Now that there are two new Amazon Fire TV models in the form of the 3rd-generation Fire TV Stick and the Fire TV Stick Lite, here is a comparison of all of the device characteristics and specifications for the entire Fire TV lineup, including the Fire TV Stick 4K and the 2nd-gen Fire TV Cube.
Bold = Best| Fire TV Stick Lite | Fire TV Stick 3 | Fire TV Stick 4K | Fire TV Cube 2 | |
| Price | $29.99 | $39.99 | $49.99 | $119.99 |
| Released | Sept 30, 2020 | Sept 30, 2020 | Oct 31, 2018 | Oct 10, 2019 |
| Video Resolution | 1080p @ 60fps | 1080p @ 60fps | 4K @ 60fps | 4K @ 60fps |
| HDR Types | HDR10, HDR10+, HLG | HDR10, HDR10+, HLG | HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision | HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision |
| Video Decoding | H.265 (HEVC), H.264 (AVC), VP9, VP8, MPEG-4, MPEG-2 | H.265 (HEVC), H.264 (AVC), VP9, VP8, MPEG-4, MPEG-2 | H.265 (HEVC), H.264 (AVC), VP9, VP8, MPEG-4, MPEG-2 | H.265 (HEVC), H.264 (AVC), VP9, VP8, MPEG-4, MPEG-2 |
| Audio Decoding | Stereo, PCM | Stereo, PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos | Stereo, PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos | Stereo, PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos |
| Audio Passthrough | Stereo, PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos, DTS (Various) | Stereo, PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos, DTS (Various) | Stereo, PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos, DTS (Various) | Stereo, PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos, DTS (Various) |
| CPU Model | MediaTek MT8695D | MediaTek MT8695D | MediaTek MT8695 | Amlogic S922Z |
| CPU Cores | 4-Core | 4-Core | 4-Core | 6-Core |
| CPU Speed | 4x 1.7 GHz Cortex A53 | 4x 1.7 GHz Cortex A53 | 4x 1.7 GHz Cortex A53 | 4x 2.2GHz Cortex A73, 2x 1.9GHz Cortex A53 |
| GPU | IMG PowerVR GE8300 | IMG PowerVR GE8300 | IMG PowerVR GE8300 | Mali G52 MP4 |
| RAM | 1GB DDR4 | 1GB DDR4 | 1.5GB DDR4 | 2GB DDR4 |
| WiFi | 802.11 b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO | 802.11 b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO | 802.11 b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO | 802.11 b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO |
| Ethernet | 10/100 External (Sold Separately) | 10/100 External (Sold Separately) | 10/100 External (Sold Separately) | 10/100 External (Included) |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Internal Storage | 8GB | 8GB | 8GB | 16GB |
| External Storage | Native Support via USB OTG | Native Support via USB OTG | Unofficial Support via USB OTG | Native Support via USB OTG |
| Remote Type |  Alexa Voice Remote Lite |  Alexa Voice Remote | Alexa Voice Remote | Alexa Voice Remote |
| Basic Remote Buttons | D-Pad, Select, Home, Back, Menu, Play/Pause, RWD, FFWD | D-Pad, Select, Home, Back, Menu, Play/Pause, RWD, FFWD | D-Pad, Select, Home, Back, Menu, Play/Pause, RWD, FFWD | D-Pad, Select, Home, Back, Menu, Play/Pause, RWD, FFWD |
| Device Control Buttons | - | Power, Volume Up, Volume Down, Mute | Power, Volume Up, Volume Down, Mute | Power, Volume Up, Volume Down, Mute |
| Extra Remote Buttons | Voice, Live Channel Guide | Voice | Voice | Voice |
| Operating System | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) | Fire OS 6 (Android 7.1) | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) |
| Architecture | 32-bit | 32-bit | 32-bit | 32-bit |
| Included Accessories | HDMI Extender | HDMI Extender | HDMI Extender | Ethernet Adapter, IR Repeater |
| Extras | - | - | - | Farfield Mics, Built-in Speaker, Built-in IR Blaster |
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Disappointing tbh. Really wanted a faster stick. Nice break down of the product line though.
Was waiting for a better upgrade, I’m still using FireTV 1st-Gen box because it has an optical audio out, and the FireTV 4K 3rd-Gen dongle, don’t see the need to upgrade to anything else with current offerings.
It would be great to see an OS update to Android 9 for the 4k stick.
Any chance you can add a comparison against the older FireStick and the older pendant 4K FireTV model.
