Newsletter
So, you’ve made up your mind to buy a Fire TV for your TV at home, work, or anywhere else. However, it’s not as simple as just buying one. Amazon has expanded its Fire TV series, and now there are four Fire TV Sticks and a Fire TV Cube, each offering a different experience. But don’t worry, we’ve used them all extensively and can help you choose the right one for your needs. In this article, we’ll share our extensive experience with these Fire TV products, including which ones to avoid, so you can make an informed decision.
Specs
First up, we need to talk about specs. That’s not something you generally think about when comparing streaming devices, but it is pretty important. Luckily, Amazon does provide a nice table showcasing all five options side-by-side, which you can see below.
As you can see, they all use basically the same processor, except for the Cube, which has twice the cores and faster clock speeds. The other thing to take a look at here is RAM and storage. The 4K models do have more RAM, with the 4K Max and Cube having the most here. And the Cube also has the most storage. 8GB of RAM is likely plenty for most people since Fire TV apps are pretty small. But it’s always good to have a bit more storage.
HD vs 4K
The next question you should ask yourself is whether your TV is a 4K TV or not. And if you want to future-proof your streamer. If you don’t need 4K, then a Fire TV Stick can be pretty inexpensive. But if you need 4K, that still leaves you with three options.
If you choose HD
If you are okay with HD (up to 1080p resolution), then the Fire TV Stick Lite will be just fine for you. This model starts at $29.99 but is often on sale for much less. We’ve seen it as cheap as $15. The significant differences between the Fire TV Stick Lite and the Fire TV Stick are the audio support and the remote. The Fire TV Stick does support Dolby Atmos, while the Lite model has HDMI passthrough support for Dolby-encoded audio. The Lite model also has fewer buttons on the Fire TV Stick remote. But you can buy different voice remotes from Amazon for this one.
If you choose 4K
Now, if you do want 4K resolution from your Fire TV Stick or Cube, then that makes the next choice a bit tougher. That’s because there are not a lot of differences between the Fire TV Stick 4K, 4K Max, and the Cube.
So the next question to ask yourself is, do you need or want WiFi 6 or WiFi 6E, or if WiFi 5 is okay? If you need WiFi 6, that does narrow it down to the Fire TV Stick 4K Max or the Fire TV Cube. The Fire TV Cube does have WiFi 6E for even faster WiFi connectivity, as well as an Ethernet port.
Do you want Hands-free Alexa?
The next thing to consider is hands-free Alexa. Would you like to control your Fire TV with Alexa without pressing any buttons first? If yes, then the Fire TV Cube is the model you should buy. It is the only model that supports hands-free Alexa. Unfortunately, the other sticks are plugged into your TV and are “off” when the TV is off, so they can’t do hands-free Alexa. But why would you want hands-free Alexa? It allows you to control the TV without a remote, even with the TV off. It also allows you to replace your Echo in the living room or wherever your Fire TV Cube is located, which is really convenient.
The absolute best Fire TV device for 2023
We’ve talked about resolution, we’ve talked about specs, and we’ve talked about hands-free Alexa. Now, which is the best model? Well, we would recommend the Fire TV Cube or the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Let’s explain why we’d recommend each model.
Fire TV Cube
The Fire TV Cube is the best of the best. It’s the very best Fire TV experience on the market right now. That’s because it has an octa-core processor inside, it has more RAM and more storage. Making it perform well. Surprisingly, that’s very important for a streamer. As a lot of companies skimp on those things, to offer a cheaper streamer. But Amazon did not do that here.
Now, the Fire TV Cube is fairly expensive for a streamer. It’s $139, which puts it on the same level as the Apple TV. And that’s why we’d also recommend the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, which is about half the price.
Fire TV Stick 4K Max
If you don’t need hands-free Alexa, then the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is the best Fire TV device. It was recently updated to a new second-generation model, which offers a powerful 2.0GHz quad-core processor, double the storage, and WiFi 6E support for the same price. You can read my review of the Fire TV Stick 4K Max and find out how much of an upgrade it is.
The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is pretty identical to the Fire TV Stick 4K, except it’s now faster and has 16GB of storage versus the 8GB in the 4K model. It also supports WiFi 6E, which is going to give it faster wireless speeds for streaming content. It does come with the Alexa Voice Remote, which offers dedicated buttons for Amazon Alexa, volume, channels, and a few dedicated buttons for streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Peacock, and DIRECTV.
It does come in at $59.99, which is a little less than half of what the Fire TV Cube costs. And it’s just $10 more than the regular Fire TV Stick 4K.