| Asin | B0BP9SNVH9 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | |
| Weight | |
| Manufacturer |
All-new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max streaming device, supports Wi-Fi 6E, Ambient Experience, free & live TV without cable or satellite
$44.99
Shopping Cart
$44.99
| Asin | B0BP9SNVH9 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | |
| Weight | |
| Manufacturer |
All-new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max streaming device, supports Wi-Fi 6E, Ambient Experience, free & live TV without cable or satellite
Devon –
Rural cord-cutter here. We dont have Alexa, a video doorbell, or any of those other popular gadgets. We were one of the million remaining holdouts who just lost our Netflix DVD in the mail service. All of our internet comes from a hotspot – phone, ipad, jetpack, we have, and have tried, them all. Smart TV? Not that smart. Bluray player with embedded apps? Yeah, but most of the apps are cheesy, not a lot of big name a la carte services, and they use a lot of very limited Data. Netflix allows us to set our stream quality to lower data usage options in our account for all devices but Amazon doesn’t, except on this device and when watching in a browser. If you want to watch TV on, say, a TV, you need this device if you dont want to burn up your data plan on the 3rd day of the billing period.
It set up easy in a few minutes. It remembers all of my hotspot devices and I can swap through them to take advantage of both phones and both ipad high speed hotspot limits. My jetpack is in the office across the house and the signal is too weak to work in the living and bedroom areas, but my laptop has the same complaints so no fault of the firestick. I set my quality to “good” and the shows look just fine to us. Netflix was a real surprise. We watched one show and the quality was so much better than through the bluray player that we thought our setting was changed. We were able to throttle that down even further and it still looks good enough.
Tldr: We dont watch a lot of TV. Days go by and we dont even turn it on. This device gives us some live current News and weather that we never had before, all of the services we could want: paramount, netflix, prime, etc. It offers lower resolution to conserve data in limited rural settings. Easy to set up. The remote even has voice that only listens when you press a button. Its completely portable and we can binge netflix on the hotel wifi when we travel. Worth every penny and we are really glad we bought it.
1FASTWK2 –
The Fire Stick Max, man I love this this thing, I just upgraded from the Fire Stick Light and there is a lightyear of differences between the two, I usually with have cable or satellite, but where I just moved they don’t have the best TV service and I’m completely done with satellite, I never thought I would love this thing this much, I was paying over $350 a month for internet and TV with the bulk of that being TV, I will never go back to normal cable ever again, I can watch anything and everything that I want on the Fire Stick, I actually just bought 5 more Max’s for each TV in the house, plus I’m planning on buying a few more to give a Christmas gifts, for the price of this vs what I was paying for cable it’s no comparison, the picture is much better also I can actually see the 4K on my 65in and 85in along with the 55in tvs. I couldn’t be happier. I also ordered the power adapter that just plugs into the back of your TV instead of a wall plug it makes it look so so much cleaner, it’s a must also for like $25…..
Heyward Preacher –
Two features made this an attractive upgrade to my older Firestick 4K. First, the Max version uses Wifi6, and the new remote has a channel up/down button.
I upgraded my home router recently to a Wifi 6 version and wanted to take advantage of the increased speed and enhanced security of WPA3. I did a speed test once I set up the new Max: 380 Mbps using 5 GHz connection. Blessedly, Amazon puts the Wifi MAC on the bottom of the orange box! I have MAC address filtering set on my router and adding the MAC to my router first made Firestick setup a breeze. BTW, I was using a wired network connection to the old fire stick; this is a 100 Mbps connection and would only support 1080P Hi-def.
The setup process moves your Amazon account settings from the old stick (backed up to the cloud) to the new 4k Max. It immediately recognized my TV and allowed power and volume control from the fireTV remote. However, the setup process does NOT automatically copy your apps (Hulu, etc) to the new 4k Max. It will ask you if you want to install apps during setup, or you can add them and do the sign-ins latter.
The Channel up/down button works with many apps; this is handy and one of the niceties I had always missed from other systems. For example, in the Channels DVR app, the up/down actually cycles thru all the broadcast channels and subchannels. In the SiriusXM app, up/down pulls up a list of the next channels and you can select one easily.
This will finally let me take full advantage of the 4k resolution of my TV. It is worth the upgrade.
Amazon Customer –
I was expecting since this runs WiFi 6E that we would get some speed. But tests are in the ~200-350 Mbps in the same room as the router. My Internet speed is 2.2 GB and my 6E Ipad Pro runs at a 1.6 Gb on the same 6E network. I would have rather paid more for the Max with a better network interface so to get speeds that are available. I have a 3rd generation Fire Cube in the room next to my router and it can’t connect to the 6E network only the 5 Ghz due to signal strength. The 6E is two bars and the 5 Ghz is full strength. Sad that there is no other streaming devices with a good 6E. The extra memory is nice but aside from that is isn’t that much different from the other Fire Sticks.
