Amazon Fire TV 50" 4-Series, 4K UHD smart TV with Alexa Voice Remote Enhanced, stream live TV without cable

I considered getting a larger TV for several years before finally ordering one last week. I got a good price, and it was delivered in 4 days, just as advised when I ordered. The Amazon delivery driver carried the package upstairs without being asked, and was pleasant and helpful. The TV itself is quite light, and I was easily able to unbox it myself (but anything larger than the 44” would need 2 people). The legs attached easily, and the cord and HDMI cables were obvious and easy to hook up. I had the unit in place and connected in just over 5 minutes. Since I’m not very tech-y, setup of new electronics is always a worry. I turned on the TV with the remote, selected my wifi network and entered the password. The TV then cycled several times through “downloading software” and “installing updates” screens. I was worried that I was stuck in some tech vortex, but just waited. After about 10-15 minutes, the TV prompted me to sign in with my Amazon account, asked whether I wanted extra channels or parental controls, then boom, it was on its regular Home Screen and I was good to go! Picture is clear and colors very saturated compared to what I previously had. Sound is good (general purpose, I’m not a music critic) and refresh rate very adequate for TV (I’m also not a gamer). I think that for my purposes (occasional TV viewing, probably less than 8 hours per week), this will be an excellent set that I will enjoy.

I've had this tv for four years now and it hasn't given me any issues. The picture quality is really good and it's the perfect size for a smaller living room.

Great tv for the money, nice picture!

UPDATE: Updated to 4 stars. Maybe 4.5 considering the value price. Turning off HDR on both TV and Roku, plus turning off dynamic brightness on TV ended up helping a lot. Realize this TV has video profiles for each input so i had to change on each. No the picture and viewing angles don't compare to our 55" TCL QLED which has incredible viewing angles but that TV was kind 3x as expensive too. Plus apps seem to be optimizing quality as i use the TV more which helped a lot too. I debated editing my review but think it's still useful for others and Amazon to show a real world experience including the frustrations. A new issue I'm seeing is audio cutting out entirely during transitions between shows & ads that didn't happen on our old TV but thinking it's an app specific issue not the TV So our old 1080 48" HD TV was finally on its last legs and we love our TCL Roku TV we use in the living room so i was ready to buy 55" Roku brand TV and happened upon this 55" FireTV with basically the same specs but almost 100 bucks cheaper so it was tough to justify buying the Roku TV especially since we have a Roku soundbar so don't really need a smart TV let alone built in Roku so i bit and ordered the FireTV. First impression wasn't great in that it took over an hour to do the initial setup thanks to all the updates that seemed to be in SV endless loop as they'd finish then low and behold it was doing more! eventually i got to actually try the TV.. at first it was very impressive and clearly better picture than our old HD TV. of course that was just menus as ran thru installing apps which took forever in part because they'd stick at 'installing' FOR HOURS.. i mean i only did 5 or 10 as i was finding the ones we use on Roku but it's ridiculous it should take hours to install the apps on our broadband connection. i think it was hung up because i restarted the FireTV and at first it seemed they were still stuck but then boom they all finished within seconds. no idea what the issue was but our Internet was definitely working. once apps were usable i sat down to watch a few things and things were washed out. I'd switch to other apps thinking it was just a particular one but everything was washed out. i tried adjusting video settings. i tried the Roku thru hdmi4. washed out. then i happened to stand up and the picture was better. not much but noticeable. i tried multiple apps while standing and indeed they all were better. then i stood directly in front of it dead center and the picture was incredible! if i duck down 2 feet or so and picture gets a little washed out but the big one is not being directly in front of the TV.. as i step sideways i can see tht picture wash out. and no not at 170 degrees but like 15 or 20. it reminds me of very early LCD flat panel TV's where you have to sit in front not off to side at all. i did find turning off HDR on FireTV and on the Roku it helped some (especially how dark things were) but really it depends more on what's being watched and the contrast of what's shown. I took video clip of paused Disney+ on Roku at 4k with HDR off to show an example even if it's not the worst of what I've seen in testing. Watch how the colors change even just moving a few feet to side and back to center. I do like the quick switch previous app option that Roku doesn't have though. Very handy feature I'll keep testing but honestly at the angle of my favorite chair (roughly 15 degrees down and 30 degrees left) it looks so bad trying to watch even just the news I'm not sure I'm keeping this TV..

