Amazon Prime Video Review

Editor’s note: Our reviews reflect our experiences and opinions with a product at the time of our testing. We don’t change the substance of our reviews unless we re-review the product in a new testing period. However, we do strive to note when specific elements of our reviews go out of date.

This post has been updated with new branding information, and other important changes are noted in the text.

Amazon Prime Video is a very successful and highly rated video streaming service. Only Netflix scores higher in customer satisfaction and this is the only international video streaming service that beats Amazon Prime Video in terms of subscriber numbers.

Netflix doesn’t offer the live sports access that is available with Amazon Prime Video. Amazon also beats Netflix in terms of flexibility because it has many add-on channels that give access to video content from rival systems, such as HBO and CBS All Access.

Despite being behind Netflix and Hulu in terms of membership in the USA, Amazon Prime Video offers more services than both of its more successful rivals.

Amazon Prime Video overview

Amazon Prime Video is the third-largest subscription video streaming service in the USA behind Netflix and Hulu. The Hulu video subscription service isn’t available outside the USA, so Amazon Prime Video is the second-largest video service for streaming in the world.

The international service of Amazon Prime Video means that it is still available for streaming through mobile devices, laptops, and other streaming devices to customers who travel abroad. Video streaming services usually buy video broadcast rights per country, so the service shown to Amazon members who are traveling will be different from the menu of videos that are shown in the USA. However, at least it is available, which is better than Hulu, which is blocked outside of the USA.

Amazon Prime Video was created out of the Amazon video rental business. That Amazon video sales and rental arm of Amazon, called Amazon Instant Video still exists, but Amazon Prime Video is a pre-paid package of access to more than 10,000 videos. The video service was originally a perk included with Amazon Prime membership. However, Amazon Prime Video is now available as a standalone video streaming service with it also being available still with an Amazon Prime subscription.

Amazon Prime Video content

Amazon Prime Video has just about every genre of entertainment other than pornography. It doesn’t just concentrate on family-friendly entertainment, like Disney+. There is plenty of entertainment that grownups can watch once the kids have gone to bed. The video content includes Hollywood blockbusters and popular TV shows. Amazon produces its own original content under the title Amazon Originals.

Amazon Originals

The Amazon Originals label includes both co-productions with big-name entertainment producers around the world and original series and popular movies produced entirely in-house by Amazon Studios.

Some of the original shows available on Amazon Prime video are:

Jack Ryan
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Fleabag
Transparent
The Man in The High Castle
The Grand Tour
Good Omens
The Boys

Add-on channels

Amazon Prime Video subscribers are also able to pay for extra add-on channel packages, which give access to such blockbuster TV shows as The Sopranos, The Wire, and Game of Thrones.

The add-on channels are:

HBO
Showtime
Cinemax
Starz
CBS All Access

Children’s entertainment

Amazon Prime Video is a good source of entertainment for children. Amazon Original series for children include:

Just Add Magic
Pete the Cat
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Other video content for children on the Amazon Prime Video service includes titles from the renowned stable of PBS Kids.

During the COVID crisis, Amazon made its children’s video content available for free to anyone in the world. Access to these streaming videos is given to anyone with a standard Amazon account, which doesn’t mean an Amazon Prime subscription, but a free Amazon membership account.

Sports content

The sports content available on Amazon Prime Video exceeds the sports availability of all other major mainstream video libraries. Not only does the video service include sports-related videos, but streams:

The NFL’s Thursday Night Football games live
MLB.tv
CBS All Access, which includes sports content

The Amazon platform also gives access to a list of pay-per-view live sporting events.

Music streaming

Amazon has a separate music streaming service, called Amazon Music Unlimited. This is a separate system to Amazon Prime Video and can be subscribed to individually. However, an Amazon Prime video subscription also gets Amazon Music Unlimited included for free.

Amazon Prime Video UX

The Amazon Prime Video library user interface home screen is organized into categories, which makes the Amazon Prime Video user experience very similar to that of Netflix.

Simultaneous streams

An Amazon Prime Video subscription includes the right to stream the service to three devices simultaneously.

Household accounts

Access to Amazon Prime video is through a standard Amazon account. This creates a user profile in the video interface. Amazon offers a household account, which costs the same as a regular Amazon Prime Video subscription.

With a household account, a second user can share another person’s Amazon Prime Video membership. If that subscription also includes Amazon Prime, the second user will also get all of the Amazon Prime perks without having to pay separately. This process creates two profiles within the Amazon Prime Video membership. One subscription also includes the right to teen account – there can be four of these. There can also be four extra child profiles in the account.

Profiles

Each account gets an adapted menu of videos on the home screen which adjusts according to the users viewing history. Despite the possibility of eight profiles within the account, only three can watch the service at the same time.

Video downloads

Amazon Prime Video users are also able to download videos for viewing offline.

Video categories

Each category is displayed as a scrollable strap of title images. Prime Video channels provided by premium packages also appear as a strap of video images. More categories can be selected from a drop-down list on the top menu bar of the Amazon Prime Video home screen.

Search facility

There is also a search facility. The search results also include Amazon Instant Video, which are individual videos available for purchase or rent from the Amazon video sales library. These are not included with the Amazon Prime Video package and have to be paid for additionally.

Details screen

When the user clicks on a video image, a details screen appears. If the chosen title is a series, the viewer has the option of selecting an episode. Otherwise, the user presses the play button to watch the video.

X-ray

A feature called X-ray allows the user to get a cast list of everyone who is in the scene currently showing. The X-ray feature also displays interesting trivia about the current scene or the movie or series being shown. The information displayed in X-ray is sourced from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

Amazon Prime Video quality

Amazon Prime Video doesn’t offer different levels of service. There is only one level of the subscription plan, other than the choice of getting Amazon Prime with Amazon Prime Video included or just Amazon Prime Video. So, there is no choice between an SD service or an HD service.

The video streaming quality on Amazon Prime Video varies from video to video – it depends on what standard was used to produce the video. Most videos are available in HD but some are streamed in 4K HDR, which is also known as 4K Ultra HD.

Amazon Prime Video platforms

Amazon Prime Video can be channeled through a range of devices.

Internet service

The streams of Amazon Prime Video are only transmitted over the internet, so all customers must have an active internet service in order to watch the video streaming service.

Smart TVs

The video streams can be accessed by more devices if the subscriber’s home has a wifi router. For example, These smart TVs can receive the Amazon Prime signal off the internet:

Samsung smart TVs
Vizio smart TVs
LG smart TVs

Streaming devices

Other TVs need a streaming device. The following devices are compatible with Amazon Prime Video:

Roku
Amazon Fire TV devices
Apple TV
Android TV boxes
Blu-ray players

Computers and mobile devices

It is also very easy to watch Amazon Prime Video on a computer or a mobile device and from there, it is possible to send the signal on to a TV through Google Chromecast. You will need:

A web browser
A Prime Video app for iOS
A Prime Video app for Android

Game consoles

Amazon Prime Video can be channeled to a TV set through an internet-connected game console. Specifically:

PlayStation
Xbox

Amazon Prime Video price

Amazon Prime Video is available for a 30-day free trial. The user has to enter bank card details before the trial is activated. At the end of the 30-day period, the user’s bank account will be charged for a month’s subscription.

A subscription to Amazon Prime Video costs $8.99 per month or $12.99 per month if it is included with Amazon Prime membership.