One for All Suburbs Indoor TV Antenna

You can't always tell a book — or an antenna — by its cover: The One for All Suburbs amplified antenna comes sheathed in an obsidian-black, plastic fuselage and from all appearances promises top-flight performance. 

Unfortunately, in our tests the $49 One for All Suburbs was a low-altitude performer, delivering basic TV reception, but not much more.

Ultimately, this one might not make our round-up of the best TV antennas, but it's got undeniable style and a simple, intuitive setup process.

One for All Suburbs Antenna: Design

The Suburbs antenna has a clever sound-bar style form factor, mimicking a common TV accessory so that it tends to blend in with most home TV setups. The One for All Suburbs antenna also has three LED signal reception indicators and an in-line power amplifier to boost incoming signals.

For placement, the One for All Suburbs can lie flat, such as underneath a tabletop TV or be hung on a wall. And as with most antennas today, it is compatible with the latest NextGen TV (ATSC 3.0) broadcasts with improved picture and sound.

One for All Suburbs Antenna: Setup

The One for All Suburbs comes with everything you'll need to tune in over-the-air broadcasts, including a 6-foot coaxial cable to connect to your TV and a DC power adapter to plug in the amplifier. Unfortunately, both cables are permanently attached to the antenna, which limits how far away you can place antenna from your TV. 

To help you find the best position (given the 6-foot restriction) there are three LEDs that go green when you're in range of a TV signal. We tried hanging the antenna in our test location but actually determined that it received a stronger signal when in the lying flat position. 

One for All has its own app, Channelchecker.com, which will tell you how many stations are in your Zip code area, but it doesn't point out the location of specific broadcast towers. You can also see what local over-the-air stations are available in your area by visiting a site such as Antennaweb.org. 

One for All Suburbs Antenna: Performance

Using the NextGen TV capable tuner on our test Hisense U8 Series TV, initial scans with the One for All Suburbs antenna turned up a total of 30 channels. In order to determine which of those were watchable we auditioned each one and found that many were too weak or pixelated to tune in.

While the local Fox affiliate was viewable, for example, and many of the local retro sub-channels running programs like Secret Squirrel were entertaining, we couldn't get the local NBC station, whose picture was too jittery to watch. We also couldn't tune in the tricky ABC station in our area, and missed out on popular channels such as Telemundo. 

After eliminating all the stations that were too noisy or didn't have a picture at all, we found the One for All Suburbs antenna only captured a total of 19 viewable channels. To see if we could improve on this performance, even though all three signal indicators were illuminated, we tried it in various positions but found laying it flat in our test location produced the best results.

One for All Suburbs Antenna: Verdict

As good as its design is, the One for All Suburbs just didn't deliver the same level of performance as other TV antennas we've tested in the past.

That said, while you might be tempted by the slick design of the One for All Suburbs antenna, there are several alternative models available that offer better reception for a better price: The $25 Channel Master FLATenna, for example, was one of our top performers tuning in over 60 stations, and for style conscious buyers there's the $25 Mohu Vibe amplified antenna, which tuned in over 50 channels in our testing.

If aesthetics are all you care about, the One for All Suburbs might be a nice addition to your living room decor, however, most folks looking for the best TV antenna should opt for one of the aforementioned models instead.

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