Amazon’s new Fire Omni Mini-LED TV launches at a temptingly low introductory price

Amazon has announced a major refresh of its home entertainment offering that includes a brand-new television, soundbar and an aesthetic update to its entry-level 4K TV.

The new Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED is an upgrade to the Fire TV Omni QLED, which greatly impressed our TV expert Stephen Withers when he reviewed it last year.

As its name suggests, the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED uses a Mini LED backlight to illuminate its QLED panel and is claimed to house close to 1,000 dimming zones, ten times the number found on the Omni QLED. It’s said to be significantly brighter, too, with Amazon stating a peak brightness of 1,400cd/m².

To put that figure in perspective, the Omni QLED managed just 570cd/m² on a 10% window during our tests. These upgrades should result in vastly improved picture performance in conjunction with the TV’s in-built light and colour sensor. Like the Omni QLED, the Omni Mini-LED supports an impressive selection of high dynamic range formats, including Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive.

On the audio front, Amazon has added support for Dolby Atmos, and this will be delivered by a pair of in-built speakers and a single subwoofer. This suggests the speaker arrangement will differ depending on whether you go for the 55in, 65in or 75in model. I’ve reached out to Amazon to clarify which screen sizes have two subwoofers and will update this story when I’ve received confirmation.

Further upgrades are evident in the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED’s gaming provision. Whereas the Omni QLED was limited to a refresh rate of 60Hz, the Omni Mini-LED supports refresh rates of up to 144Hz in its Game mode, making it a more viable choice for current-gen console gamers. There’s support for Auto Low-Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rates (VRR) too, with the TV certified for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro.

The TV will, of course, run Amazon’s Fire TV operating system and be controllable using voice commands via Amazon Alexa. I’ve not had word on the number or type of physical connection ports but Amazon has confirmed that the television supports Wi-Fi 6E along with Bluetooth 5.2.

At £650 for the 55in model, £950 for the 65in option and £1,300 for the 75in screen size, the new Fire TV Omni Mini-LED certainly looks very competitively priced. It’s worth noting, however, that these prices are likely to increase to RRPs of £850, £1,150 and £1,600 on 2 December.

To accompany the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED, Amazon has unveiled the Fire TV Soundbar Plus. The successor to the Fire TV Soundbar I reviewed earlier this year, the Soundbar Plus is still an all-in-one soundbar but adds a centre channel and built-in subwoofer. It also gains Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and DTS TruVolume support along with a new Night mode.

Priced at just £200, it’s in danger of making the £120 Fire TV Soundbar redundant. Despite lacking up-firing drivers to make the most of Dolby Atmos and DTS:X height effects, I’d expect it to deliver a much more immersive audio experience, and be worth paying the extra £80 for. This is another introductory offer, however; you have until 2 December before it rises in price to £250.

Finally, Amazon has detailed a cosmetic change to its Fire TV 4-Series television. Stephen Withers wasn’t hugely impressed by the first iteration of Amazon’s cheap 4K TV, calling it “a little too Amazon Basics” in his Fire TV 4-Series review. With no stated changes to its hardware, the new model is likely to perform very similarly.

However, it should be easier on the eye thanks to a new ultra-slim bezel. Prices for the new Fire TV 4-Series start at £280 for the 43in model, rising to £330 for the 50in screen size and £380 for the 55in TV. Again, these are introductory prices and will rise to £430, £500 and £550 after 2 December.