Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.
Amazon is updating its Fire TV Stick lineup with refreshed versions of its two most powerful models, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K and the higher-performance Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
Prices for the new models start at $50 and $60, respectively, and the new models bring more processing power, faster wireless capabilities, and an updated operating system, among other things. The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max also gets twice the storage of its predecessor. And Amazon is also running a promotion that lets customers in the US who pick up any Fire TV media streamer or smart TV in retail stores get a 6-month free subscription to Amazon’s MGM+ video streaming service.
The 2nd-gen Fire TV Max 4K comes just two years after the original, and doubles the amount of built-in storage from 8GB to 16GB. It also bumps wireless speeds up from WiFi 6 to WiFi 6E and Amazon says that it has a new antenna with three times the bandwidth. According to the company, the improved wireless capabilities should deliver faster speeds, lower latency, and less interference from other wireless devices in your home.
Amazon’s 2nd-gen Fire TV Max is a long-overdue upgrade over the 2018 model. Amazon says wireless capabilities have been bumped up from WiFi 5 to WiFi 6 and the new processor delivers 30% faster performance.
Here’s how the new models compare with their predecessors (and the Amazon Fire TV Cube, which remains the highest-performance, but also the most capable, model in the Fire TV media streamer lineup):
| Fire TV Stick 4K (2023) | Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2023) | Fire TV Stick 4K (2018) | Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2021) | Fire TV Cube (2022) | |
| Video | 4K @ 60 FPS HDR10+ | 4K @ 60 FPS HDR10+ | 4K @ 60 fps HDR10+ | 4K @ 60 fps HDR10+ | 4K @ 60 fps HDR10+ |
| CPU | MT8696D 1.7 GHz ARM Cortex-A55 quad-core | MT8696T 2 GHz ARM Cortex-A55 quad-core 32-bit (software limitation) | MT8695 1.7 GHz quad-core 32-bit (software limitation) | MT8696 1.8 GHz quad-core 32-bit (software limitation) | Amlogic POP1-G 4 x ARM Cortex-A73 cores @ 2.2 GHz 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 cores @ 2 GHz 32-bit (software limitation) |
| GPU | IMG GE9215 (650 MHz) | IMG GE9215 (850 MHz) | IMG GE8300 (650 MHz) | IMG GE9215 (750 MHz) | Mali-G52 MP8 (800MHz) |
| RAM | 2GB LPDDR4 | 2GB LPDDR4 | 1.5 GB DDR4 | 2GB DDR4 | 2GB LPDDR4x-4244 |
| Storage | 8GB | 16GB | 8GB | 8GB | 16GB |
| WiFi | WiFi 6 | WiFi 6E | WiFi 5 2 x 2 MIMO | WiFi 6 2 x 2 MIMO | WiFi 6E 2 x 2 MIMO |
| Bluetooth | BT 5.2 | BT 5.2 | BT 5.0 | BT 5.0 | BT 5.2 |
| Ethernet | 10/100 (with dongle) | 10/100 (with dongle) | 10/100 (with dongle) | 10/100 (with dongle) | 10/100 (built-in) |
| USB port | ✓ | ||||
| HDMI input | ✓ | ||||
| AV1 decoding | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Hands-free Alexa | ✓ | ||||
| Speaker | ✓ | ||||
| Remote | Alexa voice remote | Enhanced Alexa voice remote | Alexa voice remote | Alexa voice remote | Enhanced Alexa Voice Remote |
| OSÂ | Fire OS 8 (Android 11) | Fire OS 8 (Android 11) | Fire OS 6 (Android 7.1) | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) |
| List Price (at launch) | $50 | $60 | $50 | $55 | $140 |
Amazon is also launching a new Fire TV Soundbar, which is not a standalone media streamer like Roku’s Streambar devices. Instead, it’s designed as a companion to Fire TV media streamers or any smart TV with Fire TV baked in.
Available starting today for $120, the sound bar is Bluetooth enabled, and should work with any Fire TV device.
Looking forward to seeing Black Friday pricing… and Devil’s Hour Season 2.
Typo… Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2023) column heading?
Whoops, thanks. That should be fixed now!
Ugh. Still only 2Gb RAM…
Yeah I noticed that too. I personally haven’t tried a Fire Stick, but I have had difficulty using IPTV services on other Android boxes with only 1gb or 2gb of RAM.
The app I use seems to build a buffer file that can exceed 2gb in size, and it runs like crap on devices with low RAM.
When you consider the CPU and iGPU they’re putting in these devices and you think what people were able to get to run on RPi3B’s it becomes an unsustainable argument to maintain that you shouldn’t be able to use them as a general, mainstream purpose portable stick PC. And merely 2Gb RAM in 2023 simply doesn’t cut it.
Also, if all you want to use it as is a TV stick, surely you would be better off with something with more RAM and expandable storage, like the X96S?