If there was any doubt that the 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick and the 1st-gen Fire TV Stick Lite share the exact same hardware, the fact that they both use the same model number of S3L46N and the same FCC ID of 2AUQI-7436 should put that to rest. The two are physically indistinguishable from one another on the outside. There is a slight chance that internal components like the memory chips differ, based on my benchmark findings, but components like that can actually vary slightly on the same device model depending on what was available during a particular manufacturing run. So, if they do differ inside, there’s no way to know if that is deliberate or just luck of the draw.

The Fire TV Stick 3 and Fire TV Stick Lite do differ as far as software goes, but much more on that in an upcoming post. In the image above, from top to bottom, are the 2014 1st-gen Fire TV Stick, the 2016 2nd-gen Fire TV Stick, the 2020 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick, the 2020 1st-gen Fire TV Stick Lite, and the 2018 1st-gen Fire TV Stick 4K. Apart from using different logos and markings, the two new Firesticks are physically the exact same size as the Fire TV Stick 2 that they replace.

As for the remotes, starting on the left is the latest Alexa Voice Remote with TV controls, which debuted with the Fire TV Stick 4K in 2018 and has also been bundled with the Fire TV Stick 2, Fire TV Cube 1, Fire TV Cube 2, and now the Fire TV Stick 3. To its right is the all-new Alexa Voice Remote Lite which is included with the Fire TV Stick Lite. It is physically the same size as the regular Alexa Voice Remote. Third from the left is the older Alexa Voice Remote that doesn’t have TV controls and last is the basic remote that was included with the 1st-gen Fire TV Stick and the international Fire TV Stick Basic Edition, which has no voice capabilities.

For those of you who enjoy keeping track of codenames, like me, the Fire TV Stick Lite is codenamed “Sheldon,” as indicated by the adb shell prompt of “sheldon” that it uses, and the Fire TV Stick 3 is codenamed “Sheldon Plus,” as indicated by its “sheldonp” shell prompt. The new Alexa Voice Remote Lite is codenamed “Howard,” so the Sheldon and Howard pair continue Amazon’s theme of using movies and TV shows for codenames by taking their inspiration from The Big Bang Theory. The Fire TV Stick Lite and Fire TV Stick 3 use build model identifiers of “AFTSS” and “AFTSSS,” respectively.