This isn’t my first Prime Day rodeo.

After covering more Amazon-led sales events than I care to count, I always bet on the company to discount its range of first-party AV devices, and for good reason, too.

The company practically always slashes the prices of its Fire TV range of devices, and my advice (even when reviewing them at full price) is to wait until a Prime Day or Black Friday sale to get the best deal.

In fact, during our Prime Day predictions roundup (spearheaded by our deals aficionado Daniel Furn), I said that I'd "eat my proverbial hat" if the Fire TV streaming sticks aren't heavily discounted.

Luckily for me, there will be no hat eating, as the Award-winning Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation) is currently enjoying a pretty tasty discount.

Tongue twister of a name aside, this super-effective streamer offers up a simple proposition: you give it one of your TV’s HDMI sockets, and in return you get a pretty potent streaming upgrade.

We reviewed it at £70, making it one of the most affordable (if not the most affordable) products to enter our AV testing room, but you’ll find that price has been drastically reduced in the UK and the US.

We said that the Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation) “might just be the easiest no-brainer buy in the AV world,” in our full review, and with its price slashed in half, it somehow becomes even easier to recommend.

We approved of its detailed and rich picture, comprehensive coverage of all HDR formats, and impressive range of streaming apps on offer; it really is the full streaming package.

Our review highlights a "sharp and engaging picture", with excellent motion and a balanced approach to colours. It also sounds good, with a clear approach to dialogue, and music sounds warmer and more detailed compared to the competing Google TV Streamer.

Now, in an era of smart TVs, a dedicated streaming device may sound like a pointless recommendation. Still, we've found that you can get tangible picture and sound improvements by plugging in a dedicated streamer.

We've also tested plenty of projectors that don't have streaming platforms built in, and our advice to anyone suffering with a sluggish, older 4K TV who isn't ready to upgrade yet is to invest in a streaming stick (like the Fire TV Stick 4K Max) for a smoother experience.

At a discounted price of £40 on Amazon UK or $35 at Amazon US, this streamer is the perfect choice for those wanting a Prime Day treat without breaking the bank.

MORE:

Which Amazon Fire TV streamer should you buy?

Read our full Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation) review

And check out our picks for the best streaming devices

If you want a satisfyingly cinematic or sporting experience at home, there really is no substitute for screen size.

The good news is that a big TV needn't cost big money. These days, 65-inch TVs go for much less money than you might imagine, and if you wait for a big sales event, your cash can go even further.

And it just so happens that we're right in the middle of a big sales event – Amazon Prime Day – and I've sifted through all of the deals to find three super-cheap 65-inch TVs that I can recommend as great buys.

• View all the Prime Day deals on Amazon

What do I know about it? I'm so glad you asked!

I've been testing TVs for almost 20 years now, so I know the good from the bad (and the ugly, for that matter). I've also been personally involved in every What Hi-Fi? TV review in probably the last 10 years – and that includes the reviews of the three models I'm recommending here.

Happy with those credentials? Excellent! Here are my three picks, ranked in order of quality.

1. TCL Q6C

Deal price UK: £529 at Amazon
Deal price US: n/a

If you're looking for the best-value 65-inch TV in the Prime Day sales, this is the one I'd buy.

The TCL Q6C impressed us so much in testing that we awarded it five stars and described it as "an absolute steal". That's high praise for any TV, but it's especially impressive when you're talking about a 65-inch set that's currently selling for well under £600.

What makes the Q6C stand out is that it brings technologies normally associated with much more expensive TVs down into the budget category. It uses a Mini LED backlight with local dimming, alongside Quantum Dot colour technology, and the result is a picture that's far more sophisticated than the price suggests.

In our review, we were particularly impressed by the TV's contrast and black-level performance. Dark scenes look surprisingly deep and convincing, while bright HDR highlights have real punch.

Colours are another strong point, delivering plenty of vibrancy and richness without tipping into the sort of exaggerated look that often plagues cheaper TVs.

It's also an excellent option for sport and gaming. Motion is handled confidently, helping fast-moving action stay clear and composed, while gamers get features such as 4K/144Hz support, VRR and low input lag.

No TV at this price is perfect, of course. The sound is merely decent rather than exceptional (something that can be rectified with one of the best budget soundbars), and you'll get the best results by spending a little time tweaking the picture settings. But those are minor caveats when the overall performance is this strong.

Simply put, if your budget stretches to the TCL Q6C, it's the best cheap 65-inch TV I've seen in the Prime Day sales.

2. Amazon Ember QLED

Deal price UK: £600 at Amazon
Deal price US: $710 at Amazon

The TCL Q6C is my top pick, but the Amazon Ember QLED isn't far behind, given its current Prime Day price.

In fact, one of my colleagues recently described the deal on this TV as "impossible to ignore", and it's easy to see why. Amazon has cut the price dramatically, turning what was already a solid mid-range TV into one of the most tempting bargains in the sales.

The Ember QLED is a significant step forward from Amazon's previous QLED efforts. It features a full-array backlight with 160 dimming zones and a panel that's considerably brighter than its predecessor, resulting in a picture that's sharper, punchier and more three-dimensional than you might expect at this sort of money.

During testing, we were particularly impressed by its detail levels and colour performance. Images look crisp and vibrant, while upscaling of lower-quality content is handled well enough that everyday broadcast TV remains enjoyable.

The TV also supports every major HDR format, including Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive, so you're covered regardless of which streaming service you use.

Another advantage over many budget rivals is the sound. Built-in TV audio is rarely worth talking about, but the Ember QLED produces a fuller, clearer and more spacious presentation than most affordable sets manage.

Why isn't it above the TCL? Primarily because the Q6C's Mini LED backlight delivers superior black levels, contrast and gaming performance. The Amazon also tops out at 60Hz, making it less appealing to serious gamers.

Still, if you're heavily invested in the Amazon ecosystem or simply want a big, capable and easy-to-use 65-inch TV for as little money as possible, the Ember QLED is an excellent Prime Day buy.

3. Samsung U8000F

Deal price UK: £367 at Amazon
Deal price US: $400 at Samsung

The Samsung U8000F is the TV I recommend if your budget is as tight as possible.

At £367/$400 during Prime Day, it's substantially cheaper than both the TCL Q6C and Amazon Ember QLED, and that price difference is impossible to ignore. In fact, it's one of the least expensive big-brand 65-inch models you can buy.

Of course, some compromises are inevitable at this sort of money. Unlike the TCL and Amazon models above, the U8000F doesn't have a Mini LED or full-array backlight, and its picture isn't as bright or as impactful when displaying HDR content. Black levels are also less convincing, meaning movie nights won't have quite the same cinematic punch.

That said, Samsung has done a commendable job with the fundamentals. In our testing, we found the U8000F delivered a balanced, natural picture that avoids many of the exaggerated traits often seen on budget TVs. Colours are pleasingly authentic, detail levels are respectable, and standard-definition and HD content are handled particularly well.

Samsung's excellent Tizen smart platform is another big plus. It's packed with streaming apps, easy to navigate and generally feels more polished than many rival smart TV systems.

The biggest reason to choose the U8000F over the TVs above is simple: value. While the TCL Q6C is undoubtedly the better performer and the Ember QLED offers a more advanced specification, both cost considerably more. If spending £500-£600 on a TV still feels like a stretch, the Samsung gives you a huge screen from a trusted brand for comfortably under £400.

No, it's not the best TV in this list. But when price becomes the priority, the U8000F makes a very strong case for itself.

MORE:

Here are all of the best TVs and the best TV deals you can get right now

Don't forget the sound: here are the best budget soundbars

Like it or not, AI is being integrated across an increasing number of AV and hi-fi products. And one of the most popular, Amazon’s Alexa chatbot, is getting an upgrade.

This comes in the form of Alexa+, which will be enabled across a range of Amazon devices across the UK.

Alexa+ will be rolled out on Amazon devices, including the Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, and the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Amazon claims this will add more processing power, memory, and edge-based computing with next-generation sensors” to the user experience.

Daniel Rausch, Vice President of Alexa and Echo, claims that the new version of the AI assistant has been "completely rearchitected from the ground up" and offers a "much more personalised and proactive" experience than its previous version.

It has been designed to be even chattier than its predecessor, with more appropriate intonation in an effort to make the responses feel less robotic.

The assistant can also open other apps, including Spotify and Apple Music, with plans to expand to include more platforms.

We got to see Alexa+ in action, and it is certainly impressive how the tech integrates seamlessly with a number of separate devices.

When asking it to play music from the Echo Show 11 (essentially a smart display with Alexa+ built in) in a demo, you can tell Alexa+ to play sound from individual Echo speakers or ask it to play from all available devices in your home. That would come in handy if you are moving between rooms.

However, we notice that when it is bombarded with multiple, complicated commands, the assistant does take a little while to deliver the information.

It’s also worth noting that when we reviewed the Amazon Echo Dot Max, the smart speaker received a disappointing two-star review. While we found the Alexa integration was responsive and versatile, it ultimately was let down by its muddled sound and derivative design.

Amazon’s most recent Fire TV Stick 4K Max, on the other hand, snagged a What Hi-Fi? Award last year and impressed with its fuss-free and effective 4K HDR streaming capabilities.

Early access to Alexa+ starts from today for free, but will move to £20 a month after this window. For Prime members, however, it remains free.

You can purchase a new Echo device for immediate access and, if you already own one of the newer generations, you can sign up for an invite via Amazon’s website.

MORE:

Here's our review of Amazon Echo Dot Max

And check out our review of the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED

These are the best Alexa speakers

Amazon’s original Fire TV Omni QLED TV launched nearly three years ago, and while it feels like yesterday that we were evaluating if the e-commerce goliath could make a TV worth its weight in cardboard Prime delivery boxes, the truth is that an update has been sorely needed for quite some time.

While Amazon did update the range with the four-star Fire TV Omni Mini LED last year, it has taken until now for the company to update the mid-range QLED model.

With a slew of under-the-hood upgrades promised and a Prime Day price to keep in mind, could this TV offset the onslaught of formidable budget TVs from the likes of TCL and Hisense?

Price

The 65-inch Amazon Fire TV Ember QLED launched at £1050 / $850 (roughly AU$1970 in Australia, where the TV isn't sold directly). You’ll notice that’s a £50 / $50 increase over the first-generation Omni QLED. In the grand scheme of things, this is a fairly moderate bump considering how volatile TV pricing has been since 2023.

Nevertheless, the Ember QLED faces fierce competition from the likes of TCL and Hisense. The Award-winning TCL C7K undercuts the Ember QLED here in the UK at £899 / AU$1595, though it’s significantly more expensive stateside.

Hisense’s four-star U7Q Pro is a similar affair at £899 / AU$1695, making it noticeably cheaper in the UK, but far less comparable in the US.

The Ember QLED does, however, have a trick up its sleeve. Amazon holds frequent – and we mean frequent – sales events throughout the year, including various Prime Days, Big Deal Days and Black Friday events, and here is where you can expect to pick this TV up at a colossal discount.

For instance, when we first ran this review, Amazon's Spring Deal Days were live, and the 65-inch Ember QLED was available in the UK for £ 690.

Even better, at the time of this update, there are lots of early Prime Day deals available, and this model is down to just £600 / $710.

In short, pounce at the right time, and the Ember QLED is really something of a steal.

Design

The Ember QLED is a smart-looking and well-built TV. While it still sits within the budget to mid-range sector of the market, Amazon hasn’t cheaped out on the build.

It’s constructed from a smooth and solid plastic, with a crosshatch design adorning the rear. It’s not too chunky by backlit TV standards, and it actually looks quite sleek next to the fairly bulky and plasticky-looking TCL C7K.

The sleek silver trim below the screen adds a touch of class, and the metal feet are surprisingly premium compared to the plastic ones supplied with the recently reviewed Sony Bravia 3.

On the subject of the feet, they are frustratingly placed at each end of the TV (127.2cm apart to be exact), and there is no option to fit them into a narrow configuration; so be sure to measure up your media unit before buying this TV. The good news is that the stand sits quite high, and the width should accommodate a full-sized soundbar.

Amazon also bundles the expanded Fire TV remote with the Ember QLED. If you haven’t come across this handset before, it’s basically a Fire TV Stick remote that’s been stretched and had a smattering of extra buttons added, including a number pad and TV guide button.

Interestingly, Amazon appears to be offering this TV in just three sizes this year. We have the 65-inch model in for review, but there are also 50- and 55-inch options, with the 43- and 75-inch versions no longer featuring on Amazon’s product page.

Another note on those sizes: we found that the performance greatly differed between screen sizes with the previous generation Omni QLED, so this review only pertains to the 65-inch model.

Features

Amazon’s mid-level Fire TV certainly isn’t the most feature-packed TV on paper, but for what it's worth, we think Amazon has mostly cut the right corners here.

This is a direct-lit LED TV with a quantum dot layer to boost colour vibrancy; hence the “QLED” in Ember QLED. While TCL is implementing Mini LED backlights at the price, Amazon reserves that panel technology for the step-up Omni Mini-LED model.

The good news is that this is a greatly improved panel over the previous Omni QLED, according to Amazon. It reportedly features double the dimming zones compared to its predecessor, meaning it makes a significant jump from 80 zones to 160 zones. This, in theory, should provide a significant boost to contrast, and while it won’t work miracles, it should also rein in blooming.

Furthermore, Amazon quotes this TV as being 60 per cent brighter than the first-generation Omni QLED; that’s a substantial jump. While it hasn’t provided specific figures regarding the brightness level, we did note that the original Omni QLED didn’t feature “pure peak brightness to provide a dazzling rendition of the latest and greatest HDR movies”.

Furthermore, Amazon has retained its agnostic approach to HDR formats, meaning that this TV supports HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ Adaptive and Dolby Vision IQ. The suffixes attached to each of the dynamic HDR formats mentioned here relate to their ability to tap into the built-in ambient light sensor to adjust HDR brightness levels based on the light levels in your viewing space.

Unfortunately, that holistic view only extends to the picture, as the audio features are a little bit less impressive. This TV supports Dolby Audio via the Dolby Digital Plus codec, but it does not directly support Dolby Atmos. You can pass Dolby signals through the TV via the HDMI eARC socket (we’ve reached out to Amazon to confirm if this includes Dolby Atmos), and there’s also an optical socket for legacy and/or entry-level audio devices.

The lack of native Dolby Atmos support may sound like a setback, but the 65-inch Ember QLED supports two 12W drivers for a combined audio output of 24W. These are bottom-firing units, so the concept of achieving Atmos height effects is fairly outlandish to begin with, and as we’ll come to discover, we’re actually pleasantly surprised by this TV’s audio capabilities.

On the subject of HDMI sockets, we can quickly mention the gaming specs, or the lack thereof. The Ember QLED features one HDMI 2.1 socket (which is the aforementioned eARC socket) and three HDMI 2.0 ports, which may sound like an issue until we realise that this TV sports a 60Hz panel. Therefore, 4K/120Hz gaming is out of the question, though the single HDMI 2.1 socket does support VRR, ALLM and Dolby Vision Gaming.

Either way, serious gamers should probably look towards the TCL C7K, as it supports gaming at 4K/120Hz with VRR and ALLM included.

Now, onto the bread and butter of this TV: streaming. Amazon threw its hat into the streaming ring early with its first batch of Fire TV devices launching in 2014, and Amazon Prime Video, originally Amazon Instant Video, introduced internet video streaming in 2011 – so we presume that it must feel fairly confident in this space by now.

Much like the other hardware in Amazon’s Fire TV lineup, the Ember QLED runs the Fire OS platform, which is a very solid operating system when it comes to app availability. We didn’t run into any notable gaps when it comes to the available app library, and the system runs smoothly when scrolling through the home page.

Advertising is fairly prominent throughout, and there is a tendency for the TV to prioritise content from Amazon – be that Prime Video content or products you can purchase from the web store – but that’s somewhat expected.

Another Amazon-specific feature that’s front and centre with the Ember QLED is Alexa. There are microphones built into a protruding section of the chin bezel of this TV, which can thankfully be disabled by a physical hardware switch for those who don’t want Mr Bezos listening into their everyday conversations.

Having these mics always running, however, allows us to use this TV as a super-sized Echo speaker, meaning it can control smart home appliances, answer questions and play music, movies and TV shows via a voice search function. This works nicely with Amazon’s Ambient Mode, which shows information and/or artwork on the TV screen when it's not in use.

Even with the on-board microphones disabled, there is an option to chat with Alexa via the remote’s microphone and Alexa-summoning button.

Overall, the Ember QLED sits between the TCL C7K and the Sony Bravia 3 in the budget TV hierarchy in terms of features. It has more to offer than the Sony, thanks to the inclusion of quantum dots and local dimming, but the TCL is a clear step-up thanks to its improved gaming specs, Mini LED backlight and Dolby Atmos-capable sound system.

Picture

We were quite complimentary of the first-generation Amazon Fire TV Ember QLED’s picture, and we find that this latest edition enhances a few of its best qualities. Unfortunately, it also seems to carry forth a few of its shortcomings.

We’ve paired the Ember QLED with our trusty Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, and raided our physical media collection for a handful of reference discs, including Alien Romulus, Civil War and Blade Runner 2049. We’re also using Apple TV to test the Dolby Vision performance, with F1: The Movie being our weapon of choice. The TCL C7K is also on hand as a side-by-side comparison.

Through much trial and error, our preferred settings for this TV are to stick with its Filmmaker mode, but to adjust a few settings – and we stress “a few” as the Ember QLED takes the decisions out of our hands in many cases by greying out a lot of the advanced picture settings.

Turning the local dimming up to medium and HDR tone mapping up to its middle settings yields the best results. Both of these are off by default in Filmmaker Mode, but without them, the picture is noticeably lacking in contrast and punch. We also turn sharpness down to 10, as we find the picture to look a little over-etched at the default setting of 20.

With the TV tuned in, we begin with Civil War, and it quickly becomes apparent that this TV is capable of producing an image that is overall nicely balanced, and it clearly doesn’t try to achieve more than it can based on the hardware limitations.

There is a nice sense of sharpness and definition to the outline of subjects, which, when paired with the improved contrast thanks to the inclusion of double the dimming zones, creates a solid, three-dimensional effect.

The helicopter that skims across the top of a lake towards the Charlottesville Military Base is nicely rendered, and the sense of sharpness and detail extends to skin and clothing textures, too. This sequence features a lot of foliage, and the trees are also packed with detail and texture, making for a convincingly bushy look.

Colours are mostly a success on the Ember QLED’s screen. We approve of the general richness of colours and find that they’re balanced in most scenarios aside from some occasionally overblown greenery. Skin tones are also generally handled well, with some tonal variation which adds some warmth to the characters’ cheeks, although we could accuse the Ember QLED of looking a bit pale at times in this regard.

We also find that highlights are handled admirably on the Ember QLED, and our eyes are often drawn to them over the (on-paper) brighter TCL. During the sequence in which the group of journalists drive through a forest fire at night, there is an impressive intensity to the flames, even if the TCL is better at revealing detail and colour variation within these highlights.

What’s most surprising about this TV is its ability to dig up considerably more dark detail compared to the Mini LED-touting TCL. During the opening scene of Alien Romulus, we find that the details are much more visible on the spaceship as it emerges from the depths of space, and there is also more definition to the Xenomorph fossil, too.

The trade-off here is black levels. The Ember QLED leans towards the grey end of the spectrum when it tries to deliver large swathes of black, meaning that space isn’t quite as deep and infinite as we’d hope it to be. The TCL is a clear winner here, as the improved black levels and more granular contrast control allow stars to punch through with a bit more intensity.

However, the Amazon wins back some ground here, as its backlight seems to be much more consistent during these low-light sequences. We notice that the TCL continuously raises and lowers its backlight to compensate for the small bursts of light through this mostly dark sequence, whereas the Amazon remains much more controlled and, therefore, less distracting.

One area where we have to point out a flaw in the Ember is with motion. The TV doesn’t allow us to adjust its motion settings, or “Action Smoothing” as it calls it, when it's in the Filmmaker Mode setting, and in the Movie preset it's set to the maximum level of 10.

Regardless of what setting we land on, there always seems to be something slightly off with the motion. Soldiers striding in the background of a shot in Civil War look floaty and over-smoothed (almost jelly-like in some cases), and there are some general oddities and visible artefacts to fast-moving objects.

With this in mind, we stick to Filmmaker mode, which seems to either tone things down drastically or turn it off completely, for the best, albeit still compromised, experience.

Switching to Apple TV for some Dolby Vision testing, the gap between these TVs widens, and the TCL begins to show what the extra money goes towards. The intro sequence to F1: The Movie looks good on the Amazon, with the rich colours and sharp details transferring over from our 4K Blu-ray testing, but the TCL introduces some serious pop to the image that steals our attention away from the Ember.

Headlights glow, and fireworks burst with more brightness and vibrancy on the TCL, and the additional contrast earns the TCL a bit more three-dimensionality here as well. Out of the two, the TCL appears to be clearly more competent with Dolby Vision.

Finally, we spin the Blu-ray release of Logan to see how the Ember handles upscaling, and it's surprisingly good news in this regard. Colours seem to be overemphasised, but detail levels and the general picture sharpness are both excellent, to the extent that the TCL can look slightly soft.

This is an especially promising sign, as this streaming-focused TV will undoubtedly be used to access a lot of lower-resolution content from various services, so a considered approach to upscaling is encouraging.

Sound

We’ve already hinted that the Ember QLED’s speakers aren’t the most technically advanced on the market, and they appear to be far behind the TCL’s Bang & Olufsen sound system on paper. The truth is that Ember QLED actually beats expectations in many ways.

Using our tried and tested chapter two stress test from Blade Runner 2049, we find some immediate flaws in the bass performance. The Amazon distorts heavily here, and while we presume that the Bass Enhancement sound mode may help here, it actually makes things worse. That being said, while the bass is quite waffly and flappy, it does dynamically build slightly better than the TCL, which can sound quite one-note in this regard.

Thankfully, when the baseline test begins, we find that the Ember QLED is more within its comfort zone, providing a fairly smooth and balanced approach to dialogue. There isn’t oodles of low-level dynamics on display here, but there is more richness and emotion to voices than the TCL, which can sound quite coarse and, at times, unpleasant.

Both TVs struggle when it comes to reaching high volumes; however, the Amazon sounds less strained when pushed to its maximum, all while sounding a touch more powerful and fuller too.

We’ve established that the Amazon doesn’t try to extend beyond its means by attempting any fancy Dolby Atmos processing, and we feel as though it's all the better for it.

While there isn’t a grand display of cinematic scale on show here, there is a nice breadth to the sound, and while height effects don’t extend beyond the limits of the screen, we get the impression that the Ember QLED is doing its best to place height effects with some verticality.

This is a prime example of a TV not trying to push the boundaries when it doesn’t have the capabilities, and while we’re all for being ambitious, we find that the Amazon Fire TV Ember QLED creates a smoother, fuller and much nicer sound to listen to as a result.

Verdict

Amazon has delivered another compelling, affordable TV with the latest generation Fire TV Ember QLED. While it's not a massive upgrade over the original model, the upgraded panel leads to an impressive picture performance, and the unassuming built-in sound system proves that sometimes less really is more.

While the TCL C7K remains our preferred choice at this price range, thanks to its Mini LED panel and better gaming specs, the Fire TV Ember QLED is a solid alternative. And if you can hold out until one of Amazon’s many sales events, this TV will be well-worth considering thanks to its substantially reduced price.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the TCL C7K

Also consider the TCL C6KS

Read our Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED review

Our pick of the best TVs for every budget

Panasonic has just unveiled its 2026 TV range, and it's not what we were expecting.

