Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite Review: Capable Streamer Cheap Price
Editor's Note, Dec. 2022: New releases in the $30 HD streaming class, such because the Chromecast with Google Tv HD, have outpaced the Fire TV Stick Lite in terms of each options and value. We've got adjusted the ranking of this product from an 8.1 to a 6 as a way to reflect the altering landscape. Should you buy it? Roku is the most important title in streaming hardware, with multiple totally different streaming gadgets out there right now, and much more TVs and soundbars. Amazon has been gunning for Flixy streaming Roku's slice of the pie ever since the first Fire Tv appeared. The $30 Amazon Fire Tv Lite is the company's cheapest streamer, a solution to the $30 Roku Express and as you'd expect its greatest advantage over Roku is the Alexa voice assistant. Amazon also has a $40 Fire Stick but I might argue that the Fire Stick Tv Lite is the better deal.
The principle distinction is that the costlier Stick has a special remote with energy, quantity and mute buttons to regulate your Tv. If you're only using this streamer on an affordable Tv anyway, it's value saving the money, unless you really need Tv control. So is the $30 Fire Tv Lite higher than the $30 Roku Express? They mostly have the identical collection of apps, now that Fire Tv has Peacock, so the vital variations are within the menu methods and voice assist. The Lite's built-in entry to Alexa is a big advantage if you like speaking as an alternative of typing if you seek for reveals and launch apps. Ultimately, I appreciated the Fire Tv Lite a bit better, although the Roku Express continues to be an excellent alternative too. In case your Tv has an HDMI port, the Fire TV Stick Lite is a superb option to equip it with a wealth of streaming for not a lot money.
The Fire Tv Lite is a USB stick-sized device which plugs right into a spare HDMI port in your Tv. For 30 bucks it gives loads of options, including that devoted voice remote that permits integration with the Alexa voice assistant. There's additionally dozens of supported Flixy streaming providers among its 1000's of available apps. The remote hasn't bodily changed much since the primary Fire Tv and i did not like the feel as a lot because the Roku distant or the new Google Tv remote. Amazon's clicker additionally lacks the shortcuts to Netflix or other typically-used providers, but it surely does include a new dwell Tv button. The Lite distant should look familiar to Fire Tv users. Pressing that new backside button brings up a grid-type dwell Tv information populated by default with "channels" of free exhibits from Pluto Tv and Starz. Strangely Amazon's personal IMDb Tv is not a part of the stay Tv grid, although it has its own program grid once you open the app.
In case you occur to subscribe to YouTube Tv, you will additionally see shows and channels from that service in the guide, although it didn't work with Sling Tv (subscribers can have to use the Sling app as typical). The stick itself comes with a power adapter which Amazon strongly recommends you use. While you can use the USB ports in your device to power it I discovered it might trigger the unit might behave strangely. One function on the Lite's feature listing appears just a little out of place: HDR compatibility. That is the primary system we have seen to supply HDR but not 4K decision, and it raises the query of what sort of Tv it's designed for. There are a whole bunch of 4K HDR TVs out there however, based mostly on a search of the perfect Buy site, there are only 4 1080p TVs that can do HDR. For most individuals with 4K HDR TVs, we'd recommend getting a streamer that can really do 4K as an alternative of a 1080p streamer like the Lite.