Amazon has put two sizes of their Fire TV Edition televisions on sale. The Element 50-inch TV is $100 off at $449.99 and the Element 55-inch TV is $120 off at $529.99. Not counting the ridiculously great deal we saw during Prime day that sold out in under 4 hours, these are the new lowest prices that these TVs have ever been. These Element Fire TV Edition televisions give you the full Fire TV experience and feature set but also add a built-in over-the-air TV tuner that Amazon has integrated very well into Fire OS. I’ve owned and have been using the 55-inch version as my main TV ever since it was released and I’ve been very happy with it. The 43-inch and 65-inch versions are currently not on sale.
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My worry about buying a Roku or fire TV set is the hardware not growing with new technology. If I buy a TV I’m going to own it until it dies, but during that time Amazon will release new fire TV boxes and sticks. For that reason, I have never considered buying a Roku TV. Of course the software will update and maybe that’s enough to keep them mostly current, but you can’t upgrade the hardware. Good to know AFTVNews recommends the sets, though.
Right. You’re buying guaranteed redundancy.
It’s not a bad tv line, but I’d guess that most aftvnews users know not to buy these. That said, many people will still buy it just because it has an Amazon name and they can watch their Prime shows on it.
The way I see it is everyone should base their decision to buy one of these TVs mostly on the TV hardware (i.e., size, resolution, number of inputs, etc..) and think of the Fire TV software aspect as a bonus that expires. Assume that at some point you’re going to attach a new streaming device to it that serves you better than its built-in capabilities. At that point, your only interaction with the software will be to switch inputs, so you won’t care about the state of its software. If the hardware and the bonus of getting Fire OS without a box for a couple years aren’t worth the price, which for many I understand that they aren’t, then do not buy one of these TVs.
Right now, because of the built-in tuner and how it integrates into Fire OS, these TVs are the best Fire TV experience that exists. The only thing the Fire TV 2 has that these TVs don’t is compatibility with the newer Amazon game controller. For that reason, as long as these TVs are within $50-$100 of an equally spec’ed “dumb” TV, then I think they’re worth considering for those in the market for a new TV.
Would not have thought you could attach a fire TV box, as you would a Roku or Apple TV. That, of course, makes a difference. I still think for me I would want separates.
These TVs don’t have HDR. Should be much cheaper during Black Friday/Cyber Monday
The reviews on these TVs are AWFUL! Only 45% give it 5 stars. PASS at any price.
One major issue is that these TVs are horribly packaged, so an inordinate number of them arrive damaged. Even though they’re obviously replaced for free or refunded in those situations, it results in an automatic negative review from many people. I’m not trying to make excuses here, but it’s definitely a serious contributor to why these TVs current have a 3.7 star rating. The TV can literally flop around inside the box that they come in. I was shocked that mine did not arrive damaged when I saw how loosely it sits in the box.
I noticed the TV’s have 3 gigs of ram (fire TV has 2) but the processor is much slower at 1.1. Wonder how systems differ in performance.
The other thing to consider is that inadequate packaging for shipment can damage the internals and cause electronics to fail prematurely, even if the device functions initially.
These and the Roku televisions have very good operating systems. I would not pay a premium for either, but, if you are going to buy a device anyway, the set will be no more obsolete than the device will be after some time. I recently bought a Roku TV and have plugged a FTV Stick into it. The TV powers on to the last used source, so I have the best of both worlds.