The Amazon Fire TV smart TV platform is a powerful interface with lots of features, particularly the Alexa voice assistant, and we highly recommend Fire TV media hubs like the Fire TV Stick 4K and Fire TV Cube. In the past, though, we’ve been underwhelmed by TVs that use the Fire TV platform, and even Amazon’s own Fire TV Omni disappointed us with its mediocre performance. The company has since updated its TV, which is now called the Fire TV Omni QLED ($799.99 for the 65-inch model). It’s only slightly more expensive than the outgoing version, and while it isn’t too much brighter than the original, it has superior contrast and color, and that makes it much more appealing, particularly for dedicated Alexa users.

A Simple, Attractive Design

The Fire TV Omni QLED has an understated style that's become typical of current high-end TVs. The screen is framed by a barely there quarter-inch gunmetal gray bezel on the sides and top, with a 3/4-inch brushed metallic strip on the bottom edge. A black protrusion on the lower bezel holds the far-field microphones and mic mute switch.

The TV sits on two V-shaped metal legs positioned nearer the sides. This means it has to sit on something at least as wide as the legs and might negate certain narrower TV stands. It also supports standard VESA mounts.

(Photo: Will Greenwald)

The power cable connects to a port on the left side of the TV's rear panel. All the other ports are on the right side, including four HDMI ports (one eARC), a USB port, an Ethernet port, an optical audio output, a 3.5mm headphone output, a 3.5mm port for the included infrared blaster, and an antenna/cable connector.

The remote is identical to the one included with the Fire TV Cube. It’s a thin black wand with a circular navigation pad near the top. The power button, Alexa button, and pinhole microphone are above the nav pad. Menu and playback controls sit below the pad, with volume and channel rockers farther down. Dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix are positioned near the bottom of the remote.

(Photo: Will Greenwald)

Fire TV With Hands-Free Alexa

The Fire TV Omni QLED uses Amazon’s Fire TV smart TV platform, which makes it effectively work just like a Fire TV Cube. The interface supports most major streaming services in addition to Amazon's, including Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Sling, Twitch, and YouTube. Music is available through both Amazon Music and a variety of third-party services, including SiriusXM and Spotify. Gaming is available, too, via Amazon Luna, which you can use with a compatible Bluetooth controller or the Amazon Luna controller.

Local screen sharing via mobile devices is by far the biggest weakness with Fire TV, but the Fire TV Omni QLED makes an improvement over media streamers with the platform. Fire TV on media streamers supports Miracast/WiDi, but lacks Apple AirPlay and Google Cast for simplified streaming directly from your phone or tablet. However, the Fire TV Omni QLED features Apple AirPlay as well, adding to its flexibility.

(Credit: Amazon)

Fire TV lets you use Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, and the Fire TV Omni QLED’s far-field microphone array enables hands-free voice commands. You can simply say, "Alexa," followed by a request, and the TV will act. It works as well as the Fire TV Cube, Fire TV Omni, and other TVs with hands-free voice control; it should be able to pick up your voice unless the TV is very loud.

Alexa can control the TV itself by opening apps and searching for content. It also provides useful information like weather forecasts and sports scores visualized on screen and lets you make voice and video calls with Amazon’s Drop In service, Skype, or Zoom (as long as you have a compatible webcam connected for video). In addition, Alexa can control any compatible smart home devices on your network.

The Fire TV platform enables a customizable ambient mode with helpful widgets. You can set the TV to show different images, including curated art and your own photos, then display additional widgets like your calendar, home sticky notes, and details such as what’s currently on live TV. 

Not Much Brighter, But It Looks a Lot Better

The Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED is a 4K TV that supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and hybrid log gamma (HLG). It has a 60Hz refresh rate.

We test TVs using a Klein K-80 colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman software. In our tests, the Fire TV Omni QLED’s local dimming array didn’t make it wildly brighter than the Fire TV Omni, but it did significantly improve contrast. Out of the box, in Movie Bright mode with an SDR signal, the TV showed a peak brightness of 430 nits with a full-screen white field and 499 nits with an 18% white field, with a black level of 0.007cd/m^2. With an HDR signal, peak brightness curiously dipped slightly to 423 nits with a full-screen white field and 474 nits with an 18% white field. Its black level was significantly lower, though, at 0.004cd/m^2, for an effective contrast ratio of 118,500:1. That’s a huge jump in contrast from the Fire TV Omni (334 nits peak brightness, 0.11cd/m^2 black level, 3,033:1 contrast ratio). The Hisense U6H gets brighter at 588 nits, but with a higher black level of 0.03cd/m^2 it has a much lower contrast ratio of 19,608:1.

(Credit: PCMag)

The above charts show the Fire TV Omni QLED’s color levels in Movie Bright mode with an SDR signal compared against Rec.709 broadcast standards, and with an HDR signal compared against DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. In both cases, whites are spot-on, which is a good start for any TV. SDR colors are also almost perfect, and while magentas are a little warm with an HDR signal, it still offers excellent performance out of the box. More importantly, it's a step up in color range from the original Fire TV Omni.

The TV’s wide colors make BBC’s Planet Earth II pop. The greens of leaves and the blues of water are rich and varied, with good neutral balance for animal fur and bark. Fine details come through clearly in both direct sunlight and shade.

The red of Deadpool’s costume in the overcast opening scenes of Deadpool is balanced and saturated despite the relatively cool shots. Later, in the burning lab fight, the flames look fairly bright and varied, and shadow details can be discerned in the same frame without looking washed out.

Despite its lack of significant brightness, the TV is good at showing off the stark contrast of the party scenes in The Great Gatsby. The white of shirts and balloons comes through prominently while the cuts and contours of black suits can be seen clearly. The black objects in frames look properly dark, though they don’t quite reach into inkiness. Skin tones also look balanced and natural.

Few Gaming Features

On paper, the Fire TV Omni QLED won’t hold much interest to gamers. While it features variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low latency mode (ALLM), its panel is only 60Hz and it lacks AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync. However, it’s extremely responsive.

Testing input lag with an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix, we measured a latency of only 3.2 milliseconds in Game mode, well below the 10ms threshold we use to determine if a TV is good for gaming.