Amazon reveals all-new Smart TVs with £300 discount

Amazon is launching three custom-designed Smart TVs in the UK. To celebrate the launch, Amazon is offering up to £300 off the price of its brand-new TV hardware. As well as the exclusive discount, you’ll also be one of the first people in Europe to take delivery of these Fire TV-fuelled TVs, which will only be available in the UK and Germany for now.

Amazon is bringing three new Smart TV models to its digital shelves – the price-conscious Fire TV 2-Series, Fire TV 4-Series with 4K Ultra HD resolution, and flagship Fire TV Omni QLED Series.

While the Fire TV 4-Series and Fire TV Omni QLED Series were previously available in the United States and Canada, the UK release will bring new screen sizes, software improvements, and optimisations. Meanwhile, the Fire TV 2-Series is a completely new line of TVs from the online retailer, starting from just £249.99 – although that price tag has dropped as low as £169 in the preorder sale!

Until now, those who wanted to stream via Fire TV had two options.

First up, you could invest in a dedicated set-top box from Amazon to plug into an existing TV, such as Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Stick 4K Max, or Fire TV Cube. Elsewhere, you could buy a television from a manufacturer that had partnered with Amazon – like Hisense, Toshiba, and TLC – to bring Fire TV as the built-in software experience.

However, the Fire TV 2-Series, Fire TV 4-Series, and Fire TV Omni QLED Series mark the first time that you’ll be able to watch live television, play games, and stream on-demand shows on hardware and software designed by the teams at Amazon.

Preorders for Amazon’s custom-designed Smart TVs are available now, with discounts of up to £300. All of the brand-new Fire TV tellies will begin shipping to customers on April 12, 2023, apart from the 43″, 50″, and 55″ Fire TV Omni QLED Series, which will be sent out to customers on June 1, 2023.

Want to know more? We’ve got a breakdown of the differences between these all-new Fire TV models below.

The Fire TV 2-Series is the budget model in the all-new lineup, starting from just £249.99. For a limited time, Amazon has slashed the price of this budget Smart TV down to just £169.

That discount is only available for preorders. The 2-Series has two screen sizes available – 32-inch, which has a resolution of 720p, and 40-inch, which can display full 1080p High Definition (HD) content.

Amazon has baked-in support for popular formats like HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Digital Audio. All Fire TV 2-Series models arrive with an Alexa Voice Remote in the box, which lets you load-up TV shows, films, apps, and live channels with a quick voice command.

Alexa can also perform all of the same functions as Alexa-powered smart home gadgets, like an Amazon Echo, including adjusting smart lightbulbs, checking the latest headlines and weather, displaying a live video feed from your Ring doorbell, telling jokes, ordering taxis and takeaways, and more.

Fire TV 2-Series offers the smallest screen size of any of Amazon’s custom-designed TVs – perfect for those who want a smaller telly for a kitchen or child’s bedroom. However, those who want the ultimate viewing experience should look to upgrade to the pricier Fire TV 4-Series.

The Fire TV 4-Series arrives with a 4K Ultra HD resolution panel – that’s 4x the number of pixels found in the 1080p display on the 40-inch Fire TV 2-Series.

Of course, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got access to content that takes advantage of those extra pixels. For example, while Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Disney Plus all offer 4K Ultra HD as standard to all subscribers (as long as your telly and broadband connection supports the resolution), Netflix only offers 4K Ultra HD to those subscribed to its most expensive tier, and NOW (formerly NOW TV) maxes-out at 1080p with all live and on-demand streaming no matter how much you’re willing to pay!

Amazon has included support for both HDR10 and HLG standards to display High Dynamic Range (HDR) content from streamers and live channels.

As above, Amazon bundles an Alexa Voice Remote in the box with all Fire TV 4-Series models, so you can search boxsets, which lets you search for TV shows, blockbusters, actors and directors with a quick voice command. There’s no far-field microphone array built into the Fire TV 4-Series, so you’ll need to hold down on the blue microphone button on the remote to speak to the chatty AI assistant.

