Price
Welcome to the review of the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max media streamer, right off the bat I’m sure we can agree the name is terrible but that’s not what’s important.
It’s currently available for $75 CAD or $55 USD.
Remote
The remote is compact and easy to use with a single hand. The size is very similar to previous Amazon Fire TV remotes, but the number of buttons has increased.
Now there are app shortcut launch buttons which will vary based on app availability and where you live. I’m not a fan of these types of launch buttons, it’s annoying when accidentally pressed, instead they should have been buttons you can customize program. There’s also a new dedicated live TV button that will take you to the “Live” section which I’ll go over later. One important item is the Alexa button which I’ll cover shortly.
The remote also supports IR blaster functionality like previous Fire TV remotes so if your TV, soundbar or AV system is compatible, you can control volume and power for those devices from this one remote.
If you don’t want to use the physical remote, a Fire TV remote app is available for smartphones that works well and is incredibly fast and responsive.
This remote uses 2 AAA batteries (included in the box).
Hardware
The actual media player stick is rather small, about 10cm (not including the HDMI port) with the Amazon logo on the top. One end has the port to connect HDMI into your TV or monitor and on the side is the port for micro-USB power, unfortunately not USB-C. There’s no factory reset button on the media player, wiping it can only be done from the system settings.
The USB power wire is 5 feet long.
Included in the box is an HDMI extender which gives you an additional 11cm of flexible length if plugging in the media player directly to your TV is too difficult.
This media player does support WiFi 6 which is a main selling point of this media player. The only other mainstream media player to support WiFi 6 is the Apple TV 4K 2nd gen media steamer (that review is here). WiFi 6 will provide incredible WiFi speeds (more on that here) but is only useful for internal network traffic, I’ll explain more during the Plex part. WiFi 6 isn’t useful for streaming services from the internet.
There is a separately sold Ethernet adapter if needed but unfortunately the adapter caps at 100Mbps, again I’ll explain that as an issue when I cover the Plex app. That means the WiFi 6 adapter in this media streamer is faster than having a wired Ethernet connection!
It uses Bluetooth 5.0 for private content listening with Bluetooth headsets. Bluetooth also allows connecting game controllers from Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PS4, and PS5. Note: Clicking on the link over any listed controller will take you to a page explaining how to get that done.
It has 8GB of internal storage. There is a quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM which doesn’t mean much since actual performance matters instead. I’ll be pushing this media player quite hard, and I’ll cover performance details throughout the software section.
The media player and remote only come in a simple black colour.
Software
For audio, it supports Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus. For video, it supports 4K at 60fps, Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG.
4K HDR videos from sources such as Netflix, Disney+ and Prime video will look sharp, colourful and vibrant (assuming you have a great display). This media streamer will not disappoint in video quality output.
Out of the box it’s running Android 9 with Fire TV OS 7 skin overlay. It’s possible to get other screen launchers if you dig around enough.
In the interface is a “Profiles” section that allows you to view apps and content you’re interested in. You can also set a kid’s profile for younger video content filtering.
The “Home” section is a list of recommended content. Unfortunately, it’s mostly just Prime recommended content (an excessive amount of Prime content) and not much from other apps. Even worse is that there are banner ads. There’s a recently watched section here, but it’s limited to Prime content.
The “Find” section allows you to search media content from apps by typing something or using the Alexa button on the remote for voice search (you’ll get the same results). For example, you can search for “The Simpsons” and you’ll see the Disney+ result. You can also search for apps on the app store such as “File Explorer”.
Since Alexa is built into this media player, you’re getting the full functioning smart assistant in this media player. That means you can use it to even control compatible smart home products such as your Philips Hue lights.
The “Live” section is a collection of live TV service apps such as watching sports or local news.
The “App Store” allows you to browse and install new apps, but it doesn’t include a search function, however you can use Alexa voice command to instantly search for an app or type it in the “Find” section
The last section is “Settings”. It has your generic items found on other media players but some nifty items too. For example:
-Equipment Control allows you to pair other home theatre devices with the remote control (if they’re compatible). This means you can control your other home theatre devices with a single remote control.
-Remotes & Bluetooth Devices is where you can pair items such as game controllers I originally mentioned.
-Preferences allow you to set some parental controls and restrict app spending. Another cool feature here is Data Monitoring. This allows you to limit the streaming quality of video apps if you have a limited data allowance from your ISP.
The general performance of the media player is amazing. It’s fast and responsive for a reasonably cheap media streamer. Navigation is fluid and opening apps is fast, including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Plex, and Hulu. I had to sideload Hulu since I’m in Canada, I have another post explaining how to sideload apps on a Fire TV device found here.
Plex is a unique situation. Plex can play files with H.264 and some H2.65 codec in mkv and mp4 file format. Regardless of files type and codec it plays 720p and 1080p content just fine and most 4K files. The strange issue I faced is playing a 4K mkv file with heavy H.265 compression. Other Fire TV sticks would only have a WiFi 5 adapter (so slower WiFi), play the file for a few seconds, stop to buffer, and repeat. This Fire TV has slightly faster processing power than the last Fire Stick version and faster WiFi but it can’t even open the file. My heavily compressed H2.65 file won’t apply to most people but something worth noting.
Where the WiFi 6 adapter shines is playing raw video files from my camera. They’re large mp4 files in H2.64 that play back at 150Mbps. Previous Fire TV sticks could play 2 seconds at most and stop to buffer for or sometimes completely freeze. This media player will take a while to buffer but end up playing the file back. These are very large files so it’s evidence to show that the WiFi 6 adapter is great for local network playback of large H2.64 compressed files.
Lastly, games from the app store such as Asphalt 8 can be played. On previous Fire TV stick devices, I reviewed, the frame rate would dip sometimes for this game. On this Fire TV Stick, it runs quite smooth with a decent frame rate (on par with the Fire TV Cube). I did my testing with a PS5 controller connected but unfortunately the controller doesn’t vibrate while connected to this media player.
Score:
8.5/10
Pros:
-HDR: HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision
-Decent price
-Compact remote
-Alexa voice assistant
-Alexa smart home control
-Fire TV remote app
-Compact design
-HDMI extender
-Optional Ethernet adapter
-WiFi 6
-Bluetooth supports game controllers, keyboard and mouse
-Bluetooth private headset listening
-Decent storage for apps
-Most popular streaming apps available
-Dolby Atmos, Digital and Digital Plus
-App store
-Fast and responsive
-Easy to use interface
-Sideload apps
-Parental controls
-Data usage controls
-Great quality 4K playback
Cons:
-Power port isn’t USB-C
-Excessive push for Prime content
-Ads
-Plex for heavily compressed H.265 mkv files
-WiFi is faster than Ethernet adapter
IS there any compression when streaming 4K Content or any other content using the 4K Firestick? Or is it compressionless zero loss video stream?
Yes, but it depends on the app. For example, YouTube and Netflix use their own compression method for streaming video. That’s going to be the case for just about any popular streaming service.
is there any way for a consumer to get non compressed 4k content?
Hey there, from traditional streaming services such as Disney+, Netflix, etc. no. Those service providers tend to always compress. It’s hard to find a non-compressed provider so it’s best to use something like Plex to play your own local media content.