The Fire TV 4-Series is Amazon’s lowest-priced 4K TV, fitting neatly below its three tiers of Fire TV Omni models in price and performance. At $469.99 for the 55-inch model we tested, it has a pleasant enough picture despite limited contrast and color range. It lacks hands-free Alexa, though, which the better-looking Fire TV Omni QLED includes for just $40 more. Neither, however, puts out as much light as the slightly pricier Hisense U6N, which remains our Editors’ Choice winner for budget-friendly TVs.
Design: Utilitarian Looks With a Standard Remote
Given its low price, the 4-Series is predictably a bit chunky, with a black plastic body that expands to a thick 3.6 inches at its deepest. It maintains a fairly sleek look from the front, with a nearly bezel-free screen framed by a thin black band running along the sides and top and a single flat bezel with a faux brushed metal finish on the bottom edge. The TV sits on two glossy black plastic feet located near the side edges.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
Four HDMI ports (one eARC) sit on the back of the TV, facing right. They’re joined by a single USB port, an Ethernet port, an optical audio output, a 3.5mm IR blaster jack, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an antenna/cable connection.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
It comes with a Fire TV Alexa Voice Remote Enhanced, the same remote included with the $1,089.99 Fire TV Omni Mini-LED. It’s a flat, matte black plastic wand with a large circular navigation pad and a microphone near the top. Menu and playback controls sit in the middle, with volume and channel rockers below them. Dedicated service buttons for Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, and Peacock can be found near the bottom.
Platform: Fire TV, But Not Hands-Free
As the name indicates, the Fire TV 4-Series uses Amazon’s Fire TV smart TV platform. It’s a robust interface that’s heavily focused on Amazon’s own services like Prime Video and Freevee, but it also provides access to other major streaming services, including Apple TV, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Netflix, Twitch, and YouTube. It also features Apple AirPlay for streaming from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
Alexa is built into the Fire TV 4-Series, but you can’t use it hands-free like you can with the Fire TV Omni models. To access the voice assistant on the 4-Series, you need to press and hold the Alexa button on the remote and speak into it. The lack of hands-free support means you can’t make two-way voice calls through the TV, but Alexa otherwise lets you search for content, control your smart home devices, and find general information like weather reports and sports scores.
Picture Quality: Serviceable
The Amazon Fire TV 4-Series is a 4K TV with a 60Hz refresh rate. It supports high dynamic range (HDR) content in HDR10 and hybrid log gamma (HLG) but not Dolby Vision or HDR10+. It has an ATSC 1.0 tuner for over-the-air broadcasts but not ATSC 3.0 for 1080p or 4K broadcasts.
We test TVs using a Klein K-10A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ Calman software. In Movie Bright mode, the TV shows a peak brightness of 285 nits, with little difference between whether it is an SDR or HDR signal and full-screen or 18% white fields. The 4-Series has a full array LED backlight system with no local dimming, which results in a high black level of 0.085cd/m^2 and a contrast ratio of 3,352:1. It’s comparable with the Fire TV Omni, which also has a full array backlight, in brightness and contrast (333 nits, 0.11cd/m^2, 3,033:1) but is significantly dimmer than the Fire TV Omni QLED, which isn’t particularly bright at 474 nits. However, thanks to local dimming backlight arrays, most Omni QLED screen sizes have much deeper black levels and much higher contrast ratios than the cheaper models (0.004cd/m^2, 118,500:1 as tested on the 65-inch version). If you want a smaller screen, though, keep in mind that the 43-inch Omni QLED only has a direct LED backlight and no local dimming. The Hisense U6N and TCL QM6K both show performance similar to the Omni QLED.
