. The Boob tube does support HDR10 and Dolby Vision for gaming, and supports 10-bit color at 24, 50 and 60 Hz refresh rates.
Automated switching to game manner was simple and seamless. Play testing with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, I was pleased to see decent color quality in everything from sundrenched Viking villages to abstracted glowing interfaces, and HDR content seemed to display properly with a salubrious mix of bright glow and deep shadows.
Amazon Fire Boob tube Omni review: Examination results
Our lab testing detailed the skilful and bad of the Burn TV Omni, and while the TV isn't bad to look at, it's hardly the best yous can go for the money. It's (more often than not) a step up from our previous favorite Amazon smart TV, the Toshiba C350 Fire TV, thanks to easily-free control and a slick new design, but information technology's a closer friction match up than it probably should be given the virtually $300 price difference between the 2. And compared with competitors like the Vizio One thousand-Series Quantum MQ6 and the TCL v-Series Roku TV (S535), it'southward clear that Amazon's start Fire Tv set still has room for improvement.
The Amazon Omni offered middling color gamut performance, reproducing 96% of the Rec 709 colour infinite. While that is an improvement over the Toshiba C350 Fire Television (95%), information technology's even so a far weep from the TCL v-Series Roku TV (99.8%) and the Vizio One thousand-Series Quantum MQ6 (99.96%). It's likewise worth noting that these less expensive competitors offering one other thing that the Omni does non: QLED. Quantum dot enhancement delivers amend color and brightness, and it's almost become a standard feature in this price range, merely there are no QLED options in the Burn down TV family.
Color accuracy tests told a like story. The Omni's Delta-E boilerplate of iv.4 isn't nifty (closer to nix is better) – it's more mutual in the bargain-priced models we usually come across Burn Goggle box running on. But compared to the competition, it's another betoken against the Omni. The TCL 5-Series Roku Goggle box (1.76) and the Vizio MQ6 (i.68) both fall into the pretty great category with excellent out-of-the-box accuracy, and fifty-fifty the Toshiba C350 Fire Telly did better (1.67).
The one surface area where the Omni managed to agree its own was effulgence. With a measured top effulgence of 494 nits, it surpassed both QLED competitors like the TCL 5-Series (391 nits) and the Vizio K-Series MQ6 (299 nits), as well as the previous top Burn down Telly, the Toshiba C350 (227 nits).
Gaming was another matter. When tested with a 4K Leo Bodnar signal lag tester, the Omni had a lag time of ix.8 milliseconds. That'south an splendid issue, and ane that puts it alongside the Vizio M-Series Quantum MQ6 (10ms) and the Toshiba C350 Burn down Television (9.7ms).
Amazon Fire TV Omni review: Audio
For being Amazon's top-of-the-line Burn Tv set, the Omni has surprisingly pedestrian audio. With a pair of viii-watt speakers providing stereo audio, the TV offers reasonably loud book levels, only when fix to the levels that are likely to be used for coincidental TV watching, the Television set struggles with bass – bass comes through nicely above 20% volume, just whatever quieter and the depression-end drops out completely, throwing off the mix.
Whether nosotros were watching the opening raid in Michael B. Jordan's Without Remorse or the crazy land of Oz in Lost in Oz, the Omni did provide decent clarity of dialogue and sound effects. At mid-range volumes (between 30 and 60%), the TV does produce a solid mix of bass and treble, and fifty-fifty manages to avert some of the distortion we ordinarily hear at college volumes. The stereo speakers besides provide decent right/left separation.
However, if yous want fuller, richer sound than the TV'southward 8-watt speakers can produce, you'll practice well to get one of the best soundbars to level upward the sound. The Omni'southward built-in speakers are good, but not great, on their own.
Amazon Burn down Telly Omni review: Smart features
Compared to other affordable smart Telly platforms, Amazon Burn down TV is one of the smartest you tin get. That starts with built-in Alexa, consummate with far field microphones congenital into the TV that mind to the room the same way an Amazon Alexa speaker does.
A physical switch lets you plough the microphones off if the idea of your Tv set listening to all of your conversations makes your privacy radar sound an alarm. Only that's non the only way to enjoy voice command, since the remote offers a built-in microphone with elementary printing-to-talk admission for Alexa command.
In our testing, Alexa was quick and responsive, whether I used the room-listening microphones or the mic-enabled remote control. Finding and playing content was elementary, with the ability to search for shows by title or genre, or to search for everything done past a sure actor or manager.
