A year after Amazon started promoting its own TVs, it is expanding its lineup with more expensive and advanced options. The Fire TV Omni QLED series, announced yesterday at Amazon’s invite-only hardware event, shows the tech giant is raising the bar with quantum dot displays and more advanced smart home features.
The first Amazon-branded TVs arrived last September, ranging from the more budget-friendly 4 Series, which originally cost $370 for 43 inches, to the Omni Series, which originally cost $1,100 for the largest 75-inch model. 4K TVs aren’t particularly unique. These are HDR TVs with HDMI 2.1 support, eARC for soundbars and variable refresh rates from 48 to 60 Hz at 4K resolution. Amazon Alexa is also present, of course. Alexa can work when TVs are turned off, turn on voice control, and work with Alexa Routines, but is not Amazon exclusive to modern TVs.
Amazon is putting a little more emphasis on image quality with the Omni QLED series; however, it still eschews specific claims such as brightness or color gamut specifications. The new 65- and 75-inch TVs use Samsung’s Quantum Dot QLED Display technology for claimed color boost, as well as full local dimming for better contrast.
We won’t know how well local dimming works on Omni QLED TVs until we see them in person, but they at least include enough dimming zones to be comparable to the biggest players in the TV market like Samsung. Samsung’s 2022 65-inch QLED TV, the Q80B, has 48 dimming zones, but carries a higher MSRP ($1,200), according to Rtings reviewer.
Amazon could cram a lot more dimming zones into the new displays if it opted for mini-LED backlighting. Samsung’s 65-inch QN95B (MSRP $ 2,600), for example, is reported to have 720 dimming zones with Mini LED backlighting. And Amazon is not yet entering the more expensive Micro LED or OLED territory.
Amazon has also added support for Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive, which uses the TV’s ambient light sensor to adjust brightness based on room lighting. Like previous Amazon TVs, the new ones support both HDR10+ and HLG HDR.
Sensors, widgets and pictures
Amazon’s latest TVs also include features wrapped under the Amazon banner introduced as Ambient Experience. It all starts with presence sensors that can turn on the TV when a person enters the room.
“Instead of a blank screen, the TV uses the power of Alexa so you can see useful information, control your smart home, listen to or discover new content, and view art or family photos,” Amazon explained in the announcement.
He pointed to a catalog of 1,500 “gallery-quality art”and images offered to users for display on TVs, albeit not in the art of Samsung’s The Frame TV.
For educational purposes, users can ask Alexa questions about catalog images or even questions about personal photos, such as when the photo was taken.
The new TVs can also display Alexa widgets like calendar, reminders and notes and control supported smart home devices like Amazon Ring. It’s like having a large sized Echo Show 15, including with audio streaming apps like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Amazon’s announcement said that you can disable the TV’s far-field microphone with a toggle, as well as disable other Ambient Experience features such as presence detection.
Amazon’s QLED TVs will go on sale October 27 for $800 for 65 inches and $1,100 for 75 inches.