Amazon's new QLED TV is its most advanced display yet — at $800, here's why it could be the 4K TV to beat

Amazon's Omni QLED is its latest smart TV model. Amazon

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• Amazon has announced its most advanced smart TV yet: the Fire TV Omni QLED Series.
• The display boasts high-end features, like expanded colors, a sensor to detect when viewers enter the room, and hands-free Alexa.
• Available in 65- and 75-inch sizes, the $800 65–inch model is particularly competitive for its price.

Amazon revealed its latest smart TV during a product launch event on September 28. The new model, called the Fire TV Omni QLED, is the next step in the company's Omni Series, and it boasts several upgrades while keeping built-in support for hands- free Alexa. 

Preorders are now available for the 65-inch ($800) and 75-inch models ($1,100), with an official launch date set for October 27. At a starting price of $800, the Omni QLED is competitively priced for its features, and it's poised to be a top contender in its class. 

This is Amazon's second go at a higher end TV, following the original Omni's release in 2021. Though its Alexa features were convenient, we were underwhelmed by the first-gen Omni's picture quality. This new Omni QLED, however, looks like it will address all of the old model's flaws while also boasting a lower list price at launch. 

After taking a look at the specifications released so far, we rounded up the five best features that are poised to make the Fire TV Omni QLED a true competitor in the smart TV market.

Amazon 65-inch Omni QLED Fire TV

Amazon’s new QLED TV boasts advanced features like local dimming, quantum dots, and hands-free Alexa. Preorders are available now and the display is set to start shipping on October 27.

$799.99 from Amazon

1. Wide color support with quantum dots

Amazon's Omni QLED uses quantum dots to produce an expanded range of colors. Amazon

The original Omni TV only supports displaying a standard range of colors. This level of performance is fine when you're watching regular HD videos, but many streaming services now offer 4K HDR movies and shows with a wider gamut of colors. The first-gen Omni simply can't display this content in all its glory. 

The new Omni QLED, however, adds a picture technology called quantum dots into the mix. These nanoparticles are integrated into the display to enable a wider range of colors. This means you'll be able to stream 4K HDR titles on services like Netflix and Disney Plus with all their colors on display.

2. Local dimming for deeper black levels

Local dimming allows the TV's LEDs to dim and brighten across specific areas of the display. Amazon

One of our biggest pet peeves when it comes to TVs is poor black level performance. If you've ever watched a movie in a dark room and noticed your display looking cloudy and washed out with uneven brightness during dark scenes, you know exactly what we're talking about. 

This is a common issue with TVs that use LCD panels, but there is a feature, called full-array local dimming, that can help fix it. With local dimming, a TV is able to dim and brighten in specific zones across the screen to enable deep blacks. 

The standard Omni TV does not have this feature, but the new Omni QLED does. The 65-inch model has 80 zones, and the 75-inch model has 96 zones. Generally, the more zones a display has, the more precise the dimming feature will be. 80 zones is solid for a display in this price range, so we're excited to see how local dimming improves the Omni's image quality. 

3. Comprehensive high dynamic range support

HDR10+ support offers improved contrast on the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED. Amazon

High dynamic range is one of the coolest features found on modern 4K TVs. The tech enables enhanced contrast with brighter highlights and darker shadows to create more realistic images. HDR videos are available on many streaming services — like Disney Plus, Netflix, and Prime Video — as well as 4K Blu-ray discs. 

The Omni QLED supports all of the major HDR formats, including Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR10+. The latter is most notable, since HDR10+ support was missing on the standard Omni model released in 2021. Amazon's own streaming service offers a lot of content in HDR10+, so the omission was especially odd. HDR10+ offers better scalability to your display's specific capabilities compared to HDR10, so the feature should make Amazon's HDR videos look better on the Omni QLED. 

That said, Amazon hasn't announced exactly how bright the Omni QLED can get just yet, and peak brightness is an important element of good HDR performance. With that in mind, we'll have to wait and see just how well the Omni QLED stacks up against the competition in this regard. 

4. Ambient smart TV experience with hands-free Alexa

The TV's ambient experience displays art and helpful information on the display when it's not in use. Amazon

For the new Omni QLED, Amazon is carrying over the standard Omni's built-in support for hands-free Alexa voice control. This means you can ask the TV to power on/off, adjust volume, open apps, search for content, and more without ever touching the remote. The display also offers all of the main digital assistant functions you'll find on other Alexa devices.

Amazon is also taking its smart TV performance further by adding new ambient features. The display can use its built-in sensors to detect when someone is in the room to switch into ambient mode to display art or helpful widgets with info like calendars and reminders.  

5. A truly competitive price 

The 65-inch Fire TV Omni QLED is priced competitively at $800. Amazon

One of our biggest complaints about the standard Omni TV was its high list price. The 65-inch model launched with an $830 price tag, which is simply too much when stacked up against other TVs with similar specifications.

The new Omni QLED looks to rectify this in a big way. Not only does it boast improved picture quality features, but it's also launching for a lower list price than the original Omni did. At $800 for the 65-inch model, the TV is priced competitively against other displays with similar specs, like the Hisense U7H, TCL 6 Series, and Vizio MQX. 

We'll have to wait until we can get hands-on with the new display to really determine how it stacks up to competitors in its price range, but on paper it's looking like a strong contender for the best TV value at $800.