Amazon Fire TV

PROS

Very responsive. Supports 4K content. Improved voice search with Alexa voice assistant.

• CONS

Occasionally stutters when jumping between apps. Content is heavily weighted toward Amazon sources.

• BOTTOM LINE

The new Fire TV adds 4K video support and Amazon's Alexa voice assistant to make the already-excellent $100 media streamer even more powerful.

Amazon's new Fire TV media streamer takes the powerful performance of the first Android-based Fire TV and ups the ante with ultra high-definition (4K) video support and Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. The updated Fire TV retains its broad support for apps, games, and services while keeping the same $99.99 price tag, easily earning our Editors' Choice for media streamers.

Design

The new Fire TV$89.99 at Amazon is, from the outside, just about identical to the original one. It's a 4.6-inch black square that stands just 0.7 inches tall, making it about the size of a jewel case. The sides are glossy black and bare, save for a power LED hidden on the left side of the front panel. The top panel is matte black with an Amazon logo on it, and on the bottom, there's a large rubberized foot. The back of the Fire TV holds the power connector (for the included proprietary power adapter), an HDMI port, a USB port, an Ethernet port, and a microSD card slot. There are no buttons, switches, or any way to physically interact with the Fire TV on the device itself; once it's plugged in, it's and is ready to work with the included remote.

The remote control is also effectively the same as the one that came with the first Fire TV. It's a simple matte black wand with a flat top and a curved underside (that slides off to accept two AAA batteries, which are included). The remote has eight buttons: Voice, Back, Home, Menu, Back, Play/Pause, Forward, and a large Select button located in the middle of glossy black circular direction pad (if you count the directions of the pad, it's actually 12 buttons). Since all interaction occurs via the on-screen menus and voice search is robust, you rarely need to use anything other than the direction buttons and playback controls.

You can also use your smartphone or tablet as a remote with the free Fire TV Remote app for iOS and Android. It turns your into a direction pad for navigating and includes support for text input and even voice search through your device's microphone.

Fire TV OSO

the surface, the Fire TV interface is largely unchanged from the first iteration. All apps, services, and media are organized through different categories listed on the left side of the screen, including Apps, Games, Movies, Prime Video, TV, Video Library, and Watchlist. Each category breaks out into a series of rows filled with large, colorful icons that show your most recent selections, featured items in each category, and recommendations.

The Fire TV will highlight your Amazon-based content in the Movies, Music (which only shows Amazon Prime Music; individual music services can be found in the Apps category), and TV categories, but the weighted selections aren't too obtrusive, and other services like Hulu Plus and Netflix are easy to access. When I searched for The Flash using the Fire TV's voice search, it offered "Watch it on Hulu" as an option to view some episodes before the Amazon Instant Video choices. This isn't consistent, though, and I couldn't get results to display for movies and shows available on Netflix; for that you'll have to go to the Netflix app itself.

Voice Search

Voice search has been greatly enhanced on the new Fire TV. The newest version of the Fire TV OS incorporates Alexa, the voice assistant used in the Amazon Echo$179.99 at Amazon. This lets you ask simple questions about news, sports, weather, and general knowledge, and even make reminder lists that sync with the Amazon Echo app. For general media searches, you can speak any title, artist, genre, or even app into the microphone and it will give you search results. I easily found everything from the Road app to Jeffrey Combs films with voice search, without entering any text.

Currently, the home automation features controllable with Alexa on the Amazon Echo aren't available through the Fire TV. These features could be added with a software update in the future, but for now, you can't use the Fire TV's voice control to do things like the Philips Hue lights in your home. Alexa support is not currently available on the original Fire TV, but Amazon plans to add it as a free update.

4K Video

The new Fire TV supports Ultra HD (UHD) video content, and I had no problems viewing Alpha House on Amazon Instant Video and Daredevil on Netflix in 4K. Both services depend on a fast network connection to display 4K content, so don't count on a consistent UHD stream if your network is slower than either service and get ready for occasional compression artifacts with network hiccups. That said, both shows came through fast and crisp on the new Fire TV connected to our FiOS test network.

While the Fire TV can show 4K video, the interface is 1080p. This effectively doesn't matter when in use, but sometimes there's a half-second pause when jumping from a 4K video stream to the main menu as the Fire TV switches output resolutions.

Performance While the Fire TV OS is based on Android, it's very detached from the stock version of Google's operating system. Installing apps from unknown sources and ADB debugging are both options available in the Fire TV's settings, but like the original device, actually getting software onto the new Fire TV through channels outside of the Amazon app store is a convoluted process. Because of this, we have decided not to formally benchmark the new Fire TV.

That said, Amazon claims the new Fire TV's hardware is faster, and from a sheer usability standpoint, the device is very quick. In side-by-side testing, however, it is not noticeably faster than the original Fire TV, which is already quite responsive. Navigating menus with the remote and switching between apps is fast, though there is sometimes a second or two of lag when jumping through lists of search results as the menu populates with media; this is tied to network speed as much as performance.

This doesn't mean you can rapidly switch apps with impunity. Navigating between individual apps and the main Fire TV menu system is FAST, but it takes about five to ten seconds to move between apps like Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Sling TV. Get ready for a very Android-like experience of the Fire TV closing background apps without your knowledge; if it's not currently open or the last app you loaded, don't count on consistently jumping straight to where you were. Sometimes the Fire TV would keep my place in a menu and smoothly transition between apps, but it would just as often completely restart apps as well.

Gaming and Conclusions

Android still hasn't caught on as a couch bound gaming platform, but the new Fire TV still lets you play some Android-based games, just like the original Fire TV. You can use the optional Fire Game Controller or almost any Android-compatible Bluetooth gamepad to play titles like Road, Sonic CD, and The Walking Dead.

Road and Pac-Man 256 both play very smoothly on the Fire TV. However, the Nvidia Shield Android TV has a more extensive library of Android games, and can stream PC games, providing much more selection for Android-based gaming, while dedicated game consoles still provide the best experience. We can't currently recommend the Fire TV or any other media hub solely on its gaming abilities (with the exception of the PlayStation TV$59.99 at Amazon, which has a far better selection of games but is far less suited for actually streaming media to your HDTV).

Both Apple and Roku have new 4K-capable media hubs coming out over the next month, and we'll compare them with the Fire TV as soon as we can test them. If you just want the most affordable way to stream online content to your HDTV and 4K isn't a requirement, the Google Chromecast $35.00 at Best Buy is very compelling, though you'll need a smartphone or tablet to control it. Amazon's Fire TV Stick is another good option, though it too lacks 4K support and isn't quite as fast as the Fire TV.

The new Amazon Fire TV is just as capable a streaming media hub as the original, with the benefit of 4K video and improved voice search through Alexa. You won't readily notice the difference from the first Fire TV unless you have a 4K-capable HDTV, but a wealth of features and a very reasonable $100 price tag easily earns the new Amazon Fire TV our Editors' Choice.

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