While there is a new OLED model, it's not a replacement for the flagship Z95B, or even the step-down Z90B. Both of those models will continue through 2026.

Instead, it's an all-new Z86C model (Z85C in mainland Europe), which Panasonic says features "a new OLED panel".

Our working theory is that this new panel is the budget-oriented OLED SE panel that LG Display introduced last month at CES.

When we put that to a Panasonic representative, they said, “LG display has launched a new panel; this is that panel”, which feels like confirmation to us.

The use of an OLED SE panel would position the Z86C as an entry-level OLED. Perhaps even at a similar level of affordability as last year's Philips OLED760 and Toshiba XF9F.

We're working on getting pricing information out of Panasonic.

The Z86C has a 120Hz refresh rate and VRR support, so it could be a good option for gamers, though the number of HDMI 2.1 sockets it has is yet to be confirmed.

All flavours of HDR are supported, so that's HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos is also on board.

Amazon's Fire OS provides the Z86C's smarts, whereas mainland Europe's Z85C features Google TV.

Both TVs will be available in 55- and 65-inch sizes.

QD Mini LED sets galore

While there's just one new OLED TV on the way from Panasonic this year, there is an onslaught of Mini LED models – but they're not all coming to the UK.

The Mini LED range starts with the flagship W97C and W95C, which differ only in the colour of their casework. These models are limited to mainland Europe.

They feature a 144Hz panel, "more than" 1000 dimming zones, and a claimed peak brightness of 1500 nits.

They also feature what Panasonic is calling "Glare Free Ultra", which is designed to reduce reflections and improve viewing angles.

The W97C and W95C will be available in sizes ranging from 55 to 86 inches.

Definitely destined for UK shores is the W94C, which will come in 55-, 65- and 75-inch sizes.

This looks on paper to be very similar to the W97C and W95C, thanks to its 144Hz panel and Glare Free Ultra anti-reflection tech, but it isn't clear whether it has the same number of dimming zones or brightness.

The W94C does feature the Amazon Fire OS, though, whereas the W97C and W95C are Google TVs.

The final UK-bound Mini LED model in Panasonic's 2026 range is the W91C. Interestingly, this is a Roku TV, rather than a Google or Amazon-powered one.

This model has just a 60Hz refresh rate, but it does feature the Glare Free Ultra tech, HDMI 2.1 sockets and support for VRR and ALLM.

All of Panasonic's new Mini LED sets feature Quantum Dots for added colour vibrancy, but there is also a range of QLED TVs with non-Mini LED backlights, too, as well as some entry-level LCD models.

Our man on the ground, Lewis Empson, will be getting hands-on time with some of Panasonic's new TVs later today, so stay tuned for his first impressions pieces.

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Panasonic's sister brand Technics has also just announced a new turntable

Amazon is taking on Samsung’s The Frame with its first-ever lifestyle TV in the form of the Ember Artline.

Like its Samsung rival, Amazon’s Ember acts as a TV that transforms into a “curated art gallery” when not in use, with over 2,000 art pieces to choose from.

The QLED TV boasts 4K resolution with a matte screen, as well as support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+. That’s already quite a challenge to The Frame, as that is limited to the latter. It’s impressively thin too, with a 1.5-inch design that should create the illusion of a picture frame.

As you would expect from an Amazon TV, the Ember Artline comes equipped with Alexa+ with plenty of AI-powered features. It even uses motion sensors (dubbed Omnisense technology by Amazon) to detect if you have left or entered the room to switch between modes.

There are plenty of options to let you customise your screen (which is available in both 55 and 65 inches), with 10 frame colours to choose from, including Walnut, Matte White and Midnight Blue.

In terms of connectivity, it includes four HDMI inputs. AirPlay is also available, as is Wi-Fi 6.

It will go on sale in four countries including the UK and US starting later this year, priced from £950 / $899 (around AU$1905) for the 55-inch model. That's quite a lot cheaper than The Frame, which will set you back £1299 / $1500 / AU$1799 for the same size.

This is far from the first time The Frame has faced rivals. The LG Gallery+ took aim at Samsung last year, as did Hisense's Canvas model, representing the increasing competition on the market. We were not hugely convinced by the latter during testing, however, as it offers poor contrast levels and low-quality sound. That resulted in a two-star rating overall.

While the Artline TVs are priced the same as Amazon’s Omni Mini-LED models, they use standard LEDs in the backlight, leading us to believe they will be more in line with the brand’s standard, non-Mini LED Omni QLED TVs in terms of panel specification – albeit with the new anti-reflective matte coating.

That said, there’s no mention of local dimming on the Artline’s product page, either. If that’s absent, it would represent a spec downgrade on even the original Omni QLED range, which would be disappointing. We’ve approached Amazon for clarification on this.

Still, the Ember's more affordable price tag than Samsung's The Frame and Alexa smarts could make it a worthy competitor.

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Here are the best TVs right now

Check out the best TVs under £1000

Get live updates from CES 2026 as they come in

If you've read our guide on how to avoid bad hi-fi and home cinema deals this Black Friday, you'll have discovered that just because a product is on a tasty discount right now, it doesn't mean it's actually worth your time.

It always pays to shop around for a better product, and to do your research from our reviews and buying guides, even when the price drops are so large and tempting.

We also regularly advise that, sometimes, the older products are the ones to go for. That's the case with Amazon's Echo Dot range of smart speakers: the Echo Dot Max may be the newer product, and it's just dropped from £100 to £90 at Amazon right now, but it's the older, smaller Echo Dot (5th Gen) which, at just £30, that we would easily recommend instead.

A deal to avoid

The cheaper, better-sounding alternative

Surely, the brand-new Echo Dot Max is a better buy than the Echo Dot (5th Gen)? It launched about a month ago, set its price higher, plus it's bigger, houses an extra drive unit, and offers the latest iteration of Alexa in the shape of Alexa+.

Sadly, the Max is a sonic misfire. In our recent testing, we found that is sounds bland and muddled, struggling to nail even the most basic requirements – detail, dynamics and cohesion – of what we look for in a budget Bluetooth speaker. It's clever and nicely made, but sonically, it's a huge let-down, and a noticeable step back on the marker laid down by the Echo Dot (5th Gen).

Our strong advice, if you're seeking an Amazon smart speaker, would be to nab the fifth-gen Echo Dot instead. It won't go as loud and doesn't feature a few of the latest Amazon features, but for playing music, it's far superior.

Plus, it will still do most of the things you'd want from an Amazon device, such as playing ball with other smart devices in the same ecosystem, solid streaming support for the likes of Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music, and, of course, Alexa-guided Skyrim.

The fifth-gen Dot remains a five-star buy. As we said in our review: "Considering the Echo’s diminutive stature and wide-ranging functionality, great sound was no guarantee, but the sonic experience is somewhat remarkable when you also consider the Dot’s remarkably slim price tag and unobtrusive design".

For £60 cheaper than the Max, the Echo Dot (5th Gen) is the one we'd go for every day of the week. Grab one for the ridiculously low price of £30 over at Amazon , Currys, Argos or John Lewis.

MORE:

How to avoid bad hi-fi and home cinema deals this Black Friday – top tips and tricks from our review team

Black Friday home cinema deals live: our experts’ picks of the best savings on TVs, Dolby Atmos soundbar, projectors and more

Black Friday 2025 hi-fi deals live: our audio experts picks of the top savings on speakers, headphones, vinyl and more

Black Friday quick links

• Amazon: browse all of today's best deals
• B&W speakers: save £200
• Bluetooth speaker: 48% off five-star JBL
• Bose QC Ultra Earbuds: save £100
• Bravia 8 TV: save 34% on 55in Sony TV
• Denon AV receiver: save £500
• Dolby Atmos soundbar: down to £299
• ELAC Debut 2: five-star speakers now £199
• Headphones: Sennheiser Momentum 4 now £169
• John Lewis: £500 off LG and Sony OLED TVs
• Richer Sounds: browse Black Friday deals
• Sevenoaks: £150 off Award-winning speakers
• TVs, movies, home cinema: browse the best deals

The fiercely tribal world of smart speakers offers a window into the wider battle for tech giant supremacy. All of the major titans, be it Google, Apple or in this case Amazon, send their smart speakers out to bat, with each one, driven by its AI-powered voice assistant, requiring a pledge of fealty to a well-defined ecosystem.

Amazon’s latest Echo speaker lineup is here to tempt you over to its idyllic shores. Consisting of four new models – the Echo Studio, the Echo Show 8, the Echo Show 11 and the Echo Dot Max – Amazon promises this new range features its most advanced models to date.

The last Amazon smart speaker we reviewed, the charming Echo Dot (5th Generation), impressed us deeply with its combination of Alexa smarts and spritely sound for a reasonable price, and we were rather hoping that this new line, represented here by the Echo Dot Max, had taken that tasty recipe to the next level in a bid to welcome users over to Amazon’s tech jungle.

Build & design

If you’re familiar with Amazon’s established range of Echo Dots, little about the new Echo Dot Max will particularly surprise you. If anything, this particular model looks rather similar to Apple’s HomePod Mini (£99 / $99 / AU$149), albeit with a larger size and on-unit buttons instead of a touch-capacitive glass top.

The Max speaker is essentially a small orb, a bit larger than your standard hockey ball, with a cut-off bottom for stability and a flattened exterior face onto which are mounted a small collection of control buttons.

There are fewer buttons on the Max than there are on the five-star, cheaper Echo Dot (5th Generation) (£55 / $50 / AU$79). The older model houses four – volume up, volume down, microphone off and an action button for things like Alexa control and pairing – but this newer iteration has ditched that action toggle for the sake of removing a bit of on-unit clutter.

We imagine that will prove divisive among users, as we hardly found the fifth-gen’s control panel’s four-button array to be particularly hard to manage. That action button was a useful addition when you didn’t want to go digging around the Alexa app, after all, even if most users will just use voice control for the majority of their time with the Max.

The Echo Dot Max is still made to a high standard elsewhere. Being a bigger unit, the soft, chunky cloth mesh puts us in mind of the rival HomePod Mini, clinging tightly to the frame without noticeable bulges or blemishes. The new-gen speaker also remains stable wherever we place it thanks to its non-slip rubberised underside, so you needn’t fear it tumbling off its precarious perch when an unruly puppy knocks into your wobbly side table.

Features

Before we get to the Max’s underwhelming sonic performance, it’s only right to acknowledge that, as a smart device, it’s an impressive operator.

If you’re planning on integrating this smart speaker into a wider ecosystem, you’ll naturally find that it plays ball far more readily with other Amazon-branded products. You can tell your Echo Dot Max speaker to turn off your smart lights or check who’s at the door, for example, but those tasks are generally only going to be available if you’re using Amazon smart lights and/or a Ring camera respectively.

When it comes to streaming music, though, the Echo Dot Max is surprisingly open-minded regarding which services it will cater to. Most of Amazon’s rival, third-party services are supported alongside its own Amazon Music, so you can still make song requests if you happen to be a dyed-in-the-wool Spotify, Deezer or Apple Music user.

Sadly, as was the case with the Echo Dot (5th Generation), Tidal still isn’t supported, nor is its hi-res cohort Qobuz, so if you want to use those services, you’ll have to do so via traditional (and lossy) Bluetooth.

These setbacks aside, the Max is an easy piece of kit to set up and use. Integrating streaming services is easily done via the Alexa app, meaning you can simply switch to your chosen preference via a one-stop shop of platforms, while actually getting your smart speaker up and running is the work of mere moments.

Alexa voice control is, of course, at its heart, and it’s as good as it has ever been courtesy of Amazon’s new ‘Alexa+’ iteration. Amazon’s smart assistant, frankly, can often make Siri seem a little backward, and the wide range of voice-activated functions and features it can perform is deeply impressive.

Interactions are generally responsive and natural, and while we’re not at the spooky point at which you could be forgiven for thinking that your AI assistant was replicating a natural conversation with a real person, there are glimpses that this once-impossible-seeming future doesn’t seem like such a way off.

The usual tricks and Easter eggs are all there to enjoy. You can still profess your love to Alexa, whereupon you’ll be treated to a peppy number in which it earnestly thanks you for the sentiment.

You can also still play a ‘choose your own adventure’ version of Bethesda’s classic video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, wherein you fight dragons, traverse icy passes and search for lost treasure with Alexa as your guide. It’s still nothing more than a fun novelty, but as fun novelties go, it’s one of the best.

There are some new weapons in the arsenal, too. Alongside stereo pairing between twin devices of the same generation, the Echo Dot Max also supports Alexa Home Theatre, allowing users to connect up to five units with compatible Fire TV devices to create a smart surround system.

Plug your various current-gen Dots in and Alexa will automatically set things up and tune your speakers to the room in question, although as we’ll see, the Max’s sonic performance may dissuade you from using it as part of a cinema set-up.

Sound

This marks the first time Amazon has engineered an Echo Dot with a two-way speaker system, integrating a single 20mm tweeter and a 6cm woofer for what Amazon describes as a “room-filling sound”. The new model also makes use of room adaptation technology, whereby the speaker uses a dedicated microphone to automatically adjust its sonic output to match the size of the room it’s in.

This all sounds positive on paper, so we’re rather baffled, not to say disappointed, to discover that this newer, pricier Max is a clear sonic downgrade compared with the older Echo Dot (5th Generation). When you consider the fact that the older Echo Dot is half the price of this newer iteration, that has serious alarm bells ringing.

Regardless of the streaming service we choose, the music we select or the room in which we play it, the Max has lost much of the sharpness that made many previous Echo Dots such a fun listen. It may be bigger and go louder than many of its antecedents, but it’s also rather muffled and vague-sounding, losing the crispness and definition that we previously had so admired in the fifth-gen Dot.

Melding a lack of clarity with a poor sense of cohesion and frustratingly modest levels of audio resolution doesn’t exactly make for the most rewarding of listens. The Max sounds muddled as well as muffled, with textural details coming across as vague and lacking in sharpness or authenticity. Songs and the instruments often sound like synthetic reproductions – rarely do they come close to what we would recognise as “the real thing”.

Rhythms are poorly reproduced, and certainly lacking in the kind of fizz that would get your toes tapping to, say, Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal. It’s all so lumpen and lead-footed, and while we want to get swept up in the tune’s irrepressible energy, the speaker feels as though its engine is forever spluttering as it tries to rev itself into life. Switch over to the HomePod Mini (which costs roughly the same price), and it’s Apple’s smart speaker that gets the job done with far greater zip and effervescence than the Max provides.

All told, Amazon’s orb offers a frustratingly flat and uninspired delivery. We don’t discern any great dynamic swells or drops when we play Hans Zimmer’s swashbuckling Up Is Down, while the low-level nuances on Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine are all but lost to the ether.

It’s hard not to be disappointed by such a bland approach, especially when we find that our iPhone 15’s built-in speakers will do a better job of capturing your music’s drama and emotional impact.

There are some vague bright spots amid what is, ultimately, a disappointing product. Although it’s still quite a small speaker, it’s capable of going pretty loud – in fact, it’s where the Max sounds more comfortable, when pumping out simple, robust tunes at higher volumes.

Further, there’s a good deal of sonic muscle for a speaker of this type, and again, that’s something our test unit is capable of showcasing when the volume dial gets cranked towards the red zone. Björk’s Army Of Me is made reasonably full and muscular, supported by an impressively weighty bass that, while not particularly agile or refined, gives the song some decent lower-end clout.

It’s not enough to save the Echo Dot Max or make it worthy of a recommendation over the superb HomePod Mini, but it is at least something.

Verdict

We were hoping that this new addition to Amazon’s established roster of Echo smart speakers would take things to the next level and even – say it quietly – see this pricier Max competing with the Apple HomePod Mini. In reality, it’s nowhere near.

Alexa integration is as great as ever, and there’s no question that this is a user-friendly, intuitively designed piece of kit that does the ‘smart’ aspect of its product description very well. As a speaker, however, it’s a major step backwards.

If musical performance matters to you as much as smart features, you’d be better off getting the cheaper Echo Dot (5th Gen), or else jumping ship entirely and pledging your loyalty to the Apple HomePod Mini.

Review published: 19th November 2025

SCORES

• Sound 2
• Build 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation)

Also consider the Apple HomePod Mini

Best Bluetooth speakers tried and tested for every budget

The best video streamers category has ballooned from a single winner last year to a whopping three this year. All jokes aside, we're pleased to see a budget pick return to this category, as the Apple TV 4K (2022) spent a year on its own after the discontinuation of the Google Chromecast with Google TV.

Now, with company from Amazon and Sky by its side, the Apple TV 4K is once again amidst some Award-winning company. Despite being over three years old at this point, it remains on the list as Apple is yet to unveil a successor despite the escalating rumours of a new model launching this year.

That being said, it's still a great streamer for all-round picture and sound performance, offering a crisp, rich and sharp picture which supports both Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+. It's stood the test of time and fended off competitors such as the Google TV Streamer to remain as our best video streamer over £100.

A superb streaming stick for half the price

For those who are looking for a top-notch streaming experience under £100, we direct you towards the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation). The name is a mouthful, but the performance speaks for itself, as the picture is nicely balanced and it supports all of the same HDR formats as the Apple TV 4K.

It's feature-packed, too, with a superb selection of apps that covers the mainstream and niche options for all kinds of movie and TV fans. And while Fire OS is a bit ad-heavy for our liking, we can't deny that it's come on leaps and bounds over the years to become a pretty intuitive system to use.

This plug-and-play solution is an easy and cheap way to upgrade your 4K streaming experience, whether you're replacing your TV's built-in operating system or breathing new life into an ageing 4K TV.

Sky Stream dethrones a long-running favourite

Here's a new contender in the video streamers category. We finally felt that it was time to let Sky Q go, as the service nears its 10th anniversary and with Sky Stream now being the company's main focus when it comes to delivering Sky TV to the masses.

This plucky little puck has been moved to the video streamers category, as it's an internet-enabled streaming device that allows users to stream live TV without the need for a dish to be affixed to their house. It also features a wide array of streaming apps built in, including Netflix, which is included in the monthly subscription price; nifty.

Much like the Apple TV 4K and Amazon Fire TV 4K Max, it also supports Disney Plus, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and many, many more apps and services. This is bolstered by Sky's huge content library, which includes a wide array of blockbuster movies, TV shows and sports programming depending on your subscription level.

Picture and sound quality are on par with Sky Q from our experience and testing, with a sharp 4K experience on the various TVs we tested with it. HD content, in fact, often looks better on Sky Glass, as it forgoes the relatively higher amount of compression that's present on Sky Q.

A more versatile streaming box that's virtually plug-and-play seals the deal for us; henceforth, we bestow Sky Stream with the best TV subscription title.

Of course, only one member of this trio of streamers will take home to coveted Product of the Year title, but which one will it be?

MORE:

These are all of the What Hi-Fi? Award winners for 2025

Check out our picks for the best streaming devices

As well as our full Google TV Streamer review

We've just revealed the full list of What Hi-Fi? Award winners, and it includes a fresh cohort of new five-star projectors.

One of the new entries to our Awards list is the Hisense M2 Pro, a compact coffee table-style projector that delivers a big, punchy, and detailed picture, greatly exceeding expectations based on its small footprint.

We've bestowed it an Award based on its launch price of £1299; however, we're already seeing some substantial discounts, which makes it an even better option.

In fact, you can snap it up for just £999 at Amazon right now, saving you hundreds of pounds on this top-notch projector.

The Hisense M2 Pro packs a lot into a small and stylish package. It features a 4K image (up to a whopping 200 inches) with support for HDR in the HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision and HLG formats.

We approved of its punchy, yet balanced, colours in our full review, as well as how it never attempts to push past its capabilities; instead opting to deliver a consistent and immersive picture within its means.

Elsewhere, you'll find Hisense's full Vidaa smart system built in, meaning you can access your favourite streaming services without having to plug anything in. That's especially good news considering that the M2 Pro only features one HDMI socket, which is its only notable flaw.

It even has a fairly basic 10W 2.0 channel speaker system built in, which we actually think is pretty good by projector standards.

When set to the Theatre mode, we find that it produces a surprisingly open and clear sound that will certainly make do for occasional use, though you'll be pleased to hear that the HDMI socket does support eARC.

All of this comes in a charming, compact design that's designed to be tucked away when not in use, and Hisense even kindly provides a carrying case to keep it protected when stored away or on the go.

Amazon's £300 saving makes this likeable little projector even more compelling, so don't miss this deal if you're looking to score this Award-winner at a discounted price.

MORE:

Read our full Hisense M2 Pro review

Check out all of the 2025 What Hi-Fi? Award winners

And here are the best projectors in 2025

Prime Day might be over, but there's a great deal to be had on Amazon's 4K streamer. The Fire TV Stick 4K is down to just £25 at Amazon – a discount of 57 per cent (or £34). That's its lowest price ever.

But you'd better be quick. This deal ends at 11.59pm tonight.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 2nd gen best ever price

This model boasts a quicker 1.7GHz processor than its predecessor, making it 30 per cent faster. And it supports Wi-Fi 6 for smoother streaming (though you will need a compatible router to see the benefit). Like its predecessor, it supports all four formats of HDR (Dolby Vision, HLG, HDR10 and HDR10 Plus) as well as Dolby Atmos for more immersive audio with virtual height channels.

As the name suggests, it's equipped for 4K visuals.

The Alexa Voice Remote lets you control it by speaking, and it can control your TV, soundbar and AV receiver too.

The Fire TV operating system gives you access to all the major streaming apps, including Prime Video (but of course), Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, BBC iPlayer and Paramount+.

The Xbox app lets you play console-quality games without a dedicated games machine. Plus you can control your other smart home devices using the Alexa voice control.

We haven't reviewed this model yet, but the previous model picked up a five-star review along with a What Hi-Fi? Award to boot. Considering the similarities to the old model, we would bet this model performs very well indeed.

It's up against some tough competition in the form of the Google TV Streamer, which earned four stars from us. But given that the Fire TV Stick 4K is a quarter of the price, this will be an easy decision for many.

You can pick it up for £25 at Amazon until 11.59pm tonight, so don't delay.

MORE:

The best streaming devices around

Which Amazon Fire TV Stick should you buy in 2025?

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max vs Google Chromecast with Google TV: which is better?

Amazon has announced a refreshed Fire TV range that will replace its award-winning Omni QLED Series – one of our favourite budget TVs – with a redesigned model promising significant performance upgrades.

The new Omni QLED Series brings notable improvements over its predecessor, which earned five stars in our review of the 50-inch model.

According to Amazon, the updated displays are 60 per cent brighter than the previous generation, while the number of local dimming-zones has been doubled to deliver improved contrast with brighter whites and deeper blacks.

An upgraded processor also makes the new models 40 per cent faster than before.

The Omni QLED Series will be available in sizes from 50 inches to 65 inches, starting at $480 / £650. Australian prices have yet to be confirmed at the time of writing.

The original Omni QLED impressed us with its surprisingly considered picture quality, natural colour balance, and strong feature set for the money.

We found it delivered authentically cinematic entertainment that worked well within its means, avoiding the common budget-TV pitfall of attempting feats beyond its capabilities.

Amazon has retained key features from the previous generation while adding new functionality.

Dolby Vision and HDR10+ Adaptive support continues, alongside the OmniSense technology that automatically turns the TV on when you enter the room, and powers it down when you leave to save energy.

Interactive Art now responds dynamically to your movements, while the display automatically adjusts colours based on your room's lighting conditions. Hands-free Alexa voice control also remains integrated into the TV.

Overall, it sounds like a welcome improvement, but specification and claimed performance improvements tell only part of the story.

