You're probably well aware of this, but England are playing Panama in the World Cup tomorrow, and it's now a much bigger game than it should have been, thanks to that tame no-score-draw with Ghana.

The good news is that this should also be a fun game, with at least a couple of goals for Tuchel's chaps.

If you're still using your TVs built-in speakers, though, you're still missing out on a fair bit of the fun that football can offer. The good news is that there's still time to rectify that.

I've scoured the Amazon Prime Day (and adjacent) sales to find a high-quality soundbar that you can have delivered tomorrow. Somewhat surprisingly, I can't find a model I recommend at Amazon with fast enough delivery.

But, thankfully, Currys has come up trumps with a full Dolby Atmos soundbar system that I tested and we gave a What Hi-Fi? Award to – and it can be delivered tomorrow.

Said system is the Hisense AX5125H, which comprises soundbar, a wireless subwoofer and two wireless surrounds for a record-equalling low price of just £199 at Currys.

Delivery tomorrow will cost you an extra £6.99, which seems very reasonable for the convenience, or you might find you can pick up from a local store for free.

At £199, the AX5125H isn't just a cheap way to improve your TV's sound – it's one of the very best-value Dolby Atmos packages we've tested.

Unlike most soundbars at this price, you get a complete 5.1.2-channel system in the box, with wireless surround speakers and a wireless subwoofer helping to create a much bigger, more immersive sound than your TV could ever hope to produce on its own.

During testing, we were particularly impressed by the Hisense's ability to project effects around the room. That makes it a brilliant choice for sport, where crowd noise, commentary and the atmosphere of the stadium all feel far more involving than they do through a TV's built-in speakers. If (when!) England find the back of the net against Panama, you'll feel much more like you're there to celebrate it.

It's not just for football, either. We found the AX5125H delivered an energetic, spacious and surprisingly cinematic performance with movies, while dialogue remains clear and easy to follow. Music playback is respectable, too, making this a genuinely versatile all-rounder rather than a one-trick pony.

No soundbar is perfect at this price, and there are more refined and dynamic systems available if you're prepared to spend considerably more. But at £199, the Hisense simply delivers too much performance to ignore.

That's why we gave it five stars, a What Hi-Fi? Award and, now that it's back down to its record-equalling lowest price, it's one of the easiest Prime Day alternatives I can recommend.

MORE:

Here are all of the best budget soundbars you can buy right now

Also in the market for a new telly? Here are all of the best TVs

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

Look, not everyone has enough money to spend $1099 on the Sonos Arc Ultra. But don't let that stop you buying another one of our best Dolby Atmos soundbars.

Right now, the five-star, What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Sonos Beam (Gen 2) has had its price slashed down to just $369 at Amazon. That’s a saving of $80 on the launch price and almost a third of the price of the Arc Ultra.

If the idea of warm, refined sound, streaming smarts and effective handling of Dolby Atmos is getting your audio juices flowing, take a look at this deal.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) has been around for a while now (since October 2021, to be exact) so it’s not surprising to see a discount. But what you should know is that it’s still a wildly impressive soundbar, despite its age.

When the Gen 2 first launched, it impressed us by taking everything the original Beam had to offer, then adding genuinely convincing Dolby Atmos without changing the overall design or adding dedicated upward-firing drivers.

And it has continued to impress us, taking a What Hi-Fi? Award in 2025 as the best Dolby Atmos soundbar in its size and price categories.

The Gen 2 uses clever processing using psychoacoustic HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology to deliver a sense of height using two of the unit's five front-facing drivers.

So, if space and budget are limited, this is an affordable, all-in-one device of rare ability.

While Sonos has released the Sonos Ray and the Sonos Arc Ultra since, the Ray doesn't support Dolby Atmos, meaning the Beam Gen 2 is still the entry-level option if you want a Sonos with immersive 3D audio.

The Dolby Atmos is really the headline feature for the Beam Gen 2. It handles the format better than any similarly priced soundbar, producing spacious sound with good tracking of audio objects.

This being a Sonos product, you also get the ability to build a wireless multi-room system. You’ll need the (free) Sonos S2 app to get the most out of your purchase, and this also comes with access to Trueplay room calibration technology and a two-band EQ.

There is Wi-Fi onboard, though, which means you can also stream to the Beam Gen 2 from a handheld device using Apple AirPlay 2; Spotify Connect is built-in too.

Support for Amazon Music Ultra HD audio (for both the Beam Gen 2 and other Sonos models) is also now available and gives access to lossless 24-bit/48kHz tracks as well as Dolby Atmos Music.

For audio formats, the Beam Gen 2 supports stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos (both the Digital+ and TrueHD versions), multichannel PCM and Dolby Multichannel PCM.

Decoding for DTS digital surround has now been added to this and other Sonos products, although this doesn't extend to DTS:X.

In terms of sound, during testing, we paired the Beam Gen 2 with TVs ranging from 43 inches to 65 inches and confirmed that “it enhances the cinematic scale and viewing experience”.

As we say in our review verdict: “The Beam Gen 2 not only lives up to the high bar set by its predecessor but exceeds it by a margin that more than justifies its new feature set and higher cost.”

And it’s a higher cost no more, thanks to a whopping $80 off at Amazon.

MORE:

Read our full Sonos Beam Gen 2 review

And check out the best budget soundbars

As well as our list of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

The FIFA World Cup is fast approaching, which means the countdown is on to get a shiny new TV before Mexico takes on South Africa on 11th June.

With 48 teams competing, it's set to be the biggest World Cup yet – which surely demands to be seen on the biggest TV possible.

Luckily, big sporting events tend to generate great deals on TVs, and it's coinciding with last year's models starting to see some significant discounts.

This means there are plenty of decent-sized TVs available without breaking the bank, all of which would be great for a World Cup watch, either for their motion processing, explosive colours, wide viewing angles or sheer size.

Take a look below, and we'll explain why we're such big fans of these TVs underneath.

The TCL C6KS is our favourite budget TV, offering Mini LED lighting, 160 dimming zones, and universal HDR support for a single low price. It was already a bargain at its £419 launch price – the code CLEARANCE10 can now get you the even lower price of £314.

The Sharp GK4245K is a 70-inch TV for £440. If that wasn't enough to convince you, the GK4245K is also a good TV despite its low price, with an excellent Tivo smart system and picture quality that has no business appearing on such an affordable home cinema-sized TV.

The Amazon Ember QLED is a somewhat confusing rebrand of the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED, which we gave a glowing review to recently. Whatever the name, the e-commerce giant has delivered another compelling, affordable sound system, with a crisp, detailed picture on offer with minimal fuss.

If you can up your budget a little, the TCL C7K is our favourite budget large TV – so much so that we gave it a What Hi-Fi? Award. With the 65-inch model boasting 1008 dimming zones, Quantum Dot colours, and a claimed peak brightness of 2600 nits, these are flagship specs at budget prices. A great choice to watch nail-biting matches in explosive brightness, contrast and colour.

The 55-inch LG C5 is a tad more expensive than the others on this list, but it is also an OLED to give your World Cup matches incredible contrast and wider viewing angles. The LG C5 offers a rich, solid and engaging picture that balances vibrancy and authenticity, and is now available with some heavy discounts now that the LG C6 is available.

If you want to go really big, the 85-inch TCL C805K is a great option if your budget can stretch. It's bright, great with HDR and has very good gaming specs. Oh, and did we mention it's huge? It's ridiculously good value for cinematic scale.

MORE:

Fancy a big screen? Check out the best 65-inch TVs

Discover the benefits of Dolby Vision

Classy OLED TVs that won't break the bank

If space and budget are limited in your hunt for one of the best soundbars on the market, there's one Dolby Atmos soundbar that we love to recommend – and right now, it's down to an excellent price.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) can be yours for just £349 at Amazon, a lovely £100 saving on both the Black and White models.

It's not quite the cheapest we've ever seen it, dropping to just £329 back in January, but it's the best deal we've seen in a while.

And you'll have to be quick, Amazon has this down as a limited-time deal, which means it won't be hanging around for long.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) may be considered an older pick, launching in October 2021, but it's still one we absolutely love to recommend.

It takes everything that the original Beam had to offer, but adds in genuinely convincing Dolby Atmos without changing the overall design or adding dedicated upward-firing drivers.

And it's all done through clever processing using psychoacoustic HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology to deliver a sense of height using two of the unit's five front-facing drivers.

Years on from launch, the Gen 2 remains the best Dolby Atmos soundbar in its size and price categories, holding pride of place amongst the best soundbars we've ever tested.

While Sonos has released the Sonos Ray and the Sonos Arc Ultra since, the Ray doesn't support Dolby Atmos, meaning the Gen 2 is still your entry-level pick if you want a Sonos with immersive 3D audio that won't cost you too much.

And it's the Dolby Atmos that is really the headline feature here, handling the format better than any similarly priced soundbar, producing spacious sound with good tracking of audio objects.

This being a Sonos product, you also get the ability to build a wireless multi-room system. You'll need the (free) Sonos S2 app to get the most out of your purchase, and this also comes with access to Trueplay room calibration technology and a two-band EQ.

On top of that, there's Wi-Fi, which means you can also stream to the Gen 2 from a handheld device using Apple AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect is built in too. It even now supports hi-res 24-bit/48kHz 'Ultra HD' tracks from Amazon Music.

For audio formats, the Beam Gen 2 supports stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos (both the Digital+ and TrueHD versions), multichannel PCM and Dolby Multichannel PCM.

Decoding for DTS digital surround has now been added to this and other Sonos products, but this unfortunately doesn't extend to DTS:X.

In terms of sound, during testing, we paired the Beam Gen 2 with TVs ranging from 43 inches to 65 inches, and confirmed that "it enhances the cinematic scale and viewing experience", urging you not to discount this little soundbar if you've got a big TV.

And our expert testers said: "The Beam Gen 2 not only lives up to the high bar set by its predecessor but exceeds it by a margin that more than justifies its new feature set and higher cost."

Ultimately, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is the bar for you if you're looking for a small, affordable soundbar that can deliver convincing Dolby Atmos. And right now, it's even cheaper, dropping to just £349 at Amazon for a limited time.

MORE:

Read our full Sonos Beam Gen 2 review

And check out the best budget soundbars

As well as our list of the best Dolby Atmos 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

The Amazon Spring Sale might not start until March 25th, but that hasn't stopped the retailer from dropping some early spring deals. And, if you're in the market for a five-star soundbar right now, you should listen to this.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) has crashed to just $369 at Amazon, which is a massive $80 saving on its original launch price. Even better news, you can grab it in both the Black and White model with the same discount.

So, secure a great deal on one of the best budget soundbars on the market right now and boost your TV's audio without spending loads of cash.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) may have entered its fifth year on the market, but it's still a wildly impressive soundbar, despite its age, and one we're happy to recommend.

When the Gen 2 first launched, it impressed us by taking everything the original Beam had to offer, but adding in genuinely convincing Dolby Atmos without changing the overall design or adding dedicated upward-firing drivers.

