There was a full selection of TV announcements at CES 2026, and more than just a dab of predictability. LG has a new Wallpaper TV with a wireless box – you’d expect nothing less. Samsung’s next-gen OLED TVs are going to be brighter, but with an adjustment to HDR 10+Advanced to make that HDR format brighter too – it’s about time.
Elsewhere, TCL showed off its next-gen SQD-Mini LED TV, claiming 10,000 nits brightness and – no word of a lie – part of the demo reel was so bright it was uncomfortable to look at. Colour volume is increasing thanks to RGB tech, brightness is ramping up and we’re entering the next-gen HDR wars.
That’s all coming for 2026, but that’s not what was most interesting to me. Tucked in a room off a corridor, I found Amazon’s new Ember Artline – and I think it marks a significant shift in TVs.
How did we get to Ember? What does that even mean?
Amazon’s Fire TV range has been on something of a journey, from affordable TVs sold in a stack ’em high, sell ’em cheap style, through to more advanced models. The Omni naming came to better quality TVs more recently, topped by the Omni Mini-LED – which offers great performance for the price.
So far, all of these TVs have been called Fire TV. It’s been a fast-and-loose naming nightmare where we have Fire TV Sticks and Fire TV TVs, running Fire TV OS. More recently Fire TV OS has been adopted by more TVs, which are also called Fire TVs, but they’re not Amazon’s Fire TVs. You can see the problem.
Amazon has now rebranded its own TVs as Ember, which neatly sticks to the combustion theme. The first Ember model is the Artline and this is what I found really interesting at CES 2026.
IMAGE CREDIT: THE DISCONNEKT
Why does the Amazon Ember Artline matter?
Aside from the new branding, which is very welcome, the Artline marks a shift in what we’ve seen from Amazon before. It reveals ambition to get into a segment of the market that’s been flying under the radar – the lifestyle TV segment.
That’s what Samsung calls it, where The Frame dominates. First launched in 2017, Samsung’s The Frame is a different take on televisions, presenting the screen as a canvas for art, with interchangeable frames, designed to match the décor of your home.
It’s a TV that’s doesn’t look like a TV, kickstarting a trend of matte displays, which both avoid reflections and mean that images displayed on that screen look more like art. Constable’s The Hay Wain lacks a certain something when it shines from the screen, and presenting a canvas-like picture is what this matte screen is all about.
Amazon is joining Samsung – and Hisense who offers the Canvas TV – with its own portal for art. In doing so, it’s dragging lifestyle TVs into the mainstream because they are likely to get a lot more exposure, especially when it comes to sales periods, where prices will be slashed, something that Amazon is very good at doing.
That’s going to add a lot of competition to this segment of the market, while also giving more shoppers access to a TV with a matte display, whether they choose to showcase art or not.
Four essential Ember Artline specs
2,000
Works of art
There will be access to 2,000 works of art which are free to help you find something you like.
60Hz
Refresh rate
Sticking to 60Hz means that this TV won’t offer the best experience for gamers.
39mm
Thick
At 39mm thick (for both sizes), this is a slim TV designed for wall mounting. It even comes with the wall mount in the box.
10W
Speakers
There are two 10W speakers in that slim frame, suggesting that the sound isn’t going to be that encompassing.
Here’s a rundown of the important details: the Ember Artline will come in 55 and 65-inch sizes. It’s a 4K HDR TV, using QLED technology. It’s a 60Hz panel with that matte finish I mentioned and a pair of 10W speakers.
There are four HDMI connections, with one HDMI 2.1 also offering eARC. It has Wi-Fi 6 and Ethernet, while it also offers handsfree Alexa voice controls.
That sits it most closely to the Fire TV Omni Mini-LED, although it’s not exactly that same, as it’s not listed as supporting Dolby Vision IQ, just standard Dolby Vision and there are definitely different speakers, most likely to keep it slim.
But here’s the big difference: the Ember Artline is 39mm thick while the Omni Mini-LED is 84mm thick and that’s a huge difference in the physical design, especially when it’s hung on your wall. It also comes with the wall mount kit included.
The magnetic frames are interchangeable, coming in a full selection of 10 colours. One frame will come with the TV and the others will be available separately, prices are yet to be confirmed.
The Amazon Ember Artline is listed as “coming soon”, priced at £949.98 for the 55-inch model ($899.99) or £1,199.98 for the 65-inch model ($1,099.99).
Currently, Samsung’s The Frame is £999 for the 55-inch model and £1,299 for the 65-inch.