We'll reserve final judgement on whether the new Omni QLED can match or surpass its award-winning predecessor until we have put it through our rigorous review process.

Given that the 50-inch original model impressed us with its balanced picture quality, natural colours, and authentic cinematic delivery for the money, the bar is set fairly high – but the promised 60 per cent brightness increase and doubled local-dimming zones sound encouraging on paper.

Alongside the Omni QLED, Amazon has also announced redesigned 2-Series and 4-Series models.

The 2-Series delivers HD resolution while the 4-Series offers 4K, with both featuring ultra-thin bezels and a new quad-core processor that Amazon claims makes them 30 per cent faster than their predecessors.

OmniSense technology has been brought to these more affordable models for the first time, and a new Dialogue Boost feature allows you to increase voice volume without raising background noise.

The 2-Series starts at $160 / £250, while the 4-Series begins at $330 / £430, with sizes ranging from 32 inches to 55 inches.

It's worth noting that Amazon's Omni Mini LED range remains the company's flagship TV line-up.

We tested the 55-inch Omni Mini LED and found it delivered surprisingly punchy HDR performance with its 512 local dimming zones and Mini LED backlighting, though it fell slightly short of perfection due to some colour inconsistency and motion softness.

Amazon has also introduced the Fire TV Stick 4K Select – its most affordable 4K streaming device to date, priced at $40 / £50.

The new stick supports vibrant 4K picture quality with HDR10+ and features faster app launches thanks to a new, more responsive operating system.

It will work with popular streaming services and is set to support Xbox Gaming and Luna cloud gaming platforms soon.

Amazon has also introduced new Fire TV software features designed to improve content discovery.

A Continue Watching row on the home screen acts as a personal bookmark across all your current shows, allowing you to jump back in or access new episodes directly.

A unified watchlist also now lets you save content from any streaming service to a single list, rather than juggling separate watchlists across different apps.

The new Omni QLED, 2-Series, and 4-Series TVs are listed as “coming soon”, while the Fire TV Stick 4K Select is available for pre-order now and will begin shipping from mid-October.

MORE:

Read our Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED QL50F601 review

Check out our Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED review

These are the best TVs you can buy right now

Amazon's next sale is coming soon. In just three weeks, the e-tailer will hold Prime Big Deal Days, one of its big four sales of the year. Then it won't be long until Black Friday. It begins...

Prime Big Deal Days takes place from 7-8th October. We're promised "hundreds of thousands of deals" with up to 40 per cent off.

A new feature called 'New Deal Drop' will debut this year. It involves limited time deals that are "curated exclusively for Prime members." Deals will also be themed into collections, like Cosy Season and Gifting.

There's no word on exactly what deals we'll see, just that they'll span all areas of the Amazon site. Amazon's sales always see sizeable discounts on some of the best wireless headphones, best TVs, best wireless speakers and more.

Of course, there's a lot of dross out there too. To make sure you're only dabbling in the best deals on the best hi-fi, audio, AV and home cinema products, stay tuned to What Hi-Fi?, as we'll be giving it the usual blanket coverage.

Amazon's sales are always worth paying attention to, but coming so soon before Black Friday, Big Deal Days will have its work cut out. Can it convince shoppers to splurge then, rather than wait just a few weeks for Black Friday? The deals will have to be pretty stellar...

As ever, you'll have to be a Prime member in order to be eligible for the deals. But there's nothing to stop you signing up for a 30-day free trial and then cancelling straight after the sale.

MORE:

Check out the best headphones deals

The best TV deals

And the best hi-fi deals

It's our inaugural sustainability week, which means we're highlighting some of the best eco-friendly developments from the world of hi-fi and home cinema.

TVs don't tend to be the most eco-friendly devices in our homes; they're cumbersome and constructed (mostly) of plastic, which makes them hard to recycle. Therefore, when you get a new TV, you'll likely want to hold onto it for as long as possible.

Sounds logical, right? However, that's easier said than done, due to the inclusion of smart operating systems.

These are integral parts of practically every TV on the market right now, as we seldom see a TV that doesn't feature one of the various smart operating systems, such as Tizen (Samsung), webOS (LG), Vidaa (Hisense), FireOS (Panasonic) or Google TV (Sony, Philips and TCL).

The issue is that consumers are at the mercy of TV manufacturers to maintain these smart platforms for the years to come, as otherwise they can slow down and, in some cases, lose support for some key streaming apps.

Before now, TV updates have been sporadic at best. Promised support has never been necessarily guaranteed, rather expected from the biggest TV manufacturers.

However, in the last year or so, a few key players in the TV market have come forward to announce extended support, which should make your TV last longer without having to worry about losing software support.

Leading the pack is Hisense, which is promising up to eight years of software support on its Vidaa-powered TVs, which it announced in July of this year.

Considering studies show that, on average, consumers will replace their TVs every 6.6 years (based on data gathered in the US from Circana), it's great to see Hisense support its TVs for an extended period that exceeds this average.

Next up is Samsung, which promises a similarly impressive seven years of software support for its Tizen software platform, which also covers the average TV lifespan. Samsung gets bonus points for extending this to its smartphones, meaning devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and Z Flip 7 will, in theory, still be supported into 2032.

And following fairly close behind is LG, which offers "over five years" of software updates as part of its Re:New scheme. That's not quite as long as Samsung or Hisense, and it's slightly more vague, but five years of promised upgrades at the very least is decent.

Simply put, if you're looking for a TV that won't be bogged down by outdated software in the coming years, these three brands are your best bet, but what about the others?

Sony, TCL, and Philips haven't committed to a fixed number of years for which their respective TVs will receive software updates. That's likely down to the fact that they don't have their own software systems and instead rely on Google TV for a majority of their respective lineups.

It's a similar case with Amazon's Fire OS platform, which Panasonic has recently adopted and which TCL features on some of its cheaper sets. There's no guaranteed minimum period for which TVs running this operating system will get support, leaving Amazon responsible for ensuring it keeps the platform updated and compatible with older models.

Asking these companies to whip up their own smart platforms out of thin air and promise to keep them supported for seven or eight years is, perhaps, a tall order.

However, it would be good to see Google and Amazon join the likes of Samsung, Hisense and LG to establish some confidence with consumers, so that they know their TV won't be bogged down by outdated, slow and unsupported software in the years to come.

Most importantly, TVs lasting longer reduces the frequency with which people will need to replace them, which is an instant win when it comes to sustainability.

MORE:

Check out more Sustainability Week articles here

Read our full Samsung S90F review

As well as our picks for the best Mini LED TVs

Singapore-based company Creative has revealed its newest soundbar, the Creative Stage Pro, with a “sleek, space-conscious design”. The 2.1-channel ’bar and subwoofer system “bring cinematic sound into compact living spaces” according to the brand.

It’s meant to be a suitable addition to a home cinema setup as well as a desktop or gaming system.

The soundbar offers two listening modes to adapt to these different sound conditions. Near Field Mode is (as the name would suggest) calibrated to suit listening up close, while Far Field Mode provides a wider sound for those watching movies and TV from a distance.

The Stage Pro is employing Creative’s own surround-sound technology – SuperWide – in an effort to create an immersive experience, with Dolby Audio also on offer.

In terms of connections, there is support for HDMI ARC, Bluetooth and optical so it can be connected to your TV, PC and mobile devices.

Priced at £130 / $170 (around AU$290), the Creative ‘bar is competing against some of the best budget soundbars.

That includes the Sonos Ray which is currently available for just £50 more in the UK. This Sonos model received a four-star rating from us, offering dazzling vocal clarity and a detailed high-end.

It will be interesting to see how the Stage Pro compares with the most recent model we tested at roughly the same price of £120 / $120 (around AU$185), the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar. While we were impressed by its decent sense of scale, it ultimately earned a three-star rating for its lack of dynamic subtlety.

The Creative Stage Pro is available to pre-order now in the US and UK. We’ll keep you posted on whether it can outperform the tough competition, but its reasonable price and gaming specific setup could make it a worthy option.

MORE:

Here is our review of the Sonos Arc

Check out the best soundbars

And these are the best gaming TVs

It's day four of Amazon Prime Day (yes, Amazon Prime Day is now a four-day event), and while the OLED TV deals have been a bit middling overall, a couple have been genuinely brilliant.

This has got to be the best one, and it's not even an Amazon deal:

The 65-inch LG G4, a super-stylish, five-star, MLA OLED stunner, is currently available for just £1499 at Richer Sounds.

This was the ultimate 4k OLED TV last year and it's still incredible now. It's also never been cheaper, and I very much doubt it will be again.

In fact, I don't think what little stock is left will last much longer, so it might be your last chance to buy an LG G4 at all.

And as if this deal wasn't already awesome enough, Richer Sounds is chucking a Dolby Atmos soundbar into the bargain.

I wouldn't actually keep that soundbar, but I'll come back to that (as well as some tips regarding stands) in a moment.

First things first, this is the wall-mount version of the LG G4. The pedestal stand version is available, but it's currently £1599 at Richer Sounds.

For some people, paying the extra £100 to get the official LG stand will be worth it, and it is a nice example, with two height options.

But do also bear in mind that you could get the cheaper wall-mount version of the G4 and simply buy a universal stand for it. These start at about £16 at Amazon.

Now, let's discuss the bundled soundbar. It's the LG USG10TY, which is very stylish indeed.

It's designed to be a visual match to the G4, so when mounted, it's really nice and slim – but there's also a substantial wireless subwoofer that backs up the bass and can be placed out of the way somewhere.

It's a Dolby Atmos bar, too, with a hefty-sounding 420 watts of power.

But I'm not very keen on it.

We haven't done a full review of the LG USG10TY, but I have heard it and I wasn't very impressed.

It will sound much better than the TV itself, of course, which is fairly audio-challenged, so if you simply want a super-neat soundbar that boosts your lovely new OLED TV, by all means, go for it.

Personally, though, I would be selling that and buying something better. The original Sonos Arc is currently available for just £489 at Amazon, so that would be my choice.

As for the G4 itself – well, that's just excellent.

The MLA technology provides a huge brightness boost over standard OLED TVs, but you still get those lovely, perfect blacks and pixel-level contrast control.

Colours are excellent, too, and LG's OLEDs are really easy to get looking their best with all content and in all ambient lighting conditions.

The webOS smart platform has more ads than it should, but it's also jam-packed with apps – and they've been properly optimised so they work perfectly and deliver their content in the best formats available.

And for gamers, there's no better TV. All four HDMIs are 2.1-spec, with support for 4K/144Hz (and 4K/120Hz, of course), VRR, ALLM and gaming in Dolby Vision. The perfectly implemented HGiG mode makes it easy to get brilliant results from modern HDR games, too.

In short, this is an absolutely amazing TV at an incredible price that I can't see being beaten. If you've been hunting for a flagship-grade TV at an entry-level OLED price, this is the deal for you.

MORE:

• Amazon: browse all of today's best deals
• Sony: new lowest-ever price for the A95L QD-OLED at Richer Sounds
• John Lewis: soundbar, Blu-ray and streaming deals
• Peter Tyson: big deals on projectors, speaker packages and soundbars
• Sevenoaks Sound & Vision: up to £1800 off home cinema packages

In all of the excitement of a sales event such as Amazon Prime Day, which is now into its unprecedented third day, it can be easy to forget to appreciate what you've already got.

I've been reviewing TVs for almost two decades now, but I'm far from impervious to the lure of these amazing deals, and I frequently find my finger hovering over the 'Place Order' button on an OLED TV deal.

But I am fighting the urge more successfully this time, and while my situation is fairly unusual – and very lucky – it's still one that might be familiar to some of you.

You see, I currently have a 65-inch Sony A95L, and it is undoubtedly the best TV I have ever owned.

But it's also almost two years old, now, and even better OLED TVs are now available.

The thing is, those better OLED TVs, which I consider to be the Sony Bravia 8 II (the A95L's successor) and LG G5, are still mega expensive.

That's despite recent discounts: the Bravia 8 II is £2699 at Richer Sounds, while the G5 is £3099 at Richer Sounds (and you can claim £400 in cashback).

So, are those TVs so much better than my A95L that they're worth spending roughly £2700 on? Not at all.

And even if they were, buying now would be a daft decision, because the Bravia 8 II and G5, which launched only recently, will drop in price even further in the coming months.

I expect the G5's price in particular to plummet. Last year's 65-inch G4 dipped below £2000 during Black Friday last November, and I expect the new G5 to drop to a similar level this November.

Getting a great OLED TV deal during Amazon Prime Day in the summer means picking up a model from the previous year – and doing that now just wouldn't be a worthwhile upgrade for me. I know: first-world problems.

Although, having said all of that, there is one exception.

The 77-inch LG C4 is down to an incredibly low price of just £1600 at Amazon.

In pure quality terms, that would of course be a downgrade on my 65-inch A95L. But I'd be looking at a 12-inch increase in screen size, and that certainly would be an upgrade in itself.

Hmmm, perhaps resisting isn't quite as easy as I've made it out to be...

MORE:

• Amazon: browse all of today's best deals
• Sony: new lowest-ever price for the A95L QD-OLED at Richer Sounds
• John Lewis: soundbar, Blu-ray and streaming deals
• Peter Tyson: big deals on projectors, speaker packages and soundbars
• Sevenoaks Sound & Vision: up to £1800 off home cinema packages

Getting the most out of Amazon Prime Day doesn't involve finding just one great deal – it involves taking advantage of bundle offers so that you get discount upon discount, resulting in a Mega System Deal (I might trademark that).

And this Mega System Deal really is mega.

You see, lots of retailers (though not Amazon, as it happens) are offering discounts if you buy a Sony soundbar with a Sony TV. Some are then offering an extra discount if you add a Sony subwoofer.

And this is all on top of the deals that are already being offered on each individual product.

Also handy for this is that the Bravia Theatre Quad wireless Dolby Atmos speaker system counts as a soundbar for the purposes of this promotion.

Now, I personally felt that the Theatre Quad was a touch overpriced when it came out, and a little bass-light.

But £500 has been knocked off the price for Prime Day, and you can get another £500 discount if you buy it at the same time as a Sony TV.

The bass issue, meanwhile, can be solved through the addition of the excellent (so excellent that I own one) SA-SW5 wireless subwoofer, which is currently available from some retailers with a small discount when bought solo, or a big discount when bought with a 'soundbar' such as the Theatre Quad.

So, I have checked every retailer I use to see which deals they're offering, and found the best deal that bundles together the Award-winning Bravia 8 OLED with the Bravia Theatre Quad speaker system and SA-SW5 subwoofer.

This is a bundle that would have cost you £6197 when brand-new, and still costs £4334 from Amazon, where the bundle deals aren't available.

At Peter Tyson, though, this bundle will cost you just £3684.

That's a mammoth saving of £2513 on the launch price.

And the best thing is that, unlike every other retailer I tried, such as Richer Sounds and John Lewis, you don't have to do anything fancy with voucher codes to get this deal to work.

Simply add all three items to your basket and the discounts will be applied automatically. That's exactly what I did, as you can see in this image:

As you can see, the TV and subwoofer appear to be out of stock, but you can still place the order, which Peter Tyson suggests will be fulfilled. Given the savings, I think it's worth a little wait.

For what it's worth, Richer Sounds appears to have every product in stock, but ordering the bundle there will cost you £3947.

John Lewis, meanwhile, is charging £4044 for this awesome Holy Trinity.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather save the not-inconsiderable difference, even if that means waiting a while.

So, here are the links to the individual products. As I said, simply add each one to your basket and the bundle offers will be applied automatically.

MORE:

Shop all Prime Day deals at Amazon

Richer Sounds: phenomenal prices on 2024 TVs while stock lasts

John Lewis: soundbar, Blu-ray and streaming deals

Amazon Prime Day isn't great because it's an Amazon thing – it's great because it brings with it awesome deals right across the internet.

If you are an Amazon fan, then of course you can shop all Prime Day deals at Amazon, but even if you refuse to spend any money at Amazon, you can still get some brilliant deals.

In fact, avoiding Amazon is the best way to find great deals on serious home cinema kit, because a lot of that isn't sold on Amazon at all.

So, I have trawled all of my favourite non-Amazon retailers and found five awesome AV deals that can't be beaten by Bezos.

Below, you will find big discounts on two AV amplifiers, a wireless Dolby Atmos speaker package, a UST projector, a stunning 'proper' home cinema projector and two beautiful OLED TVs.

Quick links

• Amazon: browse all of today's best deals
• Sony: new lowest-ever price for the A95L QD-OLED at Richer Sounds
• John Lewis: soundbar, Blu-ray and streaming deals
• Peter Tyson: big deals on projectors, speaker packages and soundbars
• Sevenoaks Sound & Vision: up to £1800 off home cinema packages

Editor's picks

• LG G4 MLA OLED TV: down to just £1499 at Richer Sounds (save £1801)
• TCL: four-star TV down to just £104 at Amazon
• LG C4 OLED TV: huge discounts on all sizes at Amazon
• Sony: new lowest-ever price for the A95L QD-OLED at Richer Sounds
• Samsung: OLED TV deals direct from Samsung.com

Amazon Prime Day is on the horizon, and there's one deal at the top of my wish list.

The savings event will officially kick off on the 8th of July, with deals on a range of hi-fi, AV and home cinema gear expected. However, it's one of Amazon's own products that I'm keeping my eye on.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max, which sits at the top of Amazon's incredibly popular streaming stick range, just scored five stars in our recent review. For the money, it's our top pick for those looking for an upgrade over their TV's built-in streaming apps, or for anyone with an older 4K TV that features outdated software.

At £70, it undercuts rivals such as the Apple TV 4K and Google TV Streamer, but I reckon we'll see an even better price very soon.

Amazon tends to ruthlessly discount its products, slashing serious percentages off price tags during its own sales event. Therefore, I will eat my proverbial hat if the Fire TV Stick 4K Max doesn't see a major discount in two weeks.

During the period in which we tested the Fire TV Stick, it was priced at just £50 in a sporadic Amazon sale that didn't appear to be linked to any specific savings event.

If it can randomly drop by £20, I expect to see a deal that matches or beats that on Amazon Prime Day. The previous generation model dropped from £65 to just £38 back in 2023, so I'm gearing up for a similar saving.

The Fire TV Stick 4K Max would be a no-brainer at £50 (in fact, we called it a no-brainer at its full asking price), as its picture performance is well worth that money. We appreciated its crisp and detailed image, rich colours and considered handling of motion.

Furthermore, the Fire OS streaming platform includes a wealth of apps – with everything from Netflix, Disney Plus, Apple TV+ and BBC iPlayer, to niche services like Mubi and Shudder included – and the support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR is the icing on the cake.

I'll be keeping a close eye on the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max this Prime Day, so check back often to see if my dream deal ends up becoming a reality.

MORE:

Read our full Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max review

As well as our picks for the best streaming devices

And read our full Google TV Streamer review

When you get a new TV, you might think you have bagged yourself the perfect all-in-one home cinema system. And if you are spending more on a set, the expectation is, understandably, that you will get better overall performance in terms of sound, as well as picture quality and features.

But getting it into your living room and finally watching a movie often proves to be a different story. That’s because, to put it bluntly, most TVs sound poor. This is partly due to manufacturers’ focus on making them thinner by the year, especially where OLED sets are concerned.

In terms of aesthetics, this push for thinner TVs has generally been a good step forward, and picture quality rarely suffers. It’s a different story for sound, though, as it means there’s less room for top-quality speakers.

A recent reminder of this ongoing issue came when we reviewed the 65-inch version of the new LG G5, a £3299 / $3400 / AU$5299 TV.

Boasting a new Primary RGB Tandem OLED panel, 4K resolution, and the new second-generation Alpha 11 AI Processor, the G5 is every inch the 2025 flagship TV – and it’s just 2.4cm thick.

The G5’s picture quality is glorious (especially now that an initial Dolby Vision issue has been fixed), and the features for gamers are exceptional.

But its sonic performance lags behind the rest of its fabulous abilities, failing to deliver in its expression of low-level dynamics.

When we watched Blade Runner 2049, we found that it did not “dig particularly deep into the low end of the thumping bassline,” for example. It also did not capture the emotion of voices during conversations, making for dull listening.

What makes that even more disappointing is that a budget soundbar costing 20 times less than the OLED improves the TV’s sound performance.

We tested the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar alongside the G5, and were shocked by what we heard.

The Fire TV Soundbar is a £120 / $120 bar positioned at the cheaper end of the product spectrum. While it received a three-star rating, we found it still delivered punchier bass and better levels of clarity compared to the LG G5’s built-in speakers.

When watching the iconic Live Aid sequence in the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic with the TV speakers alone, the sound does not wrap around you as it should. With the Amazon soundbar, though, it manages to create more of a sense of a seemingly endless crowd – and that’s despite the soundbar not supporting Dolby Atmos.

Don’t get us wrong, this is not an issue isolated to LG. Most TV brands are guilty of leaving audio quality somewhat on the sidelines compared to picture. That’s why we almost always recommend budgeting for a soundbar to partner with your flatscreen.

The silver lining to this is you do not have to spend an arm and a leg to upgrade your TV’s sound, although you can spend more if your budget allows. Even the best budget soundbars will provide a better-sounding movie experience.

Still, it highlights a larger issue that TVs simply do not sound good enough. Should we have to factor in extra cash when forking out for a pricey OLED already? Step it up, guys.

MORE:

A fix is on the way for our big problem with the LG G5 OLED TV

Check out our full Amazon Fire TV Soundbar review

These are the best soundbars we have tested

And here are the best OLED TVs we recommend

It's official: Amazon Prime Day will take place from 8th – 11th July. The four-day sale is twice as long as last year's, which means more time to snag a great deal.

Prime Day is one of the biggest sales of the year, along with Black Friday, and Amazon's spring and autumn sales. The deals are still under wraps, but we're promised that Bose and Sonos will be getting involved.

It's a safe bet that some of the best headphones, best TVs, best soundbars and more will also feature.

LG TVs are usually among some of the best deals, as are Sony headphones. Of course the sale spans the whole Amazon site, so will feature all sorts of products, but naturally we're only interested in the AV side of things.

Amazon is introducing a new feature this year. Today's Big Deals promises "daily themes curated exclusively for Prime members including time-limited 'New Deal Drop' deals launching at midnight every day during the shopping event." Intriguing.

You'll need to be a Prime member in order to be eligible for the deals. You can always sign up for a one-month free trial, and then cancel once you've done your shopping.

Prime costs costs £8.99 a month, or £95 if you pay yearly. It's half price for students.

In the run-up to the sale, and during it, we'll bring you all the best deals only on products worth buying. Why not have a look at these deals already live ahead of Prime Day to get you started?

MORE:

The best AirPods deals currently live

Best TV deals for your summer viewing

And the best hi-fi deals around

I've tested my fair share of streaming devices in my time at What Hi-Fi?, including heavy hitters from Amazon, Google and Apple.

But while that trifecta of tech titans comprises the biggest players, it would be remiss of me to neglect the likes of Roku and Nvidia, both of which have loyal fan bases for their respective streamers.

With our latest streaming review, that being the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation), I noticed a pattern that nearly every streaming stick and box seems to follow: they're not that great at streaming music.

Now, it's worth remembering that the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is a five-star option for movie fans, as we approved of its "detailed and rich picture" and it's got a solid feature set too. But when it comes to testing audio, we always ensure to try music alongside movie dialogue and sound effects.

We do this because you can tell a lot from a product's sound performance using a reference track, and need I remind you that soundtracks are a huge part of the film watching experience.

