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Amazon’s second model of its Fire TV has been upgraded to add new features, making it more compelling, especially for Amazon Prime members. The Fire TV connects your TV to channels, apps and games, giving you lots of options to watch and play.
The new Fire TV is faster and more powerful with impressive hardware and software to make it a serious contender for your set-top box.
Alexa Gets Fire
If you’re a fan of Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant, you’ll be pleased to know that the Fire TV has added Alexa to its list of features. We first met Alexa with the Echo, Amazon’s Cloud-connected speaker that lets you ask questions, get the weather, make to do lists, play music and more.
See my full review => Amazon Echo — The Knowledge of the World at Your Command!
Alexa now comes to the Fire TV, with visual answers as well as audio ones. Ask Alexa about weather, sports scores and general information. You can see the answers on your TV screen as well as hearing them spoken.
Alexa also serves as voice search, letting you search for shows, apps and more. When you search for a show, Alexa will show you options on Prime Video, Amazon Video and Hulu, HBO, or Showtime (if you’ve downloaded and logged into those apps on your Fire TV), but not on Netflix, yet.
Alexa isn’t yet as powerful on the Fire TV as she is on the Echo. She can’t read news yet, however future software updates may give added capabilities to Alexa.
Fire TV App as Your Remote
The Fire TV comes with a remote and you can also download the Fire TV Remote app to your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch or Android device to use as a remote. You can tap and swipe the app to navigate around the Fire TV as you would with the included remote. You can also tap the microphone icon on the app to talk to Alexa.
The app also has the benefit of an on-screen keyboard which the remote doesn’t have . If you’ve ever been frustrated at toggling your way through an on-screen keyboard with up and down buttons, you’ll quickly become a fan of the Fire TV app.
If you start using the Fire TV app, you probably won’t panic if the remote gets tucked away in the sofa cushions some day.
Hardware
This Fire TV is more powerful under the hood than the first model. You get extra power and speed with 75% more processing power from the quad-core processor and 2 GB of memory.
In testing I found the speed of the Fire TV extremely impressive. Videos played instantly, without any wait for buffering. Apps loaded quickly and performed well with no lag time.
The Fire TV can stream 4K videos, which is handy if you have a 4K TV. I don’t have a 4K TV but was still impressed with the quality of the video resolution.
Like your phone or tablet, the Fire TV comes with storage for your apps and games. The Fire TV has 8 GB of storage, plus a USB port and microSD card slot. You can expand the Fire TV storage up to to an extra 128 GB with a microSD card.
The Fire TV has Bluetooth which it uses to connect to the remote control so you don’t need a line of site for the remote to work. You can also use Bluetooth to connect speakers, headphones, a keyboard and a mouse to the Fire TV.
What to Watch
Amazon says that Fire TV has over 3000 channels, apps and games (I didn’t count them).
Channels
Fire TV lets you watch shows from
- Amazon Video
- Netflix
- HBO Go
- HBO Now
- Showtime
- Hulu
- NBC News
- YouTube.com
- Crackle
- Sling TV
and more.
Apps and Games
You can download apps and games from the Amazon Appstore to your Fire TV. Apps let you do things such as
- listen to music using Spotify and Pandora
- watch cooking videos with Allrecipes.com
- play games such as Candy Crush Saga and Minecraft
If you’re a gamer you may want to invest in the optional game controller as some games can’t be played using the controls on the remote or the Fire TV Remote app.
Fire TV as a Digital Photo Frame
Beginning last year, Prime Members get free unlimited storage for your digital photos.
Learn more at => Free Unlimited Photo Storage for Amazon Prime Members!
You can use this Prime benefit with your Fire TV. Scroll down to Photos on the Fire TV menu to open a slide show of photos you’ve stored using Prime.
Your TV has now become a very large digital photo frame.
Music
Your Fire TV can play Prime Music with over 1 million songs available. Ask Alexa to play titles or artists to use Prime Music on your Fire TV.
You can also use apps on the Fire TV such as Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio and TuneIn to listen to tunes.
X-Ray
While you’re watching a show, tap up on the remote or swipe up on the remote app to reveal X-Ray. You can see in the bottom of the screen which actors are on screen and get more information about what you’re watching from IMDb.
Parental Controls
The Fire TV gives you parental controls so you can restrict what and how much your kids watch. You can set up individual profiles for your children to limit which shows they can watch, which apps and games they can use, and how much time they can spend on the Fire TV.
Mayday – Instant Answers
The Fire TV gets Mayday, the 24/7 live assistant to help you. Unlike Mayday on the Fire tablet, the Fire TV has you call Amazon using your phone and give permission to let Mayday use your screen.
Mayday then can see what’s wrong and show you how to work your Fire TV, even drawing on your screen to highlight what they’re saying.
Check out => Mayday on the New Kindle Fire – A Game Changer in Tech (Support)
Comparison to Other Streaming Devices
Amazon has a handy chart to help you compare the Fire TV 2015, Roku 4, upcoming Apple TV, and Chromecast.
Availability
The Fire TV 2015 is available at Amazon.com for $99.99.
The Fire TV is also available at Amazon in the UK and Germany and will be available in Japan on October 28.
Note that the HDMI cable needed to connect the Fire TV to your TV isn’t included so be sure to order one if you don’t have an extra one handy around the house.
You can also get the Fire TV Gaming Edition for $139.99, which includes the game controller, a 32 GB microSD card and two games.
You can also buy the game controller separately for $49.99.
The Fire TV Remote app is free for:
Your Thoughts
Which features of the Fire TV do you like best? Have you tried Alexa yet? Would you use the Fire TV for shows, apps and/or games? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
Happy Monday!
Wonderful review indeed 🙂
Honestly speaking, we do not have the Fire TV our end, nor have I heard of Alexa except the Alexa ranking factor we bloggers know of! I guess it would all take a while coming to our country.
But I love the numerous features it’s loaded with, which would be worth it if anyone were to go in for it. I like the fact that you can use the Fire TV for shows, apps, and even games – we have just a few limited companies that offer everything in one, though more are catching pace over time.
Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, the Fire TV offers a lot in one small box! I showed this Fire TV to my nephew who’s also a tech fan and he was very impressed with all the Fire TV offered.
I hope the Fire TV comes to your country some day soon, Harleena!
Well great review mate 🙂
Waiting for it to launch in my country. I have always the issues with local cable tv service provider. Looking forward for this .
Hi Akash, I’m glad you enjoyed this review. Yes, if you’re looking to cut the cable you should definitely check out the Fire TV when it comes to your country.
Thank you for this great review! Very comprehensive and informative. I’ve been thinking about getting Fire TV – you’ve inspired me to look into it again. It seems to offer a lot of good stuff for relatively little outlay.
We’re a very techy family – looking forward to coming back and reading more on your site 🙂
Hi Mir, Yes, the Fire TV offers a lot for the price. The new model has impressive hardware and Alexa. I hope you do take a look at it.
I am curious about Alexa, but have not invested in the tower. This system sounds really awesome, and I may need to try it. I have a ROKU box, but this is superior in a few ways. Thanks!
Hi Pamela, Yes the choice of set-top boxes is becoming much more interesting now. Some people just like to watch TV, but if you’re the type who likes extra information when watching, you would enjoy the new Fire TV.
I do have a couple of Echos in the house and Alexa and I have become well acquainted. She actually has been spoiling me so I’m excited to see her come to the Fire TV.
If you’re a Prime member you should give the Fire TV a look.