Amazon is now a huge company with a finger in many UK pies. Books and eBooks, video streaming, own-brand hardware tablet devices and of course selling pretty much anything you can deliver to a person’s door. Its success means that most of us in the UK now use Amazon for something or other, with millions of UK account holders, of which many are signed up to its subscription Prime services.
Here we’ll be rounding up everything you need to know as either an occasional Amazon UK customer, a long-term, die-hard Prime member, and everything in between. We’ll bring you all the latest Amazon news, detail what you get from Amazon Prime, what’s on Prime Instant Video, the latest deals & codes online and a quick rundown of Amazon’s Kindle and Fire devices.
In short, we’ll provide everything you need to know about Amazon in the UK.
Amazon latest news
24/09 - Amazon announces 6 new pilot shows, all in 4K
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Amazon has announced the latest six shows in its pilots scheme, all of which have been shot in 4K. There are three new 30 min pilots and three new one-hours pilots to be shown during autumn through Amazon Prime Instant Video. Credits includes Shane Black (Iron Man 3), Sacha Baron Cohen and Christina Ricci.
The hour long pilots include the Shane-black headed Edge: The Loner about a post-civil war vigilante; Good Girls Revolt, about women fighting for equality in an sixties TV newsroom (Anchorman meets Mad Men anyone?) and Patriot, a Clancy-esque political thriller about Iran going nuclear.
The three half-hour programmes are Highston, which is described only as 'family comedy about invisible celebrity friendships’; One Mississippi, which is about a woman returning to her childhood home in the south after her mother's death - apparently that's a comedy too, so not as grim as it sounds. And it's back to the south again for Z, a biopic of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, set amid the wild nights of the 1920s jazz-era.
Traditionally pilot shows are made by US studios to see if a concept wins the approval of test audiences, Amazon however is using its entire Prime Instant Video audience as a testbed. Based on audience feedback, some of the shows should be made into fully-fledged TV series.
All the new pilot shows will be shot in 4K, increasing the amount of high-detail content for Amazon's new 4K-capable Fire TV device, more details below.
23/09 - Amazon US announces cut-price Prime
Amazon Prime will have a one-day price cut in the US to $67 for a year, down from $99. That cut is in response to (and to promote) its five awards at the 67th Emmy TV awards. Given that’s an American event, we think it unlikely that the savings will be brought over to the UK, but if they are we’ll update this article to let you know.
21/09 £50 tablet and 4K TV device announced by Amazon
New Amazon devices announced this week included three new tablets and two Fire TV devices. The headline is certainly the new Fire HD a 7in tablet that costs just £50. It’s an incredibly low price and though the hardware specification is basic it’s still incredible value.
The new tablet comes with Amazon’s latest version of Fire OS, which gets rid of the much-hated carousel for something more in keeping with the typical Android home screen. The device is locked to using Amazon’s app store, rather than Google’s, of course but with a decent range of apps that’s no longer a huge problem for most – and yes you can get Netflix and iPlayer.
Also announced were some keenly priced mid-range tablets in the form of the Amazon Fire HD 8 and 10. Which again come with the new Fire OS 5 but have more powerful hardware than the basic model, and claim to be twice as tough as the iPad Air 2.
Then there’s the new Amazon Fire TV which supports 4K video, with Amazon Prime Instant Video, Netflix and YouTube all providing 4K content – though of course you’ll need a 4K TV. And a new Amazon Fire TV Stick, so you can get streaming content onto your TV with a small device that plugs straight into the HDMI socket.
Amazon Prime – what do you get for your money?
Amazon Prime costs £79 a year in the UK. The service started by simply providing free next-day delivery for all your Amazon purchases. As Amazon has expanded its services though, it’s added lots of extra features and content to the service, so what are you getting for your money.
One-day delivery still forms the core of the Prime offering. The one-day delivery only covers items sold, or fulfilled (i.e. Items that Amazon is paid to stock in its warehouses by other retailers) by Amazon, and not many Amazon Marketplace items. One-day delivery costs vary but are usually around £7.99, which means you’d need to make ten orders to break even over the year. You can get free delivery (3-5 days) on orders over £20, or £10 for books, if you’re a bit more patient. But if you order a lot of smaller things from Amazon and don’t like to wait, then it’s a good service.
In addition to delivery you also get Amazon Prime Instant Video, the company’s Netflix competitor with a wide range of films and TV shows including unique content, more on the below. Then there’s Prime Music, which provides a Spotify-like music streaming service, though it doesn’t have that service’s near-encyclopaedic range. Plus unlimited photo storage with Prime Photos (which is available for free via Google Photos if you like the idea) and the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library, which has lots of books you can borrow, but is short on big, new titles in our experience.
Amazon Prime Instant Video
Amazon’s Netflix competitor is certainly the second-best movie and TV streaming service around, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Amazon has been producing some excellent-quality exclusive content, such as Transparent. It also has an enviable range of movies, arguably the one area where it outshines Netflix, thanks to content deals with some important smaller Hollywood studios, such as Hunger Games producer Lionsgate. We often find there’s simply more interesting films to watch on Prime than Netflix, though the latter has better TV programmes.
Recent additions (as of the 24th of September) include Toy Story 2, Beetlejuice, Ghost Ship and The Office (UK) season one.
You can also rent the latest blockbuster releases through Amazon Instant Video, read our full review.
Latest deals, promo & voucher codes and Lightning Deals
There’s not much going on offer-wise on Amazon right now, probably saving itself for the upcoming Black Friday frenzy on November 27th. There is a bonus five-year warranty deal on the very promising-looking Olympus OM-D E-M10 Compact System Camera, full review soon. But nothing else caught our eye right now.
Amazon Fire and Amazon Kindle devices
For a full breakdown of all the current Kindle eBook readers, see our Kindle vs Kindle Paperwhite vs Kindle Voyage - Best for you? Article. There we break down the key differences between all three current eReaders, so you can work out which one best suites your needs.
As mentioned above, Amazon’s range of tablets and TV device is about to be refreshed, but you can still buy the current Amazon Fire TV, the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Amazon HDX tablet. We’ll expand this article once we’ve tested the new devices.