On a more personal level, I use the streaming device currently hooked up to my TV at home to play music through my soundbar. Not the ideal audio set-up, I'm well aware, but it suits my needs, and space isn't exactly abundant in my modest London abode.

I will upgrade to a full hi-fi arrangement in due course, but it's better than nothing, and I'm willing to bet that a lot of people use their streaming device to play music through their TVs at home too.

So, with that in mind, how did the Fire TV Stick 4K fare? It's not bad, in fact in our review I described it as "solid", complimenting its warmth and cohesion even if timing was notably lacklustre. Most importantly, however, it sounded much better than the Google TV Streamer.

Google's streaming offering didn't excel with music or movie audio, serving up a flat and uninteresting sound, lacking warmth and dynamic prowess in the process. The Amazon, comparatively, had no issue achieving the upper hand during my side-by-side testing, though the bar wasn't exactly high.

So, with Amazon sort of getting it right, but by no means reaching for the stars, and Google missing the mark entirely, is there anyone out there who can deliver a genuinely excellent musical experience via a streamer?

Of course there is, and it should come as no surprise that I'm about to recommend the Apple TV 4K yet again. Yes, I'm well aware that I've banged on about this streamer enough at this point, but it's the truth; Apple just gets sound so right with the TV 4K.

It's a warm, textured, and rich performance with excellent timing and dynamics. It handles the indie, pop, and R&B tracks that I most commonly listen to without breaking a sweat.

It has me wondering this: why can't other manufacturers compete? I suppose it comes down to priorities; Google is all-in on Gemini AI with the Google TV Streamer, while Amazon's goal with the Fire TV Stick range is to balance performance and affordability.

Also, I presume that movies and TV shows outrank music when it comes to developing and tuning their products. The predominant use case for streaming devices is, at the end of the day, to access services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.

That being said, Apple's success with music replay shows that you can strike a balance and get both right.

Ultimately, Apple's streamer is the most expensive of the models mentioned here, so I'd honestly expect nothing less than the best performance possible. But still, it would be nice to see other streaming devices close the gap.

MORE:

Read our full Amazon Fire TV 4K Max (2nd Generation) review

As well as our Apple TV 4K (2022) review

And check out our picks for the best streaming devices for movies and TV

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick range of streaming devices may not be the most glamorous or technically impressive products that we see in our AV testing room, but they serve a specific purpose and perform said purpose well.

Case in point is the first-generation Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max, which offered affordable plug-and-play 4K HDR streaming, with a solid picture performance and feature set that was hard to argue with, especially for the price.

The only thing holding that streamer back was the existence of the then-Award-winning Google Chromecast with Google TV, which just edged out the first-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max when it came to picture and sound performance.

Luckily for Amazon, Google has since discontinued that device and replaced it with a streamer that’s nearly double the price, and not quite as good. So, it would make total sense for Amazon to strike while the iron is hot, and deliver an upgraded streaming stick that undercuts the Google TV Streamer; and that’s exactly what it has done.

Today, we have the second-generation Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and with upgraded performance, a significant lack of competition and a tempting price tag, it might just be the easiest no-brainer buy in the AV world.

Price

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation) officially costs £70 / $60 / AU$120; a smidge more than its predecessor’s £65 / $55 / AU$99 starting price. While a price rise – albeit minor – isn’t necessarily a welcome sight, what will be more enticing are the discounts that this streamer will inevitably receive throughout the year.

During its own sales events – Big Deal Days, Prime Day and Black Friday – Amazon almost always heavily discounts its own products. You can expect to pay closer to £50 / $40 / AU$89 if you time your purchase right.

Better yet, Amazon’s new streamer benefits from a major player exiting the market. Google’s Chromecast with Google TV was the roadblock preventing the previous generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max from achieving the full five-star commendation; however, that Award-winning streamer has been discontinued.

Google has replaced it with the four-star Google TV Streamer, which costs £99 / $100 / AU$160; considerably more than the Chromecast’s £60 / $50 / AU$99 launch price and, more importantly, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

As for other rivals, Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K undercuts the Amazon streamer at £50 / $50 / AU$110, though it’s yet to land in our AV testing room.

Build

The new Fire TV Stick isn’t a radical departure from its predecessors, though there are some identifying features to distinguish this newer model.

It’s still an all-plastic cuboid with an HDMI connector sticking out of one end, akin to an oversized USB thumb drive with the corners rounded off.

Unfortunately, this means that the last generation’s tendency to hog the area surrounding the HDMI socket it's lodged into is once again prevalent, meaning you may struggle to plug a cable into the adjacent HDMI port unless you use the included adapter.

A further design oversight relates to the power socket, which bafflingly uses Micro USB rather than the widely accepted USB-C standard. While we appreciate Amazon including a power adapter in the box, the decision to stick with the older, less convenient and less widely used connection is an odd choice indeed.

Moving away from the stick itself and onto the remote, Amazon has bundled in the same Alexa Voice Remote Enhanced model that can be found with the Fire TV Cube (3rd Generation). It’s functional, comfortable to hold, and features shortcuts to streaming services, which will differ depending on which region you purchase it in.

We would have liked to see the “find my remote” function included here, as it comes as standard on the Google TV Streamer; however, you’ll need to purchase the optional Fire TV Remote Pro for that, which also includes backlit buttons.

Features

The Fire TV Stick 4K Max’s only mission is to bring 4K streaming smarts to your TV, and it does so with a decent list of appreciated features.

HDR, for example, is supported in all of the major formats, including Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG, meaning this streaming stick will play nicely with your TV regardless of whether you own a Dolby Vision-sporting LG TV or an HDR10+ only Samsung.

Furthermore, it supports Dolby Atmos audio, as well as up to 7.1 surround sound.

Inside the Fire TV Stick is a 2.0 GHz quad-core processor, and Amazon has been kind enough to double the storage from 8GB to 16GB, though RAM stays at 2GB.

Wi-Fi 6E is also supported, which should offer “smoother 4K streaming”, according to Amazon – though you’ll need a compatible router to access this.

At the heart of the Fire TV Stick experience is Fire OS, which you’ll also find on the company’s Omni-series QLED and Mini LED TVs, as well as (from 2024) Panasonic’s OLED TVs.

It’s a robust, well-supported and versatile operating system, which might not look quite as clean as Apple’s tvOS or be brimming with AI features like Google TV, but it's good for the straightforward streaming tasks that we require of a Fire TV Stick.

One area where Fire OS frustrates is with its ad-heavy nature. Amazon’s services are also pushed to the forefront, which shouldn’t be too surprising considering it manufactured the device, and the ads can be somewhat forgiven thanks to the device’s relatively low price tag.

App support is, unsurprisingly, excellent, with a full range of global streaming apps – including Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV and, of course, Amazon Prime Video – and domestic services such as BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4 and more.

Fire OS is also home to some niche services, including Mubi, Shudder, BFI Player and others, making this a solid choice for mainstream and indie movie fans.

Something to note with the Apple TV app is that it's exclusively used as a hub for Apple TV+ content and a way to access your existing Apple TV library. The store cannot be accessed directly through this app, so you’ll need to purchase your desired movie or TV series on a smartphone or tablet to watch it on the Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

Music and gaming apps are also well supported, with the likes of Spotify, Tidal and Deezer on board, though Apple Music is unfortunately sidelined. Thankfully, that can be circumvented with the inclusion of AirPlay 2.

Gaming-wise, Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service and Xbox are the two major players, while casual games that can be controlled via the included remote are also accessible.

Picture

Much like its predecessor, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max provides plenty of positive picture attributes, which makes it a rather compelling streamer for the money. Better yet, it doesn’t have the Chromecast with Google TV to contend with, and instead now has the four-star Google TV Streamer as its major adversary.

We plug the Fire TV Stick into our reference Sony OLED TV and load up a range of streaming apps onto the device to deduce how it handles picture performance.

Firing up Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning on Netflix, the Fire TV Stick delivers a sharp and engaging picture, with plenty of detail in the suits worn by Ethan Hunt and his well-dressed gang as they plan out their mission in Abu Dhabi Airport.

There is ample detail to skin textures, and aside from a few instances of skin tones looking a tad on the warm side, the Fire TV Stick generally impresses.

We also take no issue with how motion is handled, as the MV-22 Osprey military aircraft carrying a troop of elite agents tasked with hunting down the hero glides smoothly into frame, with the whirring propellers showing no signs of awkward juddering or stuttering.

Switching to Challengers in HDR10+ on Amazon Prime Video, we’re once again impressed with the detail levels, colours, and motion, deducing that the Stick 4K Max provides a balanced and enjoyable image overall.

Furthermore, the film grain that can sometimes be presented as overbearing image noise on the Google streamer seems cleaner and looks more intentional on the Fire TV Stick.

Feeding the Fire TV Stick some HD content, namely Gladiator II, once again on Prime Video, we do notice that the edges of subjects get slightly softer. That being said, clothing and skin remain detailed enough, and the streamer certainly doesn’t make a big deal of presenting the comparatively lower resolution content.

We compare it directly to the Google TV Streamer with these aforementioned movies, alongside Mad Max: Fury Road and Babylon on the Apple TV app, and this is where things get interesting.

Despite costing a fair bit more than the Fire TV Stick 4K, the Google TV Streamer’s picture looks nearly identical. We can pick out a touch more detail on the Google TV, and colours are slightly punchier (if anything, we could accuse the Google of overdoing skin tones here), but otherwise, we struggle to see the point in shelling out for the pricier Google TV Streamer when it comes to picture performance.

Sound

While the picture performance is practically identical to the Google TV Streamer (albeit for less money), where we see the biggest difference between these two streamers is in sound quality. Make no mistake, the Fire TV Stick 4K is no maestro, but it's a darn sight better than the Google TV Streamer.

Loading up Tidal to stream tracks including Gasoline by HAIM and Taylor Swift, Luther by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, and From by Bon Iver, we’re met with sound that can best be described as solid. It won’t blow your socks off, and timing is one aspect where the Fire TV Stick does falter, but it’s a warmer, more cohesive and dynamic performance compared with the poor-sounding Google TV Streamer.

This is true for movies and TV shows as well, as we return to Mission: Impossible to find clear and detailed vocals that have been prioritised within the greater audio mix. That being said, they don’t sound detached, and the tense soundtrack still has its chance to build suspense effectively.

Verdict

Amazon’s flagship streaming stick is a solid option for anyone whose TV’s built-in streaming apps just aren’t cutting it. Its sharp and colourful picture, paired with its easy plug-and-play usability, should appease those who want to squeeze a bit more life out of their ageing 4K TV, or sidestep their TV’s built-in operating system.

Unless you’re considering stepping up to the Apple TV 4K, which costs double the price, the Fire TV Stick 4K is the go-to 4K streaming device at this level.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Google TV Streamer

Also consider the Apple TV 4K

These are the best video streamers you can buy

A damning report by Enders Analysis has called on big tech companies to crack down on piracy issues.

The research, written by Gareth Sutcliffe and Ollie Meir, says that Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft are all enabling “industry scale theft” of video services.

According to the report, the sports broadcasting industry is the biggest contributor to this issue. That’s because it is becoming more and more expensive to access legally.

Much of the piracy can be attributed to users buying illegal Amazon Fire TV Sticks sold via Meta’s platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp.

According to data for the first quarter of this year, provided to Enders by Sky, 59 per cent of people in the UK who admitted to watching pirated material in the last year while using a physical device said they had used a Amazon Fire product.

But illegal streaming sticks are not the only problem here.

Fire TV Sticks can run sideloaded Android apps, as the Fire TV operating system is based on Android; so users can install apps not found in the official app stores.

This is also possible on Android TV and Google TV devices.

The research adds: “Big tech is both friend and foe in solving the piracy problem. Conflicting incentives harm consumer safety by providing easy discovery of illegal pirated services, and reduced friction through low-cost hardware such as the Amazon Firestick.”

An Amazon spokesperson told the BBC: "Pirated content violates our policies regarding intellectual property rights, and compromises the security and privacy of our customers."

The company has made changes to its Fire devices to make it harder for people to stream pirated content, they added.

Another development that could improve the problem is Amazon's promise to switch to its in-house Vega OS for Fire TV Sticks. This transition will require developers to rebuild all apps and would stop the ability to sideload Android apps.

Google and Microsoft are also in the firing line of the report, which says that the Digital Rights Management solutions provided by the companies “are in steep decline”.

MORE:

Here are the best streaming devices we recommend

This is our review of the Amazon Fire Stick 4K

Check out our review of Apple TV 4K

In most circumstances, adding more features to a product creates the impression that it will be better. If you have the opportunity to upgrade from a cheaper, more minimal option to a beefier, features-heavy product, you may be swayed by the latter. Go big or go home, right?

When testing both of Amazon’s soundbars, however, it occurred to me that sometimes the opposite is true.

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar is a basic 'bar that launched at £120 / $120. It does not offer Dolby Atmos and, despite its name, does not have any Fire TV capabilities or built-in Alexa.

Amazon's 'bar also struggles to make the lower frequencies feel impactful. When watching Dune 2, for example, the staggering impact of the creature moving through the sand "feels undefined instead of textured and floor-shaking."

Its feature list is slightly disappointing, then, and the sound does not reach five-star levels, perhaps, but its 2.0 speaker configuration does offer a good level of clarity when it comes to dialogue. It also manages to create a decent sense of space without Atmos, with loud scenes coming across "balanced and relatively composed".

As we say in our review: “If you are looking for a soundbar to improve upon your TV’s sound for a reasonable price, Amazon’s entry ticks a lot of boxes with its clear dialogue performance and unfussy features.”

So, when we got its big brother – the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus – into the test room, we were expecting it to be a jump in quality as well as price. If the retail giant is bumping the price tag up to £250 / $250 and adding Dolby Atmos, it must be better than its cheaper counterpart, right?

Well, upon hearing the soundbar in action, that illusion is completely shattered. We gave the 'bar a rare two-star review, citing its "flappy and thin" bass presentation and shrill overall sound performance.

Its 3.1 speaker configuration fails to improve upon that of its sibling, creating "a hard-to-ignore insistence to the upper midrange [...] that is both shrill and irritating."

It seems as if Dolby Atmos processing has been added without much thought being put into how it sounds, and the Plus version of Amazon’s Fire TV soundbar is much more chaotic and less cohesive in its delivery than the basic model.

At the bare minimum, you want a soundbar to improve your TV's audio performance; the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus does not succeed even in that.

In fact, it is one of those very rare soundbars that sounds worse than most TVs, whereas the basic model is an improvement on most TVs – even though it, too, is fairly weak by prevailing soundbar standards.

I'm sure it is tempting for companies to add more formats and features to justify a heftier price tag, but those ‘upgrades’ only make sense if the basics are already in the bag.

MORE:

Here is our in-depth review of the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar

These are the best soundbars we recommend

And check out the best soundbar deals right now

Soundbars with Dolby Atmos can cost a fair amount, so this Amazon entry offers a way to bring the immersive experience to the living room without breaking the bank.

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus is the brand’s step-up model from its cheaper sibling, which we rated a respectable three stars.

This 3.1 speaker system doesn’t add the Fire TV smarts we expected but didn’t get with the first Fire TV Soundbar, but it does add Dolby Atmos support, so it’s easy to assume it must be better in terms of sound quality.

Well, you know what they say about 'assume', don’t you?

Price

Coming in at £250 / $250 (about AU$400), the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus costs roughly twice as much as its entry-level sibling, the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar. As with most of Amazon’s first-party products, discounts are frequent and often large – we have seen it available for as little as £200 / $190.

In the US, you can add an optional subwoofer and surround sound speakers from Amazon for a total system cost of $490 (around £370/ AU$765), but these additional components are not available in the UK.

Competition is fierce, even at this budget level, but the Sony HT-S2000 stands out as the benchmark.

Although it launched at a more expensive £349 / $500 / AU$595, it is now usually available for closer to £250 in the UK. We haven’t seen quite the same drop in the US or Australia, though, as it is widely available for just a few dollars off its original price tag. Its solid dynamics and clear dialogue impressed during testing, earning it a five-star rating.

The Sonos Ray is also competing with the Amazon soundbar with a slightly higher price tag of £279 / $279 / AU$399 and a lower specification that does without Atmos support and HDMI connectivity. This punchy yet petite entry delivers excellent vocal clarity, but its weak low-end extension means it was awarded four stars.

Design

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus’ plastic body with its neat cloth grille gives the ’bar a clean overall feel.

Its 6.4 x 94 x 13.2cm (hwd) dimensions make it perfectly suited for the spot in front of and/or beneath your TV, and at 4kg, it is heavier and longer than the Sony HT-S2000, which gives it a more robust feel.

Underneath that grille are three full-range speakers, three tweeters, and two subwoofers. There are no up-firing speakers, though, despite the soundbar offering Dolby Atmos. It does this instead with processing that's designed to recreate the sense of space that physical speakers would do otherwise.

We still wouldn't advise positioning the soundbar inside a cabinet or on a shelf with another above it, even though there are no up-firing drivers.

Features

As with its cheaper sibling, no app or Amazon features (not even Alexa) are integrated into the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus, which seems like a missed opportunity and makes the product’s name feel somewhat misleading.

You don’t get a full display either, although there are different coloured lights that show on the front of the ’bar when you switch inputs or change settings such as volume.

As with its cheaper sibling, no app or Amazon features are integrated into the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar Plus, which seems like a missed opportunity and makes the product’s name feel somewhat misleading.

We don’t get a full display either, although there are different coloured lights that show on the front of the ’bar when you switch inputs or change settings such as volume.

The remote control is a small affair, perhaps a little too tiny to fit snugly in the palm of your hand. Still, it’s intuitive to use, and you always know what setting is being adjusted. This is partly thanks to a voice alert that indicates if you are changing the input or the EQ.

Speaking of the different sound modes, there are four to choose from: Movie, Music, Sport and Night.

Movie gives its sound the biggest sense of space and immersion, but Music is the mode to go for if you are using it for more forward and direct audio.

For those looking to enjoy some sports commentary, Sports emphasises dialogue but at the expense of the rest of the sound, which becomes thinner and less expressive.

Finally, Night allows you to compress the sound to avoid disturbing others in the house.

You can customise the sound further with separate bass, treble, and dialogue levels. Bass and treble can be changed from one to nine, whereas dialogue has just five steps.

These first two settings are preset to five, which we find gives the most balanced overall presentation. Dialogue is initially set to three. As there is no app, the only way to cycle through these is via the remote, which can quickly become tiresome.

On top of that, you can turn on a surround sound mode to further widen your film’s soundstage.

Sound

We begin testing the soundbar with a What Hi-Fi? favourite, Mad Max: Fury Road, using the LG C5 as our TV. During the start of the chase scene as the warboys charge after Furiosa, we expect the multiple engines to roar and for Nux’s whoops to feel joyous but raw.

Instead, the Amazon ’bar presents flappy, thin bass that is almost unrecognisable as the rev of an actual engine. Nux’s voice is clear over the fast-paced soundtrack and vehicle noise, but it sounds flat and robotic. Nicholas Hoult’s performance is dulled down to something much less impactful.

We turn up the volume in the hopes of getting a more bassy impact or some sense of dynamics. However, this results in a shrill and unpleasant sound from both the lower and higher frequencies, only further highlighting the flaws in its execution.

Moving to the war movie Unbroken, it’s a similar story. As we see the bomber attacked in the air, the explosions that bounce off the nose of the plane should feel heavy and impactful. Instead, they sound weightless and lacking substance.

There’s a hard-to-ignore insistence to the upper midrange during this tense scene that is both shrill and irritating. Even the lower frequencies drill away at your ears, somehow managing to exclude the lower bass and lower mid from the mix.

At least there is a wide sense of space with the action, and the Atmos-ness of the presentation is relatively impressive considering there are no up-firing speakers. You can feel an attacking plane move from one side of the screen to another with decent precision, for example.

But while that spaciousness and the directness of the dialogue are both improvements over the sort of sound you can expect from most TVs, the presentation is otherwise so regularly grating that we feel most TV speakers will be preferable to this soundbar overall. That’s a damning thing to say about a soundbar.

We switch to Music and play some tunes from Tidal, starting with Invincible by Tool.

The vocals sound incredibly artificial, displaying the same unnatural, unemotive quality that we notice when watching movies. Lead singer Maynard James Keenan’s voice is almost unrecognisable; more robot than man.

Each frequency feels separate from the rest, grating and competing to be the loudest.

The jump in quality when we switch to the Sony HT-S2000 is stark. We get a much more cohesive sound and, although the movie soundstage is smaller than that which we get from the Amazon soundbar, it is quite simply a more pleasant listen.

Verdict

While Amazon’s soundbar is simple to set up and creates a wide sense of space, this is all overshadowed by the unbalanced overall sound performance.

Any sense of tension and emotion is removed by the soundbar’s dull yet grating audio quality, which only gets worse if you turn up the volume.

There are so many better options out there at a lower price, including Amazon’s own entry-level Amazon Fire TV soundbar – which isn’t in itself very good, has fewer features and no Dolby Atmos, yet still manages to produce a much more balanced and overall listenable experience than the Plus.

Ultimately, though, neither of Amazon's soundbars so much as glances at our list of the best budget soundbars.

SCORES

• Sound 2
• Build 4
• Features 3

MORE:

Read our review of the Sony HT S2000

Also consider the Sonos Ray

Best soundbars: options for every need, recommended by our experts

While the streaming of high-resolution stereo music has been an accessible reality for some years now, thanks to services such as Tidal, Qobuz and Apple Music pushing the quality at competitive prices, the same hasn’t been possible for streaming multi-channel audio.

Some existing services support ‘three-dimensional’ listening experiences via their support of the Dolby Atmos format and spatial audio technology, but such music is delivered compressed and lossily – it isn’t lossless.

Pure Audio Streaming is an upcoming streaming service looking to change that, promising to deliver ‘lossless, uncompressed, and uncompromised immersive audio to both mobile devices and home theatre systems’.

It will offer two subscriptions – a ‘stereo’ plan offering high-resolution stereo (up to 192kHz PCM) and binaural audio (PCM 48kHz via Auro technology), and an ‘immersive’ plan offering PCM 5.1 as well as 7.1.4 96kHz PCM (via Auro-3D technology).

To experience the unique latter, you will need an HDMI input and monitor for Nvidia Shield Pro, an AV receiver and speaker package that supports at least 5.1 (but preferably 7.1.4 and the Auro-3D format!), and a ‘fast and reliable’ wi-fi or Ethernet network connection.

Devices that can connect to the AV receiver via HDMI and stream the immersive tracks include the Amazon Fire Stick 4K (2023), Amazon Fire Cube (support ‘coming soon’) and a Mac (2021 or newer) or Windows computer running the Google Chrome browser.

This marks the first time that hi-res surround or binaural Auro-3D material will be streamable, with the company noting that ‘over 300’ recordings, including the Grammy-winning LUX by 2L Records, will be available.

So yes, it’s clear that Pure Audio Streaming is being pitched at the more discerning audio enthusiasts before you even get to its price. Its subscription cost is being kept under wraps at the moment – the service launches on 25th July.

However, the price of entry to the ‘Early Adopter Program’, available to sign up for now, suggests it won’t be cheap.

Those wishing to try Pure Audio Streaming for two whole months before its official public launch can sign up to receive a full year of access to the service for $300, or $500 if you want an Nvidia Shield Pro chucked in too. You can share feedback that will help the company shape future features and listening experiences, too.

Registrations close on the final day of this year’s High End Munich 2025 show (18th May), which will also host Pure Audio Streaming demonstrations in collaboration with Kii Audio.

