Amazon’s own televisions have recently also become available in Germany. There are three series, with the Fire TV Omni-QLED series being the most premium. The televisions in the series cost between 600 euros for 43 inches and 1,000 euros for 65 inches. We have tested the largest model and answer the question of who it is worthwhile for – and where the strengths and weaknesses lie.
Amazon is trying to stand out from the competition, such as Hisense or Samsung, with the TV’s software. The Fire TV Omni QLED has extensive voice control that can be used hands-free – i.e. without having to press the Alexa button on the remote control. In addition, the TV comes with the new ambient mode – a kind of screen saver with person recognition and widgets.
The construction of the television is unproblematic, we only have to screw on the supplied, stable-looking metal feet. The design of the TV is high quality, the front frame has a metal look. The TV is quite thick, especially in the lower area, but this cannot be seen from the front.
Stable feet and space for a soundbar
The feet are high enough for a soundbar to fit under the TV. Alternatively, the TV can be mounted directly on the wall. The TV supports numerous HDR formats: HDR10+, Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG. The frame rate varies between 48 and 60 Hz, so the television is only suitable to a limited extent for gaming.
The Fire TV Omni QLED we tested has a 65-inch QLED panel with a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels (4K UHD) and Full Array Local Dimming with 80 lighting zones as backlighting. Thanks to the QLED technology, the TV has a better contrast than conventional LCD TVs with much better black levels, which, however, do not always come close to those of an OLED TV. Amazon does not provide official values for the contrast ratio, measurements from Rtings.com however, found it to be 61,477:1, which is very good.
However, we sometimes had to change the image settings to achieve good black values. By default, for example, the TV chose the brighter of the two modes for Dolby Vision content on Netflix, resulting in dark areas that were far too bright in dark scenes. If we manually switched the Dolby Vision mode from the automatic selection to the dark variant, the black levels improved immediately.
We also had to correct too many automatic settings for our taste in the other picture modes. For example, the picture was set too warm for our taste, and the standard display mode also had a sharpening function called Smart HDR activated. This is far too strong and also causes excessive saturation – we have basically deactivated the effect.
Soap opera effect can be turned off
In addition, automatic frame smoothing is activated in most screen modes, which should ensure smoother camera pans, but makes content look like soap operas. Although the effect is not as strong with the Fire TV Omni QLED when it is turned up to the max as with other manufacturers, it is still annoying. Anyone who buys the television should invest time in the screen settings – which users who are not at all familiar with may have difficulties with.