Fire TV 55" Omni QLED Series 4K UHD smart TV, Dolby Vision IQ, Fire TV Ambient Experience, local dimming, hands-free with Alexa

Upgraded to this TV from a Samsung about 6 years old. Liked the idea of the Alexa and fire tv integration. Came from primarily using Roku so Fire TV has been a little bit of adjustment but not that big of issue. The Bad - the Fire TV integration is a little slow at times, or bringing up settings lags. Not sure if it’s the TV or the other devices but have had some difficulty connecting to other Alexa devices for pairing. The layout of the fire tv is a little wonky, not hard to find something necessarily, but how things get arranged sometimes is a little odd. The Good - a lot of features with being able to use Alexa and Fire TV in general. If you use Alexa a lot or like using Alexa to organize schedules, activities, etc. then you’ll get a ton of use out of this TV. I personally like the TV speakers on it, much better than other flat screens I’ve had. I’ve seen other reviews complaining about brightness, but I haven’t experienced that, if anything I’ve had to turn the brightness down. I like the screen savers and be able to modify photos, landscapes, art, etc. It has all the major streaming services, and has performed well with video games. The Mixed - the display is good, definitely a step up from what I had. I think there are some other brands that probably offer a slightly better picture in the price range this is at, but it depends on what you’re watching. With live tv is where notice it the most that’s partially TV and partially the service you’re using to stream and internet. I don’t always get a 1080p picture but not every network broadcasts in 1080. If something does broadcast in Ultra HD or 4k the picture is fantastic. Could it be better, maybe, but fits my needs. I think what you lose in picture is made up with Alexa integration and being able to personalize the TV how you want. It could be viewed as good or bad but I do find myself modifying the display and sound to prefilled settings depending on what I’m watching quite a bit. That’s more preference than anything. I think that the movie setting for the picture display fits my preferences for watching a movie and others (sports, vivid, natural, etc). It does offer a lot of options for modifying which I like. I’d preface overall the picture is good it’s not like you lose a ton in quality, it’s marginal. Is it a straight out the box ready to go TV? No not really, yes technically you can just turn it on and go, but it would be recommended to explore the features and options it has. I’m happy with the purchase. If you want just a basic plug and play TV and you primarily utilize cable or satellite then I don’t know if this the route I’d go, would focus more on picture quality if going that route. With the 4 HDMI ports you could certainly accommodate that option but the built in features kind of get you that already, would just be redundant. I dropped cable so a one stop shop was more in the cards for me and this definitely fits that bill.

Great Fire TV for the price and features. Picture and sound are both good on the 50” version that still has local dimming. Some infrequent blooming but overall another TV that proves less dimming zones isn’t a detriment with proper processing. Peak brightness isn’t as high as more expensive TV’s but is still noticeable with HDR content and very acceptable at this price. HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision IQ all work well with good brightness range and color volume. Note: no Dolby Atoms for sound. I knew this, my TV is wall mounted high and tilted down slightly in a small bedroom and I have no need for a sound bar. NOTE: if using a sound bar with an optical cable, try turning the TV speakers off AND changing the output to PCM or Dolby Digital; and use HDMI 4 (ARC/eARC). This TV is a great value for my application and the budget I set for it. I’m just using the Fire TV interface and none of the HDMI inputs. So I can’t speak on Hue, Contrast and Color issues others may see. Out of the box, mine seems spot on and I currently have no want or desire to go in and adjust any settings based on the content from the various apps I’ve used. The interface isn’t as fast as the Fire TV Cube 3 or Fire Stick 4K Max but still pretty good overall. Note to new Fire TV users: the interface is slower when updates are being downloaded and installed. Check the Device Info for updates several times when first starting the TV. There will be several updates: some very big ones and 2 to 3 more little ones at the least. Keep checking back until it says that it’s “up-to-date”. THEN start to really enjoy the interface. Also the network connection and its QUALITY also plays a factor. This TV supports 2.4/5Ghz and wired (100Mbps). Ambient mode is great but just remember what the TV tells you. The power button on the remote TOGGLES between the Fire TV interface and ambient mode and that long pressing it turns the TV off. No issues with any widgets so far for me. Also, my TV easily recognizes when I enter and exit the room. If you have other Amazon products nearby that listen for “Alexa”, simply change the TV’s wake word to Computer, Amazon or Echo. Absolutely no issues with this. 1. I haven’t found any “inescapable” ads to get to content. You can “click” on these shortcuts if you want but you can just user your voice to search for titles instead. Like every other TV interface or box, third party apps have their own interfaces, sign-ins, ads, etc. that can’t be controlled by Amazon, Apple, Google, TCL, etc. Third party apps also place their own ads onto the TV platform they are on based on the deals they have in place. 