It’s been a long time coming, but the UK and Europe are finally gettingAmazon’s first-party Fire TV televisions, around two years after they launched in the US.
Instead of needing an extra device to access the Amazon ecosystem, like aFire TV Stick, these Amazon-branded TVs will come with all the Fire TV goodness baked in, as its core smart offering.
US customers aren’t being left out of the news though, as Amazon is adding smaller screen sizes to its Omni range too, as well as adding the HD-only 2-Series to its line up.
Here though, we’re taking a look at the two 4K sets in the range - the flagship Omni Series and the mid-range 4 Series, to see whether it’s worth pushing for the priciest, or if there’s a bargain to be had.
Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED Series
If you’re looking for a primary TV, the Fire TV Omni Series would be our pick. It is the clear choice if picture performance is important to you, but also offers a more elegant design and added smart functionality, including hands-free Alexa.
Amazon Fire TV 4-Series
If you’re looking for a TV for a second room, the 4-Series may offer you plenty. It still has all the Fire TV smarts built in, but at a considerably cheaper price. If you’re not fussed about having the very best picture quality, this could be a smart choice.
Pricing and availability
Both the Omni and the 4-Series are already available in the US, but are going on sale in the UK and Europe on 12th April, directly through Amazon.
The Omni Series will be available in four screen sizes in the UK and Europe, and the 4-Series will be available in three. However, in the US, the Omni gets an extra screen size, and goes all the way up from 43 inches to 75 inches.
There are currently introductory offers across all of the available screen sizes in the UK and Europe, but we don’t know how long they’ll last. There are some offers on the sets in the US too though, and you can see all the current pricing in the table below.
Screen size
Fire TV 4-Series
Fire TV Omni Series
$369.99$239.99 /£429.99£269 /€499.99€349
$309.99$339.99 /£549.99£349 /€599.99€399 /
$449.99$279.99 /£499.99£349 /€599.99€399
$459.99 /£649.99£449 /€699.99€479 /
$519.99$339.99 /£549.99£379 /€699.99€449
$549.99$469.99 /£749.99£499 /€799.99€549
$759.99$599.99 /£999.99£699 /€099.99€799
$1049.99$799.99
Design and build
If how good your TV looks is important to you, the Fire TV Omni Series absolutely has the edge on the Fire TV 4-Series, by offering a much more premium look and feel.
It has a silver metal design with barely-there bezels, which measure in at a super-slim 1.2mm - save for the slightly wider strip along the bottom.
The 4-Series on the other hand offers a black plastic chassis with much wider bezels - 10.9mm to be precise. Both models go for wide feet as their stands, but once again the Omni’s just look a little bit slimmer and more elegant.
Both can be wall mounted if you prefer, of course, and are compatible with VESAwall mounts.At 8.4cm (8.7cm in 65in) slim for the Omni though, and around 9cm slim for all of the 4-Series, they aren’t as slender as some flagships we are used to seeing - but the Omni once again has the edge.
If you like your TVs big too, the Omni is going to be the way to go - it is available in 43, 50, 55 and 65 inches (and 75 inches in the US), while the 4 Series drops the biggest sizes to be available at just 43, 50 and 55 inches.
From a connectivity perspective, both TVs offer exactly the same, and that’s 3 x HDMI 2.0 inputs and 1 x HDMI 2.1 witheARCsupport, for lossless audio passthrough to soundbars. There is also a USB port, a digital optical input and ethernet connection for hardwiring, but both will also have Wi-Fi built in.
Picture and display
As the flagship TV of the Fire TV range, it’s perhaps not surprising that the Omni Series has more impressive specs when it comes to picture performance and panel technology.
Both are 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) LCD TVs, but the Omni usesQLED, or quantum dot, technology - something Samsung uses in its premium TVs - which should mean colours are richer and more vibrant.
The Omni also utilises a more advanced backlighting technology called full array local dimming in all but its smallest screen size, with up to 80 different individual dimming zones (screen size dependent). This gives the TV more accuracy in knowing where light is needed in a picture and where it isn’t, so it can turn the backlight on and off more effectively.
On the 4-Series, but also the 43-inch Omni Series, the backlighting is downgraded to Direct LED only, which gives the TV less control over the light it produces.
For this reason, you can expect contrast to be better on the majority of the Fire TV Omni sets, with deeper blacks and less blooming from highlights.
HDRwill be more effective too with the Omni too, and that’s backed up by support for more advanced HDR formats than the 4-Series offers. With the Omni Series you’ll find support for HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ Adaptive andDolby VisionIQ, but with the 4-Series, just HDR10 and HLG (the standard for broadcast HDR) content are supported.