(Credit: PCMag)
The above charts show the Fire TV 4-Series’ color levels in Movie Bright mode with an SDR signal compared with Rec.709 broadcast standards and with an HDR signal compared with DCI-P3 digital cinema standards. With SDR, the 4-Series has no trouble hitting close to perfect color performance, and while whites run a bit cool, they’re still mostly accurate. HDR colors are less impressive and show just how much of a difference a QLED panel can make. The Fire TV Omni QLED and Hisense U6N both nearly reach or exceed the DCI-P3 color space, and while the TCL QM6K falls a bit short, it still covers more than the 4-Series. The Fire TV’s colors are well-balanced and free of any significant skewing, but that also applies to the other three TVs.
BBC’s Planet Earth II looks perfectly fine on the 4-Series—not impressive in any particular way, but not revealing any major flaws. The greens of leaves and the blues of the water and sky in the “Islands” episode are balanced and saturated, though they don’t reach the realistic vividness of more expensive TVs with QLED panels. The limited contrast makes shadows look occasionally washed out, but the details are usually preserved. Despite the low brightness of the panel, the picture never looks dim in a well-lit room, though the limited contrast keeps it from looking lifelike.
The party scenes in The Great Gatsby also demonstrate the relative weakness of the 4-Series’ limited contrast, but without any major flaws that might impact the viewing experience. Black suits generally look black and not gray, though they aren’t nearly as dark as they often are on TVs with local dimming arrays like mini-LED. Similarly, the whites of lights, balloons, and shirts don’t get remotely as bright as they could. It’s still a detailed and balanced picture, just reserved in what it can do with light levels.
Demonstration footage on the Spears & Munsil Ultra HD benchmark disc manages to trip up the 4-Series. In one snowy shot, highlights are completely blown out to the point that snow-covered ground and white skies are indistinguishable. Even without snow, brightly lit landscapes lose a great deal of detail against flat whites. In dawn and evening shots, dark trees and rock faces can look washed out or muddy. Finally, as to be expected from a TV that lacks local dimming, black backgrounds behind brightly lit, colorful objects aren’t remotely as dark as they otherwise would be. On the bright side, though, there’s no discernible light bloom.
Gaming: Few Features, But Fast Enough
With a 60Hz panel and no real gaming features like variable refresh rate (VRR) besides a standard Game picture mode, gamers will find the Fire TV 4-Series underequipped. It’s responsive, though. Using an HDFury Diva HDMI matrix, it shows a low input lag of 3.6 milliseconds in Game mode with a 1080p60 signal.
We’re currently transitioning from the Diva to the Leo Bodnar 4K Input Lag Tester for latency tests. Since both devices use different processes to measure input lag, we’ve been collecting numbers with both as we evaluate standards to consider a TV to be good for gaming. With 1080p60 and 4K60 signals, the Bodnar measured an input lag of 9.8 milliseconds. We use 10ms as a threshold for a good gaming TV with the Diva. Using the Bodnar, the thresholds are 16.6ms at 4K60 and 8.3ms at 1080p120, which is the equivalent of a single frame at either frame rate. Regardless, the 4-Series meets our standards in both tests.
While it’s more expensive, the TCL QM6K is far better equipped for gaming thanks to its 144Hz refresh rate with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. Its input lag is a bit higher (7.5ms at 1080p60 with the Diva and 14.6ms at 4K60 with the Bodnar), but it still falls below our thresholds.
Verdict: A Modest Price for a Modest TV
The Amazon Fire TV 4-Series is an acceptable TV for the price. However, for only a little more money, you can get a brighter picture with much wider contrast and colors, plus hands-free Alexa, from Amazon’s own Fire TV Omni QLED. It’s also available in 65- and 75-inch versions, while the 4-Series tops out at 55 inches. Just be aware that the 43-inch Fire TV Omni QLED has a different backlight from the model we tested and likely has an inferior contrast than our review of the line would indicate. If you can spend a bit more, meanwhile, the Hisense U6N is an excellent budget-friendly TV with a much brighter screen, and it remains our Editors’ Choice winner in this price range.
Amazon Fire TV 4-Series (55-Inch)
Pros
The Bottom Line
The Fire TV 4-Series is the most affordable 4K television Amazon offers, but you get what you pay for.
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About Will Greenwald
Lead Analyst, Consumer Electronics