2. The Fire TV interface is anything but complex. You can set it up anyway you want. Again, the various interfaces, profiles, etc. of third party apps are completely independent from Fire TV and on the makers of them and this would be the same on any other TV platform. 3. YMMV on the interface. Third party crashes and bugs are possible too. Third party interface issues need to be reported to their makers. They manage the various versions of their app across various platforms and sometimes they aren’t all equal in performance or features offered by platform. 4. It hasn’t quite been a decade for Apple to allow the removal of 1st party apps (2016) but maybe Amazon will allow certain apps to be deleted one day. But understand these devices are meant to interface with and promote Amazon products and services primarily. 5. The remote button press sounds can be turned off in options for the main interface. Don’t know about the Alexa Home Theater mode but if there isn’t a way, find out if there is one and if not ask that it be implemented. 6. Again, out of the box settings being what they may for everyone, at least there are detailed picture settings available for the TV and all of its inputs – all independent of one another to get things looking the way you personally prefer.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had such a bad purchase experience. I’ve had the 65” version of this tv in my cart for months waiting for a deal, checked it the other day and it said “early prime day deal”. The deal was so good I sprung for the 75” and I was ecstatic. To be fair it’s a beautiful tv, the picture is incredible, I love the smart home capabilities with Alexa, and I love having a huge tv for such a good deal. However, it has a major flaw. Setting the tv up and the initial update was difficult as it seemed to be having connectivity problems which was odd because I’ve had no issues with my internet otherwise, and I tried both on WiFi and connected with an Ethernet cable, but I eventually got passed the update and setup. As soon as I got to the Home Screen I went to download the apps I typically use. Netflix, Hulu, YouTube tv, YouTube, prime video, Spotify. None of them will install! I click the download button and it says “queued”. But it stays queued forever! It never installs. I researched online and it seems to be a somewhat common problem with this tv as other people are posting about this on forums, but none of the forums had a solution that worked. I tried all the troubleshooting steps I could find anyways and sure enough, nothing worked. So I had a friend who works in tech support look at it. After a couple hours of trying different things he says I got a lemon. So the next day I try going through the Amazon app to call their tech support and I only get error messages and can never actually call. Great. Now I decide to call customer service to see what my options are. I have no idea how I’d go about returning this massive tv as I don’t think I could even get it back in the packaging, and I KNOW I can’t drive it anywhere. The woman I spoke to from customer service tells me my options are exchanging it for another tv, OR I can be refunded my money WITHOUT returning the tv…then she puts me on hold and comes back changing her tune now telling me my only option is returning the tv for a refund, but they’ll send someone to pick it up. I’m thinking she meant someone that will actually come in my home, pack it up and take it away. I’m still not thrilled with the experience, and I was suspicious because I’ve never heard of that but she says she’ll email me instructions, so I agreed. Upon reading the instructions I realize I was correct, they don’t have a service where someone comes and packs it for you. The instructions were to box up the tv and leave it on my front step, after I told her I don’t think I’d be able to get this back in the box… This tv doesn’t do much without the apps. I know I can use other devices for these apps but that is not what I bought an Amazon fire tv for. My friends are telling me that’s why it was on such a good sale but the tv was not listed as refurbished or defective, it was listed as an early prime day deal. I’ve now canceled my return and have paid several hundred dollars for a very large monitor. I don’t think I’ve ever bothered to write a review in my life but this one takes the cake. Defective tv and horrible customer service. Stay away from Amazon fire tvs.