The Alexa baked into the custom-designed TV is the same assistant found in the Amazon Echo, so can perform all of the same tasks – from adjusting Wi-Fi connected lightbulbs and thermostats, reading out the latest forecast and headlines, displaying a live feed from your Ring doorbell, telling jokes, and more.

Fire TV 4-Series also supports Dolby Digital Plus, perfect for those who want to upgrade the sound quality from their next boxset binge-watch, or Hollywood blockbuster.

This range is available in 43-, 50-, or 55-inch panels. Prices usually start from £429.99, although Amazon has slashed that price to just £269 ahead of the UK launch. This heavily-discounted price won’t be around for long, since this limited-time deal is to encourage preorders. The first Fire TV 4-Series models will begin to ship to customers from April 12, 2023.

Fire TV Onmi QLED is the most feature-packed (and therefore, expensive) new model available from Amazon.

As the name suggests, this flagship telly packs a QLED panel to offer vibrant colours, brighter highlights, and deeper blacks. Like the Fire TV 4-Series above, this is a 4K Ultra HD resolution display, which will upscale lower-resolution content to take advantage of its pixel-packed screen.

Fire TV Omni QLED supports a bevy of picture formats, including HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision IQ, and HDR10+ Adaptive. It’s also the only custom-designed telly from Amazon with Adaptive Brightness, which measures the brightness of your surroundings using an ambient light sensor and dynamically changes the screen brightness – so the Fire TV Omni QLED isn’t squint-inducingly bright at night, or washed-out when sunlight is streaming in through the windows.

Amazon says the feature, which is very similar to automatic adjustments performed continuously by your smartphone screen, should provide the “optimal contrast across content sources, formats, and lighting conditions”.

Fire TV Omni QLED is available in four sizes, 43-, 50-, 55-, and 65-inches, although the latter will release later this summer. Prices start from £549.99, although Amazon has slashed that price tag down to just £349.99 to celebrate the UK launch. This impressive price cut won’t be around for long, so you’ll need to preorder as soon as possible to take advantage of the discount.

As well as its impressive screen technology, the flagship Fire TV telly has a number of exclusive software features too.

It’s the only model with Amazon’s all-new Fire TV Ambient Experience, which transforms your telly into an Echo Show 15-like smart hub with Post-It notes and calendar appointments listed on-screen as a helpful reminder. Amazon says it designed its Ambient Experience to ensure that Smart TVs are always smart – even when you’re not actively watching your favourite show. According to research from the Seattle-based firm, televisions sit idle for 20 hours per day on average.

Given the cost of upgrading to a new telly, Amazon tasked its engineers to ensure that its Fire TV Omni QLED Series would be useful every hour of the day. When you’re not streaming a new series, watching live TV channels, or playing games …Amazon lets users display Alexa Widgets on-screen.

These lightweight apps are optimised for the TV to provide useful information at a glance – keeping you informed throughout the day. For example, you can quickly check your schedule with Calendars and Reminders, leave notes for other family members, control other smart devices like a thermostat or Ring doorbell through Smart Home Favourites, receive entertainment recommendations with the “What Should I Watch” widget, and more. Widgets can be customised, shrunk or expanded to suit your style.

If that all sounds like a bit much to have on the biggest screen in your home all-day, then Amazon has another option. The Ambient Experience can also be used to transform your telly into an art gallery. Amazon will display a selection of more than 1,700 gallery-quality photos and curated art pieces with a vast range of artistic styles that your whole household can enjoy.

Ahead of the UK launch, Amazon has tweaked its Ambient Experience offering to include collections from local independent artists and UK galleries. You can learn more about the art collections by asking things like, “Alexa, who painted this?” or “Alexa, tell me more about this artwork.” You can also choose from more than 80 motion backgrounds that make your television screen come to life in an idle state or display your personal photos.

Fire TV Omni QLED also supports hands-free Alexa, thanks to the built-in far-field microphone array. Even if you lose the remote, you’ll be able to bark commands across the room to change channels, pause playback, search for shows with your favourite actor, load-up apps, adjust smart thermostats, and much more.