Amazon Fire Stick is one of the most popular streaming sticks available. Since its 2014 launch, Fire Stick has managed to outpace the pack with mind blowing speed and consistency. The company’s original first-gen promise was that the Fire Stick would outperform Apple TV and Roku, and it delivered. While Roku may still hold a strong position in the smart TV market, reporting 55 million accounts in 2021, Amazon has 142 million Prime members. Apple TV sets are almost nonexistent.
What’s amazing about the Amazon Fire Stick is its capabilities and low cost. But, is the standard model right for you?
We take a peek at the Amazon Fire Stick with Alexa Voice Remote.
Remote features
The power, mute, and volume up / down buttons work with the IR emitters on the front of the remote to directly control your TV. Once you’ve selected the TV, Fire TV Stick will ask you to point the remote at the TV and adjust the volume. In our test of the device, volume was the only TV control that the remote offered (or worked for). We tested it on an LG, but users have said that the power button works with some sets.
The Alexa Voice Remote feature is a nice touch as well. It’s not something we use that often, or knew we’d need to use, but once you get the hang of it you’ll appreciate being able to just press a button and have Alexa find the program you’re looking for. The only downside is that Alexa isn’t much use when you are in a 3rd party streaming app like Netflix. Alexa also can’t really filter very well. So when you ask it to search for something, even if you know which app it should find it in, what you’ll get are generic search results from all available services in the hub. But it’s still a great service.
App support for Amazon Fire Stick
Another great thing about the Fire Stick is the portability of the experience and application support. For example, if you want to control your Fire TV Stick with a smartphone or tablet, you can use the Amazon Fire TV Remote app for Android and iOS. It’s much simpler than the third-party app used on Roku devices, primarily a touchpad for navigating menus, a series of play buttons, a voice search via the device’s microphone, and an on-screen (virtual) keyboard.
Amazon really pushes the limits of this kind of interoperability with its Luna gaming service, which was discussed in our review of the Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max.
Highlights
Fire Stick with Alexa Voice Remote is a robust little device powered by Amazon’s Fire TV platform and Alexa voice assistant. The remote has a built-in microphone to control the stick with Alexa voice commands and has been upgraded to give you direct control of your TV’s volume.
Watch full 1080p HD content with Dolby Atmos audio (fully supported, not pass through), check the weather, listen to music, and more.
And while there are some omissions in the streaming application, like 4K and a slower interface (the standard model comes with 33% less RAM than the 4K), it’s a great compact streaming device for the price.
Amazon Fire Stick pros
- Cheap
- Improved remote with voice controls
- Fast
Amazon Fire Stick cons
- No 4K, which makes it feel like an incomplete package if your television supports 4K
- Lack of Luna support similar to the 4K
Summary
The Amazon Fire Stick with Alexa Voice Remotes checks most of the boxes for an average user at a cheap price. It is simple and easy to use. And with voice support and twice the power of the last generation model, where can you go wrong for $40?