As if four new Kindles weren’t enough for the Amazon devices team to unveil this week, a new Fire TV Stick has landed. It’s twofold because we have a new streaming stick from Amazon, but it also streamlines the lineup a bit.
The all new Fire TV Stick HD replaces both the Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick Lite as access points for $34.99 / £39.99 / AU$69, and is available to order now. We’ve asked Amazon for availability and pricing for the UK and Australia, and we’ll update you as soon as we hear back.
Like the two streaming sticks it replaces, the Fire TV Stick HD is still a rectangular, black stick that plugs directly into the HDMI port on the back of your TV. Out of sight and out of mind, it needs power, though, and Amazon still opts for a micro USB port. That’s pretty wild in 2024, but Amazon includes a cable and plug in the box.
Aside from the charging ports, the Fire TV Stick HD will offer the classic experience that Amazon’s streaming sticks (and boxes, err cubes) have become known for. It streams content up to 1080p HD and supports HDR, HDR 10, HDR10+ and HLG. Support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos is missing from that list, but this HDMI port does support Dolby-encoded audio.
It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles for visual or audio standards that you can find on the computer Fire TV Stick 4K or the Fire TV Stick Maxbut this should definitely be considered if you have an HD TV. Of course, keep waiting until we get a chance to review it too.
Arguably the most exciting part here is that the entry-level Fire TV Stick now comes with an Alexa Voice Remote. That not only includes TV controls for on/off and volume, but by pressing and holding the blue Alexa button you can control the Fire TV experience with just your voice and even ask for the content you want to watch. Amazon even includes two AA batteries in the box to power the remote.
The Amazon platform supports all major streaming services, including Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV+, Max, Paramount+ and Disney+. You obviously need an account to use them.
The Fire TV Stick HD supports Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth LE, and Bluetooth 5.0 for easy connectivity. The entire experience is powered by a 1.7GHz quad-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM, and since most of these applications are for streaming, the built-in 8GB of storage should be sufficient.
It’s worth noting that as well as watching movies or TV shows, you can also stream games via Amazon Luna on the Fire TV Stick HD, although we’d like to see how this performs. Plus, with Alexa on board, you can ask the assistant to control smart home devices and provide answers to other current questions.
For just $34.99 / £39.99 / AU$69there can be no debate about the value Amazon wants to bring here. It also cleans up the lineup so you no longer have to debate between the Fire TV Stick Lite and Fire TV Stick, but if you really want one, these are both available until supplies run out.
However, if you’re looking for the best streaming sticks available right now, check out our full guide here – there are plenty of options from Amazon, Roku, Apple and Google.