And it's continued to impress us, taking a What Hi-Fi? Award in 2025 for remaining the best Dolby Atmos soundbar in its size and price categories and the overall top spot amongst the best budget soundbars we've ever tested.

Delivering Dolby Atmos from a small chassis is no mean feat and the Beam Gen 2 achieves a convincing, immersive performance without so much as a vertical speaker in sight.

With its hefty processing power, the Beam Gen 2 uses psychoacoustic HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology to give the impression of height without needing to get vertical. So, if budget and space is limited, this is an excellent option.

While Sonos has since released the Sonos Ray and the Sonos Arc Ultra, the Ray doesn't support Dolby Atmos, meaning the Beam Gen 2 is still your entry-level position if you want a Sonos with immersive 3D audio but without the expensive price tag.

Not that many soundbars at this price point also come with networking capabilities, but this being a Sonos product, the Beam Gen 2's ability to be integrated into a wireless multi-room system is mighty impressive. You'll need the (free) Sonos S2 app to get the most out of your purchase, and this also comes with access to Trueplay room calibration technology and a two-band EQ.

There's wi-fi onboard though, which means you can also stream to the Beam Gen 2 from a handheld device using Apple AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect is built-in too.

Support for Amazon Music Ultra HD audio (for both the Beam Gen 2 and other Sonos models) is also now available and gives access to lossless 24-bit/48kHz tracks as well as Dolby Atmos Music.

For audio formats, the Beam Gen 2 supports stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos (both the Digital+ and TrueHD versions), multichannel PCM and Dolby Multichannel PCM.

Decoding for DTS digital surround has now been added to this and other Sonos products but this unfortunately doesn't extend to DTS:X. An upgrade has added support for Amazon Music Ultra HD audio, giving access to lossless 24-bit/48kHz tracks as well as Dolby Atmos Music.

In terms of sound, during testing we paired the Beam Gen 2 with TVs ranging from 43 inches to 65 inches, and confirmed that "it enhances the cinematic scale and viewing experience".

And ultimately, our expert testers reached this verdict: "The Beam Gen 2 not only lives up to the high bar set by its predecessor but exceeds it by a margin that more than justifies its new feature set and higher cost."

Fortunately, you can save yourself $80 off that original cost with this early spring deal making it just $369 at Amazon.

MORE:

Read our full Sonos Beam Gen 2 review

And check out the best budget soundbars

As well as our list of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

The best streaming devices turn 'dumb' TVs into smart sets. We've also found that they greatly improve the picture and sound compared to the built-in apps on smart TVs.

But with dozens of options available, which should you get? Well, if it's 4K resolution, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos that you're after, then I'd recommend the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K (2nd gen).

I'll double down on that recommendation now that Amazon has slashed the price to just $29.99. That's a $20 saving on the list price.

Despite not having reviewed this exact model, we are big fans of its predecessor. So much so that we rated it five stars and gave it a What Hi-Fi? Award.

Best deal on the Amazon Fire TV Stick (2nd gen)

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 the unit 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 (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.

The Fire TV Stick 4K is 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 of its Google rival, this will probably be an easy decision for many.

You can pick it up for $29.99 at Amazon.

MORE:

The best streaming devices around

Which Amazon Fire TV Stick should you buy in 2026?

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

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.

MORE:

Here are the best TVs you can buy right now

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

If you’ve decided to snap up one of the best Mini LED TVs (rather than, say, one of the best OLED TVs), chances are you’ve already got TCL and Amazon on your radar.

With that in mind, we’re comparing two 65-inch models against each other – the TCL C7K, and the Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED – to see which one deserves your money.

Having thoroughly reviewed both models, you can rest assured that everything is covered in detail to help make your buying decision easier.

TCL C7K vs Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED: price

The 65-inch TCL C7K launched at £1399 / $1500 / AU$2295. It's much cheaper now, though, coming in at £849 / $1000 / AU$1495.

The 65-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED is officially priced at £1150 / $1090 (it's not available in Australia), but it's frequently available for less.

At the time of writing, it's £900 / $960, but we have seen it drop as low as £790 / $895 during Amazon sales events such as Prime Day and Black Friday.

Given that the TCL C7K is cheaper right now but that the Omni Mini LED might well be cheaper at the time you're reading this, we're going to call this round a draw.

** Winner: draw **

TCL C7K vs Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED: design and build

The TCL C7K has a slick, premium aesthetic that belies its accessible price point.

The screen sits within a narrow brushed-metal trim that gives way to a slimmer black rear section, creating an attractive profile that's particularly well-suited to wall mounting.

If you're not going down the wall-mounting route, the central metal desktop mounting plate attaches via a wide-neck arrangement with a detachable cover for cable management, keeping things tidy.

Build quality feels robust throughout, with none of the budget compromises you might expect at this price.

The elongated black remote control rocks a brushed metal-style finish (though it's actually plastic) and feels comfortable in hand. Buttons are numerous but sensibly spaced, with direct access shortcuts for Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, TCL Channels, and Disney+.

The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED takes a more utilitarian approach.

This is a fairly chunky television, with its thickness accommodating a built-in rear-firing subwoofer and slightly curved back panel.

While it won't sit flush when wall-mounted, the TV presents a discreet appearance with reasonably slim bezels and an unassuming finish that should blend into most living spaces. Side-facing inputs are recessed far enough to prevent cables from awkwardly jutting out.

However, the Omni Mini-LED's twin-foot stand proves restrictive. The feet slot easily into the TV's bottom edge and lock with screws, but unlike rival Sony sets with similar designs, they offer only one configuration – positioned at the furthest edges of the left and right bottom.

This means the TV won't comfortably fit on narrower furniture, with no central mounting option available to bring the feet closer together.

Both sets succeed within their design briefs, though the TCL's more refined aesthetics, slimmer profile, and superior cable management give it the edge for most homes.

** Winner: TCL C7K **

TCL C7K vs Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED: features

The TCL C7K runs on Google TV, providing comprehensive streaming app access.

TCL's implementation includes all UK terrestrial broadcaster catch-up TV services – something standard Google TV systems typically omit.

It's a pity there's no support for Freeview Play or Freely, but the key individual apps are present. Google Assistant voice control is supported, alongside Apple AirPlay and Chromecast for easy streaming from your phone.

HDR support proves comprehensive too, covering all four key formats: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+.

The TV even supports the adaptive versions of Dolby Vision and HDR10+ that adjust picture presentation based on ambient room conditions, and the Dolby Vision support extends to a low-latency game mode.

Gaming credentials further impress for the price. The C7K supports 4K at frame rates up to 144Hz, with that figure remarkably jumping to 288Hz at Full HD resolution, thanks to TCL's Game Accelerator technology.

VRR works right up to 288Hz, too, with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support alongside the core HDMI VRR system. The screen automatically switches to its fast-response Game mode when detecting game sources, rendering 60Hz graphics in just 13.2ms.

A dedicated Game Bar appears when game sources are detected, allowing you to monitor incoming signals and activate aids such as onscreen crosshairs, dark area brightening, and super-wide aspect ratio support for select PC titles.

Connectivity includes four HDMIs (though disappointingly only two support full 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 bandwidth), a single USB port, optical digital audio output, ethernet, and wi-fi/Bluetooth 5.4. One of the gaming-friendly HDMI 2.1 sockets doubles as the eARC connection for soundbar/AVR audio, which feels slightly limiting.

The new Bang & Olufsen sound system replaces TCL's previous Onkyo collaboration, with new high-fidelity speaker designs fed by 60W and capable of handling both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks.

The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED matches the TCL's gaming specifications almost exactly, offering 4K/144Hz via Gaming Mode (with other presets running at 4K/120Hz), plus VRR and ALLM support.

Like the TCL, it provides four HDMI inputs, but (also like the TCL) just two are full 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 sockets, and one of those doubles as the eARC.

Fire OS delivers excellent application support, with Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Prime Video, Now, and TNT Sports all present and running at correct resolutions.

HDR support matches the TCL's comprehensiveness, covering HLG, HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision, with the adaptive Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive variants using an ambient light sensor to optimise performance based on the environment.

While Fire OS includes numerous advertisements throughout the interface, navigation remains straightforward, and the voice control is effective. UK and local catch-up services are present and functional.

The built-in 2.1 sound system carries Dolby Atmos certification, with the integrated subwoofer providing additional low-end presence compared with standard TV speakers.

Both sets deliver strong feature packages with near-identical gaming credentials and comprehensive HDR support, so we're calling this round a draw.

** Winner: draw **

TCL C7K vs Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED: picture quality

The TCL C7K makes an immediate impact. With 1008 dimming zones and a claimed 2600 nits of peak brightness, it delivers an explosive HDR performance that punches well above its price bracket.

The brightness and contrast prove superb, with deep blacks maintaining their intensity against brilliant highlights.

The sheer punch and vibrancy can be breathtaking, particularly in the Standard preset, where colours look radiantly beautiful – combining vivid intensity with exceptional tonal subtlety.

Crucially, the C7K maintains this impressive contrast even in mixed-brightness scenes, delivering bright highlights against dark backdrops without distracting halos or significant dimming compromises.

Shadow detail reproduction proves excellent, too, actually surpassing some more expensive models in revealing information in dark areas without excessive brightness. The backlight system operates with remarkable consistency, avoiding noticeable brightness fluctuations during scene transitions.

The Filmmaker Mode delivers pictures that follow established HDR and SDR standards impressively closely, too, without looking drab or washed out – a common pitfall for LCD TVs with less accomplished native screen talents.

Colour accuracy across a huge spectrum looks impeccable, with every tone balanced beautifully against the rest.

The latest AIPQ Pro processor also upscales HD sources to 4K very handily, adding sharpness and density without exaggerating noise, while motion handling at 24fps suffers pleasingly little judder or resolution loss.

Minor niggles include a small yellowish patch that occasionally appears below the middle of the top black bar with wide aspect ratio films (we believe this is a flaw specific to our review sample), and, occasionally, too much detail is revealed in dark areas, showing faint traces of noise alongside correct shading information.

But these prove minor distractions in an otherwise outstanding performance.

The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED takes a more conservative approach.

Its 768 dimming zones and quoted 1400 nits peak brightness deliver solid results, representing clear improvements over basic LCD sets, but we're not talking about TCL C7K levels of dynamism.

Testing with Barbie reveals the TV's strengths and limitations.

In Standard mode, the image looks overly pushed – too cartoony with contrast and colours amped beyond what's natural, leading to lost detail.

Filmmaker Mode swings too far in the opposite direction, appearing flat and subdued with disabled manual controls.

The Movie Bright preset proves most successful, where careful adjustment (Local Dimming on High, Colour Temperature to Warm 2, Motion Handling reduced to one, Intelligent HDR enabled) unlocks more balanced results.

