Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Hands on: Amazon’s Fire TV stick is slick, speedy and super-affordable

Caleb Denison
By

hands amazons fire tv stick slick speedy super affordable amazon on
Amazon’s Fire TV stick starts shipping on November 19, and we got our hands on one for an early look at what promises to be one of the hottest gift items this holiday season. At just $40, the Fire TV Stick undercuts the Roku Streaming Stick in price, but puts it to shame when it comes to hardware specs. Frankly, when the Fire TV Stick was first announced, we thought it sounded a little too good to be true, but we’re happy to report now that we were wrong about that. Check out the video below to see it in action.

Unlike the Roku Streaming Stick, which is a bit sluggish compared to its full-sized streaming set-top box brethren, the Amazon Fire TV stick is quick to respond to commands, and any differences in app/content loading times are so minute, we’ll need a stopwatch to chart them. Its interface is identical to the Fire TV Box, and its functionality is very similar, too. At this point, it seems the only real advantage to using an Amazon Fire TV box would be its Ethernet connection for faster HD video throughput, and its faster processor for smoother gaming.

Related Videos

We’ll be pitting the Fire TV Stick against the Fire TV box and, separately, the Roku Streaming Stick and Chromecast soon. We’ll also have our full review of the Fire TV Stick shortly, so visit back tomorrow for a more in-depth look at Amazon’s latest effort to garner your affection for its special brand of streaming movies, TV shows, games, and music.

Related

You can order an Amazon Fire TV Stick now, but it is not expected to ship until January 15 2015.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
YouTube TV increases its monthly prices by $8 – is now the time to switch?
YouTube TV on Roku.

YouTube TV has raised the price of its monthly subscription by $8, from $65 to $73. The move comes on the heels of its announcement that it will be adding a multiview feature for sports channels. The change in price will hit current subscribers on April 18, however, the streaming service, which is owned by Google, has already started charging new customers the higher price.

It's been a while since YouTube TV last raised its prices. That was in 2020, when the streaming service increased subscriptions from $50 to $65. When the service first launched in 2017, it only cost $35 per month.

Read more
Flash sale brings discounts for Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Cube
Two Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max sticks in hand.

If you want to access streaming services but all you have is a non-smart TV, it will be cheaper to buy a streaming device like Amazon's Fire TV products than to take advantage of TV deals. A flash sale by Amazon makes the devices even more affordable, so it's all a matter of choosing the model that makes more sense for you. To help you decide, we've gathered the offers involving Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and Fire TV Cube.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K -- $30, was $50

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is very easy to set up -- just plug the streaming device into your TV's HDMI port, connect it to your Wi-Fi network, and follow the onscreen instructions. Afterwards, you'll get access to Amazon's Fire TV platform so that you can watch all the popular streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney+. The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K supports 4K Ultra HD resolution, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos, for a cinematic experience in your living room. The streaming stick also comes with the Alexa Voice Remote, so you can use voice commands to search for content and launch apps with the help of Amazon's Alexa.

Read more
YouTube TV rolls out multiview: watch up to 4 NCAA games at once
An example of YouTube TV's multiview feature.

If you love college basketball and can process more than one game at a time, you're going to go bananas for YouTube TV's new multiview feature, which will be rolling out on a limited, early access basis starting March 14.  With multiview, you'll be able to pick up to four channels and see them all simultaneously, with the ability to easily flip the active audio from one to another. The new feature is compatible with any TV-based YouTube TV installations (streaming media players, smart TVs, and game consoles), but it doesn't yet work on mobile devices or computers.

Initially, multiview will only be available to select YouTube TV users, who will be chosen at random. But Google says the goal is to include every subscriber by the time NFL football season starts in the fall. Another limitation, at least for now, is that YouTube TV will preselect the multiview channels you can choose. At launch, only channels that carry NCAA tournament games will be included in that preselected list.
How to use YouTube TV multiview
If you're one of the lucky, randomly chosen users, you'll see an option to watch up to four preselected, different streams at once in your “Top Picks for You” section. After selecting multiview, you can switch audio and captions between streams, and jump in and out of a full-screen view of a game.
It's all about sports
At the moment, YouTube TV sees multiview as an enhancement of the sports viewing experience, so only sports content will be eligible. YouTube TV has had some big sports wins in 2022, including 4K coverage of the Soccer World Cup, and that trend will continue in 2023 thanks to its acquisition of the NFL Sunday Ticket games. However, YouTube TV recently lost access to MLB Network and the MLB.tv add-on, which reduces the amount of sports content available for multiview in 2023.

Read more