The tv is amazing and the picture quality is good but it does lag alot but when you ask alexa to do anything it basically cancels out the lag and does it quickly but using the remote its not the quickest to react I've had this tv for 7 months now and I can say it is really good I've bought the alexa pack with the sub and 2 echos I can say it make the tv 100 times better cause the tv speakers are dull and they honestly suck they are loud but you dont get any feel from them and the home theater set up really makes the experience enjoyable i use this tv for everything and even gaming it does very well but it only is 60 fps so most of the games I do play it does fall behind I haven't had any major issues with this tv that unplugging it didnt fix the only issues I've had was the remote not reading the phone app not working and the home theater glitches alot but all I do is reset the tv and everything works fine but these issues happen extremely often and but it happens so much im kinda expect it to glitch and crash when its working its great when it doesn't its very annoying to deal with it does consume alot of energy in Dolby vision mode I calculated it and its about 320 watts with that and gaming mode but on energy saving its only about 60 watts so it Definitely dies down its definitely a good tv because it also controls everything in my house if I had a choice I probably wouldn't buy it again simply for the glitches and they do not make a OLED version of the alexa tv yet so im just waiting on them to make a oled version to replace this one because I love the interface and everything i have set up the downside is it lagging alot

The negative reviews are correct, out of the box the picture has some noticeable issues. Once I was rid of the dreaded soap opera effect and tweaked the color settings, I was very happy. The picture on this TV beautiful and not too far off from my 65" QLED LG (also required calibration and settings changes out of the box). I'm not going to knock stars off for an advertisement or two on the home screen because I knowingly purchased an Amazon TV. If you don't want or like all things Amazon then buy another brand. Anyone that owns a Kindle or an Echo device knows the game. Back to the picture - be very wary of installing the 3rd party apps that are available. I installed one and lost my ability to change picture settings. The problem went away once I removed it. On to the last complaint I've read in the reviews. Honestly, unless you are shelling out thousands for the best TV out there, you're going to see some lag. It's a slower then my LG but not as bad as the Insignia I returned - that was truly awful. I really like the ability to easily connect it to my new Echo Pops that sit on our night stands. Its nice to hear sound next to me while I'm relaxing on the bed. If you are connecting to multiple Echo devices, during the process the TV will ask you if you would like to hear a sound preview - do it - it's awesome I also like the functionality of voice control with Alexa. If you purchase this TV, like to play with your tech and have reasonable expectations, it's a great TV for the money. If your standards won't budge, spend more or you won't be happy.

I’ve had the tv for a few days. I went from an try level 65” Samsung UHD 4k set to this. So entry level to entry level. Neither tv competes with the super expensive stuff. I like the firetv eco system and use youtube.tv as primary source for live tv. Hard to beat for the price. Is it perfect no, can it be brighter with more nits etc, yes. But I hate having to worry about always adjusting tvs, I just want to turn it on and produce a great image. This tv does that. Dolby vision content has looked stunning. High res 4k youtube videos are breathtaking. I really like the ambient feature. Really is the game changer. Makes for a very nice tv frame experience. A negative is the performance of youtube.tv app. Not as snappy as I like, little sluggish. No other issues with any other apps, just for some reason the youtube.tv app, isn’t running 100% perfect. I have a firetv 4k max that runs youtube.tv flawlessly. I’ve cleared cache and reinstalled the app, and its still not perfect. Just not as snappy as a I like. Other odd thing – the pro remote isn’t quite as responsive at times as the remote that shipped with the tv. Not sure why or what’s up, but the pro remote is a better device, the buttons are nearly silent. Hopefully these minor kinks get worked out.. Lastly, the tv literally is sitting above my fiber wireless gateway, for what ever reason the wifi adapter just doesn’t get maximum speeds. The speeds are adequate usually the high 100s or low 200s mbs, but I would think it would be closer to 500 etc. I’m going to play around with a usb 2.0 to ethernet adapter to see if that improves the youtube.tv issue. Nothing major, but