With Dune: Part 2, the Omni Mini-LED's desertscapes hold decent detail, with each sand grain remaining distinct. The TV takes a commendably balanced approach to tuning, retaining dark detail in the spice mining vehicle that some competitors crush into blackness. This focus on not over-cooking contrast proves admirable at this price point.

However, peak brightness falls noticeably short of rivals.

Against the TCL C7K, reds in explosions don't burn quite as intensely. Testing with Pan – a challenging 4000 nits mastered disc – reveals the limitation clearly, with the Fire TV Mini-LED showing a burning sunset as pure white, where competitors retain detail in red and orange hues.

The Blade Runner 2049 opening text shows noticeable blooming around white letters on black backgrounds, though the set soon recovers to deliver respectable performance for its price.

Black levels, while good for an LED TV in this bracket, can't match the TCL's depth. Skin tones occasionally appear washed out in very dark scenes, too, with reds looking underrepresented. The yellow of Georgie's raincoat in It doesn't separate from the grey background as convincingly as it should.

The Omni Mini-LED's upscaling of the standard-definition True Grit proves solid, with the grainy, spaghetti western aesthetic preserved convincingly and the opening lantern scene looking authentic with no aberrations.

Despite delivering a competent performance with admirable backlight consistency – avoiding the rapid brightness shifts that plague many budget Mini LEDs – the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED simply can't match the TCL's explosive contrast, superior brightness, more accomplished colour reproduction, and greater overall refinement.

The TCL delivers a picture quality that feels at least a class above, making it exceptional value.

** Winner: TCL C7K **

TCL C7K vs Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED: sound

The TCL C7K's new Bang & Olufsen sound system represents a clear step forward from previous TCL audio efforts.

The speakers deliver extremely clean and prolific detailing with good film soundtrack mixes, hitting trebles that other TVs struggle to reach without sounding harsh or whiny.

The midrange presents plenty of room for soundtracks to ebb and flow, while vocals sound well-rounded and reasonably contextual.

However, the system leans heavily towards the higher frequency spectrum. Bass doesn't reach as deep as trebles reach high, delivered with a touch too much politeness that results in a slightly treble-heavy presentation.

Background and ambient sound effects can also sometimes draw more attention than they should, while exceptionally dense soundtrack moments – such as the swelling score during the extreme eye close-up near the start of Blade Runner 2049 – sound slightly swallowed and condensed compared to more powerful systems.

Very deep and extended bass occasionally exhibits a little chuffing and buzzing interference.

Despite these limitations, the C7K's sound proves good overall for a TV in its price range, with that Bang & Olufsen influence evident in the clean detailing and extended treble response.

In contrast, the Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED's standard 2.1 Dolby Atmos-ready speaker arrangement delivers by-the-numbers performance for its price bracket.

Testing with Blade Runner 2049's bass-heavy synth soundtrack immediately reveals limitations, with distortion creeping in during the bassiest sections and a general lack of precision and heft.

The car chase in The Batman fares poorly, with roaring engines sounding more like muffled mopeds. The audio also remains distinctly central, failing to track the Batmobile's left-to-right movements convincingly.

Barbie's I'm Just Ken sequence proves more successful, with clear voices and some separation between frequency ranges, though the lack of vibrancy and dynamics means it can't do justice to heavy action scenes. Kenny Loggins also never quite enters the Danger Zone during the Top Gun: Maverick opening.

While serviceable for casual viewing, the Omni Mini-LED's audio proves the weaker element of an otherwise competent package.

Overall, the TCL C7K delivers a more accomplished audio performance, with its Bang & Olufsen system providing cleaner detailing, better frequency extension, and more room for soundtracks to breathe.

While neither set eliminates the case for external speakers, such as one of the best soundbars, the TCL is still superior.

** Winner: TCL C7K **

TCL C7K vs Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED: verdict

The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED is a solid entry point into the mid-range TV market.

It delivers clear improvements over basic LED sets, with its Mini LED backlighting providing decent black levels and respectable contrast.

The focus on balanced tuning that preserves dark detail proves commendable, while comprehensive app support and gaming credentials make it a versatile choice for mixed-use scenarios.

However, its conservative approach ultimately holds it back. Lower peak brightness compared with rivals, slightly washed-out colours in demanding scenes, a restrictive stand design, and mediocre built-in audio prevent it from truly standing out in an increasingly competitive mid-range market.

In contrast, the TCL C7K demonstrates what can be achieved when aggressive pricing meets genuinely next-level engineering.

Its explosive brightness and contrast, expansive Quantum Dot colour reproduction and excellent shadow detail reproduction deliver picture quality that feels at least a class above its price point.

The 1008-zone Mini LED backlight operates with remarkable consistency, while both Standard and Filmmaker modes prove highly effective for their respective purposes.

The Bang & Olufsen audio system, while not perfect, outperforms most built-in TV speakers at this price, and the comprehensive gaming support, including 4K/144Hz, extensive VRR options, and low input lag, will appeal to serious players. Google TV provides clean, advertisement-light navigation with excellent app support.

The TCL C7K delivers truly exceptional performance-per-pound. It earns five stars for picture quality versus the Fire TV's four, matched by superior sound and, overall, the TCL proves the superior choice for viewers seeking the most convincing performance at an accessible price

For those prioritising tight integration with Amazon's ecosystem and who don't demand the ultimate in brightness or contrast, the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED still offers appeal.

For everyone else seeking the best possible picture quality and value in a sub-£1000 65-inch Mini LED TV, the TCL C7K stands as the clear winner.

** Overall Winner: TCL C7K **

MORE

Read our TCL C7K (65C7K) review

Read our Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED (ML65F700) review

Best TVs: flagship OLEDs and affordable flatscreens tried and tested

It's the final week of the January sales, but it's safe to say they're going out with a bang.

Not content to let the discounts slowly peter out, retailers came back with a vengeance this week for a string of savings, including some of the best 65-inch TV deals we have seen in some time.

TVs were far from the only category seeing savings, though, and we have rounded up some of the best here.

This week we're seeing £700 off a huge five-star soundbar – the aptly named Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Max – ten per cent off the multi-Award-winning Denon D-M41DAB and a new lowest price for the 42-inch LG C5, meaning you can get an Award-winning OLED for only £719.

As ever, these are all products we have tested ourselves, so have the What Hi-Fi? seal of approval. We recommend only the best, and we have in-depth reviews on all these products detailing our thoughts.

Now, you'd better take a look at these deals before the January sales run out:

Amazon tends to reserve savings on its own streaming hardware for big annual sales events, such as Black Friday and its various Prime Days.

However, the online retail giant seems to be in good spirits for the start of 2026, as it has savings across its range of own-brand devices, including a Product of the Year-winning streamer that proved to deliver incredible bang for your buck when we tested it last year.

That's right, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation) is currently down to £49.99 at Amazon, which is a £20 saving from its original £69.99 launch price.

Now, that isn't an Earth-shattering saving by any means, and we have seen it drop by a further £10 in the Black Friday sales, but this is still an appreciated saving on an affordable and effective way to upgrade your TV.

Think of it this way, that £20 could easily cover a film rental or purchase and enough snacks to see you through; that's movie night sorted.

Streaming devices may, to many, seem unnecessary in a world in which nearly every TV features a built-in smart system – but we still firmly believe they have a place in the AV world.

If you're using an older TV with an outdated operating system that no longer supports the current crop of streaming apps (we've seen Netflix drop support for a few devices in recent years), but perhaps you don't want to upgrade your TV quite yet, then this Fire TV Stick is a solid option to breathe new life into an old TV.

Furthermore, if you're not a fan of your TV's current OS – maybe you don't get on with Samsung's Tizen OS, or find LG's webOS tricky to get to grips with – then a streaming stick can bypass that entirely while offering similar functionality.

In fact, we've seen a growing list of products launch with missing streaming apps. Notably, BBC iPlayer has been missing from a handful of TVs and projectors, an irritating absence that can be easily addressed by plugging this Fire TV device into one of your TV's HDMI sockets.

We found the Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation) to be a snappy performer when it came to interacting with the user interface. It's also well-stocked in terms of features, with support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR, as well as Dolby Atmos audio.

However, the reason we advocate for a dedicated streamer is primarily due to the performance upgrades. Having a dedicated device handle your movies and TV shows can often result in a higher quality picture over the built-in apps that come with your TV – as is certainly the case with the Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

We complimented its "sharp and engaging" picture in our full review, noting that its rich colours and smooth motion made for an ultimately impressive cinematic picture overall. Dark details are handled well, and we found the image, as a whole, to be balanced nicely.

It also sounds good. While we admit in our full review that it "it won’t blow your socks off", we find it to be more cohesive and warmer than the Google TV Streamer, which turned out to be a real let-down when it came to sound quality.

At a discounted price of £50, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation) is a deal that we recommend checking out. It proves that you can treat yourself to a worthwhile AV upgrade without totally busting the bank.

MORE:

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

Check out our list of the best streaming devices for movies and TV

Here are our picks for the best OLED TVs

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.

MORE:

Here are the best TVs right now

Check out the best TVs under £1000

Get live updates from CES 2026 as they come in

It's a new year and while you may be thinking about how much money you spent over the holidays, it's also a notoriously great time to grab some excellent discounts.

And right now, the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), one of the best soundbars we've ever tested and a What Hi-Fi? Award winner for 2025, has dropped to almost its lowest ever price, just £329 at Amazon. That's just £2 away from the cheapest we've ever seen it!

It's worth noting though that while the White model is in stock right now, you'll have a slight wait for Black. Or you can pick it up at Richer Sounds for the same price without delay.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) has been around for a while now (since October 2021, to be exact) so it's not unsurprising to see a discount. But, what you should know is that it's still a wildly impressive soundbar, despite its age.

When the Gen 2 first launched, it impressed us by taking everything the original Beam had to offer, but adding in genuinely convincing Dolby Atmos without changing the overall design or adding dedicated upward-firing drivers.

And its continued to impress us, taking a What Hi-Fi? Award in 2025 for remaining the best Dolby Atmos soundbar in its size and price categories.

The Gen 2 uses clever processing using psychoacoustic HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology to deliver a sense of height using two of the unit's five front-facing drivers.

So, if space and budget are limited, this is an affordable, all-in-one-device of rare ability.

While Sonos has released the Sonos Ray and the Sonos Arc Ultra since, the Ray doesn't support Dolby Atmos, meaning the Beam Gen 2 is still your entry-level position if you want a Sonos with immersive 3D audio that won't cost you too much.

The Dolby Atmos is really the headline feature for the Beam Gen 2, handling the format better than any similarly priced soundbar, producing spacious sound with good tracking of audio objects.

This being a Sonos product, you also get the ability to build a wireless multi-room system. You'll need the (free) Sonos S2 app to get the most out of your purchase, and this also comes with access to Trueplay room calibration technology and a two-band EQ.

There's wi-fi onboard though, which means you can also stream to the Beam Gen 2 from a handheld device using Apple AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect is built-in too.