MORE:

Hi-res music streaming services compared: is Tidal, Qobuz, Amazon or Apple Music better?

Spotify HiFi: release date, price and feature rumours for the expected Music Pro add-on

The 5 best Dolby Atmos soundbars you can buy

Since our list of the best TVs was last updated at the start of March, we have tested no fewer than five new and important models.

It was inevitable that these new TVs would have an impact on our recommendations but, actually, only one has made the main list – though two of the others are now in the 'also consider' section.

First, though, let's cover the two that have missed the cut.

Hisense Canvas and Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED

We've been waiting years for a more affordable rival to the Samsung Frame to materialise, and with the Hisense Canvas TV, we thought we had finally got it.

Unfortunately, it's very poor in performance terms.

Sure, it does the digital picture frame thing relatively well, but the movie picture quality is well below what you would expect of a TV costing even half as much, and no amount of fancy artwork can make up for that.

On the other hand, the 55-inch version of Amazon's Fire TV Omni Mini LED is every bit as solid a performer as its 65-inch sibling.

Sure, it's a bit rough around the edges, particularly in terms of colour consistency and backlight control, but it's a good performer at its price.

It's not quite good enough to make the best TVs list, though, mostly because we feel you can get a not-much-worse performance for quite a lot less money by buying either the TCL P755K or non-Mini LED Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED, or a much better performance for not a whole lot more money if you go for the Samsung Q80D.

Sony Bravia 7

The Sony Bravia 7, though, has comfortably made the 'also consider' list. In fact, I'll level with you here and say that there are members of the team who feel it should be in the main list as the Best Mini LED model, in the place of the Bravia 9.

While it's true that the Bravia 7 is a five-star TV and the Bravia 9 is sitting on 'only' four stars, I feel that the Bravia 9 does things of which no other Mini LED TVs are capable. There are areas in which it's leaps and bounds beyond even the most advanced OLED models, too.

That's why I think it remains the best Mini LED model despite the four-star rating.

The Bravia 7 is obviously still a great TV at its price – it combines trickle-down technology from the Bravia 9 with Sony's excellent processing to really pleasing effect – but when you can buy a Bravia 8 OLED for similar money or an LG C4 for much less, it becomes a little hard to justify the Bravia 7 going into the main list.

Full disclosure, though: we could reverse this decision in the next update to the best TVs page.

LG G5

The LG G5 is, in most ways, an absolute stunner. It's the first TV we've reviewed that features new Primary RGB Tandem OLED technology, and this is clearly a big upgrade on the MLA panel technology of last year's top OLEDs, including the G4.

It's not the small, bright highlights that are most impressive (though those are a little brighter and more impactful); it's how much brighter screen-filling effects are, and the vibrancy and consistency of the colours, from the brightest to the darkest parts of the picture.

Add those qualities to a flagship OLED recipe that LG has been refining for years now, and you've got an absolutely stonking TV that significantly raises the bar for the rival models to come.

So why does the G5 only make the 'also consider' list rather than the main one? There are two reasons.

The first is that we uncovered a very unpleasant flaw in the way the G5 handles low-light Dolby Vision content via streaming. We understand a fix for this is now publicly available, but we haven't yet had the opportunity to test for ourselves whether this is indeed a complete fix and that it doesn't introduce any new problems.

And the second reason is that we recommend TVs (and all other products, for that matter) on a performance-per-pound basis, which always makes it hard for a brand-new, full-price model (particularly a flagship one) to take the place of a slightly older but significantly more affordable rival.

However, assuming the Dolby Vision fix works, once the G5 has dropped in price a little, it could well make the main list of the best TVs.

LG C5

As mentioned above, we generally don't like to add a brand new, full-price TV to the main list in the place of an older model that is still brilliant and significantly cheaper.

However, we are well aware that plenty of people simply must have a brand new TV, even if that means paying more than we think they really should. That's why, at this time most years, we add a 'best new' entry to our best TVs page.

We've done exactly that with this update, and it's the LG C5 that has taken the spot.

On paper, the C5 isn't much of an upgrade on last year's C4, but LG has managed to squeeze a little more brightness out of the panel, which makes for a more impactful HDR picture performance, and it has improved colour consistency and refinement.

Add in all of the usual LG usability traits and a flawless gaming specification, and you have a consummate all-rounder that is also, by brand new TV standards, superb value.

The are plenty of rivals still to hit our test rooms, inclduing the Samsung S90F and S95F, the Sony Bravia 8 II and Panasonic's OLED TV range, but the C5 is currently in the box seat to take the place of the Bravia 8 as the best TV overall once its price has dropped a bit.

To see the list in full, check out the What Hi-Fi? guide to the best TVs.

We have been banging on about wanting brands to produce more streaming soundbars for years.

This started when the Roku Streambar hit the shelves back in 2020, marking what should have been the start of a glorious new era.

The £130 / $130 / AU$224 soundbar-streaming hybrid turns a TV smart thanks to its impressive array of video streaming apps, which include Now TV, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus.

There are also quick dial buttons for a lot of these services including Netflix and Spotify, as well as a search function through the Roku app on its controller.

On top of that, while its sound performance lacked a cinematic feel, it still provided a solid balance and decent vocal clarity.

So while it wasn't perfect, we had hoped more brands would see the idea's merit and add more streaming capabilities to soundbars.

A Frankenstein streaming box-cum-soundbar just makes sense in our mind.

Sadly, while most ‘bars have some options for wireless music playback with at least Bluetooth if not wi-fi streaming via Airplay 2, Spotify Connect and Chromecast, there is still a gap in the market for movie streaming apps.

Which is why when Amazon unveiled its £120 / $120 Fire TV Soundbar and the pricier Plus version ($250 / £250), we hoped the idea may finally make a comeback. I mean it has 'Fire TV' in the name, right?

Sadly, when we got the slightly cheaper ‘bar in for testing, we saw that the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar does not include built-in streaming like the Roku Streambar, and it doesn't even have Alexa built in.

Of course, we didn't rate the Amazon Fire TV soundbar for what it isn't. We recalibrated our expectations and tested it in the same way we would any other 'dumb' soundbar, comparing it to similar and similarly priced rivals.

But while the Fire TV Soundbar's disappointing three-star score is all down to its sound quality, the separate issue about it not delivering on the expectations raised by its name remains.

Is that an 'us' issue? I don't think so. So far as I know, every previous 'Fire TV' device, from the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K to the Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED has featured Amazon Fire TV smart platform, so there's every reason to expect this to be the same.

It seems clear that we're not the only people with this expectation, too, as Amazon has felt the need to add this disclaimer to the product page of the Fire TV Soundbar:

'This is an audio only soundbar. It is not Alexa enabled and does not support Alexa Home Cinema. A Fire TV streaming media player or compatible smart TV is required to access the Fire TV experience.'

And the Fire TV Plus? It does actually have some Fire TV smarts as well as a beefier sound system and support for Dolby Atmos, so perhaps it could be a decent soundbar regardless. We will be testing it very soon and look forward to finding out.

And, with any luck, Amazon also has a true Fire TV soundbar in the works.

MORE:

Here is our review of the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar

And check out more of our thoughts on the Roku Streambar

These are the best soundbars we recommend

The Amazon Big Spring Sale is upon us, and so far it has provided a decent selection of deals on some of our favourite kit.

As a direct reaction rival retailers have been getting in on the action, and we've spotted an even better deal than Amazon for the 48-inch Sony A90K.

You can get the OLED TV for £1199 at Sevenoaks, which gives you a saving of £700. To get that price, you need to be a member but it is free and easy to sign up for.

The 48-inch Sony A90K is currently going for £1349 at Amazon. Both prices are much lower than the OLED's launch price, but Sevenoaks is undoubtedly offering a better bang for your buck right now.

The 48-inch A90K dazzled with its incredibly "sharp and solid" picture quality during testing, making it one of the best TVs we have tested at this size.

We said in our review while watching Stranger Things on Netflix:

"There’s an incredible amount of detail to the whole image. Not in a way that’s exaggerated or enhanced, but realistic and believable."

The OLED's sound quality does feel a little lightweight, but it does well to expand its soundstage and create a sense of cinematic spaciousness.

In terms of connections, it offers two USBs, an ethernet socket, an optical output, aerial and twin satellite inputs (the set supports Freesat in the UK), and four HDMIs.

It's worth mentioning here that the smaller 42-inch LG C4 is also seeing some top-notch deals, and is a newer model than the A90K.

In the spring sale, we have spotted it for an impressive £699 at Amazon, which offers a saving of £701.

While we found Sony's A90K to produce a better sound quality, the C4 did impress more in terms of its improved features especially with its gaming specifications.

Still, if you are on the hunt for a five-star OLED TV with stunning picture quality at an impressive discount, the Sony A90K could be the one for you.

MORE:

Here is our review of the Sony A90K

And this is what we thought of the LG C4

Check out the best TV deals right now

It's easy to be cynical about yet another Amazon sales event, and it's fair to say that not every 'deal' included in the Spring Deal Days is the real thing, but there are some discounts worth shouting about.

This one is for those who like to watch a bit of sport or stream their favourite TV shows while cooking up a storm in the kitchen: the 24-inch Roku smart TV is down to just £99 at Amazon right now.

It's produced by little-known brand RCA, but don't let that put you off: we subjected this little telly to our full, rigorous testing process and found it to be surprisingly competent and very smart. User reviews are very positive overall, too.

Of course, it doesn't have to go in a kitchen – it would make a great bedroom TV, too.

As you'd probably expect, this RCA TV is very basic in terms of design, but it's also very lightweight, which might be a bonus for those who can see themselves wanting to move their TV between rooms – or perhaps even from the house to the caravan for holiday time.

The HD-Ready (720p) screen is low-res by modern, full-sized TV standards, but it's fine for a TV this size and price, and the picture it produces is surprisingly bright and punchy – ideal for rooms that see a lot of light.

It's sharp and detailed, too, and it even handles motion fairly well, so you don't get the nasty ghosting that's typical of TVs at this level.

The real star, though, is the Roku smart platform, which is jam-packed with apps, from the usual big-hitter streaming services (Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV) to Now, Discovery+ (the current home for what was BT Sport) and all of the UK's catch-up apps.

All told, the RCA Roku TV was a bit of a bargain at its original price, and now it's cheap as chips!

MORE:

Check out our Amazon Spring Deal Days live hub

Heres the full RCA Roku TV review

And here are the best cheap TVs available right now

As you might expect from a brand that has been covering home cinema hardware for the best part of half a century, our reviewers and team are all pretty big movie fans.

It's one of the reasons we can stay sane while reviewing TVs, projectors, soundbars, speaker packages and the ilk using the same scenes from our 4K Blu-ray test discs over and over, and over again.

It also means we are always updating what we watch, doing everything from trying out new titles to revisiting forgotten classics every month.

Here to help you get in on the action and to give you a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at what we’re enjoying each month, we have introduced a new Now Watching column.

For this, our second compilation, covering what we have been watching in March, we have quite a list – one that’s sure to delight any movie buff looking for something to watch.

Labyrinth

I know seeing a classic Jim Henson movie here isn’t going to surprise many of the older movie fans among our readers. I mean, who doesn’t love them?

But last month I revisited 1986 classic Labyrinth for what is likely the 100th time. What made this viewing special, though, was that I was showing off the classic fantasy adventure starring David Bowie to my nephew – and in 4K at that.

Is it a technically great showcase? Not especially, from a visual perspective – there are no demanding fight scenes or tricky segments to push a TV's upscaling powers. But the physical effects Jim Henson is famous for remain wonderful to behold, especially in the 4K version that was released at the start of February.

And, thanks to the clever script, it remains a delight that has stood the test of time remarkably well – especially when Bowie’s incredibly 80s mullet and “iconic” Goblin King costume (tight pants, frilly shirt et al) have to be taken into account.

Like, say, Little Shop of Horrors and A Nightmare Before Christmas, its stellar score, including team favourite Magic Dance, makes it a great way to gauge your audio system’s performance, even if it lacks the Dolby Atmos presentation that a more modern movie would enjoy.

It remains, then, an enthralling, enjoyable romp – as my nephew’s instant interest in juggling after that one, iconic dance scene clearly showed.

Words by Alastair Stevenson

Stream Labyrinth

Buy the Labyrinth 4k Blu-ray on Amazon

Invincible

“You might as well give up. I’m…”

Wham! The title card appears in resplendent yellow and blue, often accompanied by a gratuitous splash of crimson blood or an earthquake-like cracking as the text disintegrates, lifting the curtain on one of Amazon Prime’s greatest serialised assets. He’s strong. He’s fast. He’s…well, you can guess the rest.

Amazon’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s beloved superhero saga does its damndest to live up to its source material’s gore-laden grandeur, ensuring that each frame of the adult animated adventure is a blood-soaked feast for the eyes. Serving up a bold palette characterised by sledgehammer hits of colour – big blue skies, pristine hero costumes, the red and white of a recently dislodged set of teeth flying through the air – it’s even better if you have a TV that can bring out those bright, punchy tones to their fullest.

Great to look at, expertly crafted and engrossing to watch either as a big old binge or in self-contained chunks, Mark Grayson’s conflicted tale of a young superhero juggling early adulthood with his emergent powers is as super as its titular crusader.

Words by Harry McKerrell

Stream Invincible on Amazon Prime

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

After Marvel’s triumphant Avengers: Endgame, I must admit my obsession with the MCU all but disappeared – mainly out of fatigue. Releasing at least three films per year (not to mention all the TV shows) can do that to a person. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, however, was one of the newer movie theatre releases that piqued my interest. Sure, it’s not a cinematic masterpiece and it has all the usual modern Marvel foibles. But it fulfils the superhero brief with plenty of action-packed sequences as well as satisfying character arcs.

Despite Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi trying to escape his violent past by moving to San Francisco, he is forced to confront his father who is the leader of dangerous organisation The Ten Rings. This leads him to track down his estranged sister and try to take down his malevolent dad for good. Some absolute cinematic royalty also graces the screen with Michelle Yeoh of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame playing a prominent role and In the Mood for Love’s Tony Leung as Shang-Chi’s father.

There’s almost too much choice when using this as a test disc, but my recent go-to has been the hair-raising sequence when Shang-Chi is confronted by his past on a bus journey with his best friend Katy played by Awkwafina. The tension is palpable as two baddies attack our titular hero, but his insane martial arts skills prove not to be reckoned with, most of which were performed by Liu himself. When one villain pulls out a fire-hot sword (as you do), you can feel the blade go from one side of the screen to another perfectly with a good set-up. The fight is punctuated with a bass-heavy synth track that also sounds great in Dolby Atmos.

Words by Robyn Quick

Stream Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on Disney+

Buy Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on 4K Blu-ray

Interstellar

At each annual edition of the Bristol Hi-Fi Show, we set up a bit of a cinema so we can demonstrate some sort of AV technology or theme to visitors. This inevitably involves us watching the same movie clips over and over for three days straight which, as you can probably imagine, tends to get very tedious for those of us doing the presenting – the dreadful Gemini Man still haunts my dreams.

This year, though, we were demonstrating upscaling on a huge Samsung 8K TV and, as part of that, we played a clip from the DVD (yes, DVD) of Interstellar. The clip we used was the descent to and landing on Miller's Planet (the one with all the water), and it simply didn't get boring, even on the 30th showing.

I first saw Interstellar on the day it hit cinemas back in 2014, and I've always felt that it's a movie with great bits (and one of the best soundtracks ever created) but not actually a great movie overall. Inspired by our Bristol demo, I decided to give it another go at home, partly because I wanted to see how the 4K version would look after seeing the DVD upscaled by the 8K Samsung, and partly to find out whether I still felt the same about it as a film.

On the latter point first, the ending still stinks to high heaven but the rest of the movie is so damned good that somehow that doesn't prevent it from being a bit of a masterpiece. The pacing is perfect, the characters are brilliantly realised and the whole film resonates emotionally in a way that's hard to put your finger on.

The at-home presentation is magnificent, even when streamed (I bought it from the Apple TV store). Despite the lack of Dolby Atmos (Christopher Nolan is not a fan), the audio is exceptional. The atmosphere, the weight, the perfect harmony of effects and score – it's a tour de force. And the 4K picture is superb, too, with the high resolution and HDR serving the cinematography rather than smacking you around the face.

All told, a great movie that's now firmly back in rotation as a test disc (we've now bought the 4K Blu-ray). Tenet, though? I can't see myself changing my mind on that one.

Words by Tom Parsons

Buy Interstellar from the Apple TV (iTunes) Store

Buy the Interstellar 4K Blu-ray from Amazon

MORE:

Here are the best TV deals right now

And check out the best TVs on offer

How does Dolby Atmos work?

Amazon's next big sale is just days away. Amazon Spring Deal Days is essentially the site's spring version of Black Friday, and it lasts from 25-31 March.

We're promised "hundreds of thousands" of deals with up to 45 per cent off.

Deals will be on all sorts of products across the entire Amazon site. Though of course we're most interested in the audio-visual side of things.

Amazon's own devices always feature, so expect discounts on the Fire TV family of media streamers and Echo smart speakers.

But of course there will be deals on lots of other devices too.

Will we see new low prices on the Sony WF-C700N wireless headphones? The LG C4 OLED TV? The Sonos Arc soundbar?

All of these have been replaced recently or are rumoured to have successors launching soon.

And what about new products? Will the LG C5 OLED TV (which is due to be released late March to early April) see its first discount?

We'll be bringing you all the best deals as they go live – and telling you which ones to avoid – so stay tuned to What Hi-Fi? for the latest updates.

MORE:

Check out the best TV deals

The best headphone deals

And the best headphones for all budgets

The Mini LED TV market is always a battleground, with big name players including Hisense, TCL, Samsung, Sony and Panasonic all pushing hard to dominate the space.

But during the latest skirmish, after weeks of testing, it was a plucky new product from Amazon that impressed me, and the wider home cinema reviews team, enough to carve a space in our best Mini LED buying guide.

Specifically, the 65-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED dethroned the Hisense U7N as our recommended best value Mini LED TV.

Why? The answer’s pretty simple, it performed the best at its price when we ran it head-to-head with its rivals in our dedicated viewing rooms.

Holistically, the TV offered a wonderfully bright, but accurate picture that never tried too hard with its processing or contrast, resulting in a pleasingly consistent movie watching experience.

This is a big deal as trying too hard is a key issue I’ve experienced and documented reviewing Mini LED TVs many times before.

To catch you up, many either boost contrast to the point dark detail is lost in a bid to overcome Mini LED sets’ inability to match OLED TV’s perfect back levels.

Or they go to the other extreme and get too focussed on showing off their main selling point – their incredibly high peak brightness levels. Here they raise the backlight too high, making images lose dynamic range and look a little flat.

None of this happened on the Fire TV Mini LED, which seemed to accept its weaknesses and offer a wonderfully uniform performance that let us focus on the movie, not what it was doing. Hence our conclusion:

“The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED is a solid set for buyers ready to take their first jump from a basic LED into the mid-range TV market. Offering clear improvements on the base Omni QLED, it gets a lot right thanks to its focus on never pushing itself too hard.”

So why didn’t it get a four, not perfect five-star, rating? There are a few reasons. First, is that while the picture is great for the price, it isn’t perfect. The TV can play it a little too safe in some instances.

Watching Blade Runner 2049 during the opening dark scene, reds looked under-represented, with Sapper Morton’s skin in particular looking a little flat. The same was true when we tested the TV with our It 4k Blu-ray. Georgie’s iconic yellow rain coat didn’t pop out of the otherwise grey backdrop as it should.

Second, while it is the best of its kind, it’s still a four star product. We’d also note that the margin between it and the Hisense U7N is very small. The only reason the Amazon beat it is its more mature light control, with the Hisense suffering from noticeably more bloom during our checks – this is where there’s a halo around bright sections of the picture directly next to dark segments.

Third is its middling audio. Despite having a built in 2.1 speaker system, the sub isn't powerful enough to truly immerse you and there's not any sense of directionality. You will need to invest in a separate soundbar or speaker package for the best results possible.

But, those caveats aside, the Amazon is the best value Mini LED TV money can buy right now and one we’re thoroughly happy to recommend, especially to buyers still on older basic LED sets.

MORE:

These are the best 65-inch TVs we’ve tested

We rate the best soundbars money can buy

Our picks of the best cheap TVs

The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED is the top dog in the retail giant’s line of own-brand TVs. That makes it the most expensive option firmly in the mid-range, rather than the affordable, price bracket usually targeted by Amazon TVs.

To justify its jump, Amazon has loaded it with a wealth of upgrades that make it a radical upgrade on the Omni QLED model. But, can it compete in its new weight class, which is full of big name rivals from Samsung, TCL, and Panasonic, the last of which now uses Amazon Fire OS on its Mini LED TVs and relaunched in the US last year? Thankfully, based on our week-long stretch of comparative testing, we’re pleased to report the answer is, for the most part, yes.

Price

The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED is available in four sizes – 55, 65, 75 and 85 inches. If you’re in the UK or Europe be warned the largest 85-inch model isn’t on sale yet.

The 65-inch model we have in our viewing rooms for review cost £1150 / $1090 when it launched at the end of last year, but we’re already seeing sporadic price drops on it. At the time of publishing it was selling for £950.

Below it, the 55-inch model retails for £850 / $820 and the larger 75-inch a slightly more expensive £1600 / $1400. In the US, the largest 85-inch Omni Mini LED will set you back $2100.

That’s a hefty premium on Amazon’s step-down Omni QLED line, but roughly in line with most mid-range Mini LED TVs.

The 65-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED currently retails for £850 / $800. The two main rivals we’re testing it against are the 65-inch Hisense U7N, which currently retails for £1000 / $800 and slightly more premium 65-inch TCL C855K (review coming soon) which sells for £1199, but is not available in the US.

Design

The Omni Mini LED is a fairly chunky beast. Like most TVs with a built-in rear firing subwoofer, it’s fairly thick. It also has a slightly curved back, which means it won’t sit flush if you wall mount it.

Otherwise it’s a nicely discreet looking unit, with fairly small bezels and a suitably unassuming finish which means it will sit in most homes comfortably. Its side facing inputs are also set far enough into the TV’s rear to not have cables awkwardly jutting out of the side.

We do have two gripes with the design, however. First is its stand. The TV has a twin foot-stand that’s easy enough to attach – all you have to do is slot the feet into the bottom edge of the Omni Mini LED and lock them in place with the included screws.

The problem is that, unlike similar Sony sets with the same stand design, the Omni Mini LED’s feet only have one stand option – at the furthest side of its left and right bottom edge. This means, like the Panasonic W90A we reviewed a few months ago, the Omni LED won’t comfortably fit on a smaller TV stand. That it doesn’t include a central mount option, where the feet can be placed closer to the centre of the TV’s bottom, is an annoyance.

Second, while the remote is nicely compact and has easy to navigate shortcuts for all the services and settings menus you would expect, it’s not backlit. Amazon would likely argue this is fine, as you can just use Alexa voice controls, which are supported on the Omni Fire TV. But if you’re like most of us and prefer to not shout at inanimate objects to make minor changes to your TV’s volume, a backlight would have still been welcome.

Features

The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED’s biggest upgrade on its QLED predecessor is in its name. Specifically, that it has a Mini LED backlight.

This is a key backlighting technology that uses a series of tiny LEDs arranged in gridded dimming zones. Like all Local Dimming TVs, its ability to charge zones, rather than an entire backlight, aims to give it better light control and boost things like contrast and black level. Mini LED takes this further as the Mini LEDs are smaller and more tightly packed, helping to also boost brightness.

