Amazon Fire TV Stick Review (2020): Only Get a 4K Model

Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick is a $ 39.99 streaming dongle aimed at people who have not yet done the upgrade to a 4K TV – and are not planning to do so any time soon. It reaches a maximum resolution of 1080p, but offers support for modern tricks such as HDR and Dolby Atmos surround sound. This is a strange area to be in when competing products like Chromecast with Google TV on 4K are not going for much more money.

Even Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K, which works well with older TVs, costs just $ 10 more at $ 49.99. So the Fire TV Stick (and cheaper Fire TV Stick Lite) is actually only recommended if you are positive that your HDTV will not go anywhere for a few more years.

If this is your situation, you will definitely get a more powerful streamer than before. Amazon says the new Fire TV Stick is 50 percent faster than the previous version – but it looks identical on the outside. It is still a matte black stick that is plugged into one of the HDMI ports of your TV. You attach a micro-USB cable to it for power, plug some batteries into the Alexa remote and you’re off. This is the same full-fledged remote that comes with Amazon’s more expensive power devices, so in addition to the playback and navigation controls, you get a few extra buttons (power and volume) to control your TV with it. The remote control of the Fire TV Stick Lite does not contain it.

The improved performance is remarkable. Amazon’s older Fire TV Stick can sometimes get hung up or slowed down when browsing or opening apps, but I rarely encountered anything of the sort with this new model. It feels similar to the more premium 4K-capable Fire TV products in terms of speed. Voice searches with the Alexa remote were just as fast, whether I was searching for a certain program or asking for the weather.

Expect mixed results in terms of HDR and Dolby Atmos support. In my tests, Prime Video and Disney Plus did a great job of getting the best out of the Fire TV Stick’s video and audio specifications and delivering HDR and Atmos regularly, but you will see that not all services are those with 1080p streaming will not serve. . Both HDR10 and HDR10 + are supported by the Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick Lite, but not Dolby Vision. Video frame rates of up to 60 fps are now supported, compared to the 30 fps ceiling on previous hardware. This is a great upgrade for sports and watching video games on Twitch.

Amazon’s app selection is excellent, though there’s one notable omission: NBCUniversal’s Peacock service is still unavailable on the platform. All others, including Apple TV Plus, HBO Max, and other apps, can be easily downloaded. When you set up the Fire TV Stick, Amazon suggests a number of streaming apps to install right away, though the list may not include all the popular favorites. (Everything can be easily downloaded after the fact.) Having the remote control set up with the volume and power control of your TV is also a snap.

The new Fire TV experience

Perhaps more interesting than the new hardware is the revamped software experience that debuts on the Fire TV stick for the first time before arriving on the company’s other devices. Apart from the clearing and simplification of the main menu navigation – there are now only four tabs to select next to your favorite apps, but it also offers multi-profile profiles. You can set up up to six profiles, and it is possible to indicate them as child profiles limited to age-appropriate stream content. Each user gets their own personalized viewing history, recommendations, watch list and live TV preferences. In terms of applications, you can choose which six apps appear on the main menu and easily reach your others with a click.

On the Library page you will find purchases, rentals and watch lists. Home is essentially the same as before, giving preference to all things Prime Video (and IMDb TV, which Amazon also owns). The order of rows will adjust dynamically based on your viewing habits, but not to the point where it confuses things: your “up next” and recent programs stay on top. With the new Find tab, you can dig deeper into dedicated areas for movies, TVs, genres or other categories like ‘free’, highlighting ad-sponsored streaming channels. (This section is also now where the app store is located.) The last tab is for Live TV, which integrates with services like Hulu, Sling TV and YouTube TV to show a traditional channel guide on the screen where you can quickly access live can get Programming.

But the biggest frustration of the new Fire TV software remains the same as before: there is an abundance of sponsored content. Within a few clicks on the home page, I see a complete banner ad for Honda trucks and SUVs. And as you progress through the carousels of content, it becomes clear that much of it is sponsored. Here are some of the ones I saw on the Home page:

• Pluto TV – Free Movies & TV Shows – Sponsored
• Sponsored: Prime Video Cinema
• Sponsored: This Week on Fire TV
• Sponsored: programs and games

This spon-con is intertwined with genuinely useful sequences like ‘movies we think you’ll like’ and ‘top rated TV shows’, so it’s not bad or enough to ruin the overall experience. You could also argue that Amazon is just more transparent and obvious with its sponsored sections, compared to competitors who may mix it with general algorithm recommendations. But it still leaves you with the feeling that during the Fire TV experience, there is a lot of advertising real estate for sale.

The new Find tab works better than the Home tab to collect TV shows and movies from your various subscriptions – not unlike what Google is trying to achieve with its Google TV software. Amazon was one of the first to push the idea of ​​prioritizing content over a more application-oriented layout (such as that found on a Roku or Apple TV), but in some ways, Google has already made progress. On Fire TV, it’s never clear which service you are going to watch your content on before clicking on a title. Google is doing a better job of figuring out what’s coming from the main menu. But in honor of Amazon, there are useful filters for things like ‘free for me’ and ‘rent or buy’ to help you narrow down the choice.

As you browse, this new Fire TV experience feels all familiar. Amazon may have turned on the home screen, but overall, it’s not a drastic change. I like how on the title page for any show or movie it is very quick and convenient to scroll through other things in which the cast appears. And you still get the handy “more ways to look” to see where you can still stream something, with existing subscriptions and ad-sponsored services preferred over paid options.

But some parts of the interface still need to be refined. For example, I received a notice stating that ‘some content is provided by Verizon’ with the proviso that the company may collect viewing data – without indicating which app the notice was actually for. I assume it was for one of the live news services, but there was no confirmation that it was.

The new Fire TV experience will appear on other products in March. This is definitely an improvement over what was before, and the profile options will be useful for parents and people with shared living spaces. It’s only available on the Fire TV Stick, but I do not think that’s reason enough to get Amazon’s $ 40 player.

I’m sure Amazon has all the data in the world to show that this product makes sense, but buying a 1080p streaming device in 2021 does not look good. It feels like something Amazon should just cede to Prime subscribers as a freebie. You’ll be much better off being future-proof by spending extra – really not much extra – on the Fire TV Stick 4K if you constantly stream from Prime Video and use the Alexa features of the remote. If you don’t like Amazon’s ecosystem much, something like the new Chromecast or a Roku streamer is a smarter purchase. The latest Fire TV Stick is faster than before and has slimmer software, but it’s still not cut out for a 4K streaming world.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge