Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Amazon celebrates 200 million Fire TV devices by launching more

Amazon today announced that it’s bolstering the high end of its Fire TV Omni Series line of televisions with new sizes and entry into new international markets, while also bringing new sets to the more affordable side of the equation. And the news comes as the company also announced that it’s sold more than 200 million Fire TV devices worldwide. For context, that number was around 150 million in January 2022.

Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED Series TV.
Amazon / Amazon

First up: The — heretofore available in 65- and 75-inch sizes — gains options at 43, 50 and 55 inches. They’re up for preorder at Amazon starting today (at $449, $529, and $599, respectively), and will be available at Best Buy on May 11. These are fundamentally the same as what we reviewed previously, Amazon says, only with fewer local dimming zones because of the smaller size.

So you should expect a decent QLED set, but also one that makes full use of the new Fire TV “Ambient Experience,” which allows the TV to sense when someone is in the room and adjust itself accordingly. That’s less about attitude and more about turning itself into something more useful than a blank screen, with things like calendar entries and reminders, sticky notes for family members, or an art gallery with more than 1,700 free works from institutions like the National Gallery of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

On the even less expensive side of things, Amazon is debuting the new Fire TV 2-Series. These are low-end sets available in just two sizes — 32 inches at 720p for $199, and 40 inches at 1080p for $249. They’re available now from Amazon.

And perhaps the bigger news is that the Omni QLED Series, new Fire TV 2-Series, and the existing 4-Series all are headed outside of the U.S. and will be available for the first time in the U.K., Germany, and Mexico.

“We continue to hear from customers that most smart TVs just aren’t all that smart—and they’re turning to Fire TV to deliver a truly intelligent and intuitive TV experience. With over 200 million streaming players and smart TVs sold globally, our relentless focus on making TVs actually smart is resonating with customers around the world. In fact, televisions are the fastest-growing segment in the Fire TV business,” Daniel Rausch, vice president of Amazon Entertainment Devices and Services, said in a press release. “When customers love something, we double down. We’re excited to not only bring our Fire TV Ambient Experience to more rooms of the home with multiple new screen sizes of the Omni QLED Series, but also to enable customers to get a Fire TV smart TV for as low as [$200] with the new 2-Series. We can’t wait to hear what customers think.”

Editors' Recommendations

Phil Nickinson
Section Editor, Audio/Video
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
Amazon Fire TV Channels brings even more free TV to the platform
Amazon Fire TV Channels.

Amazon today announced Fire TV Channels, which brings even more free ad-supported TV — otherwise known as FAST — to the Amazon Fire TV operating system.

The gist is simple: You'll see even more free video promoted to you on the Amazon Fire TV home screen from the various sources within the FAST universe. That means in addition to all the content currently available on Amazon Freevee (formerly known as IMDB TV), there will be video from the NHL, Xbox, and TMZ. There will be a new travel category, too, and Conde Nast and the PGA are teed up next.

Read more
More than 100 Amazon Originals head to Amazon Freevee
Amazon Freevee app on a TV.

If you needed any more proof that branding is out of control, consider the following sentence: Amazon today announced that more than 100 Amazon Originals, which first appeared on Amazon Prime Video, will be made available for free on Amazon Freevee.

Or, in other words, you'll be able to watch things like The Wheel of Time, Reacher, A League of Their Own, and LuLa Rich — to name but a few — for free, without a subscription to Amazon Prime.

Read more
Amazon Fire TVs can stream directly to hearing implants
A man with a cochlear hearing implant listens to TV audio.

A select number of Amazon Fire TV devices now support audio streaming to hearing implants, thanks to a partnership between Amazon and Cochlear, the world's largest provider of hearing implants. It lets hearing implant users hear a variety of audio content. Depending on the Fire TV device, that includes streaming movies and shows from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, podcasts, audiobooks, Alexa voice feedback, system sounds, and audio from local TV networks.

The new feature uses a Bluetooth protocol known as Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA), along with special modifications for the specific needs of those who use implants. At the moment, hearing implant streaming is available on Fire TV Omni QLED Series, Fire TV Omni Series, Fire TV 4-Series, Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen), and Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen) devices. It will work with Cochlear Nucleus 8, Nucleus 7, Nucleus Kanso 2, and Baha 6 Max sound processors.

Read more