There’s a lot in common when discussing
If you’re interested in consuming Ultra HD content, both
Both Fire TV offers users favorite apps like Netflix & Hulu. However, as an alternative streaming stick, Roku offers most features and content like the
What will you see here?
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Our Pick
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4.5
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4.5
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$119.99
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$54.99
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The Amazon Fire TV Cube is an expensive stick in the Fire TV lineup which costs $119, which is around £109. There are several award-winning movies & shows on Amazon Prime which are worth a watch. Users can enjoy the ever-growing library of content & streamers and viral videos. Amazon's Fire TV Cube is a small, cube-shaped media player with eight far-field microphones. Its built-in microphones are as good as the Amazon Echo Show or Amazon Echo at picking up voice commands. Spin the device around and you'll find an HDMI port, micro USB, IR extender, and a power connector. It can control your TV, soundbar and AV receiver using only voice commands. The Cube's HDMI CEC and IR control feature means you'll need to be careful about where you put it in your home theater. |
Amazon's Fire TV Stick Max is mostly a Fire TV stick, only better. Connected wirelessly to an Eero Pro 6, it gets upward of 250Mbps downstream, with ping times between 20ms and 25ms. That means it'll take advantage of the latest wireless standards if you've got a Wi-Fi 6 router, aka 802.11ax. The Max has 2GB of RAM, which is only a half-gigabyte more than the Fire TV Stick 4K. The processor has been updated, too, to a quad-core Mediatek MT8696 at 1.8GHz. Those are important and obvious updates, but won't change the way you watch TV on Amazon Fire TV. The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max has 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray playback and support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos audio. Amazon's Fire TV OS still has access to all the things it's had access to, like Netflix, Hulu, and Apple TV+. There's no microphone in the stick itself, but you'll be using a remote controlled by Alexa instead. |
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The Amazon Fire TV Cube is an expensive stick in the Fire TV lineup which costs $119, which is around £109. There are several award-winning movies & shows on Amazon Prime which are worth a watch. Users can enjoy the ever-growing library of content & streamers and viral videos.
Amazon's Fire TV Cube is a small, cube-shaped media player with eight far-field microphones. Its built-in microphones are as good as the Amazon Echo Show or Amazon Echo at picking up voice commands. Spin the device around and you'll find an HDMI port, micro USB, IR extender, and a power connector. It can control your TV, soundbar and AV receiver using only voice commands. The Cube's HDMI CEC and IR control feature means you'll need to be careful about where you put it in your home theater.
- Playback of 4K HDR
- AV/TV remote control
- Comes with a voice remote
- YouTube's native app
- No HDMI cable is included.
- The most of the content on the front page is from Amazon
- Poor language recognition
Amazon's Fire TV Stick Max is mostly a Fire TV stick, only better. Connected wirelessly to an Eero Pro 6, it gets upward of 250Mbps downstream, with ping times between 20ms and 25ms. That means it'll take advantage of the latest wireless standards if you've got a Wi-Fi 6 router, aka 802.11ax. The Max has 2GB of RAM, which is only a half-gigabyte more than the Fire TV Stick 4K. The processor has been updated, too, to a quad-core Mediatek MT8696 at 1.8GHz. Those are important and obvious updates, but won't change the way you watch TV on Amazon Fire TV. The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max has 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray playback and support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos audio. Amazon's Fire TV OS still has access to all the things it's had access to, like Netflix, Hulu, and Apple TV+. There's no microphone in the stick itself, but you'll be using a remote controlled by Alexa instead.
- improved CPU, Wi-Fi, and a new remote control
- Still very reasonable
- Access to Amazon Luna
- Dolby Vision / Atmos / HDR10+
- Voice remote with Alexa
- Based on an out-of-date version of Android
- Too many sponsored advertisements
- Homescreen previews are low-resolution.
- Search might yet be improved.
- Luna may be volatile.
Price & Availability
The
Yes, it’s an old device by
On the other hand, Fire TV 4K Max costs about $55, which is a bit more pricey than its predecessor Fire Stick 4K. With the increase in price, it comes with a faster processor. It also supports WiFi 6 and all the playback standards from HDR10 to Dolby Atmos to provide better audio & video quality.
Design & Build
The primary difference between
Fire Stick 4K Max is a compact one in contrast to Fire TV Cube. It’s a small black color brick that measures 3.3 x 1.0 inches. On the other hand, as the name implies, Fire TV Cube has a Cube shape 3.4-inch design.
Fire TV Cube requires a constant electricity connection to run. However, Fire TV Max can also run with the help of your TV’s USB Hub. If you’re okay with the bulky streaming sticks, you should consider Fire Cube. In contrast, Fire TV Max will simply stick to the wall. However, you will lose one of your USB ports. The Fire Cube also supports Ethernet Connection, so it becomes easy to stream HD content on it. Although Fire Stick Max supports Wi-Fi 6, it’s not strong enough to stream 4K fluently.
The Fire TV cube has 4 button controls on its top, which enables the user to mute, lower, or raise the volume. You can also wake Alexa with the help of the buttons. Fire TV Max doesn’t have any buttons or controls on its body. You can only control TV Max with its dedicated remote.
On the back of the TV Cube, you will find an HDMI Port. an IR extender, a micro USB port, as well as a power connector. On the other hand, Fire TV Max offers no ports on its body. However, it comes with a power cable & adapter. It also comes with an HDMI extender out of the box. This comes in handy when the ports on your TV are short in the count.
Performance
There are several streaming sticks that lack Dolby Vision & Dolby Atmos, but Fire Stick 4K Max offers both features. Both
Both sticks come with Alexa Integration. This enables users some great features like checking the weather, managing the shopping list, viewing sports scores, playing songs, and creating a playlist of your favorite songs. Both sticks come with remote control, so you can start using Alexa right from the remote after completing the setup.
Content
While speaking of content, both sticks offer the same exact content. There’s a featured content list at the home page, your apps next to that, and sponsored content on the last. There are several award-winning movies & shows on
Amazon Fire TV 4K Max offers Spotify, and it also offers
Remote Control
Both the streaming sticks come with their dedicated remote control out of the box. However, as the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is the latest iteration in the Fire Stick line-up, it comes with a new full-fledged remote control. It offers a new sole
What’s the monthly fee for a Fire Stick?
The
Which channels are free with the Fire Stick?
Amazon Prime includes a subscription to Prime Video, which includes access to a variety of quality movie channels.
What is the fastest streaming device in Fire TV Cube vs. Fire TV 4K Max?
If you want a fast gadget, go no further than the
Conclusion
The Fire TV Stick has more budget-friendly incarnations, but only the most costly Fire TV Stick 4K Max comes close to the Fire TV Cube in regards to sound and picture quality. Although the Fire TV Cube has greater internal capacity, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max has more than enough.
It all depends on your needs & preference; if you prefer more convenient features and have a great budget, you should go with the Fire TV Cube. However, if you’re a bit low on budget and can sacrifice some features, you should go for Fire TV Stick 4K Max; you won’t regret that.