Support for Amazon Music Ultra HD audio (for both the Beam Gen 2 and other Sonos models) is also now available and gives access to lossless 24-bit/48kHz tracks as well as Dolby Atmos Music.

For audio formats, the Beam Gen 2 supports stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos (both the Digital+ and TrueHD versions), multichannel PCM and Dolby Multichannel PCM.

Decoding for DTS digital surround has now been added to this and other Sonos products but this unfortunately doesn't extend to DTS:X.

In terms of sound, during testing, we paired the Beam Gen 2 with TVs ranging from 43 inches to 65 inches, and confirmed that "it enhances the cinematic scale and viewing experience".

As we said in our verdict: "The Beam Gen 2 not only lives up to the high bar set by its predecessor but exceeds it by a margin that more than justifies its new feature set and higher cost."

And it's a higher cost no more, thanks to a whopping £120 off at Amazon.

MORE:

Read our full Sonos Beam Gen 2 review

And check out the best budget soundbars

As well as our list of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

With Boxing Day now upon us, some fantastic deals on great products have started rolling in. Some deals, however, we’d urge you to avoid, such as this one for the Amazon Echo Dot Max.

The wireless smart speaker is currently reduced to £80 on Amazon, which is 20% off its original price and the cheapest we’ve seen it. But while the Echo Dot Max is well-made, its sonic presentation is muddled and uninspiring, and when we reviewed it back in November, we ended up giving it two stars.

The good news, however, is that the Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) is still reduced to £30 on Amazon, a five-star wireless speaker that's both easy on the eyes and the ears. If you’re looking for a Boxing Day bargain on a quality smart speaker, we recommend you get this deal instead.

We’re such big fans of the 5th generation of Echo Dot that we had high hopes for the newer Max, and while the latter might be the louder of the two smart speakers, it cannot compete with the older Echo Dot in terms of sound quality.

Upon its release Amazon promised the Echo Dot (5th gen) was its “best-sounding Echo Dot yet”, a claim that still holds true thanks to the lacklustre performance of the newer Dot Max.

The fifth-gen Echo Dot is equipped with a 44mm front-firing speaker and when we played Greta Van Fleet’s Meeting The Master through it during testing, we found the dynamics, range and balance of presentation were impressive. Brighter numbers, such as Katy Perry's Hot N Cold, fared even better thanks to the clear, nimble presentation offered by Amazon's plucky smart speaker.

In addition to Amazon Music, Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music are supported, so there are plenty of music streaming options at your disposal which can be added to your Echo Dot and accessed via Alexa.

Aesthetically, it retains the round shape and understated appearance of previous Echo Dot iterations, but it feels reassuringly solid despite its relatively small stature.

If you’re after a quality smart speaker, we’d urge you to avoid the Amazon Echo Dot Max and opt for the 5th generation Echo Dot instead. Grab it for £30 on Amazon and have yourself a bargain this Boxing Day.

MORE:

Check our our list of the best smart speakers

I review wireless speakers for a living – I'd steer clear of this enticing Amazon deal if I were you

Amazon’s new Echo speaker lineup lands with Alexa+, surround-sound shenanigans, and more

Looking to snap up one of the best budget TVs on the market to upgrade your living room setup, without breaking the bank? You’re in the right place.

Below, we compare the 50-inch TCL C6KS and Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED, to see which one is more worthy of standing at the heart of your home entertainment experience.

We’ve put both sets through our rigorous review process in order to give you all the information you need to make the right buying decision. Let’s crack on.

TCL C6KS vs Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED: price

The 50-inch TCL C6KS cost £419 / $590 / AU$590 at launch, though at the time of writing, it's available for an even more palatable £349 in the UK.

The 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED launched at £650 / $530, and is currently listed at £300 in the UK.

These prices make them a great pick for those on a tight budget, with little difference between them in price. So it’s all down to their performance…

** Winner: draw **

TCL C6KS vs Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED: design and build

The TCL C6KS looks decently attractive for the money. The frame around the screen proves narrow enough to avoid distraction, while the shiny black finish of the left, right, and top edges contrasts nicely with the glossy silver bottom edge.

The two feet look slightly plasticky and basic, but their slender profile ensures they don't significantly distract from the screen above. General build quality relies heavily on plastic, though you only really notice this when handling the TV rather than viewing it from a normal distance.

The remote control feels lightweight but proves comfortable to hold thanks to its long, thin shape, angled rear, and gently brushed front edge. Its layout makes sense, with good emphasis on the main navigation area plus direct-access buttons for popular streaming services.

The 50-inch Omni QLED has a slightly less premium design than larger models in the range, with silver metal accents sacrificed in favour of plain black plastic. The feet are black plastic too, positioned right at the extremes of the bottom edge – giving the set an unhelpfully wide footprint, which will influence your TV stand options. The bezels on the sides and top prove decently thin, though, allowing the display to do most of the talking.

More notably, the Omni QLED features an unusually large undercarriage housing sensors and microphones. The sensors primarily power the Ambient Experience screensaver that activates when detecting your presence, while the microphones enable voice control – the TV works like a standalone Echo device. A physical switch beneath the TV entirely disables the microphones if preferred, with a red light confirming they're off.

The remote proves perfectly serviceable and nicely compact, with easy-to-navigate shortcuts for all the main services and settings menus, though it lacks backlighting.

Both TVs deliver acceptable build quality for their price points, though the TCL's cleaner aesthetic and less intrusive design give it a slight edge – particularly for those who prefer not to have always-listening microphones in their living room.

** Winner: TCL C6KS **

TCL C6KS vs Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED: picture quality

The TCL C6KS delivers a far more impressive picture than its price suggests. Black levels prove excellent for such an affordable TV, with far less greyness in dark scenes than you'd expect. This stems partly from effective light manipulation in shadowy sequences, but also from the new HVA panel at the C6KS's heart, which typically renders impressive amounts of shadow detail in dark areas.

The C6KS's light engine creates precious few backlight blooming distractions. Even when particularly tough contrast-rich shots do reveal signs of haloing around bright highlights, the extraneous light remains faint enough to avoid serious distraction. The presentation of very dark scenes proves stable too, with neither obvious dimming zone adjustments mid-shot nor brightness fluctuations during cuts between light and dark material.

More impressively still, the C6KS achieves its excellent dark scene handling alongside very impressive brightness for such an affordable TV. It looks two or three times brighter than other similarly priced sets, giving some mid-range LCD TVs a run for their money. The brightness feels organic to the picture – it doesn't strain black levels or local dimming controls, nor does it cause the brightest colours to look faded or washed out.

Colours retain better saturations during very dark shots than expected at this level, while colour volumes leave most similarly priced TVs looking murky and flat. That vibrancy doesn't sacrifice subtlety either – the TV retains impressive refinement in tricky areas such as skin tones, blue skies, leafy trees, and grassy meadows. Nothing feels clumpy or cartoonish.

The C6KS's strong shadow detail combines with impressive core 4K sharpness to really convince you you're looking at proper 4K images despite the relatively modest screen size.

Inevitable compromises do appear: there's slight resolution loss over moving objects, particularly with 24p movie sources, though various motion processing options partially address this.

The Dolby Vision Dark setting can track too dim, losing some shadow detail, while you'll occasionally spot mild clipping in the brightest highlights and some colour banding in areas of subtle tonal blending. Colours and contrast also drop off when viewing from wide angles.

Critically, though, none of these flaws significantly undermine what proves to be a spectacularly accomplished picture for the money.

The Amazon Omni QLED takes a different approach. Watching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the Dolby Vision Bright mode combines deep blacks with satisfyingly punchy highlights.

It doesn’t dazzle, mind, opting for balance instead. On a shop floor it might look dull sat next to super-vivid rivals, but at home it proves natural in a way that means you focus purely on the content rather than questioning the delivery.

Colours successfully tread the fine line between vibrancy and subtlety, while skin tones look natural and fairly delicately shaded, avoiding the waxy appearance many budget sets produce.

Edges prove sharp without over-exaggeration, and while detail levels obviously don't match higher-end TVs, they impress for the price – Harrison Ford's scars, wrinkles, and grey stubble resolve satisfyingly.

When the action moves to a network of caves later in the movie, the Omni QLED produces decently deep blacks for a backlit TV. The black bars prove slightly less black than ideal, particularly in the corners, but this remains mild and easy to ignore.

The backlight proves very consistent overall, with no patchiness and no obvious blooming. Shadow detail holds up better than the 65-inch version of this TV, avoiding the murky appearance that plagued some larger models.

Motion smearing remains present as people move their heads, though it's less pronounced than on the 65-inch model and doesn't significantly hamper movie enjoyment.

Switching to Pan in HDR10, it becomes clear the Omni QLED lacks brightness headroom to do full justice to movies mastered to very high peaks – the brightest highlights prove slightly over-exposed. However, the TV does a good job overall of tailoring the presentation to its limits.

Dropping down to HD with The Fisher King demonstrates that while the Omni QLED isn't an upscaler of Sony or LG's level, it again produces a nicely balanced picture in terms of contrast, colours, and sharpness, though a little more noise-suppression would help.

Ultimately, the TCL C6KS delivers notably superior picture quality. Its Mini LED backlighting, 160 dimming zones, and superior brightness give it significant advantages over the Omni QLED's 48-zone system.

The Amazon set performs admirably within its means and proves impressively consistent, but the TCL's combination of deeper blacks, brighter highlights, more vibrant colours, and superior shadow detail makes it the clear winner for picture performance.

** Winner: TCL C6KS **

TCL C6KS vs Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED: features and processing

The TCL C6KS runs Google TV, which brings the vast majority of popular global streaming services. TCL has also separately integrated all UK terrestrial broadcasters' catch-up apps, though you don't get the Freeview Play or Freely umbrella apps some other TVs provide. Google Assistant voice control comes as standard.

The C6KS supports all four main HDR formats: HLG, HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision – ensuring it always plays the best available version of any content. TCL's latest AI-boosted AiPQ processor optimises picture quality.

Gaming features prove surprisingly comprehensive for such an affordable TV. Despite the 60Hz panel limiting refresh rates, the C6KS includes TCL's dedicated Game Bar onscreen menus, ALLM switching, support for ultra-wide aspect ratios from PC games, the ability to raise dark area brightness to reveal hiding enemies, an aiming aid, and VRR support up to 60Hz. Input lag measures an excellent 9.9ms.

The 2 x 15W 2.0-channel speaker system, designed with Onkyo, decodes both Dolby Atmos and DTS HD soundtracks. Connections include three HDMI ports, which might be slightly limiting for some users, plus two media-capable USB ports.

The Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED features Fire OS, which provides excellent app support. All major streaming services appear, including Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, and Prime Video, plus less ubiquitous localised services such as Now and Discovery+ in the UK. All UK catch-up apps feature as well, alongside a Freeview tuner for live broadcasts.

Alexa integration runs deep – you can control almost every function using voice commands. The TV also works like a standalone Echo device, controlling lights, music, and other Alexa-compatible devices without the screen turning on.

