Amazon Fire TV 50" 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 love this TV! We upgraded to this a couple of months ago from a 65" UHD. The picture on this TV is remarkable. It was very simple to set up, especially with having numerous other Alexa devices. We have a moderate size living room so we decided to go with a wall mount. It's too heavy for one person to help, so I enlisted my brother. The colors are vivid and the darks are amazing. After it was all mounted and ready to go, it was a breeze to get set up and ready to watch. It works great with Alexa and is compatible with all of our Alexa devices. The size of the TV is great in our living room and easy to see. No damage was noted as some other reviewers commented on. My only problem, and wouldn't you know it, is that just a month after purchasing this, there is a newer model that's Alexa Plus enabled. Not a complaint mind you, just my luck. I believe we will be pleased with this TV for years to come.

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!

<Update> - the FireTV support team reached out to me and provided a replacement. I've had the replacement for 4 days now, and can provide initial comments. The remote misfires occasionally, just like the original. I never know exactly what will happen when I hit the mute button; it may take me to some profiles menu, or it may pause and/or mute. The OTA tuner sometimes tunes a channel. Sometimes, it just shows the circle of death. The tv I formerly had in this location, hooked to the same antenna, always went directly into a fully-tuned display. We aren't very far from the broadcast towers, so our reception is always exceptionally good. Prime video - the TNF broadcast did work this week. The first 5 minutes were blurry and choppy, but it evened out and stayed good. Other sources / streaming channels seem to work acceptably. I went to rtings.com and set video similar to the recommendations, and I am moderately surprised at how excellent the picture quality is, once tweaked. Updated to two stars. </Update> After owning for almost a year I have to say this is the worst tv I've owned. Firmware/software updates have progressively broken everything, including the OTA tuner. I don't venture to guess why, but how can you take an OTA performance that is acceptable and utterly break it? Streaming services, including Prime Video, are unwatchable. Lag is horrible. 4k is a real reach. This tv struggles with 1080p. Lip sync is always off no matter what. FWIW, I have gigabit with 680/550 performance in speedtest.