Amazon Fire TV with Alexa
FOR Voice control; responsive UI; multiple streaming services AGAINST Nothing of note
The development of talking technology isn’t as recent as you might think. In 1773 Christian Kratzenstein built a speaking machine using tubes and organ pipes to make artificial vocal chords; and in 1939 the first electronic speech synthesizer called VODER (Voice Operating Demonstrator) said the words “Good evening, radio audience” at the New York World’s Fair.
But at this point in tech history, the voice assistant du jour is Amazon’s Alexa – and its inclusion in the new Fire TV Stick is the most obvious improvement between the now-discontinued 2015 version and this new iteration.
The lights are on...
Alexa makes it easier to do several things, the most obvious of which is menu navigation. By pressing the microphone button on top of the remote, you can command your Fire TV Stick to search for a particular actor, director, or film genre.
Another plus is being able to control your videos a little better. Say “fast forward five minutes” while watching Amazon Prime content, and it will skip ahead. However, this works only for Amazon’s own content – Netflix and other streaming services still rely on conventional buttons.
As the Fire TV Stick is connected to your wireless network, there aren’t any ports apart from the Micro USB it uses for power. This means you can use it to manage any Internet of Things products you might have, such as smart-lights or thermostats.
Since you have to press a button on the remote rather than calling out a wake word, it isn’t as easy to use as Amazon Echo but having the Alexa function is neat.
You also have the option, via the Stick’s wireless settings, to connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones or speakers in case you wanted to improve on your TV’S sound or avoid disturbing others.
Focus on usability
Connecting the device is simple: plug it into your TV'S HDMI slot, connect to wi-fi, and blast through the short installation videos. Logging into your services and clicking your way through various emails and passwords using the Stick’s remote takes time, so we’d download the Fire TV Stick app for IOS and Android (which also has the Alexa functionality) and use your phone’s keyboard instead.
The other major upgrade is a quad-core processor, which means the Stick is more responsive than its predecessor. There’s also Amazon’s Advanced Streaming and Prediction (ASAP) for its Prime Video service, which learns your tastes and pre-buffers shows it thinks you might like.
Moving through menus certainly feels quick and precise, and on our wi-fi network content loads relatively quickly. Amazon’s new UI is also happy to put other streaming services ahead of its own Prime channels, focusing on usability over advertising its own content.
On top of the operating system is a menu for the home page, recent movies and TV shows from Amazon and other streaming services, as well as the Apps and Settings pages. Next is a medley of your recent apps in well sized tiles, followed by your downloads, which you can rearrange to prioritise the apps you use most.
While the old Fire TV Stick lacked a few catch-up apps, the new one now has access to the main ones. BBC iplayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and My5 are available, as well as Netflix and Youtube. Video content is in 1080p quality, and up to Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 channel sound. If you want 4K content from Amazon or Netflix, you’ll have to go for the Amazon Fire 4K TV box.
You can also download games to the Stick’s internal memory, and purchase a separate games controller for £35, just as you could on the old Fire TV Stick.
Deserving accolades
We stream Netflix’s How To Get Away With
Murder, and the Stick performs well. The picture is as crisp and detailed as we'd expect at this resolution, with insight to the dark scenes and pop in bright colours.
Sound is pretty good too. Speech is clear, without any extra tonal emphasis towards the high or the low range. There’s enough emotion in the angry debates between lawyers and tension in the soundtrack. The differences between Annalise Keating’s (Viola Davis) whispered counsel and her loud declarations are dynamic enough too.
Amazon’s previous Fire TV Stick received five stars from us and, as the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The core design remains similar, the addition of Alexa is a nice touch and the UI is responsive, so the 2017 version deserves the same accolade. At £40, it’s a great low-budget way to get streaming services onto your television.
“At £40, the Amazon Fire Stick with Alexa is a great low-budget way to get streaming services onto your TV”