Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED (QL65F602U) review

Amazon’s original Fire TV Omni QLED TV launched nearly three years ago, and while it feels like yesterday that we were evaluating if the e-commerce goliath could make a TV worth its weight in cardboard Prime delivery boxes, the truth is that an update has been sorely needed for quite some time.

While Amazon did update the range with the four-star Fire TV Omni Mini LED last year, it has taken until now for the company to update the mid-range QLED model.

With a slew of under-the-hood upgrades promised and a Prime Day price to keep in mind, could this TV offset the onslaught of formidable budget TVs from the likes of TCL and Hisense?

Price

The 65-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED officially retails for £1050 / $850, which roughly equates to AU$1970. You’ll notice that’s a £50 / $50 increase over the first-generation Omni QLED. In the grand scheme of things, this is a fairly moderate bump considering how volatile TV pricing has been since 2023.

In fact, what we find to be more irritating than a bump-up price is the fact that the only way to differentiate this new model from its predecessor is to check that it says “(newest model)” in the product listing on Amazon’s website.

Nevertheless, the Omni QLED has some fierce competition on its hands from the likes of TCL and Hisense. The Award-winning TCL C7K undercuts the Omni QLED here in the UK at £899 / AU$1595, though it’s significantly more expensive stateside.

Hisense’s four-star U7Q Pro is a similar affair at £899 / AU$1695, making it noticeably cheaper in the UK, but far less comparable in the US.

The Omni QLED does, however, have a trick up its sleeve. Amazon holds frequent, and we mean frequent, sales events throughout the year, including various Prime Days, Big Deal Days and Black Friday events, and here is where you can expect to pick this TV up at a colossal discount.

Case in point, we’re testing this TV at the very same time that Amazon is running its Spring Deal Days sale, in which you can currently snag this TV for just £690. If you time it right, this TV is guaranteed to undercut its rivals and become a much more competitive option.

Build

The Omni QLED is a smart-looking and well-built TV. While it still sits within the budget to mid-range sector of the market, Amazon hasn’t cheaped-out on the build.

It’s constructed from a smooth and solid plastic, with a crosshatch design adorning the rear. It’s not too chunky by backlit TV standards, and it actually looks quite sleek next to the fairly bulky and plasticky-looking TCL C7K.

The sleek silver trim below the screen adds a touch of class, and the metal feet are surprisingly premium compared to the plastic ones supplied with the recently reviewed Sony Bravia 3.

On the subject of the feet, they are frustratingly placed at each end of the TV (127.2cm apart to be exact), and there is no option to fit them into a narrow configuration; so be sure to measure up your media unit before buying this TV. The good news is that the stand sits quite high, and the width should accommodate a full-sized soundbar.

Amazon also bundles the expanded Fire TV remote with the Omni QLED. If you haven’t come across this handset before, it’s basically a Fire TV Stick remote that’s been stretched and had a smattering of extra buttons added, including a number pad and TV guide button.

Interestingly, Amazon appears to be offering this TV in just three sizes this year. We have the 65-inch model in for review, but there are also 50- and 55-inch options, with the 43- and 75-inch versions no longer featuring on Amazon’s product page.

Another note on those sizes: we found that the performance greatly differed between screen sizes with the previous generation Omni QLED, so this review only pertains to the 65-inch model.

Features

Amazon’s mid-level Fire TV certainly isn’t the most feature-packed TV on paper, but for what it's worth, we think Amazon has mostly cut the right corners here.

This is a direct-lit LED TV with a quantum dot layer to boost colour vibrancy; hence the “QLED” in Omni QLED. While TCL is implementing Mini LED backlights at the price, Amazon reserves that panel technology for the step-up Omni Mini-LED model.

The good news is that this is a greatly improved panel over the previous Omni QLED, according to Amazon. It reportedly features double the dimming zones compared to its predecessor, meaning it makes a significant jump from 80 zones to 160 zones. This, in theory, should provide a significant boost to contrast, and while it won’t work miracles, it should also rein in blooming.

Furthermore, Amazon quotes this TV as being 60 per cent brighter than the first-generation Omni QLED; that’s a substantial jump. While it hasn’t provided specific figures regarding the brightness level, we did note that the original Omni QLED didn’t feature “pure peak brightness to provide a dazzling rendition of the latest and greatest HDR movies”.

Furthermore, Amazon has retained its agnostic approach to HDR formats, meaning that this TV supports HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ Adaptive and Dolby Vision IQ. The suffixes attached to each of the dynamic HDR formats mentioned here relate to their ability to tap into the built-in ambient light sensor to adjust HDR brightness levels based on the light levels in your viewing space.

