When the 2nd-gen Amazon Fire TV launched in October 2015, it was immediately plagued with poor reviews due to numerous operating system bugs that resulted in broken surround sound, flakey WiFi, and an unreliable remote control. Despite several software updates correcting the majority of the issues, Amazon’s new flagship streaming device had barely broken a 3.5 star rating by the end of 2015. Now that the new Fire TV is nearly bug free and actually gaining new features once again, Amazon is confident enough with the device’s performance to solicit reviews. On February 24th, Amazon sent out a mass email to Fire TV owners, asking them to review the streaming box. The result was over 1,500 new 5 star reviews, which shot the device up to a 4.1 star rating.
Of the over 2,300 2nd-gen Fire TV customers that have written a review within the last few days, 85% of them have given the device a 4 or 5 star rating. If you only take into account reviews from that time period, the new Fire TV would have a 4.4 star rating, surpassing even the 1st-gen Fire TV’s 4.2 star rating. While the 2nd-gen Fire TV of today, with its updated software, is vastly more loved by customers than when it first launched, the device’s reputation may never fully recover from its tarnished past. Lets hope Amazon doesn’t repeat the same mistakes with the next generation.
* The values in the graphs above represent star ratings from reviews only. These values differ slightly from the star ratings displayed on the Fire TV’s product page because the true star rating also includes ratings left by customer who did not leave a written review.
Update
To be clear, Amazon did not specifically ask for positive reviews. The email they sent, shown here, simply stated:
“Thank you for your recent purchase of Amazon Fire TV. We hope you’ll share your experience with other customers by leaving a review.”
Also, for those interested, here are charts for the 1st-gen Fire TV’s ratings.
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AFTVnews
Best box for the money available. Roku 4 is a disaster. Roku 3 is great, but starting to show it’s age.
After buying many products from Amazon, I no longer trust its ratings system. Apart from a few, many of those products I purchased (due to high ratings) were subpar. I haven’t shopped at Amazon for several months, for a few reasons (in addition to ratings). I can purchase a similar product for same or less without having to pay state taxes at various online stores (Adorama, Ebay, Newegg, etc). Also, many times, after reading the reviews of an item on sale, item’s price jumps up when I put it in cart.
Regarding the article, Amazon actively soliciting reviews and high ratings from ftv owners is dubious. The ftv has been on sale many times, and that shows Amazon is struggling with selling more. I don’t think it’s smart to market a struggling product via ratings. I wouldn’t be surprised if the FireTV2 comes down to $50 in coming weeks/months.
I agree with you for the most part. So many cheap products on Amazon with high ratings. When it comes to electronics/computer parts or really anything over $40-50, I will always trust Newegg reviews before I do Amazon. Anything cheaper, and “you get what you pay for”. I find myself searching within Amazon reviews more and more for specific content directly related to quality or what I believe my own experience will be. The main reason I will use Amazon is price+free shipping.
I don’t have a FTV2, but if it’s anything like the first one, I’m sure it’s a great product and wouldn’t even bother reading reviews on it…other then this site of course.
I’d agree that it can be hard to trust Amazon reviews these days. There are a lot of fake reviews out there and companies that send out free products in exchange for positive reviews.
Its not the fake reviews that falsely pump up the ratings. Its the customers that have the need to self-validate their purchases, the ones that open up a device, sees that it doesn’t malfunction on first use, and leap to the review section to declare “Five Stars!!1! Best thing ever! I bought one so you should too and then tell me how great my purchase was!” These people are also the ones the vote Unhelpful on reviews that cite legitimate defects in a product.
The fake reviews are there for sure, but the don’t compare in number to these.
I get emails every so often asking me to review my purchases. This is no different.
i bought mine at staples so i didn’t get the email. but I agree with krazijoe that i get TONS of emails from sellers asking me to review my purchase. nothing sinister there at all.
I have had zero issues with my FTV 4K and I love it. I bought one for my bro and he loves it too. He had me set it up with KODI.
When I was putting batteries in it for the first time, I was reminded of the legions of amazon reviews that gave the FireTV 4K 1 star ratings because they were too stupid to figure out how to open the remote.
can’t always trust a products overall ratings. gotta actually read them reviews.
Fire tv stick recently not work with app. Netflix & careful Amazon will add free trail prime one month after one month expired we have to pay
I have been booted of a few times this year. Understand, I am older and not as tech savvy, therefore when I call one of the kids to help me put it back on… it’s my fault. I am so happy to know that it is an amazon problem. I use account on iPad, TV and computer. It is such an inconvenience to wait for it to get it back on. For this reason, I still have cable I have 3 different devices but 1 prime account. I buy everything on my prime. Hope they get it together so public won’t boycott