Click To View Slideshow» The Fire TV and Stick are an excellent pair of devices; here's how you make the most of them.
Not everything Jeff Bezos touches turns to gold; just look at the Fire Phone. But on the media hubs front, Amazon did very well with the Fire TV set-top box, and the smaller, portable Fire TV Stick , plus the upgraded the Fire TV Stick with voice remote—all of which earned PCMag Editors' Choice awards for bringing digital/streaming media directly to the big HDTV in your home.
The Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick have very similar specs; naturally the bigger Fire TV box packs some more oomph, and extras like support for MicroSD cards storage, better Bluetooth, plus full 4K "Ultra HD" playback on screen (the stick only does 1080p.) The average user doesn't see that much difference on the screen. The interfaces are the same across the product line, and all iterations use apps and games you can get directly from Amazon (and elsewhere, but more on that ahead).
What's really important is the sheer number of media services they support: Amazon Video and Prime Music (naturally), Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, HBO GO and HBO Now, FX Now, Showtime Anytime, Pandora, Spotify, YouTube, PBS, A&E, Cartoon Network, CNN, Fox News, NBC (for Olympics coverage!), and Sling TV, to name only a few. There's even an app for our sister site, IGN, that you should check out.
There's a plethora of games on the platform, including Final Fantasy IV, Minion Rush, Leo's Fortune, Walking Dead, Minecraft, Pac-Man 256, Goat Simulator, GTA, Lego Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and more—though some work better, or only, on the Fire TV, not on the Stick. No one's claiming that Amazon's devices are going to replace a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One for game quality, but Fire TV devices are a fraction of the price of the big consoles.
There is a lot to love about the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. There's also a lot about them you may not know. Hit the slideshow for a closer look at some tricks and tips Fire TV owners will love.
(For more, check out our tips for Chromecast, Roku, and Apple TV.)
Click To View Slideshow »