Control of basic Idiot box functions, from power and book control to turning on airtight captions or opening specific apps, was all smoothen and functioned without the sort of irritating repetition that used to plague many voice interaction features. With all of the polish that Amazon has given Alexa over the last several years, the Omni boasts 1 of the nigh usable voice command features I've tested.
The growing list of Alexa skills and smart dwelling house capabilities is likewise quite impressive. You can command a huge number of smart dwelling devices with spoken commands, and y'all tin utilise the TV's included IR blaster to also command not-smart devices similar Blu Ray players and cablevision boxes.
Future smart features include functions similar Zoom calling when a compatible USB camera is plugged in. Other promised features will include the Alexa Shortcut Console, which volition permit yous select common Alexa skills using the directional pad of the remote, instead of voice command, and Alexa Domicile Theater, which will use Echo speakers to pair wirelessly through the Alexa app to create a multi-channel surround sound setup. (However, it bears repeating, these are forthcoming smart features nosotros could not exam during our evaluation, though we'll revisit them when the opportunity comes up.)
The recently-revamped Amazon Burn Tv set interface is a little cleaner and more easily navigated than in the past. With multiple rows of content suggestions organized by recently used apps, recommendations of free and premium content, movies and shows on Amazon owned services like Prime Video and IMDb Tv. But it does this without relegating other apps and services to the lower (and less-visible) parts of the menu, instead focusing on offering what the user wants to see from their own preferred apps. Amazon still gets a prominent place in the mix, but information technology's better tuned in to the reality of users that may be subscribed to several streaming services. Overall it's an improved interface, and it offers a lot more than Fire Television seemed to in previous iterations.
The app store is also greatly improved, with more highlights right at the offset, including both gratuitous and paid streaming services, sports apps, cablevision replacement services, new releases and Alexa-enabled services. It also has a small pick of recommended games, for those few people who care about running games on their smart TV.
Outside of those highlights, the app browsing experience is much meliorate than information technology used to be, with a tile-based interface that offers picayune thumbnail images to give y'all a sense of what the app is about. It'due south not perfect, and the app option withal has more the usual number of depression quality apps with questionable value, but finding what you want should be easier than ever before.
Amazon Fire TV Omni review: Remote control
The remote that comes with the Fire Television Omni will look extremely familiar to anyone who'southward used a Burn TV production in the past, with the adequately uncomplicated blueprint dominated past a ring-shaped directional pad, some bones media control buttons, volume control and a few boosted buttons you won't find on the remotes of Fire Boob tube devices like the Cube.
Volume command is joined by channel up and down buttons, and a alive TV button lets you spring right to your antenna or cablevision channel guide. It also has buttons for muting audio, accessing settings menus and even movie-in-a-movie. The remote has four dedicated app buttons for Amazon Prime number Video, Netflix, Disney Plus, and Hulu.
A defended push up peak lets you lot activate Alexa and speak directly into the mic enabled remote control if you are not using the Television receiver's built-in far-field mics.
Amazon Fire TV Omni review: Verdict
The Amazon Fire TV Omni is clearly a play to evangelize a more premium Fire TV experience, from the improved blueprint to the introduction of currently-exclusive features, like hands-gratuitous Alexa, and the promise of being the showtime to curl out upcoming features, like video calling. And it makes sense, this is Amazon's first Burn Tv set to get designed in-business firm and bear the Amazon make name. It's as well the most expensive Fire TV yet.
Only 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 Goggle box Omni doesn't deliver a improve feel where it counts nearly: In viewing Television and movies. Instead, information technology offers a amend version of what came before, a peachy platform for Alexa fans and Amazon Prime number Video diehards, but a smart TV experience that still finds itself falling behind other affordable offerings.
At this toll, other smart TVs deliver better moving-picture show, thanks to QLED displays and backlights with local dimming. The editor's option TCL half-dozen-Series Roku TV hands outpaces it, simply even the step down TCL 5-Series Roku Idiot box (S535) delivers better value at a meliorate price. And, unfortunately, the Omni isn't fifty-fifty the best Fire Idiot box on the market place. The more affordable Toshiba C350 Fire TV may not have room-listening mics for Alexa use, simply it delivers amend picture functioning than the Omni, while still providing all of the other perks of Fire TV.
The Amazon Fire TV Omni is a skilful TV, only information technology'south not a slap-up TV. It will sell well, thanks to ambitious promotion from Amazon and All-time Purchase, probable with big sales discounts this holiday season, and information technology volition put the first Amazon-fabricated smart Television set into homes beyond the country and earth. Simply if Amazon actually wants a standout smart TV to showcase Fire TV and all its capabilities, I hope the next generation Omni is improve than this one.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/amazon-fire-tv-omni
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