Verdict
A solid picture streaming military service with an pleasurable roster of original content and a monumental subroutine library . It ’s A / Phoebe performance is satisfactory , but Prime Video still feels a little clunky and the amount of cognitive content available is consuming . This overhaul could benefit from being pruner and more streamlined .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
They say it ’s been a favorable age for TV show , and the streaming roar has made it easy to ascertain our favourite series on need .
One major player is Amazon with Prime Video . It launched in 2006 , piss the record hop over to UK shores in 2014 when it gobbled up LoveFilm Instant .
Since then , it ’s become an established role player in the UK market place alongside iPlayer , and despite not getting as much attention asNetflixand Disney+ , it arguably has the blanket breath of substance ; a program library with admission to classics and outside features , as well as a line - up of original content and sports in 4 K HDR .
How good is Prime Video ? permit ’s notice out .
Supported devices
Like Netflix , Prime Video has broad handiness . It ’s on Amazon ’s own devices in the Fire telecasting , Fire TV Stick , Echo , and Fire Tablets . Other swarm players includeChromecast , Nvidia Shield , Roku , Apple TV , Xiaomi , Strong , Sky Stream , and NOW among others , as well asset - top boxesfrom TiVO , Virgin Media , Sky QandHumax .
agitate beyond the Amazon ecosystem and there areBlu - beam playersfrom LG , Panasonic , and Sony .
All the major TV brand carry the app as well as smaller one whether it ’s Hisense , LG , Panasonic , Philips , Samsung , Sony , Skyworth , Sky Glass , Toshiba , Vizio , TCL , JVC , Sharp and Grundig .
Chrome , Firefox , Edge , Safari , and Opera are shroud for browsers , along with Android , iOS , and Windows platforms . Sony secret plan consoles from the PS3 to thePS5are supported , while for Xbox it ’s the Series X / S consoles back to the Xbox One .
Interface
Prime Video ’s revamp of its interface in the summertime of 2022 made it easier to navigate and visually good . Issues remain , but this is a better travail .
Below are five sections : All , Movies , TV shows , Sports and Family . persist on the principal page and the first row is a floating one , sometimes it ’s a run-in of suggested movies , other time it ’s the UK top ten . Then it ’s follow by original / exclusive content , and subscriptions to other channels , which has push the Continue watch bar down the page .
Personally , I ’d prefer the ‘ go on … ’ barroom to be station higher – more likeApple TV+ . I believe streaming services should encourage you to finish what you ’ve started rather than chuck more clobber at you .
If you ’re using the TV user interface , the auto play trailer when levitate on a title can get exhausting . It can be turn off in the options .
weightlift the green button on the telecasting remote and you’re able to append a title to your watchlist , remove it or hide it from view , the latter utilitarian for program that have alternate from cyclosis to rent / buy that you do n’t want to see anymore .
There ’s also a row for title of respect leaving the avail , which is a useful reminder . The number of titles in each row diverge – Top ten is patently just ten – but the ‘ leave ’ dustup had over 100 , while I stopped counting on the ‘ young movies ’ row after I hit 200 . That number encourage dateless idle scrolling , and paint a picture a cyclosis service more about quantity than being compendious .
Then there are legions of row such as ‘ Recently added movies ’ , hold out and upcoming consequence ( usually sports but sometimes music ) , ones that focalize on a genre ( Horror , Thriller , Romantic , Westerns ) ; suggested titles ( because you watched … ) , theme rows ( lead women , Movies by Warner Bros. , LGBTQ+ movies ) , capacity from Prime Video Channels – and on and on . Perusing the interface feel as long as a Rings of Power instalment .
Features
Prime Video substantiate up to six profiles ( include kids visibility ) , and there are maternal controller to set restrictions for what can be seen or buy in the store .
There ’s the IMDb X - Ray feature , which I think is Prime Video ’s hole-and-corner sauce for film and TV nerd that goes into the detail of the cast of characters , and offer trivia and fact . I wish this lineament a portion , useful when you see an actor and have their name on the tip of your natural language .
A large issue , though , is Prime Video ’s tagging of 4 K HDR depicted object , which is often wrong . Dune ( 2021 ) claims to be a UHD title but it ’s actually in HD , and the same is true for Wonder Woman 1984 , Patriots Day , Bombshell . A Quiet Place , and La La Land . The stream never adulterate in UHD or HDR .
Prime Video also supports grouping reckon with itsWatch Party . Up to 100 participant can join a school term , but they must reside in your country . Watch Party is compatible with any Prime Video Channel orFreevee .
Curation
Prime Video does n’t reveal much about its curation – in fact , there ’s nothing I can witness online , so it ’s punishing to know what foundation the algorithm is feeding you deed of conveyance .
There are row of movies / television set show Prime Video cogitate you ’ll care . On the landing Thomas Nelson Page for each championship , there ’s a wrangle of depicted object other customers have watched to spur some inspiration for finding something novel . There are also rows with suggestions base on your vigil chronicle . Having seen Catching Fire the leaning started filtering young adult films like Allegiant and The Mortal Instruments .
There ’s a deftness to rate titles like Netflix ’s pollex up / thumbs down , but all that really does is shift the titles in the ‘ because you like … ’ row – it does n’t appear to affect anything else . If you ‘ wish ’ something else afterwards , it ’ll immediately change that row again , so all the title that were antecedently there disappear .
oddly , after I liked Amelie , that row suggested Amelie again , along with Manchester by the Sea ( ! ) , Annie Hall , Birdman , and Sound of Metal . If you give a title the thumbs down , it removes it from position .