Unfortunately, that holistic view only extends to the picture, as the audio features are a little bit less impressive. This TV supports Dolby Audio via the Dolby Digital Plus codec, but it does not directly support Dolby Atmos. You can pass Dolby signals through the TV via the HDMI eARC socket (we’ve reached out to Amazon to confirm if this includes Dolby Atmos), and there’s also an optical socket for legacy and/or entry-level audio devices.

The lack of native Dolby Atmos support may sound like a setback, but the 65-inch Omni QLED supports two 12W drivers for a combined audio output of 24W. These are bottom-firing units, so the concept of achieving Atmos height effects is fairly outlandish to begin with, and as we’ll come to discover, we’re actually pleasantly surprised by this TV’s audio capabilities.

On the subject of HDMI sockets, we can quickly mention the gaming specs, or the lack thereof. The Omni QLED features one HDMI 2.1 socket (which is the aforementioned eARC socket) and three HDMI 2.0 ports, which may sound like an issue until we realise that this TV sports a 60Hz panel. Therefore, 4K/120Hz gaming is out of the question, though the single HDMI 2.1 socket does support VRR, ALLM and Dolby Vision Gaming.

Either way, serious gamers should probably look towards the TCL C7K, as it supports gaming at 4K/120Hz with VRR and ALLM included.

Now, onto the bread and butter of this TV: streaming. Amazon threw its hat into the streaming ring early with its first batch of Fire TV devices launching in 2014, and Amazon Prime Video, originally Amazon Instant Video, introduced internet video streaming in 2011 – so we presume that it must feel fairly confident in this space by now.

Much like the other hardware in Amazon’s Fire TV lineup, the Omni QLED runs the Fire OS platform, which is a very solid operating system when it comes to app availability. We didn’t run into any notable gaps when it comes to the available app library, and the system runs smoothly when scrolling through the home page.

Advertising is fairly prominent throughout, and there is a tendency for the TV to prioritise content from Amazon – be that Prime Video content or products you can purchase from the web store – but that’s somewhat expected.

Another Amazon-specific feature that’s front and centre with the Omni QLED is Alexa. There are microphones built into a protruding section of the chin bezel of this TV, which can thankfully be disabled by a physical hardware switch for those who don’t want Mr Bezos listening into their everyday conversations.

Having these mics always running, however, allows us to use this TV as a super-sized Echo speaker, meaning it can control smart home appliances, answer questions and play music, movies and TV shows via a voice search function. This works nicely with Amazon’s Ambient Mode, which shows information and/or artwork on the TV screen when it's not in use.

Even with the on-board microphones disabled, there is an option to chat with Alexa via the remote’s microphone and Alexa-summoning button.

Overall, the Omni QLED sits between the TCL C7K and the Sony Bravia 3 in the budget TV hierarchy in terms of features. It has more to offer than the Sony, thanks to the inclusion of quantum dots and local dimming, but the TCL is a clear step-up thanks to its improved gaming specs, Mini LED backlight and Dolby Atmos-capable sound system.

Picture

We were quite complimentary of the first-generation Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED’s picture, and we find that this latest edition enhances a few of its best qualities. Unfortunately, it also seems to carry forth a few of its shortcomings.

We’ve paired the Omni QLED with our trusty Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, and raided our physical media collection for a handful of reference discs, including Alien Romulus, Civil War and Blade Runner 2049. We’re also using Apple TV to test the Dolby Vision performance, with F1: The Movie being our weapon of choice. The TCL C7K is also on hand as a side-by-side comparison.

Through much trial and error, our preferred settings for this TV are to stick with its Filmmaker mode, but to adjust a few settings – and we stress “a few” as the Omni QLED takes the decisions out of our hands in many cases by greying out a lot of the advanced picture settings.

Turning the local dimming up to medium and HDR tone mapping up to its middle settings yields the best results. Both of these are off by default in Filmmaker Mode, but without them, the picture is noticeably lacking in contrast and punch. We also turn sharpness down to 10, as we find the picture to look a little over-etched at the default setting of 20.

With the TV tuned in, we begin with Civil War, and it quickly becomes apparent that this TV is capable of producing an image that is overall nicely balanced, and it clearly doesn’t try to achieve more than it can based on the hardware limitations.

There is a nice sense of sharpness and definition to the outline of subjects, which, when paired with the improved contrast thanks to the inclusion of double the dimming zones, creates a solid, three-dimensional effect.

The helicopter that skims across the top of a lake towards the Charlottesville Military Base is nicely rendered, and the sense of sharpness and detail extends to skin and clothing textures, too. This sequence features a lot of foliage, and the trees are also packed with detail and texture, making for a convincingly bushy look.

Colours are mostly a success on the Omni QLED’s screen. We approve of the general richness of colours and find that they’re balanced in most scenarios aside from some occasionally overblown greenery. Skin tones are also generally handled well, with some tonal variation which adds some warmth to the characters’ cheeks, although we could accuse the Omni QLED of looking a bit pale at times in this regard.

