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Amazon Fire TV and Alexa will power new 4K TVs from a trio of third-tier brands

Amazon Fire TV and Alexa will power new 4K TVs from a trio of third-tier brands

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It seems like the era of every TV manufacturer needing its own custom and not-really-that-great operating system is over: we've entered The Age of Partnerships. Now you can get a TCL with Roku built in, a Vizio with Chromecast, or a Sony with Android TV. And, finally, Amazon's Fire TV OS is available in TV form. It's a great time to be alive and a consumer.

Westinghouse, Element, and Seiki — all brands built by Tong Fang Global, and typically available at retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart — each have four new 4K TVs based on the Amazon Fire TV OS. There's actually zero info on what differentiates these TVs from each other outside the brand name and the four sizes (43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch, and 65-inch), so let's focus on the similarities.

The TVs have the features and interface you'd expect from Fire TV, including streaming services like HBO, Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Video. If you grab an antenna you can also tune in to over-the-air TV from within the Fire TV interface. The included Alexa remote adds voice commands, and you can access Alexa skills and do home automation stuff. The TVs also support 4K streaming with services that offer it.

According to HD Guru, the TVs will also be controllable from an Amazon Echo, and Amazon is supposedly working on Alexa control for third-party apps and scene-by-scene content navigation.

There's no HDR support for any of these screens, which serves as a hint to the remaining unknown: price. These TVs, which will be available "later this year" on Amazon and at other retailers, will likely hit a nice price point.