The sensors in the undercarriage power Ambient Experience screensavers and enable Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive, which automatically adjust to ambient lighting conditions.

Like the TCL, the Omni QLED supports all four current HDR standards: HLG, HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision. The QLED panel uses Quantum Dots for a wider colour gamut than standard LCD. It features direct LED backlighting with 48 local dimming zones – impressive at this price, though significantly fewer than the TCL's 160 zones.

Gaming specs prove better than the budget TV norm. The 60Hz panel means 4K/120Hz remains out of reach, but VRR and ALLM appear across all four HDMI ports. One port supports eARC for sending uncompressed Dolby Atmos to soundbars or AV receivers.

The TCL edges ahead on gaming features with its dedicated Game Bar and additional gaming-specific options, while also offering superior picture processing through its AiPQ processor.

However, the Amazon counters with superior app integration, four HDMI ports versus three, eARC support, and arguably the more user-friendly smart platform – particularly for existing Amazon ecosystem users. The Alexa integration will appeal to some while putting others off.

Overall, features prove relatively evenly matched, with each TV taking different approaches to deliver strong capabilities at their price points.

** Winner: draw **

TCL C6KS vs Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED: sound

The TCL C6KS punches well above its weight sonically. There's far more volume and power than expected without the sound breaking down or sounding coarse. The audio proves extremely detailed – we pick up subtle elements in Dolby Atmos soundtracks that other models miss entirely, even many sets costing significantly more.

The sound projects nicely from the TV's chassis, spreading comfortably left and right while also seemingly propelled forwards from the screen despite lacking front-firing speakers. The large soundstage combines with subtle sound detail to place effects and handle transitions around the soundstage with good accuracy and conviction.

Dialogue emerges clearly at all times, sounding like it originates from onscreen images rather than speakers below or behind the screen. No distortions, buzzes, crackles, or dropouts occur even at near-maximum volumes, while there's surprising treble headroom to help the TV handle shrill elements without making you wince.

However, while freedom from buzzing and crackling extends to bass handling, there isn't actually much bass to handle. The midrange proves reasonably open and expansive, but a lack of significant low-frequency heft can leave dense mixes sounding slightly lopsided towards the treble.

This can cause slight over-brightness in the treble register and, more rarely, with dialogue. The sound can also slightly withdraw into itself when faced with Hollywood's densest, loudest moments.

The Amazon Omni QLED takes a similar approach to the TCL – working within its means rather than attempting feats beyond its capabilities. The delivery proves very clear and direct, avoiding the low-end distortion common from TV speakers, even on high-end sets.

Detail and dynamics prove unremarkable but fine, with nothing in the presentation that distracts or annoys. Like the TCL, there's no Dolby Atmos processing and no attempt at particularly bassy output, so you get neither the spaciousness nor weight that the best TVs deliver. However, the straightforward, clean presentation has much to recommend it.

The TCL C6KS delivers superior sound overall. While both TVs avoid serious sonic flaws and punch reasonably above their weight, the TCL's more detailed presentation, larger soundstage, and better dynamics give it the edge. That said, both would benefit significantly from pairing with a good soundbar.

** Winner: TCL C6KS **

TCL C6KS vs Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED: verdict

The Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED delivers a surprisingly accomplished performance for the money. The picture quality proves balanced and consistent, working within the TV's means to provide authentic, natural images.

The Fire OS platform offers excellent app support and integration, while Alexa functionality will appeal to existing Amazon ecosystem users. At its frequently discounted prices, it represents solid value – but it falls short of the TCL's performance.

The TCL C6KS delivers exceptional value. At £349 (current UK pricing), it shouldn't be as good as it is.

The Mini LED backlighting, 160 dimming zones, and comprehensive HDR support deliver picture quality that spectacularly over-performs for the money. Both TVs earn five stars for picture quality, but the TCL edges ahead with superior sound (five stars versus the Amazon's four). Features prove relatively evenly matched (both scoring four stars).

Inevitable compromises appear – the 60Hz panel, mild motion blur, and occasional clipping and banding remind you this remains a budget TV. You'll also need to invest some time tweaking settings to unlock its best performance. However, these minor flaws pale against what the C6KS achieves at its price point.

For viewers seeking the best possible picture quality at an accessible price, the TCL C6KS proves the superior choice. It's hands-down one of the year's biggest TV bargains.

** Overall Winner: TCL C6KS **

If you're on the hunt for one of the best streaming devices – one that boasts Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos capabilities – you need to take a look at the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K (second-gen).

Originally priced at £59, it has been slashed to just £20 at Argos.

The super compact stick serves up streaming smarts directly to your TV. We should say that, while we haven’t reviewed this second-gen model, we were big fans of the performance and picture quality of the first-generation of the video streamer.

This follow-up version is now at its lowest price ever, with the previous record low being £25, so we don't recommend hanging around.

Best deal on the Amazon Fire TV Stick second-gen

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 the unit 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 (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.

The Fire TV Stick 4K 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 of its Google rival, this will probably be an easy decision for many.

You can pick it up for £20 at Argos.

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?

Black Friday may be over, but that doesn't mean all the best deals are gone. If you look hard enough, there's still some excellent discounts floating around – and I've spotted a great one.

For just £335 at Amazon, the Sonos Beam Gen 2, which just so happens to be one of the best soundbars we've ever tested and a What Hi-Fi? Award winner for 2025, represents excellent value.

While it's not quite the £327 we saw during Amazon Prime's Big Deal Days, it's still a lovely £114 discount that is available on both the Black or White model, so take your pick!

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is a deeply impressive soundbar, taking everything the original Beam had to offer and adding genuinely convincing Dolby Atmos without changing the overall design or adding dedicated upward-firing drivers.

Instead, it's all done through clever processing using psychoacoustic HRTF (head-related transfer function) technology to deliver a sense of height using two of the unit's five front-facing drivers.

So, if space and budget are limited, there isn't a better virtual Dolby Atmos soundbar that we'd recommend.

During testing, we paired the Beam Gen 2 with TVs ranging from 43 inches to 65 inches, and our expert testers confirmed that "it enhances the cinematic scale and viewing experience".

The Dolby Atmos is really the headline feature for the Beam Gen 2, handling the format better than any similarly priced soundbar, producing spacious sound with good tracking of audio objects.

In terms of audio formats, the Beam Gen 2 supports stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos (both the Digital+ and TrueHD versions), multichannel PCM and Dolby Multichannel PCM.

Decoding for DTS digital surround has now been added to this and other Sonos products but this sadly doesn't extend to DTS:X.

But it's also worth discussing the Beam Gen 2's streaming capabilities, which are plentiful. We're talking seamless integration into a wireless multiroom system via the Sonos S2 app, which also provides access to Trueplay room calibration technology and a two-band EQ.

Having wi-fi means you can also stream to the Beam Gen 2 from a handheld device using Apple AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect is built-in too. Support for Amazon Music Ultra HD audio (for both the Beam Gen 2 and other Sonos models) is also now available and gives access to lossless 24-bit/48kHz tracks as well as Dolby Atmos Music.

And at a lovely price of £335 at Amazon, you can save some serious cash whilst still being able to experience why our testers said: "The Beam Gen 2 not only lives up to the high bar set by its predecessor but exceeds it by a margin that more than justifies its new feature set and higher cost." Oh, but you can take 25% off that higher cost. Even better.

MORE:

Read our full Sonos Beam Gen 2 review

And check out the best budget soundbars

As well as our list of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

As if by magic (or just time passing), Black Friday has turned into Cyber Monday, but that certainly doesn't mean the best deals are done and dusted – especially as far as Amazon is concerned.

And while I've been raking the pages of Amazon's crazy sale across the sales period, this one stopped me in my tracks.

For just £349 at Amazon, the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 headphones can be yours for the best price we've ever seen, beating out the previous record low by an extra £50.

Unbelievable news for anyone yet to commit to the stylish ANC cans and even better news if you had your eyes on the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 but can't stretch to the hefty £629 price tag.

So, if you love a bargain and don't mind previous-gen headphones that are still undeniably five star, then now is the time to act – before it's too late!

The five-star Bowers & Wilkins Px8 may now be considered an older model, but they've made a positive and lasting impression that continues to impress.

And with £250 slashed off the price, it's hard to complain about the premium quality on offer at a now incredibly competitive price for Cyber Monday.

In our review, the expert testers were immediately impressed by the lovely build and impressive comfort straight out of the box. And were pleased to learn that the Px8 is packed with features to boot.

We're talking Bluetooth 5.2 with aptX HD and aptX Adaptive compatibility for higher quality streams, four microphones for active noise cancelling, plus another two for voice pick-up in phone calls.

Plus, a claimed 30-hour of battery life shows they've certainly got enough stamina to last you on long-distance flights and most other use cases we can think of. Then there's the upgraded B&W Music app that gives you direct access to music services such as Tidal, Qobuz and Deezer.

While the ANC is generally good, we feel compelled to recommend Sony's cheaper WH-1000XM5 and masters-of-ANC Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones for complete silence, but we've also got to follow that up with the fact that the Sony and Bose cans won't sound quite as good.

And sonically, the Px8s seriously impress with our experts saying: "Anyone familiar with recent efforts from Bowers & Wilkins won’t be surprised with what the Px8 deliver in sound quality, but they will still be impressed. There is a level of clarity and insight here that we haven’t heard bettered at this level."

So, if you're after hugely capable performers that justify their price tag, you'll be pleased to learn that that price just got a whole lot cheaper for Cyber Monday, dropping to just £349 at Amazon.

You won't get much cheaper than that, but you'll have to be quick.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 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
• LG C5 55-inch: lowest-ever price at Richer Sounds
• JBL soundbar: now better than half price
• John Lewis: £500 off LG and Sony OLED TVs
• Richer Sounds: browse Black Friday deals
• Sevenoaks: £150 off Award-winning speakers
• Sony headphones: now just £29
• Stereo amplifier: Cambridge Audio now £299
• TVs, movies, home cinema: browse the best deals
• Vinyl: 3 for £66 at Amazon
• Wireless earbuds: Award winners now £75

Don't want to spend more than £1000 this Cyber Monday? That's, we've got your covered – there are plenty of very decent stereo amps available for under a grand. Not keen on spending over £500? That's cool, we've still got a mountain of wireless headphones for you. Don't want to go over £100? Ok, a bit more restrictive, but plenty of goodies still to be had.

Don't want to spend more than £50? Well, it's a trickier brief, but not impossible, and in the immortal words of Ronnie Barker's affable sweetshop owner (before he goes rogue with a toffee hammer after being pushed to the limit by an overly-demanding Ronnie Corbett): "Nothing's too much trouble".

Small prices and ample performance await you below, all for less than £50. Cheap deals to keep you cheerful this Cyber Monday.

Best Cyber Monday deal under £50

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

Cyber Monday 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

I've reviewed enough TVs to appreciate a good remote. Clicky buttons are a must, a backlight will always win me over, and any additional features will score bonus points in my books.