just not as snappy as it should be to be honest. It’s not necessarily laggy, but should be much smoother. Its most noticeable when scrolling through the live channel guide. Word is youtube.tv is updating their compression as well any day now, and we hopefully see a visual improvement – that is the last thing, its like the old days when you used to watch SD content on a HD set, it looked terrible. Older shows not 1080 can get blurred out on the 75 inch set compared to a 65 inch tv. As I said before – netlfix, atv, prime, hulu etc content look great – youtube.tv needs some work….. TV also has non-centered vesa bracket – so I had to do re-enginerring to move the brackets up about 4-5 inches so I didn’t have to remove my mount from the wall – it worked, with some basic vesa extender brackets, to allow the tv to sit at a similar height as my samsung

I just received my 75 inch Amazon Fire TV QLED today and here are my thoughts: Delivery/Unboxing/Setup: Delivery was a breeze. It was delivered right into my apartment (I was home when they arrived). Unboxing was made easy by the box lifting off of the top of the TV instead of having to pull the TV out of the box. Setup was easy, it has prompts to connect to WIFI, etc., and it even lets you restore settings from another Fire TV if your prior TV was a Fire TV (which I did). Picture Quality: Really cannot complain here. I was able to adjust the picture and color settings to my liking, and the picture looks crisp with great color. There are so many different picture settings. Of course you will get varying degrees of quality based on how the content is broadcast (4k, UHD, HD, SD, etc.), but overall the picture quality is definitely much improved from my prior Insignia 58 inch Fire TV model from a few years ago. I turned on live sports and there is no stuttering/judder that I can see. The adaptive brightness seems to really help, especially with the display of colors vs. black as the black on my old Fire TV always looked more grey than black. Ambient Mode: A fantastic addition that I am sure I will enjoy more as time passes. This mode allows for artwork and/or widgets to be displayed on the TV all of the time when you are not watching it. It even gives you the choice of what types of artwork you want to display (such as Impressionist or Modernist) and what types of widgets (such as time, weather, or your calendar). You can ask Alexa to tell you about the artwork or simply click upwards on the remote and it will tell you the title and creator of the artwork. With how great the picture quality appears and how small of a border there is, it really does look like you have a painting on the wall. On par with the Samsung Frame at a fraction of the price. It is supposed to sense when you are in the room and turn off when you are out of the room, haven't tested that yet. Built In Alexa: A great feature that I didn't realize I was missing in my old Fire TV. I have plenty of Echo dots lying around the house that were able to connect to my prior TV, but I would have to turn around to speak at them and they never seems to control my TV very well. Having Alexa built in means I can speak right towards the TV and it can control all kinds of things like navigation programs, volume, turning the TV on/off, and telling your about the ambient artwork that is displayed. Internal Storage: This was a big issue for me with my last fire TV and it seems like it should be resolved with this one. My last Fire TV had less than 5GB of internal storage and it was always telling me that I was low on space and needed to delete apps. This TV has 11.32 GB of available internal storage, so more than double my last fire TV. Very happy about that. There is also a USB port to add external storage, but it remains to be seen which apps it will allow you to put on external storage as my last TV wouldn't let most apps be stored externally. Inputs/Ports: The TV has the following inputs/outputs: 1 Ethernet/LAN, 4 HDMI ports (1 of which is an HDMI (eARC) port), 1 Antenna/Cable, 1 USB, 1 IR emitter port, 1 Audio out/Headphone, and 1 Optical audio output. I connected my soundbar via the HDMI (eARC) port and it is great because I can control the soundbar volume with the TV remote or with Alexa. The TV also came with an IR emitter in the box. Remote: It comes with the standard Alexa voice remote, which is similar to the remote for my last Insignia Fire TV. This one has a "Settings" button which makes navigation to the settings menu much easier. Batteries are included. Wish it came with the Pro remote, but I have already ordered that to pair with this TV. Overall: 5 Stars. If you are looking for a TV with the familiarity and ease of use of the Fire TV and Alexa ecosystem, with great picture quality for a TV of this size/price, then I think this is a great value! Will update if anything changes!

