Competitors are lining up to challenge Samsung's The Frame, now including Amazon with its new Ember Artline TV. Fire TV is also getting a revamped interface.
According to Amazon, the redesigned interface is cleaner, faster and better organized:
- "The new UI has a more modern design with improved layouts, rounded corners, redesigned color gradients, updated typography, and more optimized spacing. The update isn’t just aesthetic: The team rebuilt the underlying code to make the experience faster. In some cases, we’re seeing up to 20–30% gains in speed when using the new UI. All of these improvements will be available to customers with a free software update"
In addition, a native GeForce Now app will launch on select Amazon Fire TV sticks, starting with Fire TV Stick 4K Plus (2nd Gen) and Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Gen), in early 2026, according to Nvidia.
User experience or ads?
Amazon says that a key priority has been helping customers spend less time searching and more time watching. Users can now pin up to 20 apps – up from 6 today – and a long press on the Home button takes you to a new quick-access menu.
However, given that Fire TV is an ad-based TV platform, it would be surprising if the redesign does not primarily favor Amazon's ads partners. The large, prominent ad carousel remains in place.
Also read: Amazon Fire TV replaces your screensaver with full-screen ads
More than 300 million Fire TV devices have been sold to date by Amazon and its partners, but the revamped UI will only roll out to some of the more recent devices (see table), starting in February.
The revamped Fire TV interface. Photo: Amazon
The revamped Fire TV interface. Photo: AmazonAmazon Ember Artline TVs
Amazon is renaming its smart TV lineup to Ember, and the first TV to launch under the new branding is a direct rival to Samsung's The Frame. It will be known as Amazon Ember Artline.
- "The all-new Amazon Ember Artline is a beautiful 4K QLED TV featuring support for Dolby Vision, HDR10+, Wi-Fi 6, and a thin 1.5-inch design. It has a matte screen designed to make your art and photos look great and to reduce glare in any lighting condition," said Amazon.
In other words, it is a basic LCD TV that cannot deliver movies and series in true HDR quality.
The art features, however, sound solid, with access to more than 2000 pieces of free art and Amazon Photos integration. A new feature lets you take photos of your living room to receive artwork suggestions that match the space. Alexa+ can also help create slideshows or find specific photos.
The Amazon Ember Artline will be available in 55 and 65 inches later this spring in the US, Canada, Germany and the UK, starting at $900 including a frame.
Fire TV devices getting the new US
In Amazon's own words:
The new Fire TV UI and mobile app will launch starting in February on the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Gen), and Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series in the U.S. Later this spring, we'll expand the new UI design to more countries and more devices, including the latest generation Fire TV 4K streaming media players and TVs like the Fire TV 2-Series, Fire TV 4-Series, Fire TV Omni QLED Series; TVs made by partners like Hisense, Insignia, Panasonic, and TCL; and at launch on the all-new Amazon Ember Artline. |
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