It amounts to suggestions that do n’t sense personal and more like new content Prime want to put in front of your eyeballs . There are currentlya lotof Tom Cruise film ( perhaps a primer for Dead Reckoning ’s home video release ) , as well as the Transformers series but I do n’t remember take in anything related to those picture show .
Overall , curation feels by the numbers . Because I observe Dune the service recommend Catherine Called Birdy ? I do n’t see much of a connectedness between the two .
Library
Prime Video ( the UK version at least ) has , according to Just Watch , amammoth 12370 titlesas of September 2023 , which liken favourablyto Netflix ’s 7565 .
Of naturally , Prime Video licence an enormous amount message from studios , while Netflix focuses on its original content ( with a little help from Sony Pictures ) . Where Prime Video better Netflix is that it gets ‘ bigger ’ films quicker . By quicker I do n’t mean instant – usually less than two years – but more recent title seem to start up quicker than on Netflix .
As of September 2023 , The Suicide Squad ( 2021 ) was available , as was The Matrix Resurrections ( 2021 ) , King Richard ( 2021 ) , In The Heights ( 2021 ) , all Warner Bros. ’ titles , incidentally . And there are small title such as Till ( 2023 ) , Women Talking ( 2023 ) and Alice , Darling ( 2023 ) .
It ’s also full in terms of older , cult films like the 80s version of Dune , 1984 , Some Like It Hot , Heaven ’s Gate , The Misfits , The Bishop ’s Wife , Django , and The Killing ( Kubrick version ) . If you ’re looking for something from the yesteryear , Prime Video is quite nice , though it ’s not too easy to find them .
As a service , Prime Video has a riding habit of coalesce streaming titles with substance you may rent , buy , or sample distribution with a free visitation via Prime Video Channels . Prime Video functions more like Apple TV in that it is both a streaming military service and a store . At least Apple tv set ( mostly ) separates its storage and cyclosis service – Amazon has its bar and eats withbotha store sectionanda cyclosis section with capacity you could rent and buy . It ’s ineluctable .
Original content is an area Amazon has n’t been as strong as its competitor . Apple TV+ is honest despite set in motion much later . The return is not of necessity prize – I ’d say Prime Video ’s roll of pilot is good – but the frequence of titles does n’t feel as steady as its rivals .
The Terminal List , Daisy Jones & the Six , Tom Clancy ’s Jack Ryan , The Peripheral , A League of Their Own , Invincible , and The Boys all range from near to very good ( let ’s ignore Citadel ) ; and there is the sports - focused All or Nothing series , that ’s good entertainment , though Netflix is catching up with Drive to live and Break Point .
Prime Video also has exclusives like Star Trek : Lower Decks , Vikings , and You injure My Feelings but these tend to backslide . Halt and Catch Fire and Mr Robot are no longer uncommitted , despite the poster art still say ‘ Amazon Exclusive ’ even though Mr Robot is now onITVXand Halt and Catch Fire is on Channel 4 ( both are first-class by the way ) .
The original titles I list do n’t make as much bombilation as much as the Disney+ MCU and Star Wars series ( whatever you may think of them ) , or its FX title ( The Bear , Welcome to Wrexham ) . Apple TV+ has Ted Lasso , but also The Morning Show , Silo , Foundation , Hijack , For All humanity , and Slow Horses . When was the last metre you think of ascertain an Amazon Original ?
There ’s a lot of mental object on Prime Video , though the caution is that not all of it is available through Prime cyclosis . amount is winning the struggle over tone in some aspects of Prime Video ’s performance .
Performance
Performance depend on the tv set and sound system you have , but the performance is reliably good . Prime Video has enough content to take vantage of UHD solving , HDR and Wide Colour Gamut .
observe Daisy Jones on an LG and Samsung TV , and I prefer theDolby Visionversion . You ca n’t become HDR off ( or prefer which one you need ) , but a few titles support both HDR10 + and Dolby Vision . From memory , Dolby Vision is prioritised , which is a slight surprise afford Amazon was one of the former angel of HDR10 + . latterly it ’s tot up more titles in Dolby Vision , which is good to see commit it ’s the more common HDR format .
I would n’t sort out it as looking better than Apple TV+ , which benefits from slicker output values ( and almost certainly higher bit - rates ) . movie maker mode depend on your television receiver , and a premium OLED orMini LEDwould bring out the estimable image quality ; a cheaper LED set that does n’t offer the best contrast , luminosity of color reproduction and a show like The Rings of Power can end up look very unremarkable .
The sound timbre is good , though Dolby Atmos financial backing is not as blanket as I ’d hoped , even on Amazon ’s Originals . You ’d like to think every original broadcast is in Atmos , but it varies – The Terminal List does n’t have it , but Rings of Power does . That ’s a disappointment , especially if you have an Atmos capable surroundings system .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
Prime Video come part of an annual Prime sub , which mean you get it as part of your subscription at no extra cost
you may pelt , you may buy , you may rent ; Amazon is happy whatever you do , but the amount of choice is overwhelming , not aid by content being behind paywalls either .
Final Thoughts
Prime Video is a solid service , with unspoilt AV certification and a massive library , but it also offer an overwhelming amount of choice .
The user interface is better , but curation does n’t feeltoopersonal ; its roll of original programming is good , but others are stronger . It ’s comparatively one of the more affordable options , but with a price hike arrange for 2024 , you ’ll need to pay more to avert ads . That rather sums up Prime Video ’s current state – the good points are chop-chop comply by caution .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every picture streaming service we review thoroughly over an drawn-out stop of fourth dimension . We use industry standard tests to compare features decently . We ’ll always tell you what we recover . We never , ever , accept money to review a product .
FAQs
Yes , you could sample the service with a generous 30 - day complimentary trial , and once that ’s done , it ’ll machine - renew at £ 8.99 / month .
Full Specs