Okay, so what’s good about this? It has built-in Alexa, so you can use voice navigation entirely to navigate the menus, if you bother to learn how to phrase your request so Alexa can process it. What’s bad? Pretty much everything else. There is only about 1 GB of onboard RAM, so even with a good WiFi connection you will get stuttering on content that is full 4K with full 4:4:4 color sampling and 60 fps. Even at only 30 fps, any time there is a large amount of content changing on screen, it will start stuttering. Takes a few minutes to build up to the point where the buffer overflows and it starts dropping content, but it happens reliably. If you try to get around this problem by using it as a dumb host for come other content via one of the HDMI inputs, the TV is missing the hardware to do color sampling at full 4:4:4. To put this in perspective, even the cheapest 4K set you can get from Walmart for about $150 (comparing Black Friday deals to Black Friday deals) will still do color sampling at 4:4:4 because that is industry standard for anything that claims to be a 4K TV set. The result is that while you technically are lighting up 4 thousand pixels in one orientation, you are only using 2 thousand unique colors — a 4:2:0 sampling automatically reduces clarity for colors by half. This results in Joe and Jane Consumer believing that the color fidelity and resolution on the cheapo FireTV set is better than on whatever device they’ve plugged into it and driving Mr. And Mrs. Consumer to preferentially watch content on the ad-ridden FireTV. Underhanded and anti-competitive behaviors by a company name that used to mean something. Another result of this reduced color sampling is that you THINK you don’t need as much processing power or storage, which is probably how Amazon thinks they can get away with reducing RAM to nearly nothing (less than a standard Android phone) while running a heavily modded version of Android on a television that’s driving 2-4 times as many pixels as a standard Android phone. Math doesn’t math that way. In practical design terms, this doesn’t actually work and nobody with a basic understanding of the basic storage overhead of a full Android operating system (translation: the base amount of storage that actually running the operating system takes when it is performing no operations other than existing) would have dared put these parts together in a TV and called it Functional. Yeah, definitely smells like it was designed by committee. Further, if you try to implement one of the secondary profiles, it uses a bonkers way of creating that profile: it partitions the onboard storage and installs a new complete instance of the operating system on the new partition, reducing the storage space available for everybody to a fraction of the whole. Guys, even WINDOWS isn’t that inefficient. DOS wasn’t that inefficient. The only place where that kind of storage paradigm has any kind of applicability is in secured terminals used by the military or some DoD contractors. I doubt you are going to be launching massless from a FireTV, no matter what the ads tell you. Problem is, you probably aren’t going to be launching many apps either, the way this thing is designed. The menu is in 1080p, so on a “4K” it looks blurry and unpolished, made worse by the slow responsiveness to the remote. There is banding and wavering if you are running anything at both high-res and high-fps, which sounds like it should be Sports, but is actually showing up in Bridgerton and the like. The integration with Alexa is bonkers, so if you have any other Alexa device in the room, turn off the microphone or just take it out of the room. It will prompt you to please connect it to an Echo device so you can control the TV with your voice, which means the operating system has not been updated to reflect the onboard Alexa capabilities and following the guidance will lead to a gigantic mess with competing Alexas both thinking you were talking tot the other device and none of them following the command. Just… don’t. The operating system gets the barest of tweaks maybe once every few months, and none of it in the past year of owning this albatross has done the least to improve things to even Walmart standards. To think that Amazon has fallen below Walmart… I shudder. Basically, avoid this unless you are half blind, don’t intend to connect anything via HDMI, not easily frustrated, and highly technical with your Alexa setup. Wait, doesn’t that eliminate the entire target demographic? Ope.