With that in mind, I'd like to direct you towards a lesser-known Amazon Fire TV accessory that ticks all of the boxes I mention above. It's called the Fire TV Alexa Voice Remote Pro, and it's compatible with Amazon's full range of current Fire TV streaming devices, including the Award-winning Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

This isn't one of those life-changing Black Friday purchases by any means, but this affordable accessory, which is currently down from £35 to £20 at Amazon, brings a handful of creature comforts and AV functionality to your Fire TV experience that I think makes it worth splashing out for.

So what improvements does the Alexa Voice Remote Pro actually bring? First of all, the Pro remote is a bit larger; it features slightly squared-off edges, and the plastic feels higher quality, resulting in a more premium construction and feeling in the hand.

Personally, my favourite feature of the Pro remote is its backlit buttons, which make operating any Fire TV device in a dark home cinema room a breeze and have subsequently made me resent the Apple TV 4K and Chromecast with Google TV remotes for not having backlit buttons.

Speaking of buttons, you get the same Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Music shortcuts as on the standard remote, but this time they're accompanied by two programmable buttons for personalised app shortcuts, which you can designate to your most used apps.

You also get live channel buttons and a Bluetooth headphone button for quickly accessing the connected audio devices menu without having to exit out to the home page and navigate to the settings menu.

Best of all, you get a "find my remote" feature, which means that when it inevitably slides between the couch cushions, you won't need to tear your living room apart to find it.

Instead, just ask Alexa to find your remote, and it will play a sound to help you locate it. Speaking of Alexa, you also get a microphone on the remote to interact with the voice assistant, much like on the original remote.

If you've rolled your eyes at the thought of paying for an additional remote for your Fire TV Stick, then I don't blame you. However, the Alexa Voice Remote Pro is still (in my mind) the best accessory you can buy for your Fire TV, especially while it's this cheap.

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
• LG C5 55-inch: lowest-ever price at Richer Sounds
• JBL soundbar: now better than half price
• John Lewis: £500 off LG and Sony OLED TVs
• Richer Sounds: browse Black Friday deals
• Sevenoaks: £150 off Award-winning speakers
• Sony headphones: now just £29
• Stereo amplifier: Cambridge Audio now £299
• TVs, movies, home cinema: browse the best deals
• Vinyl: 3 for £66 at Amazon
• Wireless earbuds: Award winners now £75

With Black Friday essentially having lasted since somewhere in the first half of November (it feels like it's been about 70 years), you'll have had plenty of time to spend your hard-earned cash on a range of Amazon goodies. That basket looks pretty full to me, and while my superiors won't thank me for saying it, I think you've had enough. You don't need any more deals.

Not really. What I would say is that you don't need this particular deal. The new Amazon Echo Dot Max is £10 off at Amazon – taking the price down to £90. But it's one deal that, all things considered, we'd urge you to stay away from.

Instead, we'd urge you to seek out the Echo Dot (5th Gen), which is only £30 at Amazon right now, if you're after an Amazon-branded smart speaker. It's cheaper, it sounds better, and it's a far smarter buy overall.

The best Amazon Echo Dot Black Friday deal

We had high hopes for the new Amazon Echo Dot Max. We liked the older (but still current) Echo Dot (5th Gen) very much, and when the announcement for a Max addition with a larger footprint, dual drive units and the latest iteration of Alexa was mooted, we were keen to see what it could do.

Sadly, the Max is a startling misfire. During our tests, we found that it sounds bland and muddled, struggling to nail even the most basic requirements of what we look for in a decent smart speaker. It's clever and made to a reasonable standard (it looks like the far superior Apple HomePod Mini), but sonically, it's a huge let-down.

Our 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 better. Plus, it will do all of the things you need from an Amazon smart speaker, such as accessing Alexa and playing ball with the company's expanded ecosystem.

Or, of course, you could just get the aforementioned five-star HomePod Mini if you're not bothered about being part of the Amazon family, and prioritise sound quality instead.

Either way, if it were our money, we'd avoid the Max regardless of how big the discount was.

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

Amazon very much led the charge in starting the Black Friday sales this year, and as usual, has offered some generous discounts on its own products.

And we're very pleased to see the (predictable) inclusion of Fire TV Sticks, Amazon's own streaming devices that continue to sell like hotcakes despite the rise in smart TVs.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is our pick, with the Black Friday discount dropping the price down to £25. That's a whopping 58% off!

Amazon products are notorious for dropping to their lowest price during sales events, so this week is absolutely the time to invest if you've been eyeing up this versatile streaming stick.

If your funds can stretch, you could also consider the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max. It's on sale for £40 at Amazon, and boasts a faster processor, double the storage and an Ambient Experience feature – check out our Amazon Fire TV Stick Black Friday guide for more information.

However if you're just looking to simply stream in 4K, the regular Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K will suit you just fine.

We haven't actually reviewed this second-generation model, but the previous model received five stars and a What Hi-Fi? Award.

We're confident in recommending this newer incarnation, which is 30% faster thanks to its quicker 1.7GHz processor.

As the name suggests, 4K streaming is supported. But it doesn't stop there – all four formats of HDR (Dolby Vision, HLG, HDR10 and HDR10 Plus) are supported as well as Dolby Atmos for more immersive audio, making this streaming stick a true all-rounder.

As an Amazon product, Alexa voice control is included, and this can extend to controlling your TV, soundbar or AV receiver.

The main draw, of course, is the apps – and the Fire TV operating system is packed with choices including Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, BBC iPlayer and Paramount+.

Amazon also advertises their Fire TV Sticks as the only streaming media player with the Xbox app, allowing you to stream games to your TV without the need for a console. Pretty nifty.

If you're after a fuss-free way to stream 4K content to your TV, you'll struggle to do better than the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. The Max alternative or the Google TV Streamer may boast more power, but they can't compete with the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K's price – get it now for £25 at Amazon.

MORE:

Black Friday 2025: our pick of the best deals on headphones, TVs, speakers, soundbars and more

The best streaming devices around

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

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
• LG C5 55-inch: lowest-ever price at Richer Sounds
• JBL soundbar: now better than half price
• John Lewis: £500 off LG and Sony OLED TVs
• Richer Sounds: browse Black Friday deals
• Sevenoaks: £150 off Award-winning speakers
• Sony headphones: now just £29
• Stereo amplifier: Cambridge Audio now £299
• TVs, movies, home cinema: browse the best deals
• Vinyl: 3 for £66 at Amazon
• Wireless earbuds: Award winners now £75

Amazon's Fire TV Omni QLED has plummeted to its lowest-ever price as part of the retail giant’s Black Friday sale. The 65-inch model (QL65F601) is now available for £600 on Amazon, down from its usual £1000 asking price – a substantial £400 saving and the best opportunity yet to secure Amazon's flagship TV.

The Fire TV Omni QLED earned a solid four-star rating during our thorough review process, impressing our reviewers with its thoughtful tuning and balanced performance rather than attempting to mask its affordable origins with aggressive processing. While this is a value-oriented proposition, it's one that punches well above its weight in terms of both features and picture quality.

Core to the Omni QLED's appeal, is the fact that it has all the functionality of a Fire TV Stick built in, delivering an intuitive user experience with a home screen packed with apps from Netflix and Disney+ to Apple TV and, naturally, Prime Video.

The TV also supports all current HDR standards, including HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, with HDR10+ Adaptive and Dolby Vision IQ automatically adjusting picture settings according to ambient room lighting.

In terms of hardware, Amazon has equipped the Omni QLED surprisingly well. As the name suggests, it uses Quantum Dots for colour reproduction, but it also features a full-array LED backlight with 80 independent dimming zones.

During testing, we found the Omni QLED delivers vibrant and punchy colours when needed, while remaining subtle and pale where appropriate. Crucially, Amazon has avoided the temptation to use aggressive processing that sacrifices black depth for brighter highlights or vice versa. Instead, the TV takes a consistent and considered approach to contrast that's less immediately striking, but significantly more watchable over the course of a film.

Detail and sharpness levels are reasonably insightful without veering into exaggeration, while the TV deals well with difficult backlit scenes, delivering impressive evenness without obvious blotchiness. The Omni QLED even maintains decent contrast and colour vibrancy when viewed off-axis, with a broader sweet spot than typically found on affordable TVs.

Amazon has also made the Omni QLED impressively gaming-ready. While the 60Hz panel means 120Hz gaming isn't possible, it supports both ALLM and VRR, plus there's a Dolby Vision game mode. Input lag measured under 11ms in our testing, which is fast for any TV, particularly one at this price point.

The TV's far-field microphones enable hands-free Alexa voice control, though these can be physically switched off via a switch on the underside of the set if privacy is a concern. Amazon has also included its 'Ambient Experience' feature, which acts as an interactive screensaver paired with a sensor that detects your presence, displaying widgets for reminders, smart home controls and content suggestions.

Inevitably, there are compromises. The Omni QLED lacks the peak brightness to deliver a truly dazzling HDR experience, while detail levels could be better in darker images, where picture information is occasionally lost to shadows. Motion handling is generally smooth and free from excessive processing artefacts, though it can appear slightly smeary at times with complex backgrounds.

The sound is similarly pragmatic – narrow and small in scale compared with premium TVs, but direct and clear with a balanced approach that avoids both harshness and bloat. Adding one of the best soundbars remains advisable, though with the savings from this discount, there's room in the budget to do exactly that.

At £600, the Fire TV Omni QLED represents exceptional value for a 65-inch QLED TV with full-array local dimming and comprehensive HDR support. Members of our test team, who regularly evaluate premium OLED sets, noted they would be genuinely happy to have the Omni QLED at home – high praise indeed for a TV at this price point.

MORE

Read our Amazon Omni QLED review

Best soundbars 2025: options for every need, recommended by our experts

Black Friday hi-fi and home cinema deals live: our experts’ picks of the best savings

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
• LG C5 55-inch: lowest-ever price at Richer Sounds
• JBL soundbar: now better than half price
• John Lewis: £500 off LG and Sony OLED TVs
• Richer Sounds: browse Black Friday deals
• Sevenoaks: £150 off Award-winning speakers
• Sony headphones: now just £29
• TVs, movies, home cinema: browse the best deals
• Vinyl: 3 for £66 at Amazon
• Wireless earbuds: Award winners now £75

Amazon was one of the first retailers to officially kick off Black Friday proceedings this year, which, of course, means heavy discounts on Amazon-branded products such as the Fire TV Stick.

However, the generous prices have also stretched to Amazon's Fire TV range, with a particular highlight being the 55-inch Omni QLED.

The super-functional budget model has crashed down to just £329.99 at Amazon.

That's a good £80 cheaper than its previous lowest price we spotted only a few weeks ago, and a whopping 56% off the launch price of £749.99. That's better than half price!

While we haven't tested the 55-inch model of this TV, we were pleasantly surprised by the 65-inch Omni QLED and even more blown away by the 50-inch version.

