The idea is that the Fire TV Stick will learn your viewing habits over time and tailor content to you, with video teasers to draw you in. The main navigation menu has moved from the side to along the top, and a new picture-led carousel with suggested content dominates the top half of the screen. If you’re familiar with the older Fire TV Sticks, you’ll notice that the interface has been redesigned. Once you’re signed into your Amazon account, you’re ready to go. Some on-screen instructions will get your Alexa remote paired and the Fire TV Stick hooked up to your home network. Plug it into a spare HDMI slot and its USB cable into a power source. Setting up your Fire Stick is really simple. Amazon Fire Stick set-up and interface - Simple to set up and easier to find content from other providers It’s nice that this is included now, although the iOS and Android app does an equally good job and can activate the same Alexa commands. It’s pretty simple, offering a D-pad for navigation, a handful of playback controls and the all-important voice input key. The accompanying remote is the same one you’ll find across all of Amazon’s Fire TV. Thankfully, if this is too much of a squeeze, Amazon includes an HDMI extender in the box to free up some space. It creaks a little if squeezed, but feels tough enough for purpose.Īt 9cm long and around 3cm deep, it protrudes from your TV back panel, particularly when you consider making room for its Micro USB cable power supply. It’s a neat all-in-one design housed in plastic. The Amazon Fire TV Stick looks like a memory stick on steroids and plugs into the HDMI port on your TV. Amazon Fire TV Stick design and build - On the chunky side The Amazon Fire TV Stick only goes up to Full HD 1080p resolution, and goes up against the aging (but still excellent) Chromecast, or the platform-agnostic Roku Express. This change will filter down to older devices over time, though, as will the Alexa voice control, so the real benefits of the new Stick are its faster processor and improved Wi-Fi. So, what’s new? For a start, the interface has been overhauled to make it look more accessible.

There are plenty more besides video apps, including Music Unlimited and Spotify, along with access to Amazon’s growing games library. You can stream from Prime Video and Netflix, as well as catch-up services such as BBC’s iPlayer, ITV Hub and All 4. The Amazon Fire TV Stick is the company’s second generation of its cheapest video streaming device.

Amazon fire stick tv