We also find that highlights are handled admirably on the Omni QLED, and our eyes are often drawn to them over the (on-paper) brighter TCL. During the sequence in which the group of journalists drive through a forest fire at night, there is an impressive intensity to the flames, even if the TCL is better at revealing detail and colour variation within these highlights.

What’s most surprising about this TV is its ability to dig up considerably more dark detail compared to the Mini LED-touting TCL. During the opening scene of Alien Romulus, we find that the details are much more visible on the spaceship as it emerges from the depths of space, and there is also more definition to the Xenomorph fossil, too.

The trade-off here is black levels. The Omni QLED leans towards the grey end of the spectrum when it tries to deliver large swathes of black, meaning that space isn’t quite as deep and infinite as we’d hope it to be. The TCL is a clear winner here, as the improved black levels and more granular contrast control allow stars to punch through with a bit more intensity.

However, the Amazon wins back some ground here, as its backlight seems to be much more consistent during these low-light sequences. We notice that the TCL continuously raises and lowers its backlight to compensate for the small bursts of light through this mostly dark sequence, whereas the Amazon remains much more controlled and, therefore, less distracting.

One area where we have to point out a flaw in the Omni is with motion. The TV doesn’t allow us to adjust its motion settings, or “Action Smoothing” as it calls it, when it's in the Filmmaker Mode setting, and in the Movie preset it's set to the maximum level of 10.

Regardless of what setting we land on, there always seems to be something slightly off with the motion. Soldiers striding in the background of a shot in Civil War look floaty and over-smoothed (almost jelly-like in some cases), and there are some general oddities and visible artefacts to fast-moving objects.

With this in mind, we stick to Filmmaker mode, which seems to either tone things down drastically or turn it off completely, for the best, albeit still compromised, experience.

Switching to Apple TV for some Dolby Vision testing, the gap between these TVs widens, and the TCL begins to show what the extra money goes towards. The intro sequence to F1: The Movie looks good on the Amazon, with the rich colours and sharp details transferring over from our 4K Blu-ray testing, but the TCL introduces some serious pop to the image that steals our attention away from the Omni.

Headlights glow, and fireworks burst with more brightness and vibrancy on the TCL, and the additional contrast earns the TCL a bit more three-dimensionality here as well. Out of the two, the TCL appears to be clearly more competent with Dolby Vision.

Finally, we spin the Blu-ray release of Logan to see how the Omni handles upscaling, and it's surprisingly good news in this regard. Colours seem to be overemphasised, but detail levels and the general picture sharpness are both excellent, to the extent that the TCL can look slightly soft.

This is an especially promising sign, as this streaming-focused TV will undoubtedly be used to access a lot of lower-resolution content from various services, so a considered approach to upscaling is encouraging.

Sound

We’ve already hinted that the Omni QLED’s speakers aren’t the most technically advanced on the market, and they appear to be far behind the TCL’s Bang & Olufsen sound system on paper. The truth is that Omni QLED actually beats expectations in many ways.

Using our tried and tested chapter two stress test from Blade Runner 2049, we find some immediate flaws in the bass performance. The Amazon distorts heavily here, and while we presume that the Bass Enhancement sound mode may help here, it actually makes things worse. That being said, while the bass is quite waffly and flappy, it does dynamically build slightly better than the TCL, which can sound quite one-note in this regard.

Thankfully, when the baseline test begins, we find that the Omni QLED is more within its comfort zone, providing a fairly smooth and balanced approach to dialogue. There isn’t oodles of low-level dynamics on display here, but there is more richness and emotion to voices than the TCL, which can sound quite coarse and, at times, unpleasant.

Both TVs struggle when it comes to reaching high volumes; however, the Amazon sounds less strained when pushed to its maximum, all while sounding a touch more powerful and fuller too.

We’ve established that the Amazon doesn’t try to extend beyond its means by attempting any fancy Dolby Atmos processing, and we feel as though it's all the better for it.

While there isn’t a grand display of cinematic scale on show here, there is a nice breadth to the sound, and while height effects don’t extend beyond the limits of the screen, we get the impression that the Omni QLED is doing its best to place height effects with some verticality.

This is a prime example of a TV not trying to push the boundaries when it doesn’t have the capabilities, and while we’re all for being ambitious, we find that the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED creates a smoother, fuller and much nicer sound to listen to as a result.

Verdict

Amazon has delivered another compelling, affordable TV with the latest generation Fire TV Omni QLED. While it's not a massive upgrade over the original model, the upgraded panel leads to an impressive picture performance, and the unassuming built-in sound system proves that sometimes less really is more.

While the TCL C7K remains our preferred choice at this price range, thanks to its Mini LED panel and better gaming specs, the Fire TV Omni QLED is a solid alternative. And if you can hold out until one of Amazon’s many sales events, this TV will be well-worth considering thanks to its substantially reduced price.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 4

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