Amazon Gets Its Game On Vs Samsung And LG With A 144Hz Mini LED Omni Fire TV
Watch out, LG, Sony, and others, Amazon is coming for your lunch money. Well, sort of. For the first time ever, Amazon has launched its own-brand TV with mini LED backlighting, which in and of itself is a big deal. But that's not the only draw. Amazon's new Fire TV Omni Mini LED Series (quite the mouthful, eh?) is also its fastest TV to date, with a 144Hz refresh rate and other features that take direct aim at gamers.
It's been a little over three years since entered Amazon debuted its own Omni and 4-Series Fire TV lineups, to go along with partner Fire TV models from the likes of Hisense, Panasonic, TCL, and Toshiba. Since then, competition has heated up with premium features like OLED and mini LED becoming both more commonplace and less pricey. LG has helped push the gaming angle in recent years, while Samsung has offered some great competition in the premium space (mini LED and OLED).
The big draw with Amazon's own brand TVs is that it can be aggressive on pricing, as we've seen with Amazon's other hardware lineups (like its Fire TV streaming sticks). It's a little trickier now because the bang-for-buck factor has never been higher—TCL's monstrous 98-inch QLED TV can be had for $1,598 at Amazon, while its 98-inch mini LED variant is still on sale for $2,298—but this is an interesting development all the same.
That said, Amazon isn't going quite as big. Instead, it's offering its first mini LED lineup in sizes ranging from 55 inches to 85 inches. Here's what the launch pricing looks like...
- 85-Inch Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED Series: $2,099.99
- 75-Inch Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED Series: $1,499.99
- 65-Inch Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED Series: $1,089.99
- 55-Inch Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED Series: $819.99
These are all QLED models, which means they feature quantum dot technology. They also feature up to 1,400 nits of brightness and up to 1,344 local dimming zones. We've seen brighter displays with more dimming zones, but those are respectable figures, especially if Amazon can be a bit more aggressive with its pricing (we'll talk more about that in a moment).
Other features include HDR support (HDR10, HDR10+ Adaptive, HDR10+ Gaming, Dolby Vision, and HLG), Intelligent Picture technology powered by AI, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity, Dolby Atmos support, and several gaming features. Specifically, in addition to the 144Hz refresh rate, the Fire TV Omni LED Series is FreeSync Premium Pro certified, with variable refresh rate support and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) on tap. And of course Alexa is part of the package for hands-free operation.
As for ports, there are two HDMI 2.1 inputs (one with eARC support), two HDMI 2.0 ports, a USB port, an Ethernet port, an optical jack, a 3.5mm audio jack, and an IR emitter.
We love to see the increased competition, though we're really eager to see how long it takes for the inevitable sale prices to come into effect. For example, you can find a 65-inch Hisense U8 mini LED on sale for $897.99 at Amazon (40% off), and it too boasts a 144Hz refresh rate. That's a couple hundred dollars cheaper than Amazon's 65-inch mini LED model. And there are other options, like TCL's 85-inch QM85 mini LED that's on sale for $1,998 (26% off). Pricing on previous generation models is even better.
While Amazon's new TVs aren't the cheapest in their class, more competition will only benefit consumers. Plus, Amazon has been known to aggressively slash prices in short order. It will be interesting to see if prices fall once the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping season begins in earnest.