Though we’re yet to find a Mini LED that can challenge an OLED at the top end of the market, it’s a staple sight in the mid-range TV space that definitely improves on most LCD sets’ performance when implemented well.

The panel used in our review unit features 768 dimming zones, and a quoted 1400 nits peak brightness, which is competitive with other similarly priced Mini LEDs. The Hisense U7N’s backlight is split into 384 dimming zones and the screen has a peak brightness of 1500 nits, by comparison.

For colour reproduction it also has a QLED TV panel, which uses Quantum Dots to try and help the set reproduce more vibrant colours than are possible from a standard LCD TV.

These improvements are welcome, but there have been plenty more important quality of life upgrades made to the Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED.

For starters, the TV has been upgraded to include two HDMI 2.1 inputs. One of these doubles as the eARC, which is what you will likely use to connect a soundbar or other audio system.

We’d have loved to see four HDMI 2.1s, which lets you connect and run multiple current generation games consoles at full speed without any cable swapping. But the Omni QLED has no 'real' HDMI 2.1 sockets, so this change is a welcome one.

This is especially true as Amazon has increased the Omni Mini LED’s refresh rate, offering 4K/144Hz playback via a new Gaming Mode – the other screen settings run at 4K/120Hz – as well as VRR and ALLM. That means they can run the PS5, Xbox Series X and modern PCs at radically higher frame rates than the basic Omni QLED, which tapped out at 4K/60Hz. The benefit here is that it can help make games feel smoother and more responsive.

The TV’s 2.1 inbuilt sound system is also being billed as Dolby Atmos ready, which combined with the new integrated subwoofer should help give its sound a bit more low-end heft.

Outside of this the Mini LED retains all the perks that made us fans of the larger models in the Omni QLED range.

Fire OS means that, while there are plenty of ads, application support is excellent. Running through the usual suspects, Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+ and Prime Video are all present and run correctly. Local services such as Now and TNT sports are also present. All run at their correct resolutions and compatible HDR standards.

The latter also remains excellent, with the TV supporting HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. The offshoot Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive are also supported – both of which use an included ambient light sensor to optimise the TV’s performance based on its environment.

So all-in-all, at this price, the TV is well stacked when it comes to features.

Picture

We start things off slow with our 4K Blu-ray of Barbie, and the iconic I’m Just Ken scene. In the TV’s Standard mode the image looks a little too cartoony and almost plastic – which is a strange thing to say with this test disc. Motion is over-smoothed and the contrast and colours look like they’ve been pushed too hard, leading to some contrast issues and loss of detail.

Switching to the Filmmaker mode, things flip to the other extreme and are too subdued, with the bright pinks and costumes of the characters looking flat and not holding the pop they should. On top of that, the setting disables many of the TV’s manual controls, so you can’t really change much in Filmmaker mode. Thankfully we quickly get better results switching to Movie Bright, where the more granular controls re-open, and we can make a few subtle but important changes to the Mini LED TV’s settings.

These include setting local dimming to high, locking the colour temperature to warm 2, reducing the motion handling setting to one and having intelligent HDR on. Once this is done, the movie retains its intended vibrancy, while characters' motions look natural and nicely defined.

Results are equally impressive moving to our Dune: Part 2 test disc. The Fire TV Omni Mini LED’s desertscape holds a decent amount of detail, with each sand grain holding a distinct spot. The TV does an admirable job retaining detail. Gears and machine parts in the darkest section of the spice mining vehicle which are lost on some competing sets, including the Hisense U7N, retain detail, which shows Amazon has taken a nicely balanced approach to tuning the set. This is rare at this end of the market where companies seem hell-bent on cranking the contrast to try and make blacks look deeper, losing dark detail in the process.

The only slight issue is that this focus does reveal one minor shortcoming – the Mini LED doesn’t offer quite as high peaks as its main rivals. The TV is undeniably night and day brighter than the base Omni QLED, but against the U7N and TCL C855K, reds in explosions don’t burn quite as bright. This becomes even more apparent when we switch to our Pan test disc, which is our go to brightness stress test due to its atypical 4000 nits mastering. Here the rival Mini LEDs retain more detail in a burning bright sunset, offering a hue of red and orange where the Fire TV Mini LED shows the section of the scene as pure white.

Moving to our standard Blade Runner 2049 test disc there’s immediately a noticeable amount of blooming around the white text on a black background introducing the movie. But it soon recovers and delivers one of the better performances we’ve seen on a set this price.

Though the black level isn’t anything to write home about, it’s good for a TV this price and deeper than the base Omni QLED. Outside of some blooming around bright sections directly next to black, the TV retains a decent amount of detail, with every wrinkle in the dusty farmhouse’s sofa remaining visible.

Our only minor quibble is that, despite offering decent skin tones in most instances, during this incredibly dark scene, Sapper Morton’s skin appears a little washed out, with reds in particular looking underrepresented. This is indicative of a wider problem that repeats when we move to our It test disk, with the yellow of Georgie’s raincoat not sitting separate from the otherwise grey background as much as it should.

These issues are largely forgivable given the set’s price and the fact it is at least consistent with its backlight control, and it doesn’t suffer from the rapid shifts in brightness seen on many Mini LED sets during demanding scenes with rapidly shifting light and dark sections. But, it is still a minor annoyance as the Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED gets so much right elsewhere.

Playing our SD copy of True Grit, a fantastic movie for testing upscaling due to its intentional grainy, spaghetti western finish, the opening scene looks solid. The lantern burning in the night-time opening scene looks authentic, as the snow falls with no aberrations creeping in.

Sound

The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED comes loaded with a standard 2.1, Dolby Atmos-ready speaker arrangement that’s roughly in line with what you’ll find on any other set its price. Units with up-firing drivers tend to cost a fair bit more.

The audio it delivers is equally by the numbers for a TV its price. Starting with our standard Blade Runner 2049 scene two, low-end stress test, it immediately struggles. During the bassiest sections of the booming synth soundtrack distortion creeps in and there’s a lack of precision and heft to the section in general.

Jumping to a car chase scene in The Batman, the roaring car engines sound more like muffled mopeds and the sound is distinctly central, with the audio failing to match the left to right movements of the Batmobile.

It delivers a serviceable performance with Barbie’s I’m Just Ken, with voices sounding clear, and there being some separation between parts of the frequency range. But the lack of vibrancy and dynamics means it can’t do justice to heavy action scenes. Kenny Loggins was only in minor peril, and never quite entered the Danger Zone during the opening scene of Top Gun: Maverick. You will certainly want to invest in a soundbar if you want a truly immersive home cinema experience.

Verdict

The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED is a solid set for buyers ready to take their first jump from a basic LED into the mid-range TV market. Offering clear improvements on the base Omni QLED, it gets a lot right thanks to its focus on never pushing itself too hard. In fact, our big complaint is that at times it plays it too safe, leading to slightly dull colours and lower peaks than some rival Mini LEDs.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 3
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the Hisense U7N

Read our Panasonic W90A

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and affordable flatscreens tried and tested

This year, while our staff writer, Lewis Empson, has spent the past few months globetrotting getting hands on looks at 2025’s new flagship OLED TVs – including the LG G5, Panasonic Z95A, Samsung S95F and Philips OLED910 – I’ve had an important but less glamorous task.

Specifically, clearing the growing pile of mid-range Mini LED TVs in our review rooms for testing. This means I've spent the past few months testing key sets including the Hisense U7N, TCL C855K and Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED (full reviews of the latter two incoming).

Though specific pricing varies between them and is currently fluctuating on a near daily basis, all of the 65-inch models generally sit in the £800-£1000 / $899-$1100 bracket, making them firmly mid-range sets.

That means it would be unfair and hugely misguided to expect them to offer the same performance as an OLED TV, but having spent more hours locked in our windowless test room, running the three head-to-head I have one key take away: they need to stop trying so hard.

What do I mean by that? There are two key things.

First is black level. Mini LED is often pitched as a rival to OLED, with companies claiming its zoned panel design, which lets it charge sections of the screen, rather than all of it as a normal LED does, means it can offer much deeper blacks.

Having tested TVs with the tech I can confirm this is true when you compare them to normal LEDs, but I’m yet to find a set with the hardware that can match the perfect inky blacks of an OLED, which have pixel-level light control.

The problem is that many of the Mini LEDs I test try to get round this by cranking the contrast, making most scenes look like a panel from a Frank Miller comic, where there are swathes of black, completely devoid of detail.

Being fair to TV makers, projector makers – particularly Xgimi – are also guilty of this. But, it’s still a problem that means you’re not seeing a significant portion of what the director wants you to.

The better alternative is to not try so hard and accept the weaker black level, and tune the set so it’s slightly brighter, but details aren’t lost. Here the compromise is that the blacks can look distinctly grey.

The second issue stems from many manufacturers' obsession with brightness and showing how bright new TVs can go.

On the one hand this can be a positive. A higher peak brightness can make bright scenes retain details darker sets can’t and, when deployed right, helps with dynamic contrast, offering a wider separation between the darkest and lightest parts of the picture. Pennywise’s shining eyes in a dank sewer in It can hold a particular menace on well-made, newer sets, for example.

But an overt focus on always showing this can add artificiality to the image. I’ve seen plenty of examples recently where sets try to give images more punch by raising the brightness, but poor backlight control means entire, or at least large, sections of the picture jump up, and consequently look flat – the opposite of the intended effect.

Here it would be better to keep the overall brightness down and accept the lower peak, as the rapid jump is jarring and commits the cardinal sin of making you focus on what the TV is doing rather than the movie you’re watching.

In both instances, uniformity rather than trying to constantly pushing a panel to its limits is better in my mind. Which is why I’ve penned this feature, pleading with manufacturers to stop trying so hard and start tuning with the content, not specifications sheet, in mind.

MORE:

These are the best Mini LED TVs we’ve tested

We rate the best 65-inch TVs

Our picks of the best cheap TVs

After much deliberation, a lot of hard work and some tough decisions, we are pleased to be able to announce the winners of this year's What Hi-Fi? Awards.

A total of 112 winners of Best Buy Awards and our most prestigious Product Of The Year gongs were celebrated on November 14th at a black-tie event in London, and we present them here in full in this issue.

But, as usual, you can count on us to bring you reviews of the very latest hi-fi and AV products in our First Tests section too.

You can subscribe or buy the latest issue here, or buy the digital edition on iPhone, iPad, Android devices or Kindle edition.

Welcome to the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2024

It is time once again for our annual Awards and bumper Awards issue of the magazine – almost in the blink of an eye it seems, another year has gone by. And in that year, of course, we have thoroughly tested all the latest hi-fi and AV kit, as well as revisiting the cream of the crop in each Awards category to see which products are top of the tree and deserving of the top honours.

Our team of dedicated reviewers has spent remarkable time and effort in coming up with this, the 42nd collection of products that have the right to brag that they are What Hi-Fi? Best Buy Award winners. That’s a big thing both for us and the manufacturers, naturally – but it’s also a huge thing for you, our reader. Every Award winner you read about in the pages of this very magazine is a winner in its particular category; so you can be sure that you are getting superb value for money and a top-performing product when you decide to buy.

Our long-time readers will know just why you can trust What Hi-Fi?. Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. And this has been the What Hi-Fi? way since 1976...

We take our role in this extremely seriously; and the fact that we are still able to perform this service almost 50 years after the What Hi-Fi? brand began shows that the industry does as well.

So, whether you're looking for a great new TV, an upgrade to your stereo set-up, a home cinema projector or soundbar, or the best wireless speaker or noise cancelling earbuds (and all points in between), this should be your go-to source for hi-fi and AV kit. Every recipient of a What Hi-Fi? Award is a class-leading product, deserving of our praise at different levels of budget and spanning the entire home entertainment technology spectrum. In short, you can be absolutely sure that each one will be worth your time and investment.

So pick up this month's What Hi-Fi? magazine, settle back and read about all of our Award winners in this special, bumper issue.

Record players are getting better, it just isn't obvious

And in between the rigorous Awards testing, our team have been busy as ever looking at all manner of hi-fi and AV kit from every angle. This month, technical editor Ketan Bharadia explains the ways in which record replay continues to improve – even if it is subtly. Read his thoughts on the current crop of excellent record decks in the latest magazine.

First with reviews

While much of the focus this issue is on Award-winning kit, our test benches have, as usual, been groaning under the weight of new products in for review. And, as always, our First Tests section is where you'll find our famously in-depth, impartial and expert reviews of all the latest AV and hi-fi kit.

First out of the gates, and picking up a five-star review and a Best Buy win in the £1500-£2500 standmounter category, is the Epos ES-7N. Okay, so that was a bit of a spoiler. But you can read our full review of the brand new standmounters in our First Tests section this month! 

Rotel's brand new A8 amplifier was similarly showered with a five-star review and Award, this time Product of the Year. Read just why we think this unassuming but fantastic amplifier is deserving of both.

Sony's Bravia Theatre Bar 9 also makes quite the statement, and once again impressed us enough to earn five stars and a Product Of The Year Award. And the five-stars don't stop there. In a month of rare quality, the Cambridge Audio EXN100 music streamer, Hisense PX3-Pro and BenQ W5800 projectors, Samsung's Q80D mid-range TV and Pro-Ject's Debut Evo 2 turntable all picked up top scores from our reviewers. 

Find out more about all these products in this month's special Awards issue of What Hi-Fi?

Finally, don't forget to check out our Buyer’s Guide, featuring a definitive list of all the best home entertainment kit you can buy. If you’re looking to purchase anything from a pair of wireless headphones to a home theatre speaker system, this section will tell you where to spend your money wisely.

Whatever you do, don't miss the Awards 2024 issue of What Hi-Fi? Grab a copy today, or simply download it onto your tablet or smartphone instead. Enjoy!

You can subscribe or buy the latest issue here, or buy the digital edition on iPhone, iPad, Android devices or Kindle edition

Having the latest streaming apps baked into your television's operating system is a fairly recent phenomenon – but it has quickly become something we take for granted. We rarely see a "dumb TV", as practically every model includes smart features; and that goes beyond streaming apps now, as many models incorporate smart home controls, social apps and even AI features such as generating images for ambient art modes.

If you're still looking to squeeze a few more years out of your TV, but would like to dip your toes into the vast world of 'smart', a media streamer is your best bet. This can also be a solution if you have an older smart TV that has lost support for streaming services – Netflix, for example, has recently dropped support for older Sony and Samsung models.

If you fit those descriptions but don't want to shell out for an Apple TV 4K, then this streamer could be the best fit for you. Amazon's Big Deal Days has officially ended, but the Fire TV Stick 4K is remaining at its Prime Day price for a further five days, meaning it is just £40 instead of £60 right now.

Amazon's plug-and-play streaming sticks are popular for a reason: they add instant streaming convenience to your television. With this stick, you can stream in 4K HDR, and all of the major formats are supported, including HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG.

The Fire TV Stick 4K has recently been updated with a refreshed design, though not much looks to have changed upon first inspection. While we haven't tested this latest model yet, we did review the Fire TV Stick 4K step-up model and found plenty to like – so much so that we gave it an Award. Specifically, we find the app compatibility to be stellar; with all the services you might expect to find present and working correctly. That's a key part of any good streamer, and it has only improved throughout the Fire TV Stick's lifespan.

Furthermore, the Fire TV Stick gets a premium audio function in the form of Dolby Atmos, meaning you can play immersive audio when streaming content on a compatible Dolby Atmos soundbar or AVR.

The Fire TV Stick also comes with an Alexa Voice Remote bundled in the box, which you can use to interface with the streamer purely by voice commands. Alexa has become much more competent in recent years, meaning you will be met with fewer rogue misheard requests when asking for a specific app, movie or song.

If you have an older 4K TV that is losing app support, or even if you aren't a fan of your TV's built-in operating system perhaps, then this media streamer is the way to go. For only £40, its certainly cheaper than paying big bucks for a brand new 4K set.

MORE:

Check out our picks for the best media streamers

As well as the best TVs

And the best TV deals

It's the day after the Prime Big Deal Days sale and while the onslaught of Amazon deals has officially ended there are still some bargains.

Somewhat reassuringly, many of the best Prime deals have now ended and prices have gone back up – it would be frustrating if this weren't the case, after all. 

But, while I double-checked the deals, I spotted some low prices that have remained at Amazon and some other specialist retailers. 

• Browse all today's Prime Day deals at Amazon (UK)
• Browse all today's Prime Day deals at Amazon (US)

Headphones and wireless earbuds deals have featured heavily but there have also been great discounts on hi-fi and home cinema products, including Dolby Atmos soundbars, OLED TVs, speakers and streamers, both at Amazon and independent specialist retailers. 

I've picked out the following deals based on the What Hi-Fi? test team's choice of the best genuine deals on some of our highest-rated products.

The best Prime Day AV deals still available

Quick links

• 6 months free Prime: students & 18-22 year-olds
• Amazon Music Unlimited: 4 months free
• Best deals under £100: affordable devices
• Blu-rays and DVDs up to 51% off
• Bravia 8 TV: save 27% on 55in TV
• Cheap TV: five-star 50-inch QLED now £380
• Deals under £15: bag a bargain
• Dolby Atmos soundbar: save 25% now £149
• Echo speakers: better than half-price
• Fire TV Stick 4K: save 33% now £40
• Headphones, speakers and music: up to 60% off
• John Lewis: free next-day delivery on Apple devices
• Kids tablet: now 35% off
• Pink Floyd vinyl: The Wall at £8 off
• Sony XM5: £70 off Award-winning wireless earbuds
• Sony WH-CH520: lowest ever price
• Tablet: Fire HD now £109 save 39%
• Turntable: Save £50 on Sony, now £189
• TVs, movies and home cinema: browse the best deals
• WiiM Pro Plus was £219 now £169 (save £50)
• Wine, beer and spirits: save up to 34% on drinks

Get this one if: you just want better sound from your TV

The Sonos Ray hit an unexpectedly new lowest price this Prime Day, making it the obvious one to buy if you want a cheap and cheerful upgrade and an intro to the Sonos system. 

Available in black or white, the Ray measures just 56cm in width, meaning it is best suited to smaller TVs or even as a desktop speaker with a monitor. 

The best Amazon Prime Day deals under £50

If you don't want to spend a fortune but do fancy something shiny and new to drop through your letterbox, you could do a lot worse than the following selection of serious bargains.

Technics SA-C600 CD/streaming system

Technics is on a great run at the moment. The brand had a bit of a rocky start when it was reintroduced into the market in 2014, but since then has quickly found its feet. Over recent years we’ve reviewed a fair number of the company’s products and they’ve invariably been solid and talented performers. Not all have been class leaders, of course, but more often than not Technics hits gold – as it has with the SA-C600 system we have on test here. We call it a system, but you still need to add a pair of speakers. 

Usually, such systems are all about looks and features but Technics has shown that it is possible to add great sound into the mix. It is a really well-conceived product and fully deserves the What Hi-Fi? Awards wins that have followed. Highly recommended.

Looking for a really good, genuinely affordable turntable with awesome features? Then look no more, as the five-star Sony PS-LX310BT – our favourite Bluetooth turntable – has reached its lowest price yet at Amazon.

Be warned that this Sony turntable deal never lasts long, so you had better hurry and snap up this terrific deal on an entertaining, fuss-free deck before midnight strikes!

Ultimate OLED TV deals

The 42-inch LG C4 is the smallest size in the tech giant’s current step down line of OLED TVs. It’s also a direct successor to the LG C3, a What Hi-Fi? Award-winner that up until now has been the small OLED we recommend to most people.

Does it live up to its predecessor’s legacy? Thankfully, after putting it through its paces in our review labs we’re happy to confirm the 42-inch LG C4 is a fantastic OLED TV for those short on space. 

And it has been sliced in price this Prime Day. Various retailers are offering a cut-price deal but right now the biggest saving is a £530 saving at Amazon.

Looking for a pair of truly affordable noise-cancelling wireless headphones? These Sennheiser HD 450BT headphones might be a few years old now, but we're still rather fond of these well-made, foldable, punchy and smooth-sounding cans. And their price has just plunged to £85 at Amazon. 

We saw these four-star cans drop to £99 during last year's Black Friday sales, but this is the new lowest price we've seen all year – and it's an absolute budget bargain.

Best Sennheiser HD 450BT wireless headphones deal

Super-cheap five-star TV! 

Our favourite cheap TV is sitting at its cheapest-ever price. The last time we saw it this low was back in July. The TV in question is the 50-inch version of Amazon's Fire TV Omni QLED, which can be yours for just £380 at Amazon. That's a whopping saving of £270 (42 per cent) on the full price of £650.

You will regularly find discounts on Amazon's TVs – in fact, the discounts are so common that we strongly advise against anyone paying full price – but this is a particularly tempting offer which deserves to be brought to wider attention.

Dolby Atmos soundbar system

If you’re looking for a compact, cost-effective way to add Dolby Atmos to your home cinema setup, look no further: retailers have slashed the price of the JBL Bar 1300.

The deal is still live and lets you pick up the Dolby Atmos soundbar package for £899, a huge £400 saving on its regular £1299 price.

Sennheiser's wired headphones are some of the most respected and accomplished models for stunningly detailed, composed and spacious sound. If that sounds like you, you're in luck: the superb HD 820 wired headphones have a massive £550 off right now.

We originally reviewed these high-end closed-back headphones at £1999, but the HD 820 can be yours for just £1249 at Sevenoaks. If your home audio system needs an upgrade and you have been eyeing-up these premium Sennheiser cans for a while, now could be the right time to pounce.

Browse up to 51% off Blu-rays and DVDs on Amazon

Two special Sony savings

We feel like we've talked about Sony a lot this Prime Day but they do make great products and there are a lot of them, so it's only natural they they also go on sale. If you're still in the market for a premium pair of wireless earbuds or an affordable turntable, you couldn't do much better than these two deals below.

With Amazon's two-day October Prime Day in full swing, we've been hunting for deals for those of you who want savings on products beyond the best Bluetooth speakers or wireless earbuds. Amazon certainly grants a lot of tasty deals during Prime Day, but for what some would term 'proper' hi-fi, including loudspeakers, turntables and amplifiers, it often pays to look elsewhere.

Hence we've scouted this superb Bowers & Wilkins discount, an offer which sees the B&W 606 S3 floorstanders drop from £1999 to just £1769 at Sevenoaks, a saving of £200. They're decent speakers, too, and sure to delight anyone who wants a sturdy pair of floorstanders to pump out a robust, full sound with plenty of punch.

B&W 603 S3 floorstanding speakers deal

The Bowers & Wilkins 603 S3 floorstanders are part of a pretty esteemed family. The 607 S2 Anniversary Edition and 606 S2 Anniversary Edition standmounts are esteemed Award-winners, while the 606 S3 and the 607 S3 standmounters have also bagged silverware following five-star reviews. The 606 S3 towers, therefore, have the weight of history behind them.

It's a burden they ably manage to shoulder, and while we didn't quite consider them at the time to match the legacy of their forebears, they're a pair of floorstanders with an appeal that we completely understand. If you want that esteemed B&W name, design and build from speakers that will fill your room with sound as easily as a garden hose fills a watering can, these substantial towers are certainly worth considering, especially thanks to that £230 discount.

As our review made clear: "The 603 S3’s sturdy, muscular aspect gives the speakers real authority and scale, and although our dedicated test rooms aren’t exactly rivals for the Albert Hall, we can imagine that the Bowers would perform ably in a larger setting thanks to their powerful, potent sonic presentation". Yes, the five-star PMC Prodigy 5 will grant a touch more dynamic subtelty, agility and verve, but they're smaller in stature and less muscular in their delivery.

