Furrion Aurora 4K outdoor TV review: Expand your outdoor entertainment capability

Our homes function as a place for us to eat, sleep, and relax with our families. But for many of us, our homes are also a place to entertain and host friends and extended family. Entertaining people can be a task, and finding areas in your home to do that, can also be challenging. So buying a device like the Furrion Aurora Partial Sun outdoor smartTV may be a fun investment for those seeking to bring their indoor entertaining outdoors.

Outdoor TVs aren’t new; they have been available for a while now. But it hasn’t been until recently that they have become a little more affordable. For the average user, this is a big deal. With the state of the economy today, people are seeing less disposable income, so luxuries like an outdoor TV may not even be on their radar. If you are considering an outdoor TV and have disposable income, then the Furrion Aurora Partial Sun outdoor smartTV might interest you.

Specifications

Model #	FDUP55CSA
Max resolution	3840 x 2160
Weatherproof	TV: IP54
Viewing angle	178 degree / 178 degree
Brightness	Partial Sun: 750 nits Full Shade: 400 nits Full Sun: 1000 nits
Sound system	TV: 2 x 8W
VESA	43″: 200 x 200mm 50″: 200 x 400mm 55″: 400 x 200mm 65″: 400 x 200mm
Connection	HDMI Inputs: 3 3.5mm Earphone Outputs: 1 Antenna (RF) Inputs: 1 USB Inputs: 2 Optical Outputs: 1
Dimensions	43″: 38.40 x 23.07 x 4.59″ (976 x 586 x 117mm)) 50″: 44.40 x 26.45 x 4.51″ (1128 x 672 x 115mm) 55″: 48.93 x 29.06 x 4.25″ (1243 x 739 x 105mm) 65″: 57.56 x 33.93 x 4.53″ (1463 x 862 x 115mm)
Outdoor Ready	Watch the morning news, sports, or an evening movie in your backyard! This outdoor television is specially designed for outside areas such as patios or gazebos.
Streaming Ready	The Furrion Aurora outdoor TV has integrated smart functionality that allows effortless streaming of your favorite shows and movies – no additional streaming device is required.
Screen Protection	For enhanced protection against scratches and impacts, the screen is shielded with IK08-rated tempered glass.
Weatherproof	Rain or shine, enjoy year-round outdoor entertainment with the IP54-rated TV that withstands UV rays, rain, snow, dirt, dust, insects, and humidity, as well as extreme operating temperatures from -24°F to 122°F.
Enhanced Viewing	The 4K ultra-high definition picture of this outside TV and HDR10 provides vivid colors and deep, rich contrast to create a better viewing experience.
Warranty	Two-Year Free Warranty
Certification	FCC
Available Sizes	43″ | 50″ | 55″ | 65″
Pricing	$1899 | $2349 | $2549 | $3199

What’s In The Box

• 1x Furrion Aurora™ TV
• 4x Wall Mount Screws
• 4x Screw adaptors
• 1x RCA cable

Design

The design of the Furrion Aurora 4K is not all that far off from a typical smart TV made by anyone else. The most significant difference here is that Furrion had to build a more robust chassis to protect the display and internals.

The chassis manages to make the IP54 rating allowing Furrion Aurora to be used outdoors. If you’re unfamiliar with IP ratings, here is a quick explanation. Firstly, IP means Ingress Protection. The first number (5) references “intrusion protection,” and (5) protects against dust with limited ingress and no harmful deposits. The second number (4) references “moisture protection,” and (4) protects against water splashed from all directions, with limited ingress permitted. Below is an excellent chart provided by DSMT that you can reference for future use.

FIRST DIGIT: SOLIDS	The first digit indicates the level of protection that the enclosure provides against access to hazardous parts (e.g., electrical conductors, moving parts) and the ingress of solid foreign objects.
Level	Object size protected against	Effective against
0	Not protected	No protection against contact and ingress of objects
1	>50mm	Any large surface of the body, such as the back of the hand, but no protection against deliberate contact with a body part.
2	12.5mm	Fingers or similar objects.
3	2.5mm	Tools, thick wires, etc.
4	1mm	Most wires, screws, etc.
5	Dust Protected	Ingress of dust is not entirely prevented, but it must not enter in sufficient quantity to interfere with the satisfactory operation of the equipment; complete protection against contact.
6	Dust Tight	No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact.
SECOND DIGIT: LIQUIDS	Protection of the equipment inside the enclosure against harmful ingress of water.
Level	Object size protected against	Effective against
0	Not protected	———————————————————————————-
1	Dripping water	Dripping water (vertically falling drops) shall have no harmful effect.
2	Dripping water (vertically falling drops) shall have no harmful effect.	Vertically dripping water shall have no harmful effect when the enclosure is tilted at an angle up to 15° from its normal position.
3	Spraying water	Water falling as a spray at any angle up to 60° from the vertical shall have no harmful effect.
4	Splashing water	Water splashing against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effect.
5	Water projected by a nozzle (6.3mm) against enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects.	Water projected by a nozzle (6.3mm) against enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects.
6	Powerful water jets	Water projected in powerful jets (12.5mm nozzle) against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effects.
7	Immersion up to 1m	Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the enclosure is immersed in water under defined conditions of pressure and time (up to 1 m of submersion).
8	Immersion beyond 1m	The equipment is suitable for continuous immersion in water under conditions which shall be specified by the manufacturer. Typically, this will mean that the equipment is hermetically sealed. The manufacturer shall specify; it can mean that water can enter but only in such a manner that it produces no harmful effects.