The difference is that the HDR effect is adjusted at a per-frame level with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, whereas HDR10 does this once for the whole piece of content.
There’s also an added level of tweakery thanks to a built-in light sensor, allowing the effect of HDR10+ or Dolby Vision to be adjusted depending on the level of ambient light in the room.
Amazon Prime Video makes use of HDR10+ in a lot of its content, but services like Netflix and Disney+ opt for Dolby Vision as their HDR format of choice. With support for both, the Omni will be able to display your streamed content at its best no matter what you’re watching. The 4-Series will still be able show that content, of course, but the HDR effect its capable of is just not as intelligent or adaptive.
Both screens are 60Hz only, so these arguably won’t be the best TVs for serious gamers, as there will be no support for native4K/120Hz content through PS5 or Xbox Series X/S.
Casual gamers will findAmazon’s Luna cloud gaming servicea great match for these TVs though, offering 1080p/60Hz gaming and a selection of games available through a standard Prime subscription.
Like a lot of TVs you’ll buy at these prices, we don’t expect either of these TVs to blow us away with their audio performance, and we strongly suspect that a soundbar will be a good investment to get the very best out of them.
However, once again, the Omni has the edge on the 4-Series, with a total sound output of 24W from two stereo speakers. In the 4-Series, this drops to 16W - but if you’re adding a soundbar anyway, this is something of a moot point.
Both TVs are capable of Dolby Digital Plus, with pass-through of all Dolby-encoded audio. This should mean that, if you’re using the eARC connection on the TV, that you’ll be able to hearAtmossoundtracks in their lossless format, with a compatible soundbar or sound system.
Smart features
Being a Fire TV-branded television, there are naturally going to be a fair few smarts to talk about, and once again, the Omni Series shows off its flagship status with a few added features to talk about.
The handling ofAlexais one of them. As Amazon products, both the Omni and the 4-Series offer up all the voice assistance and smart home control that you would expect to get from an Echo smart speaker, along with some extra TV-flavoured functionality that you may have used on something like theAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
Ultimately this means you may ask Alexa to control your TV playback or find your favourite shows and movies, as well as ask for recommendations based on genre or actor. Alexa can search across streaming services too, so this doesn’t just work for Amazon-based content.
The difference between the Omni and the 4-Series here, is that the Omni features far-field microphones so Alexa can be used hands free - on the 4-Series, you will need to use the included Alexa voice remote, or a connected Echo speaker.
However, from what we can tell, there are a couple of extra Alexa features that the Omni is capable of that the 4-Series isn’t, too - including showing picture-in-picture camera feeds from your smart doorbell or security cameras, for example, and making video calls using Alexa Communication and a compatible USB webcam.
For anyone with privacy concerns over the Omni’s built-in microphones, there is a physical switch right on the front, so you may easily control how much listening Alexa is doing at any given time.
On top of its Alexa smarts, the Omni Series also offers up a couple of other additional features that the 4-Series misses out on - Adaptive Brightness and the Fire TV Ambient Experience.
Adaptive Brightness uses the built-in light sensor in the Omni to adjust screen brightness to suit your lighting conditions, while the Fire TV Ambient Experience looks to take on Samsung’s Frame by turning your TV into a customisable display. This could be for displaying artwork or photos, or alternatively, you can turn the Omni into something of a family noticeboard, with customisable widgets for showing things like calendars, notes, weather and reminders.
The Ambient Experience will only be activated when the presence sensor knows that someone is in the room, and the TV isn’t actively being watched, of course.
As far as Fire TV goes, both the 4-Series and Omni Series will have an identical experience, with access to the same apps, including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, HBO Max, Hulu and catch up services, like BBC iPlayer, depending on where in the world you are.
Which should you buy?
Ultimately, which Fire TV will suit you best will depend on exactly what it is you’re looking for, and on your budget of course.
If you need a primary TV for your living room, and you have the budget to stretch to it, the Omni Series makes a solid argument for the extra money you would spend on it.
From a more premium design, to picture quality improvements all the way through to better smart functionality, it one-ups the 4-Series in every single area, and would definitely be our go-to for a main TV for those reasons.
If you’re looking for a TV for a second room, the 4-Series may offer you plenty for your needs. It comes with all the same Fire TV smarts as the Omni, and saves you a decent chunk of cash in the process - if you won’t be spending a lot of critical viewing time in front of it, you may see that as money well saved.
If you’re looking for the very best Fire TV you can buy, the benefits of the Omni Series are clear, but if budget is your main priority, the 4-Series is well worth a look.