Agreed! I’ll try to do a comparison with older devices. It’s tough because only 4 table columns fit on a phone screen, so I need to figure out how to best display a larger comparison.
Is there any way to get Team Viewer to actually let me “drive” from my laptop?
It would be great to help set up remotely.
The Fire Stick 4K must have the OS updated to Fire OS 7, it would be absurd otherwise. Just hope the Cube 1st gen gets it as well.
Yeah, so far as Amazon devices go, performance-wise, the Fire TV Cube 2 is still very much in a league of its won, benchmarking very close to the acknowledged speed-demon Nvidia Shield (may need to translate): https://aftvhacks.de/benchmark-test-des-fire-tv-cube-2-schnellstes-fire-tv-aller-zeiten/
Thanks a lot for this breakdown, it’s the number one thing I was looking for after the announcement.
Would love to see ARM core type added to tables for future comparisons (A53, A72, etc.).
Thanks for the great articles today!
Ask and you shall receive! I just added the core types to the table for you. Let me know if you think anything else is missing.
I would love to see some benchmarking between the devices. In a perfect world I’d love to see the Fire TV 2 and the new google device alongside for deciding on upgrade paths. Some of us still use our Fire TV gen2 sloane. There has not been a compelling upgrade option yet, except possibly the cube2.
Thank you sir!
Thanks Elias, very informative. I always thought the Cube 2 was 64 bit architecture but I guess since it runs a 32 bit OS it is technically 32 bit architecture?
They’re all 64-bit capable hardware running a 32-bit OS. The main reason for this is that a 32-bit OS uses about 100-200MB less memory than a 64-bit OS. While a 64-bit OS would perform maybe 1-5% better than a 32-bit OS, the minor improvement is not worth the RAM hit on low memory devices like these.
Why is it so hard to add one additional gb of ram and move from 8 gb to 16 gb?
It’s not about difficulty, it’s about money. I’m sure they must hit a certain price point.
Yup. It’s about finding the right balance of specs that fit into the desired price. If you increase it from 1GB to 2GB of RAM and from 8GB to 16GB of storage, something else has to be removed. A 2GB/16GB Stick for $39.99 would probably mean, at the very least, that you lose TV controls on the remote and you get a weaker CPU/GPU. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather have the better remote and CPU than the increased RAM and storage.
They should do it. List price $49.99, “sale” price $39.99 with the occasional hot deal at $30-$35.
I can’t imagine it would raise production costs by very much, $5 maybe $10 per unit at the most. Flash memory is getting ridiculously cheap 32 GB thumb drive under $10 is standard fare. I have a feeling the cache size of the new gaming service will put nearly all devices past the 500 mb of available space threshold resulting in frequent notifications to delete apps to make room and thus providing a poor end user experience. I can only imagine the fix will cost Amazon more in the long run.
Another Thought….the FS lite is far easier to put third party apps that are the RAGE right now….replacing cable..
Going by those specs, I’d just stick to the 4K Firestick for when you upgrade to a 4K tv set.
I could have sworn that one of my devices was 64-bit.. must have been the Fire TV 2. It could not do HDR, but could do 4k.
Why does a 1080p max device support HDR?
Yup, the Fire TV 2 (box) was the only 64-bit device. Pretty sure HDR support came free with the SOC choice, so why not include it. Prime Video, Netflix, and YouTube (at least) do stream 1080p HDR content.
How are these new devices an improvement over the current fire sticks?
Better CPU/GPU, faster memory, HDR10/HDR10+, Dolby (DD, DD+, Atmos) decoding, External storage support, $10 cheaper for the Lite.
From the chart you posted, the new Firesticks have exactly the same CPU/GPU and yet LESS memory and LESS HRD options and LESS video resolution than the Firestick 4k. I totally don’t understand these “NEW” products. Offering less instead of more. Exactly the opposite of what I had hoped for.
They aren’t supposed to replace the Firestick 4k, which is only a couple of years old, they are to replace the standard Firestick which came out in 2016.
Thanks for this Elias. Good to have you back. Is there any indication that the 4k stick will be updated to have native expandable storage?
My guess is it will gain native expandable storage if it gets updated to Fire OS 7. Amazon doesn’t say if/when the OS will be updated.
Hi,Can anyone help me just bought a fire stick 2nd gen can i install fire os 6 or 7 android tv using flash or the andoid tv home laucher
You may want to Bing that. All sorts of guides for alternative launchers. This post is about product comparison of new vs old products, not about hacks/workarounds on a fire stick.
