A television can look spectacular when it’s on and like a giant hole in your decorating plans when it’s off. You pick the furniture, match the curtains, hang a few pictures, and then surrender an entire wall to a black rectangle. Amazon’s Ember Artline would rather be one of the pictures.
And yes, it is a Fire TV. Ember is the new name for Amazon’s own smart TV lineup; Fire TV remains the software experience running inside.
A Television With a Wardrobe
The Ember Artline is a 4K QLED TV with a matte screen, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, Wi-Fi 6, and a body just 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) thick. It comes in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes, with a choice of 10 magnetic frame finishes, including Walnut, Teak, Fig, and Pale Gold.
The frame is included. So is access to more than 2,000 artworks without an additional art subscription. Monet, Degas, and Renoir are among the artists represented, alongside contemporary photography and 60 commissioned motion-art pieces.
You can display your own Amazon Photos collection, too. Family portraits or Impressionist paintings: entirely your call, although one option is less likely to start an argument about someone’s expression.
If choosing the artwork becomes another unfinished decorating task, Match the Room uses photos of your space to suggest suitable pieces. Omnisense technology switches the Ambient Experience on or off as people enter or leave, while far-field microphones let you speak to Alexa+ hands-free.
The Ember Artline is already available in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Germany, starting at US$899.99 in the U.S.
Less Browsing, More Watching
The redesigned Fire TV interface tackles a different living-room problem: spending your viewing time deciding what to view.
Movies, shows, sports, news, and live content are organized across your services, while app tiles can be rearranged on the home screen. Amazon says rebuilt software delivers speed improvements of up to 20–30% in some cases on existing devices.
Long-pressing Home opens a shortcut panel for settings, Ring cameras, and smart-home controls. Alexa+ can help narrow down your choices through conversation or jump to a specific movie scene. Useful when you remember the scene perfectly but have forgotten almost everything else.
The free update is available on current-generation Fire TV Sticks, Fire TV Cube, and Amazon Ember TVs.
Your Phone Gets a Better Job Than Backup Remote
The revamped Fire TV mobile app still handles remote duties, but now also lets you browse titles, manage your watchlist, and start playback on the television.
That means a friend’s recommendation can go straight onto your watchlist while you’re out, rather than becoming another show you vaguely remember being told to watch. The app is free worldwide.
Between the artwork and the browsing upgrades, Amazon has covered both possibilities: finding something to watch and giving up for the evening. At least the wall will still look good.
Amazon isn’t the first. Both LG and Samsung have done it before, and more recently, we saw an beautiful example from Chinese TV maker, Skyworth, that looks very similar to Amazon’s.
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Images: Amazon.