Amazon Fire TV Stick (3rd Gen 2020 Model) Review

In this post, I’ll be reviewing the Fire TV Stick (2020 model that supports up to 1080p). Let’s face it, a lot of people still have 1080p TVs and not everyone has internet speeds to stream 4K content or enough data usage per month for the amount of data 4K video consumes.

Now keep in mind there are 2 versions of this media player. The version I have is just the regular Fire TV Stick 2020 model with Alexa voice remote 2nd gen which allows controlling compatible TVs, soundbars, and A/V systems such as power and volume control using IR signal. That retails for $60 CAD or $40 USD. Then there’s the Lite version in which everything is exactly the same except you can’t control TV volume or power, that’s listed for $50 CAD or $30 USD.

The media player and remote only come in a simple black colour.

Switching to the software side of things, it’s incredibly fast and responsive. The interface is also pretty easy to navigate. One of the first notable items on the homepage is profiles for family members.

Library is a “watchlist” you can create but it’s rather limited to only adding Prime video content. Unfortunately, it doesn’t add items such as your Netflix list.

The Home section is the main page. It’s a mixed bag of content ranging from your recently watched content and used apps, top Prime content, random Netflix listed items, and advertisements… Yes, you read that correctly, there is a section for banner ads that sometimes switches to sponsored apps. The ads don’t overpower anything but it’s annoying because you pay for a media player only to force ads onto you. The other annoying thing is the amount of Prime content shoved in your face. There are way too many Prime categories shown on the home page.

The Find section is where you can use an onscreen keyboard to type or use Alexa to search (although you can activate Alexa on the remote at any time). The search will look through everything, including but not limited to available apps (including games), Prime content, Netflix content, and more. It works pretty well in my testing.

Alexa is the full working smart assistant. You can ask it random things like the current weather and even controlling your smart home products (if they’re compatible with Alexa).

The Live section is mainly designed for apps that will broadcast live sports and news.

When it comes to apps, there is an “Appstore” (yes that’s how Amazon spells it). As expected the mainstreaming apps are available such as Prime Video (pre-installed of course), Netflix, Apple TV, Disney+, Hulu, and YouTube. The app availability will vary depending on where you live. The interesting thing about this media player is that it’s running Android 9 with Fire TV OS on top as a skin overlay. That means you can technically sideload Android apps, however, your experience may vary as sideloading some apps might work but some might not.

General speed performance for opening and scrolling through apps such as Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube, for example, works great. I’ve never experienced any slow-down issues.

The interesting app is Plex. On my internal network, streaming from my Plex server, this Fire Stick can play up to 1080p content in H.264 and H.265 compression in .mkv and .mp4 file format. However, no matter what compression or file type the video is, this media player will not play 4K video (even if the video has a very low bitrate). In fact, it still doesn’t work even though I went into the Plex settings and capped the streaming quality to 1080p. This is a bit strange and unfortunate.

Switching over to the Fire Stick Settings, most of the items aren’t important except for a few. -Display section you can not push the picture to 4K trust me I tried.

-Equipment Control area allows you to connect additional soundbar and speaker systems if they’re compatible with the IR sensor in the Fire Stick remote.

-Remote and Bluetooth allow pairing another Fire TV remote, wireless Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and headphones. This means you can listen to content privately over the headphones. You can pair an Xbox Series X controller just fine and it’ll work great but the PlayStation 5 Dualsense controller is an odd situation. You can pair the Dualsense controller but the button mapping is a bit bonkers as Square is to select (on PS5 X is to select) and X is to go back (on PS5 O is to go back) and there doesn’t seem to be any options in the Fire TV settings to change controller button mapping.

-Preferences section you can activate parental control to prevent mature content from playing and preventing children from making purchases, and you can monitor data by putting data caps and alerts to ensure you don’t go over any monthly data allowance from your internet service provider.

Playing games on this device. I tried to sideload the PS Remote Play app, it installs but trying to login presents an error. Sideloading the Xbox app isn’t even possible, it’ll present a message that the media player isn’t compatible. You can play simple 2D games just fine and there are 3D games such as Asphalt 8 available that work great with the Xbox Series X controller. However, Asphalt 8 had frame rate dropping issues which take away from the experience, it’s best to avoid slightly graphic detailed games.

The last thing to cover is audio and video. For audio, this device supports Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus. Available video HDR technology is HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG.