Amazon launched the Fire TV Stick three years ago, offering a microphone-equipped remote as an optional accessory or as part of a premium $60 bundle. Its latest media streamer—and its only one available in "stick" form—comes with a remote out of the box that gives you access to voice search and Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. It also features an upgraded quad-core processor, and perhaps most impressive of all is available for just $39.99.
As for apps; nothing’s changed. This is purely a hardware update, so you’ll still be able to stream Netflix, Amazon Prime and scores of catch-up TV apps from this device. In short, there are only three differences you need to know about: 1. The Fire TV Stick is now really fast; 2. You can now use voice control to open apps and check Alexa-related information; and 3. The UI is a little different. We’ll come to that in a moment.
Despite a few omissions in streaming apps, the Fire TV Stick With Alexa Voice Remote easily offers enough in the way of features and value to make it our Editors' Choice for budget media streamers.
The heavy compression doesn’t affect video quality, and should allow other family members to enjoy the Internet when you are watching full-HD video streams, depending upon your connection speed of course. On the connectivity side, you get support for both Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1. The latter has dual benefits – you don’t need to point the included remote at the TV for it to work, and you can hook up a pair of Bluetooth headphones.
Design and remote :-
As you can see from the pictures, not much has changed physically. Both the dongle and remote have increased in size, a bit, but that’s really not an issue. However, some R&D has evidently gone into updating the remote: its curved back now nestles nicely into your palm, with its minimalistic buttons sensibly spread out.
The Alexa remote control is the most interesting new feature of the Fire TV Stick, allowing you to control the streaming device using voice commands.
The Fire version of the Alexa service is launched by holding down the microphone button on the remote control and making a request.
How to use it :-
Accessing Alexa's voice-activated features is easy. Just press and hold the Voice button on your Amazon Fire TV Voice Remote or the Fire TV Remote app and say what you want Alexa to do. Alexa then answers back directly through your Fire TV. Many features open in a separate display on your TV screen, so you can both see and hear Alexa in action.
When an Alexa display is open on your TV screen, press the Back or Home buttons on your Fire TV remote to return to the previous screen.
The language you can use to control her is also pretty flexible. She’ll respond to “fast-forward five minutes” in the same way she does “skip ahead five minutes”, which makes using it feel much more natural.
PROS :-
- Inexpensive
- Kodi-compatible
- Generous app and service platform
- £40 is very cheap
- Alexa and voice search are useful
- Netflix, Prime Instant Video, BBC iPlayer and many more
- Much faster than previous model
- Voice-controlled Alexa remote
CONS :-
- No 4K video support
- Limited iPhone support
- Alexa features are slightly limited compared with Amazon Echo
- Won't run from most TVs' USB power supplies
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