The best streaming dongle, period

Amazon’s Fire TV streaming devices have always had the same mission: Turn any TV into a smart one for cheap — and with Amazon services front and center.

The new Fire TV Stick 4K bundles plenty of streaming sources with a new Alexa voice remote that incorporates the same kind of infrared (IR) blaster on most TV remotes. And it supports almost all of today’s formats: Dolby Vision, HDR, and HDR 10+. It also costs just $50.

Fifty bucks isn’t much these days, but there are less-full-featured streaming dongles available for less. Not to mention most TVs and cable boxes today come with built-in smart apps. But Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick 4K is one of the best options you can get for the price.

Blocky design

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Streaming sticks aren’t much to look at; they’re meant to be out of sight and out of mind. The Fire TV Stick 4K is a (relatively) wide rectangle, measuring 3.9 inches long including the HDMI port. It’s also pretty thick at 0.55 inch, which can make plugging into a wall mounted TV a bit hard. Fortunately Amazon provides a short HDMI extender in the box.

A 5-watt power brick and long micro USB cable also come with. It’s par for the course these days for streaming dongles, but they take up one of your power outlets as well — a USB port on the back of your TV won’t give the Fire TV Stick 4K enough power. Amazon also put the microUSB port in the middle of the stick, which can make it awkward to connect. Putting it on the opposite end from the HDMI port would have made more sense.

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Looking past all this though, the Fire TV Stick 4K is good example of form following function. It has a matte plastic finish that comes in black, and there aren’t any LED lights on it. This is a positive since, if it is visible, it won’t distract from the TV screen while watching content with the lights off. 

Concerning setup, the stick is plug and play. Either plug the Fire TV Stick 4K directly into the TV or use the HDMI extender. Then connect the device to power. 

Alexa remote = total control

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Amazon didn’t do much with the physical Fire TV Stick, but the remote got quite the upgrade. The Alexa voice remote adds the popular assistant plus new abilities. With Bluetooth and an IR (infrared) emitters onboard, you can control the stick as well as your TV and other connected devices.

The setup of all these features is painless. After you connect the streaming stick to WiFi, it will scan for your TV behind the scenes. One it’s done, it’ll ask you to try the new volume/mute buttons on the Alexa remote. If everything worked correctly, the Alexa remote will now be able to control the TV volume.

This is a nice contrast to inputting codes or looking up your TV model number. It just works.

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Aside from the enhanced control abilities, there’s a microphone at the top of the remote. This allows you to talk with Alexa but, it isn’t always listening, like an Echo. You’ll need to press and hold the microphone button to talk to Alexa. You still have a circular directional button for navigation. Plus a back, home, menu, reverse, play/pause, and forward buttons.

Select TVs will also let you use Alexa to control input sources and channels. This voice functionality and button control should work for most home entertainment devices that utilize infrared. 

The remote is pretty ergonomic. While it’s not nearly as minimalistic as an Apple TV 4K remote, the number of buttons doesn’t overwhelm you. After a bit of time with the Fire TV Stick 4K, you should be familiar enough with all the buttons (12 in total). 

Fire OS can be a lot to handle

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To no surprise, the Fire TV Stick 4K runs Fire OS 6. Fire OS is a custom version of Android, and Amazon has adapted it for a TV interface on the Fire TV devices. The UI for Fire TV has been more or less the same for a year or more, so you’ll see what you expect on the new Stick. I find Roku’s UI to be a bit more organized, and it allows for customizations of the home screen.

Fire TV shows your available content mainly in rows, with several showing suggested content pulled from Amazon’s Prime offerings. You’ll also notice rows dedicated to sponsors and live upcoming events. This bogs down the experience, in my mind. It’s closer to Netflix’s old user interface, which was never very good for finding the content you want, when you want it.

Scrolling all the way up to the top will bring you to a menu bar. Here you can select to see content by type (shows, films, games, and apps) and easily access settings. You also can search by typing or using your voice. Apps (AKA the store) sync with Amazon account that the Fire TV Stick 4K is registered to. This is important to remember when buying an app, as it will be billed to that account. There are many apps to download, including may other cord-cutting services, but Amazon also offers shopping and even games. Internally there is 8GB of storage for apps and content, which should be plenty. 

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Amazon offers a catalog of 4K content with a Prime membership, and other services offer some as well. It really depends on the content you have access to — and your internet speed, of course.

Powering the Fire TV Stick 4K is a 1.7GHz quad-core processor, which makes for a fluid experience. I didn’t have any crashes or slowdowns while using the device and for a streaming stick that’s pretty impressive.

Amazon is still at odds with Google

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Like other Fire TV devices and the Echo Show, there is no native YouTube app on the Fire TV Stick 4K. It stems from Amazon and Google being fierce competitors, and there probably won’t be any kind of official solution arriving soon. The workaround: Use Firefox or Silk (Amazon’s browser) to visit youtube.com. It works but not perfectly, since it’s an experience tuned to the desktop.

Video is crisp and sharp

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Content ranging from 1080p up to 4K (depending on the source) looked crisp and sharp. Color reproduction, accuracy, and lifelikeness was stellar with 4K shows from Amazon Prime and Netflix. 

This streaming stick, while small, packs a big punch with support for Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, HDR 10, and HDR10+. Even the more expensive Fire TV Cube doesn’t support Dolby Vision, and neither does any Roku. It might be tough to find content that’s actually presented in Dolby Vision but think of it as future-proofing yourself.

A whole lotta value for $50

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At this price point, there are only two caveats with the Fire TV Stick 4K. The design is bulky for a dongle, and it’s missing some core apps, most notably YouTube. However, those are easy issues to overlook.

But coming this close to perfection is pretty amazing for a streaming device that costs just $49.99. Unless you’re a hardcore YouTuber (in which case, just get a Chromecast already), I can practically guarantee you won’t be disappointed with the Fire TV Stick 4K. Of all the streaming dongles out there, this one should be your first choice.