I’ve reviewed a few Amazon Fire TV Series models over the last few years, and generally, I’ve found them to be solid enough TVs.
I’ve always had the suspicion that they could be better for picture quality, and certainly a little less expensive, but then when Amazon’s sales event comes around, the TVs fall to prices that are verging on impulse buy if you want a cheap TV.
I don’t think you could say the same about Amazon’s TVs now.
Having reviewed the newest Fire TV 4-Series, I found it underwhelming. The problems were multiple. For one, it didn’t seem to be a big enough upgrade on the previous generation, at least from a performance perspective.
SQUIRREL_PLAYLIST_10207759
Secondly, the competition has heated up, or to be more exact, they’ve got cheaper. Hisense and TCL’s Mini LEDs can now be had for around the same price, if not less than, Amazon’s Direct LED TVs.
SQUIRREL_PLAYLIST_10208388
The less expensive Fire TVs are no longer the value-led proposition they were a few years ago. And by undercutting Amazon’s own QLED and Mini LED models, the more expensive Fire TVs could be in trouble too.
SQUIRREL_PLAYLIST_10208012
An aggressive expansion…
Hisense’s approach to the UK TV market has been a gradual one, offering value-focused TVs similar to Amazon’s Fire TVs while adding premium-priced TVs over time. It’s not interested in OLED (though it does offer an OLED model) as it sees no point in competing with LG and Samsung when the playing field is heavily weighted in their favour. Instead, it wants to make its mark with Mini LEDs.
TCL entered the UK market later than Hisense and realised it’s been playing catch-up. Its approach has rather unbalanced the market with aggressive pricing to gain market share – and it’s working. From bits of data I’ve seen here and there, its share of the market is on an upward trend whereas other, more established players have stagnated or reduced in the last few years.
Both have made the play for Mini LED, bringing sizeable brightness, wide-ranging colours and more precise backlighting for black levels and contrast down to a price that some other TV manufacturers might baulk at.
Right now you can get a Hisense 55-inch U7Q for £599, and a TCL 55-inch C6KS for £426. The 55-inch Fire TV 4-Series is down to £339, but you can see that there’s less room for manoeuvre with Mini LED prices coming down.
Amazon needs to refocus on performance
I think overall that Amazon’s Fire TVs can be considered a solid proposition, but they do need to offer better performance.
The focus has been on value but with a TCL Mini LED hitting nearly 1000 nits of brightness against a budget Fire TV 4-Series that can only do 350 nits, there’s a chasm and or it’s only going to grow bigger over subsequent years. Amazon needs to pull its finger out.
Amazon was the brand that was undercutting the likes of Sony, Panasonic and LG but that’s now changed with the rise of the Chinese brands. Moreover, the best Fire TVs are no longer made by Amazon but buy its partners.
Fire TVs made by JVC were the epitome of bang average, while the likes of Toshiba offered an even cheaper alternative, but Panasonic made better-performing Fire TVs. As well as there being the risk from TCL and Hisense on the pricing side, there’s a risk that Amazon’s TVs get left behind by other brands. Imagine a world where Amazon’s TVs weren’t the best value or best performing. And would you buy one if they didn’t fulfil either promise?
I don’t doubt that they’re not selling well at the moment, so this acts as more of warning, but Amazon’s Fire TVs need a revamp, especially from a performance perspective, because right now it feels as if its TVs are retreading old ground rather than moving forward.
The playing field has altered quite significantly in the last few years and as I wrote in my review for the Fire TV 4-Series, if you’re standing still and others are moving past you, then you might as well be going backwards.
