Insignia has just released a new 70-inch 4K Fire TV Edition television (also at Best Buy). This is the first Fire TV Edition television ever released with a screen this large. Toshiba, Element, JVC (UK), Grundig (Germany), and Insignia themselves have all released 65-inch TVs with Amazon’s Fire TV operating system, but none have pushed beyond that size until now.
With a list price of $649.99, Insignia’s new 70-inch Fire TV Edition TV is competitively priced. Of course, hardly anyone buys a TV at its retail price, so we’ll have to see if this new model will eventually receive the same deep discounts that smaller Fire TV Edition televisions have received in the past. Insignia’s 65-inch Fire TV Edition TV was 27% off at $399.99 for Prime Day. A similar discount on the 70-inch version would price it around $475, although, judging by past sales, the largest Fire TV Edition size typically does not receive as steep of a discount as smaller sizes.
This new 70-inch Insignia TV shares the same specs as all of Insignia’s other 4K Fire TV Edition televisions released in 2020. That means it’s capable of 2160p (UHD 4K) video at 60fps. It supports HDR10 and HLG high dynamic range video, but does not support Dolby Vision. Video codec support thankfully includes AV1, making it fairly futureproof should streaming services switch to the new format, as well as the typical HEVC (H.265), AVC (H.264), VP9, and VP8 support with up to 10bit color depth.
Powering the TV is a Mediatek MTK T31/L Cortex-A55 quad-core 1.5 GHz CPU and Mali-G52 MP1 GPU. While I haven’t had a chance to benchmark this SoC, as I have other Fire TV devices, I expect that it performs closer to the Fire TV Stick 4K than to the Fire TV Cube 2. Memory on this TV comes in the form of 2GB of DDR3 RAM. There is, unfortunately, only 8GB of internal storage, but the TV does have a USB port that can accept a USB flash drive to expand its storage.
Speaking of ports, you’ll find Insignia’s usual 3 HDMI ports, of which one is an ARC connection for passback audio, including Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby Atmos. There’s also an optical audio output, for older surround sound systems, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The TV does have DTS Studio Sound to help make its own built-in speakers sound a bit better. Analog video input is possible through its RCA composite ports and a coax connection can accept an OTA digital HD antenna for the TV’s built-in tuner, which integrates nicely with streaming apps in the Fire TV’s live channel guide. The TV is running the latest version of Amazon’s OS, Fire OS 7, which is based on Android 9 Pie.
Connectivity is achieved through built-in 10/100 Ethernet or 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2×2 MIMO (2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz dual-band) WiFi. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.2 which can be used to connect wireless headphones for private listening, as well as wireless peripherals like game controllers, keyboards, and mice. The TV comes with Amazon’s latest Alexa Voice Remote and it can be paired with an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Show for hands-free voice control.
Breaking past a 65-inch screen size is hopefully an indicator that manufacturers, well, at least Insignia, have faith in Amazon’s Fire TV operating system powering higher-end televisions. Roku OS, thanks to partnerships with TCL, and Android TV, thanks to partnerships with Sony, can be had in some of the most premium TVs on the market, but the same isn’t true for Fire OS. With the release of this 70-inch Insignia Fire TV Edition television, at least the screen size isn’t as much of a limiting factor for Fire OS anymore.
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2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage on a TV. Ouch.
Of course, more is better, but I think the RAM is enough since you’re not multitasking on these things. If you’re constantly going in and out of a bunch of apps in a short period of time then you might benefit from more RAM. The 8GB of storage is definitely low, especially when you’re potentially paying $650 for it, but truthfully not an issue for most people who are just installing a few streaming apps and nothing else.
This low internal memory is a real problem! I have received low memory error messages ALL THE TIME! For manufactures to NOT allow you to upgrade the internal memory is short sited. THIS IS WHAT WE WANT!!!! I am not asking them to put in more memory, although the cost of memory is so cheap, just allow us to customize our TV to suit our needs after purchase. Sure the USB ports give you the option to add external storage but due to the limits in the software, it is treated differently than internal storage causing you to still get “low memory” messages asking you to remove some apps. At least allow memory merging or just keep the door open for another manufacture to fill the void.
My 43″ Toshiba Fire TV that I bought 2 years ago only had 4GB for storage. Can’t do Ko Dee, but we make it work.
You guys in the USA are lucky, in the UK we only seem to get some JVC models. As nice as these look though, even if I bought one, I would still use a separate Fire TV device. I’d want a cube 2 inside this high end beast.
I bet the integration is nice though, for local channels.
Right, The standalone cube has a speaker so it could leverage the TV speakers instead, but it might make the TV too expensive to compete with other budget TVs.
can apps be installed or moved ot the external storage?
Yes they can, but, like with all Fire TVs that support external storage, not all apps can be moved. It’s up to the app developer to decide if their app is allowed to be moved.
Link says unavailable? Can anyone confirm the dimensional specs listed
(11.81 x 62.36 x 36.97 inches)are accurate for the entire outer TV frame itself with attached base? For me it’s all about actual size to fit in a recessed wall space. Right now I have an aging (12 Y.O.) 63″ Samsung that still has a little wiggle room left (4 inches all around), but 12 years ago Frame/ Screen Size was calculated a little differently than today. Most likely so advertisers could make consumers feel they are getting more for their money.
It’s still available at Best Buy. Best Buy lists the width as 69.5 inches, but I think that’s a mistake, since that’s the diagonal length of the screen. Hard to say if Amazon’s 62.36 inch width is accurate, but that does seem more likely since it’s less than the 69.5 width, which is how it should be.
What is insignia i thought that was ike microcenters store brand
all these TV’s are made by low end named i wonder what the picture actually looks like compared to a higher end samsung or sony or LG
probably very very grey blacks and a great refresh rate
also not mentioned does it have CEC and HDMI 2.1 ?
My understanding is Insignia is the Best Buy Store Brand (unrelated, the the Onn is the store brand for Walmart). The name of the most available and least expensive TV brands have changed after going to flat panel. I have more TCLs than anything else, and have yet to be dissappointed. I have a couple smaller Insignia’s (by Best Buy) and have had no issues.
The “smart” portion seems under powered for this level of investment. On a television this size, I expect to keep it 10-15 years and in that time the “smart” feature will become woefully antiquated. How long will software updates even be pushed out, 5 years? 10 years? At some point, just plan on having to connect your smart tv to an external streaming box.
Right now we either get fully integrated smart features that lock us in to current smart capabilities, or a separate streaming device with minimal control of the television. We need a full featured API between an external device and the Television, essentially CEC on steroids managed by a standards body with independent compliance testing.
Zeric I agree this totally negates the concept of open source. Update and modifications should be a mandatory feature at this price point and required whenever using the android operation system. This would increase the longevity and usefulness of the devices.
I think going to Best Buy and check out the screen quality