There are guides from tech doctor on how to change the launcher to leanback – https://youtu.be/YG6bkiRjJeI
This was extremely helpful! Thanks for putting it together. I’m curious what’s meant by “Unofficial Support
via USB OTG” for the 4k unit. Does that mean it works and just isn’t documented? Or is some modification of the device required to take advantage of the extra space?
With the Fire TV Stick 4K, if you connect a USB drive via an OTG cable, the drive is mounted fine, but the OS does not acknowledge it. This means that you can access files on the drive from within any apps, but you can’t do things like move apps to the external drive or mount/unmount/format the drive using the Fire TV settings menu. There are hacks with ADB commands that allow you to move apps to external storage on the Fire TV Stick 4K, but it’s not simple, like it is with native support in the OS on the new Sticks and the Cube.
Exactly what I was looking for, thanks! Fingers crossed 4k units receive the OS7 update, which, given the nearly identical specs, seems like a given.
Android 9… out of the box.
Is there a chance for older fire tv devices to upgrade or is it just the possible fire OS that’s going to update…?
I think too many devices would get bricked by updating the OS. Many people power their stick with the USB port on their TV which gets turned off when the TV is turned off. If the device is turned off during an OS update, then it’s likely to be bricked.
Here’s a somewhat specific question, if anyone knows the answer. I have the original FireTV (first gen I believe), and 3 FireTV 4k sticks. I also subscribe to Hulu Live for my OTA TV. On the original box, when I pull up the guide in Hulu, it is translucent and overlays the currently playing video which you can see behind the guide and sound continues. The 4k sticks do not do this, and I can find no setting to make them do this. On the 4k sticks, when you pull up the guide, video and audio playback stops and you just have the guide. Is the original FireTV really that much more powerful that it can do this and the newer 4k sticks can’t?
The Fire TV Stick 4K is more powerful than the Fire TV 1 in most ways. I believe the Fire TV 1 GPU might be slightly more powerful than the Fire TV Stick 4K’s GPU at certain tasks. My guess is that Hulu isn’t basing that behavior on device performance. They’re probably changing the behavior based on something arbitrary. The Fire TV 1 runs Fire OS 5 and the Fire TV Stick 4K runs Fire OS 6. The Hulu behavior could just be based on what OS is on the device for some reason.
VERY disappointed that yet another release of Fire TV devices comes and goes without improving on the benchmark champ Fire TV 2 2015. Why are the only options an integrated speaker cube with worse performance than its older brother from 2015 or a very cheap stick with poor hardware and low memory/storage. How about you take the title away from the NVIDIA Shield series and make a box/puck/whatever with a fast CPU, 4GB RAM and 16 or 32GB storage?
The 2015 Fire TV 2 isn’t even close to being the “benchmark champ,” which the 2019 Fire TV Cube 2 lays claim to by a large margin. See my post above for comprehensive benchmarking results.
The Fire TV 2 box has a higher single CPU core performance rating than the Fire TV Cube 2.
Although a slight single-core performance edge may be a very, very slightly good thing if you are still using some sort of device that significantly relies upon single-core performance, virtually every current device uses four or more cores (the Fire TV Cube uses and integrates six), so single-core performance is essentially irrelevant in today’s streaming environment. The Fire TV Cube 2 excels at every meaningful performance measurement and in real-world use.
Will the Fire Stick be compatible with the tv control remote?.What I mean is can you pair the tv control remote to the Firestick light?
Also can you adapt the storage with the new Firesticks?
Elias, this is a fantastic post.
There is a lot of confusing information out there about atmos. I was wondering if you could add to the very informative table in your post information on Atmos.
Atmos support Amazon Prime using 4K TV
Atmos support Amazon Prime Using 1080 projector
Atmos support Netflix using 4K TV
Atmos support Netflix Using 1080 projector
My understanding is that the Amazon Prime and Netflix apps both support atmos via Dolby Digital Plus. But maybe not if you are feeding a 1080 projector? Many of us still have 1080 projectors since the quality 4K projectors are still very expensive. I am thinking of upgrading my AVR and speaker system to support atmos, would be great to know what apps on FireTV Cube and sticks would work.
Thank you for all your brilliant posts,
Jorgen Lien
The Fire TV Stick Lite is a good and sweet deal just 30 bucks. The integration of Alexa voice commands along with the addition of the Mediatek chipset at its core makes the device a pretty easy one to work with with steady performance.
Can the 4K max be added to this comparison?