Our Verdict
The Element Fire TV is an average 4k TV with mediocre picture quality. It's not a very competitive package overall, and it doesn't particularly excel at anything. Its smart features are decent, but they are centered around Amazon's services.
- High contrast gives deep and uniform blacks
- Amazon's Alexa is a powerful assistant
- Picture quality degrades at an angle
- Input lag is high
- Ads are more intrusive than average
Mediocre TV for watching movies. The Fire TV has a decent contrast, but it lacks a calibration or local dimming feature. It also cannot play 24p content from any source without judder, which not every user can notice.
Decent TV for watching TV shows, the Amazon Fire TV interface is very responsive and intuitive and covers most streaming services. The TV gets decently bright, but it could have a better finish for handling reflections in a brighter room.
The Element Fire TV is a decent sports watching TV. Its uniformity is about average so no major dirty screen effect is present to ruin the looks of grassy fields. Its motion is good, but its picture quality degrades at an angle so it isn't the best for living rooms with a wider sitting arrangement.
Average TV for playing video games. While it has decent handling of motion blur, the Element Fire TV's input lag leaves a lot to be desired. More casual users might not have issues with it, but more demanding gamers will notice the extra "floatiness" caused by the latency.
HDR is not supported, and the TV doesn't get particularly bright. It lacks a wide color gamut and 10 bits of color depth which stops it from seeing any picture quality improvement from a future HDR supporting update.
The high input lag and no support for HDR makes the Fire TV a poor choice for HDR gaming.
High input lag, narrow viewing angles and limited resolution support makes the Fire TV a bad choice for use as a PC monitor. The input lag particularly deteriorates the experience as mouse movement become annoyingly slow.
Changelog
- Updated Mar 12, 2018: Converted to Test Bench 1.2.
- Updated Oct 05, 2017: Added BFI Frequency
- Updated Aug 10, 2017: Converted to Test Bench 1.1.
- Updated Aug 07, 2017: Review published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 55" (EL4KAMZ5517). For the most part, we expect our review to be valid for other sizes of the Fire TV.
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their Element EL4KAMZ Fire TV doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review.
| Size | Model |
| 43" | EL4KAMZ4317 |
| 50" | EL4KAMZ5017 |
| 55" | EL4KAMZ5517 |
| 65" | EL4KAMZ6517 |
Popular TV Comparisons
The Element Fire TV is a mediocre TV, especially compared to the very capable competition found in its price range.
The Samsung MU6300 is much better than the Element Amazon Fire TV. The MU6300 delivers better picture quality and can take advantage of most of the recent HDR formats. The MU6300 has much lower input lag, great for gaming, and can reduce the backlight flicker frequency to improve motion clarity. The Fire TV has a faster response time, so motion is a bit smoother and has less blur.
The Vizio M Series XLED 2017 is much better than the Element Amazon Fire TV. The Vizio M Series supports HDR and has a local dimming feature that improves dark room performance. It also has lower input for gaming and is more consistent in removing judder from 24p sources. The Fire TV has an optional motion interpolation feature that can make motion appear smoother by introducing some soap opera effect.
The TCL S Series/S405 4k 2018 is better than the Element Amazon Fire TV. The S405 supports HDR, while the Fire TV does not. The TCL is more consistent in its ability to remove judder from 24p sources. The S405 also has much lower input for gaming or use as a PC monitor. The Fire TV is a lot brighter and has an optional motion interpolation feature.
The Vizio E Series 2018 is much better than the Element Amazon Fire TV. The E Series 2018 delivers better picture quality, including support for the latest HDR formats. The E Series has much lower input lag, great for gaming and has an optional black frame insertion feature that can improve motion clarity. The Fire TV can interpolate lower frame rate content to help motion appear smoother.
We buy and test dozens of TVs yearly, taking an objective, data-driven approach to deliver results you can trust. Our testing process is complex, with hundreds of individual tests that take over a week to complete. Most of our tests use specially designed test patterns that mimic real content, but we also use the same sources you have at home to ensure our results match the real-world experience. We use two main tools for our testing: a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and a CR-250 spectroradiometer.
Test Results
Older Test Bench: This product has been tested using an older TV test methodology, before a major update. Some of the test results below aren't directly comparable with other TVs. Learn more
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