With Amazon Prime Day happening on July 11-12 and early Prime Day deals already starting to trickle out, you might be wondering if now is the right time to buy a new TV at a substantial discount. Here’s a tip before you get swept up in Prime Day mania: Amazon may have some great deals in the works, but many of those will apply to its own Amazon Fire TV-branded sets. That’s not to say you won’t find sweet Prime Day TV deals on other brands, but the greatest cost savings are reserved for the Fire TV lineup. Which begs the question: How do Amazon's Fire TVs stack up against the best 4K TVs?
Fire TV facts: what you need to know
Amazon’s 4K Fire TV family consists of three lines, the Omni QLED, Omni, and 4-Series. The Omni QLED models were introduced in late 2022, so they are relative newcomers on the 4K TV scene.
- Omni QLED: available in 43, 50, 55, 65, 75-inch screen sizes
- Omni: available in 43, 50, 55, 65, 75-inch screen sizes
- 4-Series: available in 43, 50, 55-inch screen sizes
Amazon’s Omni QLED Fire TVs offer advanced features like full-array local dimming LED backlights (in the 50-inch and larger screen sizes, with up to 96 zones on the 75-inch model), Quantum Dots, and Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive high dynamic range support. They also offer a Fire TV Ambient Experience that allows for artwork and photos to be displayed when the set is not in use, along with Amazon Widgets such as calendar, shopping list, and weather options.
Amazon’s Omni and 4-Series Fire TVs are designed for cost-conscious viewers. They use a more basic direct-lit LED backlight and HDR support generally tops out at HDR10. Bypassing those features lets Amazon sell its TVs at a strikingly low price, with the 50-inch 4-series model currently available for $309.99 in a fantastic early Prime Day deal (Prime members only).
The key difference between the step-up models and 4-Series is the presence of a built-in far-field mic array in the Omni QLED and Omni TVs that gives you hands-free control using Alexa voice commands. While both series come with a remote featuring a built-in mic that also provides voice control, the Omni QLED and Omni series can be operated entirely using just spoken commands. (You can switch the mic off if you prefer.)
Being Fire TVs, the Omni QLED, Omni, and 4-Series use Amazon’s Fire TV smart interface. This was updated in late 2021 with a new Home Dashboard feature that lets you control smart devices in your home through the TV’s screen. Fire TVs can also connect to Amazon’s Echo speakers wirelessly, giving you the option to easily – and inexpensively – improve their audio quality.
The Fire TV interface received additional updates in 2022 designed to overhaul and streamline discovery and search.
Amazon models aren’t the only Fire TVs – Hisense, Toshiba, Insignia, and Pioneer also sell sets that use the Fire TV interface. Like the Amazon-branded sets, some of these will also be sold at a steep discount on Prime Day, so keep your eyes on the prize.
Should you buy an Amazon Fire TV?
Given the choice deals Amazon is spreading around, you may be very tempted to click the Buy Now button on a Fire TV. But before you do that, first read our Omni series review. Amazon’s set earned four stars for its bright, colorful images and good overall value,but it had some screen uniformity issues (not uncommon with direct-lit LED models) and mediocre audio performance.
We also have a 55-inch Omni QLED TV currently in for testing, so we'll soon be able to give you a heads-up on that model as well.
If you’re simply out to get a 4K TV with good basic picture quality and a capable smart TV interface for streaming, the Omni and 4-series look like decent bets, while the Omni QLED series should deliver better picture performance, especially in terms of brightness and black uniformity due to the local-dimming backlight. But spending more on a TV from a budget brand like TCL, Hisense, or Vizio may be a better bet, and some models we've reviewed like the TCL 6-Series (2022) and Hisense U8H could be seeing Prime Day discounts as well.
Early prime day Amazon Fire TV deals
