Pushing Streaming to the Max

It might be hard to believe, but the first Fire TV launched nearly a decade ago, in April 2014. Since then, we’ve seen quite a few devices come through Amazon’s virtual store shelves, and the company has pretty much settled on Fire TV Sticks and the Cube.

This year, Amazon refreshed its 4K lineup, with a new Fire TV Stick 4K and 4K Max. Now I have been reviewing both devices, but the bigger changes are on the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, so that’s what we’re going to focus on here. Though, both have pretty small changes, all things considered. The biggest changes include a new, more powerful processor and support for WiFi 6E, which is going to provide faster streaming with less buffering, thanks to the faster speeds.

The 4K lineup of Amazon’s Fire TV Sticks start at $49.99, with the Fire TV Stick 4K Max being $59.99. Let’s find out if it is worth picking up or not, in our full review.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max Review: Design

Surprisingly, there are some changes to the design of the Fire TV Stick 4K Max this year (also the regular 4K model). It now has more of a rounded profile, compared to it being pretty flat with sharp corners on all of the previous models.  This is actually a design change that I was not expecting, until I opened the box. Because let’s face it, the design of a streaming stick really doesn’t matter in the long run. It’s going to end up behind your TV, and you’ll never see it until you need to unplug it or do any other trouble shooting. But this is a nice design change.

Now as to why this change was made, it’s unclear. It doesn’t appear to add any more space inside the Fire TV Stick, but this could end up giving Amazon more space for things like WiFi 6E. It’s still a plastic body here, with a HDMI port on one end, and a micro USB port on the side. Surprisingly, Amazon is sticking with micro USB here. Apparently the EU hasn’t gone after Amazon for USB-C yet, like they did with Apple. I was annoyed at first that this had micro USB again, but Amazon does give you the micro USB cable and a wall charger in the box, so it’s not the end of the world.

The new Alexa Voice Remote is included

With the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, you are also getting the latest Alexa Voice Remote in the box. This includes an actual power button in the top-left corner. This is really useful, especially if you have the Fire TV Stick plugged into the HDMI-CEC port on the back of your TV, which allows it to control the TV as a whole. There’s also a dedicated blue button for Alexa, so she is not listening to you all the time. Just when you want.

On top of that, you have all of the usual buttons, like home, menu, back, play/pause, forward, rewind. And there are also buttons for Live TV, as well as channels and volume. These are things that were added with the previous update to the remote, so it’s good to see that here.

There are still four buttons at the bottom of the remote, as is usually the case with streaming devices. These include Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, DIRECTV Stream and Peacock.

On the Amazon store page, these buttons are all blacked out, which leads me to believe that these will likely change over the course of it’s life. And the bottom two buttons have a black background, versus the colored backgrounds that the Prime Video and Netflix logos get. Which is very likely possible, depending on which streaming services are paying more for this placement. But I wouldn’t expect to see Prime Video move.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max Review: Performance

One of the big reasons to get the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is going to be the performance. You see, with most streamers and TVs with streaming software built-in (like Fire TV, Google TV/Android TV and Roku), the hardware is usually lacking. Which results in the software performing pretty slow after a few months. But that is not the case with the Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

Sure, I’ve only had this Fire TV Stick for a couple of weeks at this point, but it’s still just as speedy as the day I unboxed it. I was also using the older Fire TV Stick 4K Max for quite some time before this one landed on my doorstep. And was quite impressed with its performance. This new model seems to be even more powerful.

Inside, there is a new 2GHz quad-core processor, and Amazon has also doubled the storage. Those are two things that really needed to be upgraded on the original Fire TV Stick 4K Max. So it’s good to see that here. It’s still only 16GB of storage, but it would be really great to see that double to 32GB on future streaming sticks. Especially with everyone and their dog starting their own streaming service now.

This is going to be the fastest and best-performing Fire TV Stick on the market. So if you’re experiencing a slow Fire TV Stick, this is the one to get.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max Review: Apps & Software

The Fire TV experience hasn’t changed a whole lot here on the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. It’s still Fire TV which everyone pretty much knows and loves. But one feature they did bring over is the Fire TV Ambient Experience. This was available on its own Fire TV sets like the Omni Fire TV. And it’s actually a really good feature.

The Ambient Experience basically gives you a nice background like Apple TV or Google TV, with a choice of three widgets towards the bottom. These widgets will look a lot like what you see on an Echo Show or other Alexa smart display. These widgets include Weather, music, news and much more. You can then press the up arrow on your remote to expand them to full screen. It’s actually pretty neat, because it’ll tell me when a package has been delivered, or when someone is at the door, since I have a Ring Video Doorbell.

Fire TV can still control your smart home, this is largely thanks to Alexa being included here. Just say “Alexa, turn on the lights” and you’ll be all set. You’ll also get notifications when your Amazon package has been delivered, as well as when your Alexa-compatible cameras see something, or someone’s at the door. If you’re invested in the Amazon ecosystem, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is a really good purchase.

Of course, Fire TV does have a ton of app support. This includes Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube TV, Tubi and much more. It does also have a Live TV button available, which will show you the Live TV channels for every streaming Live TV service you have installed. So that could be YouTube TV, Tubi TV, Pluto TV and Frndly TV. All in one spot. Which is really convenient, instead of opening each app to find something to watch.

It’s not the best software on a streaming device, I still believe that goes to the Apple TV. And that’s largely because it’s simple and there’s no ads. So you just get your apps front-and-center and don’t see a big ad taking up half of the TV screen. But the software is very responsive and easy to navigate which is very important on a TV.

Should you buy the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max?

Now for the million dollar question. Should you buy the new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max? Well, that depends. If you already have the older Fire TV Stick 4K Max, I’d say no. The only real upgrades you’d see here is the extra storage and WiFI 6E support. If those are two things you really want, then yes, it’s a good upgrade. But I’d urge you to wait until Black Friday, where it will likely be about half price.

Those coming from other Fire TV Sticks, yes, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is definitely worth it. It is a much better Fire TV product, and performs way better. Not to mention that extra storage which will definitely come in handy here. The only other Fire TV product you should not upgrade from would be the Fire TV Cube. Which is just as powerful, if not more powerful since Alexa is always listening to you.