As you'd expect from the name, the 55-inch Omni QLED sports a QLED panel with a full-array local dimming backlight and 80 dimming zones. There's solid HDR support too, with the Amazon-branded TV capable of HDR10+, HDR 10, HLG, and Dolby Vision IQ.

As you'd expect from the creators of the Fire Stick, smart features are solid across the board. You'll get to use Amazon's incredibly intuitive Fire OS, which comes with  Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, Prime Video, NOW, Discovery and even Freeview.

Gamers should also be pleased with the Omni QLED, which is equipped with a 4k/60Hz screen and support for VRR and ALLM. We would have loved to see 4K/120Hz support to get the most out of a PS5 or Xbox Series X, but at this price, it's hard to complain.

We can't vouch for the picture quality of the 55-inch model directly, but if it's anything like the 50-inch Omni QLED, you're in for a treat – we gave it five stars partly due to its assured, considered and authentically cinematic performance.

Budget TVs can be challenging to get right, but the Omni QLED doesn't sacrifice too much in the way of features to reach this level. And with a whopping 56% off, this is definitely a deal worth considering, offering a lot of convenience and usability for one low price. Get the 55-inch Omni QLED now for £329.99 at Amazon.

MORE:

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

Black Friday hi-fi and home cinema deals live: our experts’ picks of the best savings

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
• LG C5 55-inch: lowest-ever price at Richer Sounds
• JBL soundbar: now better than half price
• John Lewis: £500 off LG and Sony OLED TVs
• Richer Sounds: browse Black Friday deals
• Sevenoaks: £150 off Award-winning speakers
• Sony headphones: now just £29
• TVs, movies, home cinema: browse the best deals
• Vinyl: 3 for £66 at Amazon
• Wireless earbuds: Award winners now £75

It's not Black Friday until next week – though you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

Retailers kicked off their Black Friday sales earlier than ever, with Amazon officially kicking off proceedings on Thursday.

This does, however, mean we've had bucketloads of genuinely great deals already, with more surely on the way.

If you're looking for up-to-the-minute deals, be sure to check out our Black Friday 2025 deals live hub, while our Black Friday survival guide has tips and tricks from our veteran staff members to get you through the deals madness.

For now though, here are some truly brilliant deals we've seen this week.

MORE:

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

Black Friday hi-fi and home cinema deals live: our experts’ picks of the best savings

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

For the 43rd year and counting, What Hi-Fi?’s remarkable and dedicated team of reviewers have run and run to catch up with the sun in order to – after countless hours of unboxing, wiring up, testing and then wearily reboxing products – come up with a rather large list of what we consider to be the very best hi-fi and home-entertainment equipment you can buy in 2025. No frittering and wasting the hours in an off-hand way here over the past three months, we can assure you.

Whether you’re after some bargain wireless in-ears, a high-end turntable, or a ridiculous-value, and enormous, 98in TV, there’s something in this special, bumper Awards issue for you.

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

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 2025

It is time once again for our bumper What Hi-Fi? Awards issue of the magazine. In the last year 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 deserving of the top honours.

Our team of dedicated reviewers has spent remarkable time and effort in coming up with this collection of products that can now brag that they are What Hi-Fi? Best Buy Award winners. Every Award winner you read about in the pages of the 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.

And then, as unveiled recently at the swanky Awards ceremony in London, we've also got those products deserving of the prestigious Product of the Year gong.

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.

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. 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.

This really is a fantastic issue of the magazine, so don't miss it! It's out now!

First with reviews

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.

This month we have in-depth reviews of what we now know to be Award winners. Late entries for sure, but these products have earned themselves not only a five-star recommendation, but an Award to boot.

First up from our batch of gong winners is the Bluesound Node Icon. This canny streamer is a delight to use and to hear, and it picked up the Product Of The Year and Best Buy Streamer £750-£1000 – so you can be sure it's good! Then we have the PMC Prophecy 1 standmount speakers – winner of Best Standmounter over £2500. Read our in-depth review this issue!

And the Award winners keep coming. In the hotly-contested surround sound speaker packages category, the new KEF Q Concerto Meta 5.1 speaker system just passed through our test rooms in time to be crowned Best Speaker Package over £2500. And if that doesn't speak for itself, its five star review should!

Small, compact and colourful, Dali's new Kupid speakers picked up a five-star recommendation as well as Best Standmount Speaker under £500. Epson's EH-LS9000 was awarded not just five stars but Best Projector £2000-£3000 too, while Hisense's budget-but-brilliant AX5125H soundbar won Best Soundbar System under £500.

The last of our Award-winning products reviewed this month is the terrific Arcam A15+. Some strategic circuit tweaks earned this 'plus' model our Product of the Year Award in the stereo amplifiers category.

That's not all. We also saw the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 headphones and BenQ W4100i projector come under scrutiny by our reviewers this month.

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 2025 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

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

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Black Friday might only be one month away, but why wait when you can pick up the 65-inch Hisense U7N for just £702 at Amazon (down from its £899 launch price)?

We think you should act now for a number of reasons. First, this is a record-low price. Second, it's discounted by almost £200 on its launch price. And third, it's £87 cheaper than when it was last discounted in August.

Quite apart from the outstanding price, this four-star TV has impressed us with its pluckiness, punching well above its weight for a Mini LED TV.

The Hisense U7N is the middle Mini LED option in the Chinese TV maker’s current lineup. The manufacturer has created a TV that boasts a range of premium features while still keeping the price remarkably low.

The U7N is a dream for gamers. Dedicated gaming features, including 4K/144Hz (an extension of 4K/120Hz that hardcore PC gamers will appreciate), are often seen only on more expensive TVs. For Xbox gamers, the inclusion of Dolby Vision Gaming will also be a welcome touch.

All very positive so far. There is a reason, however, we gave the 65-inch U7N model just the four stars. This is mostly because of its “struggle with very bright scenes, where it has a tendency to push too hard and flatten sections of the picture.”

If that's a problem for you, then Hisense does offer a more premium U8N model, which differentiates itself by the display technology used. The 65-inch U7N’s backlight is split into 384 dimming zones and the screen has a peak brightness of 1500 nits. That’s a lot lower than the U8N, which features 1600 dimming zones and can produce a claimed 3000 nits of peak brightness.

For those who want a high-performing TV without having to pay for it, though, the U7N 65-inch is a fantastic option at this price. It could be yours for just £702 at Amazon.

MORE:

Read our Hisense U7N 65-inch review

Here are the best TVs you can buy right now

And here are all the best TV deals

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?

Sony and Bose might dominate the headlines when it comes to headphones, but Sennheiser's models are reliably great. This pair represents fantastic value – the over-ear headphones have dropped in price by 61 per cent to just £69 at Amazon in the Big Deal Days sale. That's a discount of £110, matching their best ever price.

Now, we have been here before. In fact, this is one of the most recurring deals in recent memory. But that just goes to show it's unlikely to be beaten.

• Browse all of today's best Amazon deals

Best Sennheiser HD 599 Big Deal Days headphones deal 

Like most Sennheiser products, the HD 599 are made from high-quality materials and promise "audiophile grade" sound.

We haven't reviewed this particular pair, but it's worth noting that Amazon buyers rate the HD 599 a very reassuring 4.6 out of 5 – and that's from over 9000 reviews. The HD 599 have been around for a few years, so we know they have stood the test of time.

Sennheiser says the open-backed cans boast the firm's own transducers, which are made using aluminium voice coils for "high efficiency, excellent dynamics and extremely low distortion."

You also get two detachable cables in the box (3m with 6.3mm jack, and 1.2m with 3.5mm jack).

The Special Edition Black colour is exclusive to Amazon. Considering that they originally cost £179, a discount of up to 61 per cent is almost too good to miss.

MORE:

The best Sennheiser headphones around

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Or check out our picks for the best ANC earbuds

When Amazon launched their Omni QLED range of TVs in 2023, they were met with inevitable excitement. With solid picture performance, an established Fire TV platform, and a reasonable price tag, these TVs are loved by many.

Out of all the sizes, our favourite is the 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED, which we're glad to say is now available at Amazon for just £360.

The whopping £290 price drop makes this Award-winning TV only £10 more expensive than the record-low price we saw back in May. Snap it up now or take a browse of our Amazon Prime Big Deal Days guide for other TV deals.

The 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED is what we called "a budget TV with rare all-round ability" when we first got our hands on it in 2023. And we gave it a What Hi-Fi? Award and five-star rating thanks to its consistent, considered performance and impressive feature set.

So, let's talk about these features. With this budget-friendly Amazon entry, you're getting a 4K/60Hz QLED panel and a robust suite of HDR support that includes HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision IQ, alongside full-array local dimming with 80 discrete zones. Of course, as an Amazon TV, it features the Fire TV smart platform, which is superior to many smart TV platforms in terms of usability and app support.

For gamers, the Omni QLED is certainly one to consider when it comes to the best gaming TVs. It offers support for VRR, ALLM and HDR10+ across all four of the set's HDMI ports. And it can definitely handle new-gen consoles like the PS5 or Xbox Series X seamlessly.

All of this led us to say in our full review: "The standard of budget TVs is lower now than it has been in years, but that’s not to take away from the Omni QLED’s performance, which is markedly more assured, considered, and authentically cinematic than expected at this level, now or in the past."

And right now, if you're looking for a budget TV that is still top-quality, then the 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED is one heck of a deal at just £360 at Amazon.

MORE:

Read our full 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED review

Best 50-inch TVs: the best mid-sized sets we've tested for every budget

And check out our complete list of the best TVs

For movies on the move, the Amazon Fire HD 10 has always been hard to beat on price and that challenge has just got even harder, thanks to a spectacular price drop for Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2025.

Right now, you can pick up this five-star tablet for just £70 at Amazon – the lowest price we've ever seen.

So, if you've been on the fence about buying Amazon's newest model, you can secure it for over half price and that is certainly worth seriously considering right now.

The Amazon Fire HD 10 is a What Hi-Fi? Award winner for a multitude of reasons. Not only is it capable of bright and punchy pictures, it's also packed with features and well put together. And it's seriously competitive when compared to the price of an iPad.

As we said in our full review: "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."

It's 2.0Ghz octa-core processor is also more than adequate for smooth operation, streaming and casual gaming. And if you want to use the Fire HD 10 as more of a productivity device, there's plenty of compatible accessories from a keyboard case to stylus pen.

And when it comes to sound, the tablet's speakers are on either end of the top edge, meaning you won't be covering them with your hands when holding.

Plus, if you prefer to listen through headphones (and we think you should), it's one of the last remaining portable devices that'll still let you plug in via a 3.5mm headphone jack. You can also connect via Bluetooth, should you prefer.

You'll get 13 hours of battery out of this five-star tablet, which will work nicely for you when watching videos and listening to music. Amazon Prime Video (obviously), Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, Now, Plex, Amazon Music, Spotify, BBC Sounds and TuneIn are all on board.

All told, expect to get a solid picture, ample audio performance and great app availability, all in a compact, portable and affordable tablet.

