What’s the best Fire TV Stick?
The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is far and away the best Fire TV Stick that Amazon makes. It launches apps quickly, and navigating around feels fast and smooth, thanks to its robust processor. It also comes with Dolby Vision support and Wi-Fi 6 for faster streaming.
Amazon has pushed aggressively into the streaming market, producing an array of Fire TV-branded streaming devices. We’ve tested and reviewed them all — as well as others from Roku, Google, Apple and more — and found that we tend to like Roku products best for their easy use and their platform-agnostic approach. Roku’s menus don’t favor one streaming service (like, for example, Prime Video) over others. That said, Amazon’s Fire TV devices are highly capable too, especially if you want Alexa voice integration.
Amazon’s range is robust and runs the gamut from the basic Fire TV Stick Lite to the midrange Fire TV Stick 4K Max to the top-tier Fire TV Cube, as well as a bunch of models in between. If that sounds confusing, don’t worry. Our guide to the best Fire TV streaming device will help you pick out the right model for you.
Read more: Best 4K TV for 2023
Best Fire TV Sticks of 2023
How we test Fire TV devices
Every Fire TV Stick we review receives hours of hands-on testing. Typically, this involves installing the device on multiple TVs, evaluating the setup process, adding popular streaming channels and using the product as if it were our own. We use all of the major features available and note how they stack up against other Fire TV models in the company’s lineup. To do this, we hook up multiple Fire TV streaming devices to the same TV so we can switch back and forth easily to compare the experiences.
The metrics we use to rate a device include hardware design, distinctive features that differentiate models, remote capabilities and design, overall ease of use, effective layouts and design, search capabilities, privacy settings, the number of apps and their performance and the overall speed and reliability of the system.