Ultra HD 4K Players: The Buyer’s Guide

Begone, previously-praised levels of definition! For a lot of us geeks, having a top-of-the-line home entertainment system is a point of pride. When a higher definition becomes available, we want to be experiencing it as soon as possible.

Sadly, as with most things in this life, keeping up with the latest home entertainment trends doesn’t tend to be cheap. But fear not! If you’ve been thinking you’ll never be able to afford an Ultra HD 4K player, think again. Our friends at Amazon have something to offer for all budgets. Here’s our rundown of the Ultra HD 4K players Amazon is offering. 

Samsung UBDK8500 – Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player

This slightly curved number is probably the cheapest 4K player available on Amazon right now. It weighs in at $229.99, and you get Prime delivery. It’s fully 4K and 3D.

The average customer rating is four stars. Comparing the descriptions between the products suggests that other similar product may do fancier things, like link with other devices over bluetooth, but if all you wanna do is play some 4K discs, this might be the best option for you.

Buy this Samsung Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player on Amazon

Xbox One S

It’s worth remembering that the Xbox One S can play 4K Blu-rays too. For the price of $261.99, you get the power to play the highest-def discs in existence and a brand new games console for less money than a lot of the dedicated players on this list would set you back. This particular listing on Amazon comes with the Battlefield 1 bundle as well. 

Buy the Xbox One S on Amazon

Sony UBP-X800 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player

While it’s temporarily out of stock at the time of writing, for $298.00, this Sony Blu-ray player is one to keep an eye on.

As well as your standard 4K and WiFi powers, it also has HDR (which apparently “brings previously hidden areas alive with new brightness, shades and colors”) and Dolby Atmos sound. It also works with bluetooth, and offers a “multi-room” feature that lets you stream music to devices around your house. Fancy!

Buy this Sony Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player on Amazon

Panasonic DMP-UB900-K 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player

The Panasonic UB900EBK has a four-stars rating, “High-end audio components and features”, and offers “HDR-to-SDR and HD-to-UHD remapping”, meaning your lower quality discs will look better on this one than they would on the 700. There are a few options for free shipping, but unfortunately, it seems like all the items are sold by third party sellers at the moment. But if you’re interested…

Buy the Panasonic Blu-ray Player on Amazon

Oppo UDP-203 UHD 4K Blu-Ray Player

This one, from Oppo, is at the the steeper end of the spectrum with a price tag of $549 without shipping. Its product description is very limited, too, to be honest, only revealing that it can play Blu-ray, 4K and 3D discs. Also, there are some negative reviews that claim it struggles with the 4K discs. It might be wise to stick with one of the previous ones on this list. But in case you want to take a gamble with it…

Buy this OPPO Ultra HD Blu-ray Player on Amazon

Amazon Fire TV with 4K Ultra HD | Streaming Media Player

Or, if you think your days of buying discs are done, you could pick up this 4K-ready Amazon Fire streaming box thingy for $89.99. It connects up to Amazon Prime, Netflix, and a load of other online streaming services. You can even search for stuff to watch using your voice.

Buy the Fire TV on Amazon

There you have it, then. There are plenty of options if you’d like to bring some 4K goodness into your living room. Even the cheapest option sounds pretty good to us!

If you’ve already adopted 4K, we’d love to hear what player you’ve bought and how you’re finding it so far.