Comparison of the 2022 Apple TV 4K, Fire TV Cube 3rd-gen, 2019 Shield TV Pro, and more

Apple just announced the new 2022 Apple TV 4K earlier today. With Amazon announcing the new 3rd-gen Fire TV Cube last month, the market for flagship streaming devices is going to change quite a bit when these two new contenders are released in a few weeks. Here is a comparison chart of all the specs for the 2019 2nd Fire TV Cube, 2022 3rd-gen Fire TV Cube, 2019 Nvidia Shield TV (Cylinder), 2019 Nvidia Shield TV Pro, 2022 Apple TV 64GB, and 2022 Apple TV 128GB to help you compare the differences and similarities side-by-side. Read more ›

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Comparison of Roku’s new Smart Home devices with Wyze’s identical lineup

After leaking a couple of days ago, Roku has now officially announced its new line of smart home lights, plugs, and cameras. Unlike Roku’s home theater products, which I presume the company makes itself to some degree, these smart home devices are “developed in partnership with Wyze,” which appears to just mean that Roku put its name on Wyze’s hardware and, possibly, add it’s own spin through software. Here’s what Roku has to offer and how they compare to the Wyze equivalent. Read more ›

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Comparison of 2022, 2020, and 2018 Amazon Fire HD 8 and HD 8 Plus tablets

Amazon just annouced the new Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 8 Plus tablets this morning. You can read all about what’s new and what’s the same over here. However, if you prefer just seeing a table comparing all the specs of all Fire HD 8 models for the last 4 years, here you go. Read more ›

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Which Fire TV model is right for you? — Comparison of all Fire TV Stick, Lite, 4K, 4K Max, and Cube models

Whether you’re new to the world of Fire TV, looking to upgrade from an older model, or wanting to add an additional Fire TV, choosing among the five different models in Amazon’s current lineup can be a daunting task. You can’t just choose the newest model because there are advantages to the older models. You also can’t just choose the most expensive model because there are advantages to the cheaper models. If you’re on a tight budget you might be missing out on a lot by not spending a little bit more for the next Firestick model up. Here is a comparison of the Fire TV Stick Lite, the Fire TV Stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and the Fire TV Cube to help you flesh out each ones pros and cons. Read more ›

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Comparison of specs for the Fire TV Stick 4K vs the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max — Plus why they matter

The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max is, in my opinion, the most exciting new Fire TV device since the release of the 2nd-gen Fire TV Cube two years ago. While it certainly could be better (*cough* 8GB storage sucks *couch*), it seems to check a lot of the right boxes that you’d want in an upgrade to the original 4K Firestick. When the Fire TV Stick 4K was released in 2018, it was pretty groundbreaking since it was the first device at its price point to support all of the major video and audio standards, like 4K@60fps, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and Dolby Atmos. The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max seems to carry on that strength and adds several new improvements. Here’s a detailed comparison table between the specifications of the original Fire TV Stick 4K versus the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, as well as why each improvement matters. Read more ›

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All the differences between the Fire TV Stick Lite, Fire TV Stick 3, and Fire TV Stick 4K

The Fire TV Stick Lite and the 3rd-generation Fire TV Stick (i.e., Fire TV Stick 3) have recently been released for 2020 and join the Fire TV Stick 4K from 2018 to round out Amazon’s budget-friendly lineup of streaming media players, which are colloquially referred to as Firesticks. The differences might seem straightforward when comparing their device specs, but there are several differences, particularly with the software and operating system of each device, that anyone comparison shopping should know about before determining which device is right for you. Here is a meticulous comparison of all of the differences and similarities between the three Amazon Fire TV Stick models. Read more ›

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Amazon Fire TV Cube Benchmarks — Faster than the Fire TV 3 but with a catch

Now that the Amazon Fire TV Cube has been released, a lot of people will be deciding between it and the less expensive Fire TV 3 pendant. While they look very different on the outside, thanks to the Fire TV Cube’s hands-free Alexa capabilities, they’re very similar on the inside. They both have the same video playback capabilities, which include 4K @ 60FPS and HDR support. That’s because they both have the exact same 1.5Ghz quad-core CPU, the same Mali-450 MP3 GPU, and the same 2GB of RAM. With identical chips, you’d expect them to perform the same on benchmarks, but it turns out the Fire TV Cube is faster than the Fire TV 3. However, there’s an important catch that throws things off. Read more ›

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Comparison of 1st-Gen Element and 2nd-Gen Toshiba Fire TV Edition televisions

Now that more details about the new 2018 2nd-generation Fire TV Edition televisions by Toshiba have been revealed and the TVs are available for pre-order, here’s a look at how they stack up against last years Fire TV Edition televisions by Element. The new TVs are about 27% cheaper than the TVs they’re replacing. While the two versions are very similar in many aspects, a few things have been cut in order to reduce the price by more than a quarter. Here’s a detailed look at each TVs specs and features. Read more ›

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Comparing h.264 vs h.265 video playback on the Fire TV 1, 2, and Fire TV Stick

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In the video above, I show how the Amazon Fire TV 1, Fire TV 2, and Fire TV Stick 1 each handle playing video encoded with the h.264 and h.265 codec. I run all three devices through several different test videos at various bit rates. The purpose is to show that, as long as the video codec being used is supported by the device’s dedicated hardware decoder, the CPU of the device is nearly irrelevant when it comes to playing high quality video. This is why, even though the Fire TV Stick has a fairly weak CPU, it can still play video as well as the Fire TV boxes. Continue on if you’d like to read the transcript of the video. Read more ›

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