The 55" smart TV for a little over $300 (was on sale at the time) was delivered almost immediately. Was easy to assemble the "feet" and was already configured to connect to my network. It integrated my Recast almost instantly, without being prompted and was also easy to connect to an Echo Studio for "surround sound". Well, not quite with just one of them, even with ATMOS content, but it beats the built-in speakers. Speaking of the Echo Studio, you lose the on-screen volume indicator and apparently can't hold the volume buttons down, as you can when using the TV speakers. The former is irritating and the latter is just plain silly for such an expensive add-on. UPDATE: Added a second Studio and subwoofer and they were also easy to connect to the TV. Now it does surround sound about as good as an average sound bar, though will pale in comparison to high-end sound bars. Still, these have the potential for a lot more separation, as you can put the two speakers anywhere in the room. This makes for an amazing home theater experience in virtually any room. They appear to connect over ad hoc WiFi networks and the reliability is good, though it will occasionally drop the left or right channel (or both). Generally, it either snaps out of it in a minute or two or pausing and then playing or switching inputs or asking one of the speakers a question or whatever seems to make it reconnect. It's mildly annoying, but have never had to stoop to unplugging anything to get around it. Can always switch back to the TV speakers in the Home Theater settings in a pinch, but that hasn't been necessary here, at least not yet. And, as expected, the speakers play music on demand. Unexpectedly, the cover art, lyrics, playback controls, etc. are displayed on the TV. That's a nice feature. It also integrated with my Ring cameras effortlessly, showing them in the PiP when people are detected. I think that's the the threshold anyway (i.e. not just for motion). May be a Ring setting that controls this, but happy with the way it is working; though beware, Ring cameras sometimes fail to identify people. And speaking of the remote. The redesigned button layout is really stupid. The old layout was much easier to find the right buttons with your thumb. The new one is all uniform rows and columns of same-sized buttons. Maybe they thought that looked "cleaner", but the ergonomics have taken a huge step backwards. Also wish they'd lose the dedicated buttons for Disney+, Hulu, etc. It's advertising and only convenient for those who subscribe to the sponsors' services. Still, couldn't be happier at this price point. Picture looks great to me, though surely pales when compared to sets that cost twice as much. And, as expected, built-in speakers are not great, but soundbar support is rumored to be very good with this model (unlike some previous Amazon-branded TVs that I've owned). Hopefully it will last. I still use the other two I bought three years ago. And hopefully they'll fix the stupid Alexa bug that prevents turning it on and off by name. (!) Yes, "Turn on Den TV" responds with "Den TV doesn't support that". (!!) Oddly enough, this "trick" works fine with the older models, though one of them will go into a "coma" once it is off more than a few minutes, foiling all attempts at automation until the remote is used to turn it back on (defeating the whole purpose). That happened about a year in and they never fixed it, no matter how much feedback I sent. The best advice they could offer was to factory reset the thing. :( Workaround for this new one is "Turn on Fire TV", which is ridiculous and will only work with the linked smart speaker. Support was no real help, but supposedly they escalated the problem. I've heard that before, so won't hold my breath. But at least it stays responsive in standby mode. For now anyway. :) UPDATE: Support indicated that the reason I am having problems with "Turn on Den TV" is that I had the Echo Dot linked to another TV previously. Yes, I did and I unlinked that one and linked Den TV. No idea what I was supposed to do differently, but sure seems like a bug. NBD, as I generally just tell it what I want to watch, rather than telling it to turn on. Still would be nice if I could turn it on and off from the other speakers in the house, as I can do with the other two TVs. No idea whether this bug will prevent using routines to turn the den TV on and off, as I haven't tried that yet. They work with the others, except the one that goes into a coma.