Skip to main content

We just tested Amazon’s newest Fire TV Omni — here’s why you should wait to buy it

The Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED (2025 edition) displaying the Fire TV smart platform home screen in a living room setting
(Image credit: Amazon)

In recent years, Amazon has crashed the affordable TV market with its own lineup of 4K TVs. These budget-friendly sets bear the Fire TV moniker and emphasize streaming and smart home integration over high-level performance.

Essentially, Amazon wants shoppers considering an affordable Roku TV to choose one of its Alexa-ready Fire TVs instead. And it's been ultra-successful at it.

That said, after having put the latest 2025 Amazon Fire TV Omni TV through our rigorous lab tests, I'm a little worried. If you’re in the market for the newest Fire TV Omni, you should probably wait a few weeks to seal the deal. Here’s why.

The Fire TV Omni's price will probably crash during Black Friday

Amazon is listing the 65-inch version of the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED for $849. There are no discounts attached to this listing — $849 is its full price.

If you're a certified Fire TV fan and you're absolutely, positively committed to buying Amazon's newest QLED right now, then far be it from me to get in the way. However, if you can hold off for a few weeks, you might be setting yourself up for some serious savings.

Amazon 65" Fire TV Omni 4K QLED TV
Amazon 65" Fire TV Omni 4K QLED TV: was $849 now $849 at Amazon

The newest version of Amazon's Fire TV Omni series isn't on sale yet, but you can still secure a 65-inch model for $849. It comes with built-in Fire TV streaming capabilities and built-in Alexa functionality. It taps an array of LED backlights with local dimming for improved contrast over TVs with edge-lit displays, but some TVs at or below the Omni's price range offer more-advanced display technology.

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events, Amazon slashes prices on a slew of new TVs. Typically, this includes many of the TVs in its own lineup, be them lower-end Fire TVs or more advanced sets like the Omni series.

If I were a betting person, I'd put down a considerable amount of cash on the newest Fire TV Omni crashing in price once Black Friday rolls around.

If I were a betting person, I'd put down a considerable amount of cash on the newest Fire TV Omni crashing in price once Black Friday rolls around. Having covered TV sales for over a decade, I know how to spot a future deal candidate. More importantly, having seen the test result for the Omni, I'd go so far as to say that its current price is too rich for what this TV's got going on under the hood.

At its current price, the Omni isn't as value-packed as the competition

A visual demonstration of the 2025 Amazon Fire TV Omni's full-array LED backlighting that reveals all of the layers of the TV's display

(Image credit: Amazon)

I was shocked to learn that the newest Omni opts for a basic QLED display with full-array local dimming instead of smaller, potentially brighter Mini-LEDs.

Don't get me wrong: I'd rather see a standard backlight with local dimming than be saddled with the sort of less-capable, edge-lit displays you might find on a dirt-cheap TV. But without Mini-LEDs, you've already lost a step to the competition.

To illustrate this, let's take a look at how the all-new Omni stacks up against a pair of budget-friendly Mini-LED TVs: the newest Roku Pro Series and the TCL QM6K.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Header Cell - Column 0

Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED (2025)

Roku Pro Series (2025)

TCL QM6K

SDR Brightness (10%, in nits)

499

434

688

HDR Brightness (10%, in nits)

510

821

695

Rec. 2020 Gamut Coverage

71.62%

80.66%

71.23%

Delta-E (lower is better)

6.9

2.6

1.0

Not only is the Omni dimmer on average compared to these two rival sets, but its out-of-the-box color accuracy (represented here by Delta-E) is worse than these TVs, too.

You might decide that the Fire TV interface and Omni's Alexa integration is the real draw, but if this is the case, I highly recommend waiting until Black Friday to see if the Omni does what I suspect it'll do: plummet in price. Then and only then will its value more closely align with its price.

Right now, the Google TV-powered, 65-inch TCL QM6K is just $599 at Best Buy, which is a full $250 lower than the 65-inch Omni. But my personal recommendation for folks looking to simplify streaming and secure Mini-LEDs is the Roku Pro Series. Currently, the 65-inch Roku Pro Series is $798 at Best Buy.

Roku 65" Pro Series 4K QLED TV
Roku 65" Pro Series 4K QLED TV: was $1,199 now $599 at Best Buy

The Roku Pro Series is an affordable Mini-LED TV that offers a simple-but-powerful backdrop for all of your streaming needs. Its quantum-dot color and Mini-LED backlighting make this TV a step above most TVs in its price range, including the all-new Amazon Fire TV Omni. Plus, there are enough gaming features here to satisfy both casual and dedicated gamers.

Not only is the discounted Roku Pro Series about $50 cheaper than the full-price Amazon Fire TV Omni, but there's a very good chance that the Pro Series will also crash in price on or around Black Friday. Keep an eye on it, if you're open to using a Roku TV instead of a Fire TV.

We'll be posting our full review of the newest Fire TV Omni in the coming weeks. From where I'm sitting, however, it's shaping up to be a TV whose value is wholly dependent on sale price. Keep that in mind if you're on the cusp of buying it.


Google News

Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.


More from Tom's Guide

Michael Desjardin
Senior Editor, TV

Michael Desjardin is a Senior Editor for TVs at Tom's Guide. He's been testing and tinkering with TVs professionally for over a decade, previously for Reviewed and USA Today. Michael graduated from Emerson College where he studied media production and screenwriting. He loves cooking, zoning out to ambient music, and getting way too invested in the Red Sox. He considers himself living proof that TV doesn't necessarily rot your brain.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.