We appreciate their build quality, though it's worth noting how hefty the 603 S3 actually are. Designed "for larger rooms and homes theatres", they stand 102cm high when mounted on plinths and make shorter rivals look positively titchy by comparison.

Give them the space they need, make sure to partner them with a price-compatible amplifier and source player and the Bowers towers will reward you amply. They won't be for everyone, but for £230 off at Sevenoaks, they're certainly worth considering if you're after floorstanders that can give your music a real sense of authority and scale.

MORE:

Read our original Bowers & Wilkins 603 S3 review

Want more deals? Here are the best Day 2 October Prime Day headphones and wireless earbuds deals

These are the best floorstanding speakers tested by our experts

You don't have to spend a fortune this Prime Day to snag a deal. Some seriously great AV and hi-fi gear is on sale for well under £50, meaning you can get in on the Big Deal Days fun without breaking the bank.

Whether it's a new pair of wireless earbuds, a streaming stick to enhance your TV with smart functionality, or perhaps you want to put your AV setup through its paces with one of our favourite test discs – Amazon's Big Deal Days has you covered. Of course, there is a lot to sift through, and not everything is worth your hard-earned cash; so we've identified the ones that are worth paying attention to.

• Browse all the Prime Day deals under £50

There are plenty of top-notch TV, headphone and speaker deals to be found but many exceed the price limit we've set here. So if you want to bag a bargain rather than breaking the bank, read on for our AV bargains.

The best Amazon Prime Day deals under £50

MORE:

Prime Day in October: the best TV, hi-fi, home cinema and audio deals

Find the best Prime Day wireless earbuds deals

Is this the best Amazon Prime Day streaming deal?: Turn your "dumb TV" into a smart TV for just £17

While other brands occasionally try to break through, the tablet market is really split in two, with Apple’s iPads on the premium side and Amazon’s Fire tablets on the affordable one. There are random, cheap options from brands called things such as ‘Hakaug’ and ‘Doogee’, but it’s a wilful soul who takes a chance on one of those when Amazon’s offerings are already so attractively priced.

The Fire HD 10 we have before us today isn’t super-cheap by any means, but it looks like very good value for a 10-inch tablet, particularly when compared with the prices of iPads. It’s got the highest pixel density of the whole Fire tablet range, too, potentially making it the pick of the bunch for those of us most interested in watching movies on the move.

Price

The Amazon Fire HD 10 is officially priced at £150 / $140 (it’s unfortunately not available in Australia), but as with most of Amazon’s own devices, it’s regularly discounted, particularly around sales events such as Black Friday. For reference, the cheapest current iPad is £349 / $349 / AU$599.

With the Amazon Fire HD 10, your £150 / $140 gets you an ad-supported version of the tablet. We’ve become pretty immune to the ads, which are most obvious when they pop up on the lock screen, but you can pay an additional £10 / $10 for an ad-free version if you prefer. Or you can buy the ad-supported tablet and then pay the extra tenner to have the ads removed at a later date if you find them annoying.

The £150 / $140 entry-level option also gets you just 32GB of built-in storage, which is unlikely to be an issue if you’re just streaming movies and music but could be limiting if you also want to download games. Amazon will sell you a 64GB version but the price increase is quite steep, so we instead recommend going for the 32GB edition and making use of the expandable storage should you run out of built-in space. SD cards up to 1TB in size are supported.

Design

Unsurprisingly, the Amazon Fire HD 10 can’t match an iPad for build quality, but it doesn’t look or feel cheap. The plastic chassis has a nice texture that means it won’t slip out of your hands at the first opportunity, and the rounded corners give the device a soft, approachable air, particularly when combined with one of the more attractive colour options – we chose lilac for our review device.

The front is all glass (aluminosilicate glass, if you must know) and uniformly black when the screen is off. Bringing it to life reveals bezels that are about 2cm in thickness around the 10.1-inch, 16:10-ratio active display. The tablet as a whole is just 8.6mm thick (the standard iPad is 7mm) and 434g in weight (the iPad is 477g), and in the hand it feels both slim and solid.

Features

That 10.1-inch screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1200, which translates to just over Full HD in TV parlance. That equates to a pixel density of 224 pixels per inch, which is higher than any other Fire tablet, including the more expensive Fire Max 11, and not a million miles off the 264ppi of every iPad barring the surprisingly pixel-rich iPad Mini.

Running the show is a 2.0GHz octa-core processor that isn’t going to pull up any trees but is more than adequate for smooth operation, streaming and casual gaming. Should you wish to make the Fire HD 10 more of a productivity device, it’s compatible with accessories including a keyboard case and stylus pen.

As you would expect, the Fire HD 10 has cameras on its front and rear. Both feature 5MP lenses and neither is much good for photography, but the one on the front, which is positioned in the middle of one of the longer bezels, is perfectly fine for video calls. When holding the tablet in landscape mode, as you would when watching a movie, the tablet’s speakers are on either end of the top edge, so they’re not covered by your hands. Headphones sound better, of course, and the Fire HD 10 is one of the few remaining portable devices with a 3.5mm headphone jack – though you can of course connect headphones (and plenty more besides) via Bluetooth if you prefer.

Amazon quotes 13 hours of mixed use from a full battery, and our testing suggests that figure to be pretty accurate. Charging the battery from empty to full takes about four hours using the bundled 9W charger and USB-C cable.

It’s possible to ‘hack’ an Amazon tablet to access the Google Play Store, but most owners will rightly stick with the vanilla Fire OS operating system and its bespoke app store. While this is limited compared to the Apple and Google app stores, most of the bases relevant to video and music consumption are covered. On the video side, Prime Video (obviously), Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, Now, Plex and all of the UK’s catchup apps are on board, and for music you’ve got Amazon Music, Spotify, BBC Sounds and TuneIn. You can even use cloud gaming apps such as Amazon Luna and Xbox Cloud Gaming. The only real disappointments are Apple TV, Apple Music and Tidal, which are missing and will be missed by a fair few buyers.

Picture

While the Fire HD 10 doesn’t support HDR, we’re immediately struck by how bright and punchy the image is when we click ‘play’ on the final episode of The Grand Tour on Prime Video. The purple of James May’s Triumph Stag and yellow of Richard Hammond’s Ford Capri really pop in the bright Zimbabwean sunshine, and the green fields and trees are lush. At the same time, the skin tones of the three presenters are realistically presented – May looks a bit sunburnt, but that’s because he is.

Switching to Rogue One on Disney+, it’s clear that the Amazon tablet can’t match an iPad for deep blacks – and it’s a little bit reflective in a bright room, too – but it doesn’t look unpleasantly grey or washed out, either. On the contrary, it’s a pleasingly contrasty performance. The tablet handles the more subdued palette of the movie well, authentically reproducing the dusty browns and greys of the uniforms of the rebel troops and the dirty white armour of a stormtrooper who’s seen better days.

‘Full HD’ doesn’t sound very impressive in a world of 4K and even 8K TVs, but it’s more than adequate for a sharp and fairly crisp delivery at this size. In fact, there’s an unexpected three-dimensionality to the Fire HD 10’s presentation, with characters and spaceships standing out effectively against backgrounds. There’s lots of detail in faces, clothes and scenery, too, and while there’s a little blur to motion, it’s not too distracting.

All told, the Fire HD 10 gets a lot right on the picture front, delivering movies and TV shows in a way that’s pretty faithful to creative intent and with a surprising amount of pop and definition.

Sound

If you’re watching a movie or TV show and find yourself without your headphones, the stereo speakers will do in a pinch. Being mounted to the top edge means the sound is fired upwards rather than out and towards you, but there’s decent clarity, particularly with dialogue. Unsurprisingly, there’s very little bass, making for a rather thin presentation overall, and there’s none of the pseudo-surround processing that you get with an iPad – but, again, the built-in speakers will do a job when required.

For music, it’s essential that you connect a pair of headphones. Do so and play Tool’s Invincible and you’ll discover a delivery that’s a little low on impact but pretty high on detail and tonally nicely balanced. The track’s larger dynamic shifts are handled well, and while things become a little congested as instrumentation is added, organisation isn’t bad overall.

The entry-level iPad is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a significant step up in terms of sound quality, offering more punch, control and subtlety, but for a tablet costing so much less, the Fire HD 10 is more than good enough.

Verdict

The Amazon Fire HD 10 isn’t going to knock your socks off, but expecting it to do so at this price is unrealistic. What it does do is offer a really solid picture performance that successfully balances authenticity with a surprising amount of punch and sharpness, and while the audio performance is less accomplished, it’s certainly good enough for a satisfying movie soundtrack and the odd bit of music listening.

With iPads costing as much as they do, the world needs a cheap-but-good alternative, and the Fire HD 10 is exactly that.

Review published: October 2024. Review updated: November 2024.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Apple iPad (2022)

Also consider the Amazon Fire HD 8

Read our Amazon Fire 7 review

These are the best tablets for movies and music

Having the latest streaming apps baked into your television's operating system is a fairly recent phenomenon – but it has quickly become something we take for granted. We rarely see a "dumb TV", as practically every model includes smart features; and that goes beyond streaming apps now, as many models incorporate smart home controls, social apps and even AI features such as generating images for ambient art modes.

If you're still looking to squeeze a few more years out of your TV, but would like to dip your toes into the vast world of streaming, a media streamer is your best bet. This can also be a solution if you have an older smart TV that has lost support for streaming services – Netflix, for example, has recently dropped support for older Sony and Samsung models. 

If you fit either of these descriptions, now is the perfect time to pick up a new streamer, as Amazon Prime Big Deal Days are happening as we speak. Amazon's own streamer, the Fire TV Stick, has been thoroughly discounted as a result, meaning you can now snag one for just £17 – half the price of the entry-level Fire TV Stick Lite. 

Simply put, this is likely the best Amazon Fire TV Stick for most people, as it strikes a solid balance between performance and value. You will be able to stream in 1080p HD with HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG supported; and while we tend to gravitate towards streamers with 4K Dolby Vision compatibility, we are willing to bet that, if you are in the market for this sort of streamer, your TV doesn't support this resolution or HDR format.

Originally released in 2021, the standard Fire TV Stick isn't one we have reviewed; but we did review the Fire TV Stick 4K step-up model and found plenty to like – so much so that we gave it an Award. Specifically, we find the app compatibility to be stellar; with all the services you might expect to find present and working correctly. That's a key part of any good streamer, and it has only improved throughout the Fire TV Stick's lifespan.

Furthermore, the Fire TV Stick gets a premium audio function in the form of Dolby Atmos, meaning you can play immersive audio when streaming content on a compatible Dolby Atmos soundbar or AVR.

The Fire TV Stick also comes with an Alexa Voice Remote bundled in the box, which you can use to interface with the streamer purely by voice commands. Alexa has become much more competent in recent years, meaning you will be met with fewer rogue misheard requests when asking for a specific app, movie or song.

At just £17, this deal is ideal for anyone looking to squeeze a bit more life out of their old TV. Smart features might not be for everyone, but at this price, you can test the waters without putting too much of your hard-earned cash on the line.

MORE:

Check out our picks for the best media streamers

As well as the best TVs

And the best TV deals

Prime Day is coming. Prime Big Deal Days (the official name for October's Prime Day) takes place from 8-9th October, and should see deals on all manner of products, from wireless headphones to TVs, to games consoles to Bluetooth speakers, turntables and beyond. But how do you sort the deals wheat from the discount chaff?

We'll be on hand throughout the event to highlight which deals are worth your attention, but we thought it would be helpful to give you a heads-up first. Forewarned is forearmed, after all.

Below are the products most likely to see a decent discount (of course, all of them are highly rated by yours truly). We'll tell you a bit about them, how much they usually cost, as well as what would be a good price to pay. This should help you get your ducks in a row come the big day, so you can spend less time trawling through pages and pages of Amazon search results and more time basking in the knowledge that you got a good deal.

Sony WH-1000XM5

• Reviewed at £380
• Now £259
• Lowest ever price £239
• Prime Day target £239

Even two years after launch, the Sony WH-1000XM5 are still the best wireless headphones you can buy. Why? They're the best all-rounders, combining a sleek design, superb noise-cancelling and excellent sound quality for a very reasonable price. They launched at £380 but have dropped as low as £239 in the January sales. Annoyingly they haven't dropped that low since, but here's hoping Prime Day comes good.

LG C4 OLED TV (42-inch)

• Reviewed at £1400
• Now £879
• Lowest ever price £849
• Prime Day target £849

LG's C-series is back on top. After last year's disappointing C3, the C4 has scored five stars in its 42-, 48- and 65-inch sizes (every size we have reviewed, in other words). The smallest model is currently an absolute bargain – in recent weeks it has even dropped to be cheaper than the same size C3! We are predicting that it will equal its best ever price, or even undercut it...

JBL Charge 5

• Reviewed at £160
• Now £140
• Lowest ever price £99
• Prime Day target £95

We are sticking our neck out here and saying that the JBL Charge 5 could fall to its lowest price ever. It fell to a new low of £99 just last month, and considering it has been around since 2021, we wouldn't be surprised to see another price cut. The Award-winner offers a clearer, more detailed sound over its predecessor, and updated dust-proofing, making it one of the best portable speakers around. It can also juice up your phone when you're out and about. Lifesaver.

Sony WF-C500

• Reviewed at £89
• Now £37
• Lowest ever price £37
• Prime Day target £35

Again, we're angling for a new low price on these. The C500 won a What Hi-Fi? Award, and that was when they were priced at £89! Now they're less than half price they are an absolute steal – and now that their successors have launched, the price could fall even lower. The C510 offer a longer battery life and ambient mode, but the C500 are not much compromise at all for this price. We're hoping for a new price of £35, but for the sake of a few quid you should really snap them up now.

LG G4 OLED TV (65-inch)

• Reviewed at £3299
• Now £2249
• Lowest ever price £2249
• Prime Day target £2200

The LG G4 has been at its lowest ever price for a few days now, but we think it might drop a bit lower. The 55-inch model has fallen to £1619 in recent weeks, so we think the 65-incher should nudge a little closer to the two grand mark. It's a five-star TV – its brilliantly bright picture is full of contrast, the motion handling is very good indeed, and its gaming specs are typically excellent. One of the best OLED TVs of the year so far.

Apple AirPods Max

• Reviewed at £549
• Now £499
• Lowest ever price £400
• Prime Day target £400

The Apple AirPods Max are an interesting one. Believe it or not, they launched back in December 2020 for £549. Apple prices don't tend to fall too dramatically, but these did hit £400 during Black Friday 2022. And they have fluctuated around £450-£500 since. The second-gen model launched recently – though it's a minor refresh, with just USB-C and different colour schemes – at the cheaper price of £449, and will become the default once old stock has sold out. Which could mean discounts on the Lightning model. If you can put up with the old connection and the more aged colour schemes, you might bag yourself a bargain...

JBL Flip 6

• Reviewed at 130
• Now £91
• Lowest ever price £86
• Prime Day target £86

Currently sitting around the £90 mark, the JBL Flip 6 has dipped lower before, and we are confident it will again. Its lowest ever price would be a great amount to pay for such an excellent speaker – with spades of sonic clarity and punchy bass, it delivers a sound far bigger than you might expect, and never at the expense of quality. Its toughest competition comes from its Charge 5 stablemate, which just shows how much JBL dominates the Bluetooth speaker category.

Sony A80L OLED TV (55-inch)

• Reviewed at £2399
• Now £1499
• Lowest ever price £1229
• Prime Day target £1229

The Award-winning A80L was one of the best OLED TVs we saw last year; it has since been succeeded by the Bravia 8. That means deals, deals, deals. It previously dropped to its lowest ever price over the summer, and with it closing in on 18 months on sale, we predict it will reach that bargain level again this Prime Day.

Sony WF-C700N

• Reviewed at £100
• Now £78
• Lowest ever price £67
• Prime Day target £67

We awarded the Sony WF-C700N a Product of the Year gong at the What Hi-Fi? Awards 2023 so this should show you how highly we rate them. They are a step up in sound quality from the WF-C500 and add active noise-cancelling to the equation. We saw the price drop to £67 back at the start of the year and would like to think they might return to this level during Prime Day. If they drop to around £70 or less, consider them a no-brainer.

Sony WF-1000XM5

• Reviewed at £259
• Now £189
• Lowest ever price £189
• Prime Day target £189

Sony's five-star, flagship WF-1000XM5 have just hit a new low price, so you should really consider snapping them up right now. This is a great price for these class-leading wireless earbuds – they have been around a while, so the XM6 could follow sooner rather than later, but this is still a quality pair of buds, and winner of multiple What Hi-Fi? Awards.

Apple AirPods Pro 2

• Reviewed at £249
• Now £229
• Lowest ever price £189
• Prime Day target £189

It can be hard to find deals on Apple products at the best of times and the AirPods Pro 2 are no exception. Apple’s excellent wireless earbuds have come down a little since their launch in September 2022, but we are talking only around £30. More recently, they have dropped to as low as £189, but this has been the exception rather than the rule and whether we’ll see them return to this level during Prime Day remains to be seen. You can find the older Lightning (as opposed to USB-C) model for around £200, though.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds

• Reviewed at £300
• Now £212
• Lowest ever price £212
• Prime Day target £210

Arguably the best noise-cancelling earbuds currently on the market, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds do demand a price premium. But we think their stunning sound quality and ANC skills are worth every penny. The price has just dropped to £212, which is a huge saving for these impressive buds. Our advice? Wait for Prime Day, and if they don't drop any further, snap them up.

MORE:

All the best early Prime Day deals

The best early Prime Day OLED TV deals

And the best early Prime Day hi-fi deals

A free ‘music for everyone’ catalogue, innovative music discovery, and an interface as intuitive as they come – it’s little wonder Spotify is the world’s most popular service and has carried a five-star What Hi-Fi? verdict for more years than I have been on the team (eleven). But time waits for no man, or indeed streaming service, and as rivals such as Tidal, Apple Music and Amazon Music have blessed their subscribers with much higher-quality (hi-res) streams, Spotify has well and truly fallen behind. It was high time for me and other members of team What Hi-Fi? to revisit our Spotify review, and while we never enjoy downgrading product ratings, we felt we had to dock it a star for the first time in its 17-year lifetime.

Indeed, while Tidal (our current favourite), Apple Music and Qobuz can bask in their five-star delivery of hi-res (24-bit) streaming quality, alongside catalogues and user experiences that have more or less closed the gap on the green streaming giant in recent years, Spotify is, believe it or not, still offering the same audio quality (320kbps) it began offering Premium subscribers 15 long years ago. While 320kbps bitrates were reasonably considered “high-quality” for streams back in 2009, they are about as advanced in the streaming world today as CRTs are in the TV one.

This hasn’t all eluded the world’s most valuable music company, of course. For the uninitiated, Spotify did indeed announce its intentions to grace its good users with higher-quality audio – not hi-res, but next-best CD-quality (‘lossless’) – in 2021, and like many of us I’ve been frustratingly holding out for that promise to materialise. The delay hasn’t impeded subscriber growth, with paying subscriber numbers continuing to steadily rise, and I’m not oblivious to the fact that many people simply don’t (and won’t ever) prioritise audio quality enough to shun a service that largely ticks every other box for them. But the absence of high-quality audio has taken a toll on its merit for us and anyone else who cares about sound quality.

To cut a (very) long story short, higher-quality audio is still supposedly coming to Spotify and could now emerge as something different to the originally announced ‘Spotify HiFi’ tier. It could even arrive with a different name.

Having re-reviewed Spotify in recent weeks, and compared it directly against Tidal, here is what I believe Spotify’s forthcoming plan needs for the service to, in terms of quality and value, regain its position at the front of the pack.

1. To keep its price within reach

At £11.99 / $11.99 / AU$13.99, Spotify Premium's monthly fee is already one shiny pound coin (or dollar) more than the paid tiers of Apple Music and Tidal. According to the latest Spotify HiFi rumours, high-quality audio is expected to come via a higher-priced plan or, more likely, a Premium tier add-on. Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, said recently that we are looking at "probably around a $17 or $18 price point", which would be 54 to 63 per cent higher than its rivals' asking prices.

Under this higher price could well be additional features that its competitors don't offer – advanced mixing tools, a headphones optimiser and library filtering functions have been rumoured – and you could argue that some sort of premium is justified for the Spotify experience. But $17/18 – about £14 / AU$25 – does seem an awful lot when folks have become used to having the world's music at their fingertips for a tenner a month for years.

2. To extend high-quality audio past Spotify Connect

When Spotify HiFi was announced, the idea was that lossless streams would be delivered via Spotify Connect, a streaming protocol that lets you quickly and easily cast songs from within the Spotify app to compatible audio devices, from wireless speakers to music streamers (nowadays, it is supported by pretty much all streaming-savvy audio hardware). That method of delivery still seems sensible and would be a boon for many who play streamed music through a home audio system. After all, the similar Tidal Connect feature (for Tidal, of course) supports hi-res casting, although Apple Music's AirPlay 2 casting method does not. 

But considering those two rival services support lossless and hi-res audio via their native iOS, Android and desktop apps, we would hope for the same in-app support from Spotify. Perhaps this has always been Spotify's intention and it simply chose not to mention it in the original announcement, but as time has gone by it now seems imperative that lossless playback is supported on phones, tablets and computers.

3. To go beyond CD-quality 'lossless' audio

Spotify officially promised 'lossless' (16-bit CD-quality) audio via its HiFi plan, whereas Tidal, Apple, Amazon and Qobuz now offer lossless and, better yet, 24-bit hi-res audio. Honestly, most Spotify subscribers – even those who care about audio quality enough to pay more for it – will likely be perfectly happy with CD quality. Significant (or even any) audible differences between CD and hi-res quality would only be apparent and therefore meaningful through insightful audio or hi-fi systems anyway – not typical wireless headphones and Bluetooth speakers. 

But for sound-prioritising owners of transparent kit who likely would benefit from the jump from 16-bit to 24, Spotify's 'only' lossless catalogue could face a tough time tearing them away from their current hi-res service. And if we are benchmarking Spotify against its rivals for outright value, sound quality is the most important factor in how What Hi-Fi? reaches verdicts for all audio products and services it tests, so falling beneath its peers' specification here, despite an upgrade to lossless, might not cut it.

However, with the ideal upgrades mentioned above, at a competitive price, bolstering its already class-leading music discovery, strong podcast offering, ubiquitous device support and pop-culture wins (like ‘Wrapped’), Tidal et al will undoubtedly have a tough time getting their noses back in front. Spotify would not only continue to be the most popular service but also one of, if not the, highest in quality. It's been a long time since that was the case, but such a conquest could be nigh.

MORE:

Everything you need to know about the forthcoming Spotify HiFi tier

Read our recently rewritten Spotify review

Care about quality? We have compared the hi-res music streaming services

Hot off the press: Qobuz targets budding audiophiles with a heavily discounted student tier

I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it recently, but times are tough. Gone are those brief, fleeting days during the late 2010s and early 2020s when streaming was booming and, relatively speaking, so was the economy; days when you could proudly boast that you were concurrently subscribed to Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and the newly emergent Disney Plus with enough change left over for a daily sandwich at the supermarket.

How times have changed. All video streaming services are feeling the strain, raising prices to cope with demand and forcing consumers like me to trim the fat and consider cutting back as the economy struggles (and that's before we even get on to how much a decent sarnie costs). Disney Plus is very much the cornerstone of my streaming platform collection, and while lesser services have been discarded at the wayside, I simply can’t do without the pleasures Disney provides. You think I’m going to go back to the days of watching The Simpsons via my shelf-long stack of DVDs, or even more desperately, relying exclusively on weekend Channel 4 reruns to get my animated fix? I’ve become accustomed to the high life. I can’t go back. I won’t. 