Okay, now you know this outdoor TV was built to be used outdoors. Our Furrion Aurora review unit was the 55″ version. I had initially requested the 65,” and I am glad they sent the smaller one. The 55″ was big enough for our outdoor space, and the 65″ would have been too much.

At first glance, the Furrion Aurora looks like every other smart TV. The Aurora is enclosed in the weatherproof housing that is matte black. The materials feel like steel, but it may be aluminum. One thing is sure; the Furrion Aurora is heavy. Due to the weatherproof housing, the TV is heavier than your typical 55″ indoor TV.

The front of the Furrion Aurora is pretty bland, the display, LED indicator, Furrion logo, and IR receiver are all you notice here. The TV’s right side, top, and bottom have nothing notable to discuss. The left side houses basic controls that are useful if you don’t have the remote. Those controls are covered in a weatherproofing material and are as follows:

• Power
• Volume Down
• Volume Up
• Channel Down
• Channel Up
• Menu
• Source

The back of the TV is also black and rugged. There are Wi-Fi antennas located on the top of the back housing. These will help the TV get a better wireless connection if you have some distance from your router. The VESA mounting points are also located on the back.

Also, on the back, you will find all of your I/O under a sealed, weatherproof door. The door closes with a gasket around it and clamps down with thumbscrews. There is a small section at the bottom of the door where cables can be routed out. The design of the door makes it, so water is channeled away and from that opening. Finally, behind the door, you will find the following ports:

• RF In
• HDMI 3
• USB DC5V – 500mA
• RCA Audio in R-L
• RCA Video in
• Optical Out
• LAN
• Headphone Jack
• HDMI 1
• HDMI 2 ARC
• USB DC5V – 500mA

The Furrion Aurora can be VESA mounted to your house or exterior area where VESA will work. But you can also purchase various mounts to make it work. I did not want to mount it to the house and drill holes into my siding, so I opted for a metal stand. I attached that stand to my deck rail with pressure-treated lumber, which has worked well. I think you can be pretty creative when mounting the Furrion Aurora. You will need at least two people to set this up, maybe three, depending on how you go about it.

Finally, let’s talk about the remote. Furrion provides a silicon cover for the remote, which makes it primarily weatherproof. I put it on but never left the remote outdoors. The silicon cover takes a bit of pulling and tugging to get on correctly, but that is the point; it’s nice and snug.

The remote looks like a basic TV remote, and I thought it was too busy with many buttons. I prefer simple remotes like Samsung’s and Apple’s remotes. Some functional buttons on the remote include shortcuts to Netflix and Prime Video. But I do wish it were a bit more straightforward. You can opt to download and use the LG Thin Q app and control the Furrion Aurora with your smartphone; it’s a decent option.

Overall, the Furrion Aurora looks like any other TV but also does not look like any other TV. It is heavy, which is perfectly normal due to the weatherproof housing. It’s a straightforward design and steps it up to eleven because of its weatherproof rating. My only real complaint is the design of the remote; it could have been simpler.

Furrion Aurora 4K Quick Video Overview

Display

We will get to the software later, but when I powered up the Furrion Aurora, the first thing I noticed was that it was running webOS. Given that it’s running LG software, it was obvious to me that it also had an LG display. The display is covered with another layer of weatherproof glass, so you can’t touch the display underneath.

The display is not OLED. Instead, you’re getting an Edge-Lit UHD LED LG panel on the Furrion Aurora. OLED would probably not be advisable for an outdoor TV, as LED provides better backlighting and nits for this application.

This display is full 4K with HDR10 and is classified as “partial sun” with 750 nits. The display does what is advertised, but if I had to choose, I would have gone with the 1000 nits “full sun” display. It does well in partial sun in scenes that are bright and vibrant. It is a bit hard to see for dark and more contrasty scenes in partial sun.

The Furrion Aurora display has a 60Hz refresh rate that does just fine with standard movie and TV content, but gamers may not enjoy this very much. Though I don’t see many gamers would want to leave their consoles outside in the elements. I didn’t test gaming, but connecting pretty much anything with an HDMI port to the Aurora is possible.