For a 10-inch tablet, it's incredibly good value, especially at this all-time low price of just £70 at Amazon.

MORE:

Read our full Amazon Fire HD 10 review

Check out the best deals for Amazon Prime Big Day Deals

And the best tablets: top tablets for movies and music

The Amazon Echo Dot (5th Generation) has dropped to £29.99 on Amazon, down from its usual £54.99 asking price.

This early Amazon Prime Big Deal Days offer brings the diminutive smart speaker tantalizingly close to its all-time low of £21.99, which it hit during the November sales last year.

The Echo Dot (5th Gen) earned a coveted five-star rating from us in our review, following in the footsteps of its accomplished 3rd and 4th Generation predecessors, and remains a useful buy if you're looking for something small, smart and good-sounding – especially with this £25 off deal.

Amazon Echo Dot deal

The Echo Dot (5th Generation) earned our full five-star rating when we reviewed it, and for good reason.

Amazon upgraded the speaker driver from 40mm to 44mm, and the difference is noticeable. During our testing, we were pleasantly surprised by how much sound this compact speaker manages to produce, with noticeably clearer vocals, deeper bass and more vibrant sound across the frequency range.

We threw some challenging tracks at it, including Greta Van Fleet's operatic Meeting The Master, and the little speaker handled the dynamics and range impressively well.

It particularly excels with upbeat material – Katy Perry's Hot N Cold practically bounced off the walls with energy, her vocals coming through clearly and authentically.

The Echo Dot's smart features remain as comprehensive as ever, with Alexa providing voice-activated control for music playback, weather forecasts, alarms and compatible smart home devices.

The speaker supports practically all major music streaming services, including Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, and, naturally, the Amazon Music platform – though there’s still no YouTube music integration.

Build quality also punches well above the Echo Dot's weight class and price point. The spherical speaker features a small-knit mesh covering that sits tight to the frame, with a pleasingly solid construction that feels more premium than Apple's pricier HomePod Mini.

The wider base and non-slip rubber bottom help keep it firmly planted on shelves and surfaces, while the minimalist control layout – just four buttons atop the dimpled dome – makes perfect sense for a device you'll primarily interact with via voice commands.

Where the Echo Dot inevitably shows its limitations is with bass detail and maximum volume. The lower frequencies carry decent weight, though some detail gets lost in the mix, and pushing the volume towards the upper limits results in some distortion.

These are understandable compromises for a speaker of this size and price, and they don't detract from what is otherwise an excellent all-round package.

There is, of course, the newer generation Death Star-like Echo Dot Max to consider at £99.99 – though we’ve yet to put it through our review process at the time of writing.

At £29.99 though, this early Prime Big Deal Days offer makes the Echo Dot (5th Gen) a tempting bargain for anyone seeking a versatile, engaging smart speaker that delivers superb sound on a more than acceptable budget.

MORE

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

Best smart speakers 2025: tried and tested

Google's new HomePod rival pairs Gemini smarts with room-filling 360-degree audio

Amazon has announced its latest Echo device lineup, made up of four new models that the company says represent its most advanced smart speakers and displays to date.

The new Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11 are now available for pre-order and will launch over the coming weeks.

The Echo Dot Max marks the first time Amazon has engineered an Echo Dot with a two-way speaker system, featuring a high-excursion woofer and custom tweeter. It also marks the first time that the company has gone for a miniature Death Star aesthetic. At least, in our opinion.

Amazon claims it delivers nearly three times the bass of the fifth-generation Echo Dot, while maintaining the compact footprint of the Dot range.

The redesigned internal architecture integrates the speaker directly into the device housing, doubling the air space available for bass response. It will retail for $100 / £100 / AU$200.

The refreshed Echo Studio, meanwhile, has been reduced in size by 40 per cent compared with the original model, while retaining support for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos.

It combines a high-excursion woofer with three full-range drivers and features a spherical design with 3D-knit fabric. The Echo Studio is priced at $220 / £220 / AU$429.

In an interesting new feature, both the Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio support Alexa Home Theatre, allowing users to connect up to five units with compatible Fire TV devices to create a surround sound system.

Amazon says this eliminates the complexity and cost typically associated with multi-speaker home theatre setups, though we’ll have to wait and see how the setup actually sounds before getting too excited.

Elsewhere, the new Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 feature redesigned displays that combine in-cell touch and negative liquid crystal technology. Amazon says this approach reduces lamination layers while maximising viewing angles, with the high-definition screens packing more than a million pixels.

Both models include a 13-megapixel camera for video calls and feature front-facing stereo speakers with a custom woofer for spatial audio.

The Echo Show 8 will cost $180 / £180 / AU$349, while the Echo Show 11 is priced at $220 / £220 / AU$429. An optional adjustable stand will also be sold separately.

All four devices are built around Amazon's new custom silicon – the AZ3 processor in the Echo Dot Max, and the more advanced AZ3 Pro in the Echo Studio and Echo Show models.

These chips include an AI accelerator designed for edge computing and improved wake-word detection, which Amazon claims is nearly 50 per cent more accurate than previous generations.

The devices also incorporate Omnisense, Amazon's sensor fusion platform that combines data from multiple sources, including cameras, audio, ultrasound, wi-fi radar, accelerometers, and wi-fi channel state information. This system is intended to enable more contextual and proactive responses from Alexa.

US customers purchasing the new Echo devices will receive access to Alexa+, Amazon's generative AI-powered assistant, out of the box. The Alexa+ service is not yet available in the UK, Australia, or other regions, though Amazon says the new hardware is designed to support these features once they launch.

The Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio will be available from 29th October, while the Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 will arrive on 12th November.

MORE

Amazon replaces one of our favourite budget TVs – and unveils its most affordable 4K streaming stick yet

Check out our Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini LED review

These are the best TVs you can buy right now

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

The Amazon Fire TV Soundbar has received a £30 discount, bringing it down to £90 from its £120 launch price on Amazon. While this makes Amazon's debut soundbar more accessible, we'd hold off buying it. And here’s why.

The Hisense HS214 is not only £16 cheaper at £74 on Amazon, but it also delivers superior sound quality. That's hard to argue against, but let’s dive into more detail if you need some convincing.

Amazon's Fire TV soundbar features a basic 2.0 setup with just two front-firing drivers, while the Hisense HS214 employs a 2.1 system that includes a dedicated 3-inch down-firing subwoofer.

This additional bass driver provides the low-frequency foundation that budget soundbars typically struggle to deliver.

It’s no surprise, then, that our testing revealed distinct performance gaps between the two models.

The Fire TV soundbar suffers from an undefined bass response, and rather lacks the textural detail needed for impactful cinema scenes.

In contrast, the Hisense delivers enhanced depth that the bass unit brings to the table, with a solid sound to the lows and a kick that gives the sound a touch more musicality.

The Hisense HS214 also excels with dialogue. Our review found that it anchors vocals, making content more engaging without the need to mess around with constant volume adjustments.

The Fire TV soundbar, while offering clear dialogue, sometimes produces voices that sound too smooth, missing the emotion of the performances in the process.

Both soundbars support similar connectivity options, including HDMI ARC, optical inputs, and Bluetooth streaming.

The Hisense, however, provides additional versatility with USB playback supporting multiple file formats (MP3/WAV/WMA/FLAC), coaxial input, and a 3.5mm auxiliary connection – features absent from its Amazon rival’s more limited specification.

Build quality favours Hisense as well. Despite its budget positioning, our testing found the HS214 offers decent-quality construction with thoughtful design elements such as wall-mounting hardware included in the box.

The Amazon model, while properly made, feels less substantial and lacks the premium touches found on the Hisense.

We should note that the Fire TV soundbar does include DTS Virtual:X processing for simulated surround effects – though our review found this creates a bit of a Catch 22 situation where enhanced width comes at the expense of vocal clarity.

The Hisense takes a more straightforward approach, with four EQ modes (music, news, cinema, and surround), that provide useful customisation without compromising core performance.

Music playback goes to the HS214 as well. Our testing revealed a pleasant, uncluttered midrange and a decent stereo image that makes casual listening enjoyable.

The Amazon model, while competent, lacks the punch and detail that make the Hisense engaging across different content types.

In short, the Hisense HS214 is a compact, budget soundbar that will elevate your TV’s built-in speakers.

If you can stretch your budget and space a little further though, then the £99 Sony SF150 is even better – which is why it is recommended on our list of the best soundbars.

MORE:

Read our Hisense HS214 2.1 review

These are the best soundbars currently available

Check out our Sony HT-SF150 review

The 65-inch version of the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED has dropped down to £759 on Amazon – a tasty £241 saving from its £1000 launch price. But we think there's a better TV deal live right now.

Instead of the Fire TV, we'd recommend spending just £30 more on the 65-inch Hisense U7N. Available for £789 at Amazon (down from its £899 launch price), the set represents significantly better value at its current price, based on our testing.

Here’s why.

The key difference lies in the display technology. While Amazon's Omni QLED uses a full-array LED backlight with 80 dimming zones, the Hisense U7N steps up to Mini LED technology with 384 dimming zones.

This translates to substantially better contrast control and more precise local dimming – crucial factors for picture quality.

In our review of the U7N, we found it delivered solid picture quality in most instances with effective dimming zone control that creates "a nicely three-dimensional, solid-looking picture that is one of the best you'll find on a set at this price."

The increased number of dimming zones allows for much more precise control of bright and dark areas within the same frame.

The Hisense also boasts higher peak brightness at 1,500 nits compared to its Omia rival’s more modest output. This enables better HDR performance, particularly with bright, vivid content where details might otherwise be lost.

Both TVs support the same HDR formats – HLG, HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision – but the U7N's superior hardware means it can make better use of them.

Our review noted that while the U7N can struggle with very bright scenes, it generally handles HDR content more capably than typical budget alternatives.

Gaming credentials are strong on both sets. The Hisense supports 4K gaming at up to 144Hz (though consoles are limited to 120Hz), along with VRR, ALLM, and Dolby Vision gaming.

The Amazon maxes out at 60Hz but includes the same VRR and ALLM features, plus Dolby Vision gaming support.

Where the Amazon TV excels, though, is in its smart platform integration. Fire OS is deeply embedded and offers excellent app support.

In contrast, the U7N uses VIDAA in the UK, which covers all the major streaming services, but lacks some gaming apps like Steam Link and GeForce Now.

Audio performance is comparable on both sets, with neither offering standout sound quality.

Both earned four-star ratings for audio in our reviews, delivering clear but unremarkable performance that would benefit from one of the best soundbars.

To be clear, the Amazon Omni QLED isn't a bad television – our review praised its thoughtfully designed approach that delivers balanced and consistent performance.

But the Hisense U7N's Mini LED technology and superior dimming zone control make it the smarter choice for anyone prioritising picture quality. In short, it’s worth the £30 extra.

MORE:

Read our Hisense U7N (65U7N) review

Best TV: flagship OLEDs and budget LED sets tried and tested

Read our Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED (QL65F601) review

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