Disney Plus stays, then. It’s our favourite video streaming service, after all, and while I can live without the temptations of Netflix and with being only an occasional tourist on Apple TV Plus when I fancy a nose around the platform’s latest slice of esoteric but talented TV offerings (see Slow Horses and Severance), there’s just too much good stuff over at the House of Mouse. Thankfully, there is now a way to keep your Disney subscription while saving money, and it comes in the shape of the platform's relatively new 'Standard with Ads' tier option.

Opting for the cheapest tier now offered by Disney has certainly saved me a good deal of dosh, although savings vary depending on whether you’re paying for a subscription monthly or via a single yearly instalment. That ‘Standard with Ads’ tier costs just £4.99 a month in the UK, with the Standard, non-ads level setting you back £7.99 a month and the full-fat, all-access Premium subscription costing a princely £10.99 per month (US users have two options: $7.99 a month for an ad-supported 4K tier and $13.99 a month for a parallel Premium subscription). Considering that the highest tier costs more than double the lowest for UK users, it is worth thinking about what you want from your subscription in these penny-stretched days. 

Naturally, sacrifices have to be made. The 'Premium' subscription gives you access to 4K UHD and HDR video quality, not to mention Dolby Atmos sound with compatible content and devices and a greater capacity for streaming across four registered devices. A 'Standard' membership only grants Full HD (1080p) quality, but you still get two devices to play with and no commercials. The ad-based membership grants 1080p video quality and two-device streaming, but, of course, there’s the matter of those pesky ads. 

If losing all of the bells and luxuries of the Premium tier – 4K UHD and Dolby Atmos in particular – is too much to bear, you can stop reading right now and continue to enjoy your glossy, hi-res editions of Avengers: Endgame and Death On The Nile in peace. If you’re umming and ahhing over whether to drop to the lowest price point to save a few bob, it might be best to keep on scrolling. 

In all honesty, the presence of adverts hasn’t been a huge intrusion into my viewing experience. Most of the time, you’ll have to suffer a single, minute-long ad before loading up a 22-minute instalment of, say, Futurama (I really haven’t escaped my adolescence), sometimes followed up by a shorter commercial at the halfway point of the episode. For a two-hour movie such as The Day After Tomorrow, you’ll generally have to endure the same minute-long ad or a bundle of two or three mini-ads lasting a total of a minute and a half before getting started, with occasional in-movie interruptions popping up intermittently to break things up a bit. Happily, if you’re watching a few movies back to back, you generally don’t have to suffer ads before your films, after the first instance – Disney clearly prefers to stagger its commercials for maximum impact.

What you might find irritating, though, isn’t the persistence of the commercials themselves, but rather their frustratingly repetitive nature. I’ve seen the same ‘Marvel at 85’ trailer so many time in the past few weeks that I know the words practically off by heart, from the opening mini-eulogy to Stan Lee to Tom Hiddleston looking dreaming and intoning that, “Marvel is a massive canvas through which all our humanity is explored.” I know, Tom, you’ve told me 50 times since Tuesday.

There are also further, rather more hidden drawbacks. Not being able to download content onto your device is a big one, and it’s a limitation that can often catch people out when they simply look at the low prices in big letters and are immediately suckered in. A lack of downloads is a big miss for me, especially as someone who spends a lot of his time travelling for work and likes to have a few episodes of Shōgun, say, to while away the hours on a crowded Ryanair flight. It’s a big miss, and one that you need to factor into your decision if you’re also thinking of making the drop to an ad-based subscription. 

There’s more you should consider. What also worries me, despite being nothing but hypothetical at this point, is now that said tier has become hugely popular with money-conscious consumers, Disney may decide to ramp up its advertorial drive as time goes on and money becomes even tighter. There’s no evidence to suggest that this will happen, but just as we’ve seen platforms such as YouTube add more ads than ever before, it wouldn’t exactly come as a surprise if Disney were to follow suit. It wouldn’t be a dealbreaker, but I remain wary all the same. 

For now, though, I’m happy with my tier choice, mainly because it works for me and my viewing preferences. I’m okay with seeing adverts for the sake of saving precious pounds every month, and while it can be irritating being exposed to the same pitches and campaigns every day, it’s a small price to pay for what is still a decent saving on a very fine streaming service. It’s sacrilege to say, but I simply don’t have the tech at my disposal to make use of the Premium tier’s myriad advantages anyway, so I hardly miss the prospect of UHD viewing or Dolby Atmos capabilities. If I were rocking the best 65-inch TV money could buy and some surround speakers to match, things might be different. 

In the end, it’s all about choosing what’s right for you. If you go big with your entertainment and want to get the most out of it, go Premium. If you're torn between saving money and not seeing commercials, consider exactly what, how and when you use your Disney subscription. What matters is that the option exists and, in its current state, doesn't detract from the basic Disney experience enough to make it into a false economy. That, to my mind at least, is a win for the cost-conscious consumer.

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Read our five-star Disney Plus review 

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I might be late to the party – but this Apple TV 4K setting is a hidden gem

We've paired the best tablet and wireless headphones for the perfect portable cinema experience

If you're on the hunt for a new TV, you've likely come across countless Mini LED TVs. These backlit models are the latest advancement of LCD TVs, and as the name suggests, said backlights are comprised of hundreds, or in many cases thousands, of miniature LEDs.

This technology has been billed as the alternative to OLED for quite some time now; however, there are some key distinctions to be aware of. First and foremost, Mini LED TVs are available at a much wider range of prices, with models reaching from the budget end of the scale, all the way up to the premium end to rival OLED competitors.

Mini LEDs also come in a much wider range of sizes. We're seeing TVs reaching up to 115 inches, and screen sizes only seem to be growing. These TVs are available at surprisingly affordable prices, too. Current OLEDs seem to be limited to 97 inches, and they cost a frightening amount at this size.

With varying sizes, prices and capabilities, it can be tricky to decipher which Mini LED you should spend your hard-earned cash on. Luckily for you, we've done the hard work already, as we've tested countless TVs and selected the very best models to feature here.

You'll find models from TCL, Sony and Samsung on this list, all of which have been tested by our team of expert product reviewers. You can click here to read more about how we test TVs, or you can simply scroll down to find the best Mini LED for your needs.

Best Mini LED TV overall

Mini LED has a track record for struggling in the premium end of the market, where OLED generally remains king thanks to its ability to produce perfect blacks.

But Mini LED has carved a strong presence in the mid-range market and the TCL C7K is a great example why, based on our testing.

Costing less than a grand, the TV clearly demonstrates how the tech improves on basic LCD/LED, without needing to stray into OLED pricing territory.

The 65-inch model we reviewed hit a perfect sweet spot in our hallowed performance-per-pound/dollar metric.

The Mini LED panel can go explosively bright, but is ably kept in line by the set’s solid light control powers, which take advantage of the panel’s 1008 independent dimming zones to let it retain contrast and detail in a way last year’s TCL sets couldn’t.

The end result is a fantastic-value Mini LED that will delight most movie fans. Hence our reviewers’ glowing verdict:

“The excellent subtlety of the C7K’s light and colour handling helps it deliver impressive sharpness with native 4K sources, while the latest AiPQ processor also upscales HD sources to the screen’s 4K pixel count very handily, adding sharpness and density without exaggerating noise or creating significant unwanted processing side effects.”

In fact we only have two minor words of caution. First, that it only has two full-speed HDMI 2.1 inputs. So if you’re a gamer with multiple current-generation consoles and a Dolby Atmos soundbars, be prepared for some cable swapping if you want to run them at full speed. Current consoles need an HDMI 2.1 input to run in 4K/120Hz.

Second, the soundbar part is important as, based on our testing, the C7K’s speakers are distinctly middling. Though they’re fine for casual viewing, they lack the coherence and directionality required to do any good movie justice.

Read our full TCL C7K (65C7K) review

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Best high-end Mini LED TV

Sony went all-in on Mini LED with its 2024 TV line-up and, at its best, the Bravia 9 is sensational. The problem is that it’s not at its best all of the time.

Sony is targeting movie lovers with the Bravia 9, leaning heavily on its experience in the editing booths of Hollywood, and the influence is clear when you watch a movie such as Top Gun: Maverick or Oppenheimer. Colours are well balanced, blacks are very good by backlit TV standards, and there’s not a hint of judder.

When this TV is behaving it’s a stunner, but a distracting bug that affects the local dimming and some small compromises with every picture mode mean that the performance is just a little too inconsistent to be considered great. Fortunately, these are issues that should be solvable through software updates and we understand that Sony is working on these.

Things are much better when it comes to audio. Unlike Sony’s recent OLEDs, which vibrate the entire screen to generate sound, the Bravia 9’s display is surrounded by speakers, with 70W of power to push them.

The result is a TV that sounds noticeably better than most, with height speakers that improve the sense of space and give the sound a solid sense of direction. The bass still lacks a little weight, though, so while it’s a cut above the norm, it would still benefit from the addition of one of the best soundbars.

From a connectivity perspective you’re only served with two HDMI 2.1 sockets that support 4K/120Hz gaming and VRR, with one doubling as the eARC for your aforementioned soundbar, so keen gamers may want to look elsewhere.

The other two HDMIs max out at 4K/60Hz, but all of them support ALLM. When it comes to wireless connections, you get wi-fi, which includes Apple AirPlay, Apple HomeKit and Google Chromecast, plus Bluetooth 5.3 and LE.

It all adds up to make the Bravia 9 a somewhat frustrating TV. At its full potential, though, it’s brilliant, so if Sony can fix those issues it’ll be one of the best around.

Read the full Sony Bravia 9 review

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Best mid-range

The Bravia 7 is another great example why Mini LED is carving such a strong presence in the mid-range market.

The 55-inch model we reviewed doesn’t feature a lot of the headline, cutting-edge tech seen on the much more expensive Bravia 9. And yes, it has less dimming zones, but it still managed to impress our reviewers during testing and features some hardware you won’t find on any non-Sony rival.

The biggest is its Sony XR Backlight Master Drive panel tech which pairs with the Mini LED panel and Quantum Dot colour system to deliver one of the most consistent and balanced performances we’ve enjoyed on a Mini LED this price.

Regardless of which test disc we threw at the Bravia 7, it delivered outstanding levels of colour and contrast and impressively clean and convincing backlight control powers.

As we said in our Bravia 7 review: “While not feeling quite as explosive and ‘next-gen’ as the Bravia 9, the Bravia 7’s images are actually a little more consistent, resulting in as good a mid-range LCD TV as we’re likely to see this year.”

As an added perk, while we’d still recommend pairing it with a soundbar for the best results, its use of Sony’s proprietary Acoustic Multi-Audio sound system – which pumps 40W of power into a four-speaker system comprising two full-range bass reflex drivers and two tweeters – is one of the better sounding inbuilt solutions we’ve heard.

Our only big word of caution is that, like many of the sets we test, it only has two HDMI 2.1 inputs, which will be an issue for gamers with multiple current generation consoles.

Read our full Sony Bravia 7 review

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Best cheap

The TCL C6KS isn’t just the main budget recommendation on this list, it’s also the best cheap TV we recommend holistically right now.

Is it perfect? No, during testing we noticed some issues with its motion handling, which over-smoothes some movements, especially when playing movies.

It also is the only set on this list that doesn’t have any HDMI 2.1 inputs, which means gamers will only be able to run games at 4K/60Hz, even if their console or PC can run at higher frame rates.

But, trust us when we say that you won’t find a better-looking set at the C6KS’ price, based on our experience reviewing the 50-inch model.

The use of Mini LED, at all, is a rarity on a set this price, with its direct rival, the 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED, missing it.

And during our checks, Mini LED let the C6KS not only go brighter than its rival, but also concurrently offer much better contrast thanks to its surprisingly capable handling of dark scenes.

This led our reviewers to report:

“The 50C6KS’s colours retain better saturations during very dark shots than we would expect to see with a TV at this level, while colour volumes (the combination of saturation and brightness) leave the vast majority of similarly priced TVs looking murky and flat by comparison. That vibrancy does not come at the expense of subtlety, either.”

This all adds up to make it an easy recommendation, despite its flaws.

Read our full TCL C6KS (50C6KS-UK) review

Best Mini LED TV for gaming

Samsung has already made a name for itself in the Mini LED TV world, and it's also synonymous with excellent gaming features, too, so it makes sense to name the five-star QN90F as our top Mini LED TV for gaming.

The Korean tech giant's top-of-the-range Neo QLED for 2025 wowed us, offering a bright yet balanced and refined picture that is equally suited to movie and gaming content.

We commended its superb backlight control and the well-tuned Filmmaker mode and standard picture mode. The former will, of course, deliver the more authentic-looking image, but the latter is still a solid choice for those who crave extra vibrancy and saturation thanks to its ability to deliver bold colours with excellent tonal variation without looking cartoonish.

With support for HDR10, HLG and HDR10+, as well as Dolby Atmos via HDMI eARC, the QN90F is a well-equipped TV for cinephiles; however, its four full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 sockets, which support up to 4K/165Hz signals with VRR and ALLM, establish it as an even better choice for gamers.

Pair that with native cloud gaming support from the likes of Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce Now, and Amazon Luna, which allows users to pair a Bluetooth gamepad directly to their TV to play games over the internet, and you don't even have to own a console to enjoy the QN90F's gaming credentials.

Serious gamers will, of course, stick to a PS5, Xbox Series X, or gaming PC, and they will appreciate the comprehensive built-in game bar system, which gives you quick access to crucial information (including frames per second) and settings without having to pause.

With all of that in mind, it becomes obvious as to why the Samsung QN90F is our top pick for gamers.

Read our full Samsung QN90F (QE65QN90F) review

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Also consider

TCL C8K: If you want something a little more premium, with a smidgeon more brightness and connectivity than the C7K, but you don’t want to spend Bravia 9 money, then we’d strongly recommend checking out TCL’s flagship C8K OLED.

Sony Bravia 5: Sony's mid-range Mini LED is another five-star option, sitting just below the Bravia 7 on this list. It offers a lot of performance for the money, including excellent backlight control and vibrant but still natural and nuanced colours.

Hisense U7Q Pro: Hisense is a big name in the Mini LED TV game, and the U7Q represents the sweet spot in our mind. It offers impressive black levels, great sound and support for both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ at a price that undercuts the Sony and Samsung models on this list. We did find a couple of picture inconsistencies during our testing, but we still think that it's worthwhile considering.

TCL 98Q9BK: In the market for a massive Mini LED that doesn't break the bank? TCL's huge 98-inch Q9BK is a relative bargain considering it costs less than some of the considerably smaller TVs on this list. We approved of its brightness, contrast and colours in our review, though the backlight can introduce haziness and the brightness can leave darker scenes looking overbrightened.

Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED 55-inch: We found that Amazon's previous Omni QLED TV varied pretty drastically in performance depending on the screen size; for example, the 50-inch model bagged itself five stars, while the 43-inch version only managed to score three stars. Thankfully, both versions of the Mini LED successor to the Omni QLED that we've reviewed appear to be more consistent, with this smaller 55-inch version exhibiting many of the same benefits of its larger 65-inch sibling that features on this list.

How to choose the best Mini LED TV for you

After settling on how much you have to spend and how much space you have to fill, which only you can decide (although we have something to help with the latter here), we would normally advise you on the pros and cons of each panel type, but as you have found your way to the Mini LED page we’ll assume you’ve already made that decision. In short, it tends to deliver the brightest and most vibrant pictures.

A lot of people plug third-party boxes into their TVs to handle all the streaming apps that so many of us now rely on for our entertainment, but if you just plan to use whatever the TV’s operating system provides, make sure it has all the apps you want.

If one of those boxes you plan to plug in is a current-gen games console or gaming PC, it’s also worth checking that the TV in question supports all the latest gaming features, otherwise your games won’t look their very best. What you’re looking for here is 4K/120Hz, VRR and ALLM, which require higher-bandwidth HDMI sockets. If gaming is your top priority, you’re probably better off perusing our best gaming TVs guide.

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that the majority of TVs you can buy today are much better to look at than they are to listen to. If you plan to add a soundbar or speaker system to your new TV there’s no real need to worry about its audio performance, which is why we always advise people to take that into consideration when budgeting, but if that’s not an option for you it’s vital to take sound into consideration. There’s nothing worse than having a brilliant picture spoiled by a flat, weedy audio experience.

How we test Mini LED TVs

Testing a new Mini LED TV is a time-consuming and involved process that requires long hours in one of our test rooms, thoroughly examining every aspect of a TV’s performance.

That mostly involves feeding it a variety of sources, from 4K Blu-rays and Ultra HD streams to standard-def DVDs, and comparing all aspects of its performance to that of one of our reference models using an HDMI splitter.

As well as fully evaluating picture and sound quality, we will also check that each streaming service is fully supported by the television. All major apps will output both audio and video in certain formats, including the various HDR and audio codecs, so we actively check each one to ensure that it’s performing as advertised.

Every TV arrives with its default factory settings in place, but we never assume that it can’t be improved by some judicious tweaking in the menus. While we don’t go as far as getting a sample professionally calibrated (that shouldn’t be necessary for us or you) we will spend many hours adjusting the settings and changing the picture modes until we’re satisfied we’ve seen the best a TV has to offer.

When it comes to gaming performance, input lag is tested using a Leo Bodnar device, while each individual HDMI socket will be tested to determine which ones (if any) support today’s more advanced gaming features, such as 4K/120Hz, VRR, ALLM and HGiG.

We also dedicate plenty of time to testing the sound quality of every Mini LED TV. That includes everything from the clarity, tonal balance and detail to spaciousness and dynamics, although it’s almost unheard of for any television to perform well enough from a sonic perspective that we wouldn’t recommend adding one of the best soundbars or, if space and budget allow, a dedicated AV amplifier and speaker package.

All of our TV testing takes place in state-of-the-art testing facilities in the UK, by an expert team that has decades of combined experience in the industry, so you can be sure that our reviews are fair and consistent. When you choose a product from one of our buying guides you can be confident that you’re getting something we would be happy to spend our own money on.

Mini LED TV FAQ

Useful links

• Looking for a bargain? Here are the best cheap TVs
• Hardcore gamer? These are the very best gaming TVs
• Need a certain size? We've rounded-up the best 55-inch TVs
• Need something bigger? What about the best 65-inch TVs
• Want a future-proof TV? Here are the best 8K TVs

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If you’re shopping for a fancy new OLED there’s plenty to get excited about right now. Specifically, that we've seen huge savings appear on three five-star OLED TVs in rapid succession.

This started when we spotted huge savings on the five star LG C4 and cutting edge LG G4. Deals first started appearing on both during Prime Day in July, but things escalated earlier this month, when both the C4 and G4 dropped to their lowest prices ever.

This meant you could grab the 42-inch model of the LG C4 OLED TV for £879, a healthy £529 saving on its regular £1399 price. Above it, the flagship 55-inch LG G4 – which our reviewers still describe as the best premium option available in our best OLED TV guide – dropped to sell for £1699 at Richer Sounds. That is a £700 saving on its normal price and the best we’ve ever seen it sell for to date.

Not content to just dethrone the LG C4 as our recommendation to most people after we finished reviewing it earlier in September, Sony then got in on the action with its Bravia 8. Amazon slashed the price of every size of the OLED, but we were particularly shocked to see the 55-inch Bravia 8 sell for £1619, a £580 saving on the £2199 it normally costs.

As a final nail in the coffin, Philips decided to get involved, with Richer Sounds slashing the price of every size of the firm’s OLED809 – which also happened to score a perfect five stars when we tested it. Here, the premier deal lets you pre-order the 77-inch Philips OLED809 for £2199. That’s a £1050 saving on its £3249 RRP and the cheapest price we’ve seen on any 77-inch step-down OLED that has launched this year.

Prices have since gone up on all three sets, but the early cuts are still weird. Why is that weird? Because we’ve not seen new OLED TVs launched this year get such hefty price drops this early in their lifecycle before. Normally the best deals would target the older OLEDs from last year, as retailers rush to clear stock. I even penned an opinion piece in 2023 explaining this is a key reason why we tend to take a while before recommending new OLED TVs over their predecessors.

So if you a new OLED TV right now, you’re probably feeling pretty great and for good reasons – trust me, having seen every one of the three TVs mentioned above, I can confirm you’ll likely be happy with any of them, especially if you’re coming off an ageing Plasma, LCD or early OLED.

But, for those that can, I’d strongly suggest waiting a little longer before pulling the trigger for one key reason – Black Friday is fast approaching. 

Black Friday used to be a key shopping event that started in the US and happened on the last Friday of November, just after Thanksgiving. But it has recently grown to cover pretty much all of November and become an international phenomenon. It is also no longer limited to Amazon, with a number of big name specialist hi-fi and home cinema retailers also getting in on the action in recent years.

The event usually brings with it a number of excellent OLED TV deals as a result. Last year these included the first solid deals on the then flagship LG C3 whose 42-inch size dropped to sell for £899 during the event.

With the C4 already having crossed that price threshold, I can't help but wonder how much further it will drop during Black Friday and I think, and hope, that the best OLED TV deals are yet to come. 

MORE: 

These are the best TVs we've tested

We rate the best gaming TVs

Our picks of the best 65-inch TVs

Apple has launched the latest version of tvOS; the smart platform that powers the Award-winning Apple TV 4K streamer. It released the update yesterday evening alongside iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 for the iPhone and iPad respectively, as well as updates to its Apple Watch, Mac and Vision Pro devices. 

The new software release brings some handy features to the streamer, including the new InSight for Apple TV+ function that allows you to pull up information regarding the actors and title you're watching providing it is Apple Original content. It's similar to Amazon Prime Video's X-Ray feature, meaning it can even identify music playing in a scene, and in true Apple ecosystem fashion, you can then add that song to your Apple Music library.

Other features include automatic subtitles that appear when content is muted or if the dialogue is spoken in another language to your streamer's preferred setting and an improved Enhance Dialogue system which will allow you to 'Enhance', 'Boost' or 'Isolate' dialogue based on your preference. This feature can be found in the accessibility section of the settings menu and is compatible with TVs, HomePod, HDMI sound systems (soundbars and AVRs), and Bluetooth audio devices (including wireless speakers and AirPods). 

You can also set portrait screensavers, tweak the home screen user interface to show four apps per row instead of five and interact with a new on-device Siri assistant with enhanced privacy. AirPlay is also getting a spatial audio-themed upgrade, meaning you can wirelessly stream spatial audio from an iPad or iPhone to an Apple TV 4K, HomePod or supported wireless speaker for immersive audio. Personalised Spatial Audio with AirPods is also now supported for all Apple TV users (providing they have a pair of AirPods that support personalised spatial audio).  

While a handful of the announced features have made it to the final release version of tvOS 18, there are also some notable omissions. 21:9 aspect ratio support for home cinema projectors is missing in action, as is a collection of TV and Movie-themed screensavers – including an adorable animated screensaver of Snoopy. We anticipate these features will be added in a further software update within the next year.

The new version of tvOS is available across the full range of Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD streamers, though some features including enhanced dialogue and on-device Siri require at least a second-generation Apple TV 4K (2021). 

As for how to install this update, simply follow these steps to update your Apple TV 4K: navigate to the Settings app > click System > then click Software Updates > then select download and install, and wait for the update to complete. If you're looking to update your HomePod, then simply open the Home app on your iPhone or iPad > open Home Settings > then click Software Update. 

MORE:

Read our full Apple TV 4K review

Check out our picks for the best media streamer

Here is why we want Apple to make a Dolby Atmos soundbar