The colors are not as vibrant or deep as an OLED, but the colors look excellent. Contrast is good as well, and given the outdoor conditions, at least to me, it was not a huge deal, especially when watching during the day. Whites are clean and crisp, and the detail is excellent in 4K.

The summer here in Missouri was sweltering with temperatures well over 100F, so as much as I wanted to test the Furrion Aurora during the day, it had to wait until recently as temperatures have come down. This display performs outstandingly well during the day when not in direct sunlight. It performs excellently in the shade and struggles slightly in direct sunlight.

The display was outstanding at night, and watching movies in the evenings was a pleasure, though the bugs were a pain in the butt. Overall, the Furrion Aurora display performed exceptionally well, with its only real problem being direct sunlight. I think going for the “direct sunlight” upgrade is worth it.

Setup

I’ll cover two set up’s in this section. Setting up the Furrion Aurora physically and setting up the interface.

Physical setup is not complicated, but you need two people at minimum. We ended up using three people to be as safe as possible. As I mentioned earlier, you can set the Furrion Aurora up using a VESA mount or any number of ways. We chose a “Stanley tabletop TV stand mount,” which we secured to our deck railing using pressure-treated wood and bolts. Doing it this way kept holes out the side of my house and made it so I could move the TV around.

Software setup is also straightforward. It has been years since I used webOS or LG TVs, so this was new to me. Once you power up, the TV will prompt you to run through the setup, including wireless networks. It is a step-by-step process laid out very well, and no one should have an issue getting through it.

webOS is not unlike the other TV interfaces out there. There are many settings to tweak your TV color, brightness, sound, and more. There is a user interface where your apps live, and it is easy to navigate. There is an app store to get more streaming apps. Everything is laid out well and easy to navigate. Once the initial setup is done, everything else is a breeze.

Setting up the Furrion Aurora is straightforward. The hardest part will be finding a place to mount it and mounting it. Recommending three or more people for that job, more hands make it easier.

Software

As I mentioned, the Furrion Aurora is running webOS. This is LG’s interface and has been around for a long time. The last time I used it was probably six or more years ago, so it has changed. I was impressed with the improvements LG put into their UI because it was awful the last time I used webOS.

webOS is not unlike Samsung’s UI. When you hit the home button, a dashboard/home screen bar pops up. Here you can find various functions and your favorite apps. There is a search function, Home Dashboard, TV input, Recents, Content Store, and all your favorite apps.

Settings take you to your TV settings, where you can make all your TV adjustments, and apps take you to the app you pick, easy stuff. Home Dashboard pulls up your TV inputs, including Live TV, sound outputs, connected storage, IoT devices, and mobile connections.

It’s all very straightforward stuff and easy to navigate. The LG Thin Q app can be used as well. You can use the app as a remote, mirror your phone, show off videos and photos, navigate through the apps on the TV, and change inputs.

Overall, this is all very easy and helpful stuff, and if you don’t want to use the interface on the Furrion Aurora, you can connect a Firestick or Chromecast to the back and use that instead.

Sound Quality

The sound quality on the Furrion Aurora is decent, not great, at least the way we had it set up. I think that had we mounted it against the wall; the sound would have deflected better down and out toward us. But because we had it mounted on the deck railing, the sound was not returning to us. So be aware of how you mount this TV for optimal sound.

The sound from these speakers is good if you can get the positioning right. I think picking up one of Furrion’s outdoor soundbars is your best bet. While the sound is good, a soundbar will up the whole game here.

Performance

The Furrion Aurora weather performance has been excellent. It has survived the sweltering summer heat of over 100F for at least six weeks. It has been through several heavy rainstorms and high winds with no damage. Winter is coming, and it will be interesting to see if it holds up then, though the winters in southern Missouri are not as harsh as in Chicago.

Furrion Aurora 4K Outdoor TV Gallery

Price/Value

The Furrion Aurora starts at US$1,899 and runs up to US$3,199, depending on the size you pick. Given that you are getting weatherproofing and some impressive specifications, I think the Aurora is well worth the investment. There are other options on the market, but many are considerably more expensive. The value is indeed here.

Wrap Up

Buying an outdoor TV is probably something very new for many of you. While they have existed for a while, they haven’t been accessible in terms of pricing. The Furrion Aurora brings the price down to a more attainable position for many, and I think they did an excellent job of providing excellent value to the price.

I know my needs work section looks heavy down in the review box, and there are some minor issues concerning setup and weight, but these are expected. So while the needs work section looks heavy, these are really unavoidable points that may or may not sway your choice to buy.

My major gripes are mostly subjective, like the remote being too busy. Sound quality is the only real issue, but then that will depend on how you set up the TV in the first place. I think the Furrion Aurora is one to consider heavily if you’re looking for an outdoor TV.

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