A. Vasquez –
I have a 3rd-Gen Fire TV Cube in the livingroom and a 1st-Gen Fire TV Stick 4K Max in the bedroom, I got this 2nd-Gen 4K Max to upgrade the one I have in the bedroom.
I use an external app in the Cube and old 4kMax and I always get some interruptions while loading some stuff, I thought those interruptions were normal until I used this new 4K Max, I have 0 interruptions now, I wonder myself why that app runs with some interruptions in the Fire TV Cube if the processor in the Cube is more powerful ? I had to research a bit.
The Cube has 8 Cores (4 at 2.2GHz and 4 at 2.0GHz) and the Memory clock speed in the GPU is 800MHz, this new 4K Max only has 4 cores running at 2.0GHz with the GPU running at 850MHz, I think thats the key difference (800 vs 850 MHz), at a single core the GPU is faster than the one in the Cube, but the Cube scores way much better at multi-core level of course, so I’m not sure if only the new GPU speed is making it run faster than the Cube or Maybe the new OS or a combination of both.
in my old Fire TV 4K Max the Internet Speed I get is 200Mb/s at 5G, with the new wifi 6E in this 2ndGen 4K Max I get 350Mb/s, this is good improvement considering I have 500MB/s Fiber internet.
The only thing I do not like about this new Fire TV 4K Max is that the Icons of 3rd party Apps are not showing up, I know this was an issue some time ago in previous gens, and I expect that to be fixed in a upcoming software upgrade.
This is really a good improvement over the last generation.
KJP-EAG –
I used up 8GB of storage after just four days of use, so score a big one for the increase to 16GBs of storage! Great picture quality on most of my streaming apps with most of the app glitches disappearing within the first few days. However, it’s ironic that the apps that are giving me the most problems come from Amazon (i.e., Prime Video and Fire Recast). I also have had a few problems with the automatic connection to my Bose 600 sound bar connected through my Hisense U8H eARC input source. Not as bad as my FireTV Cube 3rd Gen, which this Fire 4K Max 2nd Gen is replacing. My most reliable device is still the FireTV 4K Max 1st Gen. I’m not sure why the overall picture quality improved so much with the 2nd Gen 4K Max, but it has and much more than the small changes in the specs would indicate. The FireTV 4K Max 2nd Gen also seems to deliver more bass through my Bose Bass Module 500 subwoofer. Overall, my fingers are crossed that the remaining system/app glitches will be resolved in the next few months. Far superior to my 3rd Gen Fire TV Cube which I returned after 11 months of constant unresolved issues.
Jeff Stadt –
Update 10-17 As you can see in my pictures the grey icons have been corrected. Developer options is present along with adoptable storage. File permissions are still a issue at this time. Netflix detects Spatial Audio. DON’T LOOK AT THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS WHEN SOME ONE REALLY DOES NOT HAVE THE CORRECT INSIGHT ON WHAT TO DO OR CONFIGURE THE DEVICE , THIS IS FIRE OS 8 SOMETHING NEW NOT 7 OR UNDER. YES SOMETHINGS DON’T WORK WELL AT THIS TIME BUT ITS A NEW DEVICE. AS FOR STORAGE THE DEVICE DOES HAVE 16GIGS. 12GIGS IS AVAILABLE FOR APPS SAME ON 3RD GEN CUBE. THE FIRE OS TAKES UP SPACE.
Just wanted to share this info for a potential buyer. Cheers 😀
Just received the new MAX today. Seriously this has has to be the best streaming bevice out for 2023. Setup went with out issues, TV and Sound bar dected. Apps installed perfectly. I am generally very critical on new Amazon devices but this is a hit along with the new Cube. Yes there are some issues but that is to be expected with any new device released. Icons for side loaded apps are present, no Grey icons. My TV and sound bar was detected with no Issue’s. To be honest I commend Amazon for a great device. Let’s just hope updates are in the works for the current problems. Pretty much every current audio and video codec is supported which is a great plus.
Rich –
I have the Fire Stick 4k MAX 2021 release on three tv’s and very happy with everything except the storage. The added storage with the next Gen is great which also helps with lag time due to storage limits with the previous version. With my other Fire Sticks I have the Alexa Voice Remote Pro which is great. The first two came with Hulu, Prime, Netflix and Disney. The third came with Prime, Netflix Peacock and Direct TV? In addition, the Pro has 2 programable keys, Bluetooth headphone option, remote finder and its back lit. The new remote is not back lit, does not have any programable keys and removed the Bluetooth headphone option.
I have Wi-Fi 6E however, I don’t notice much difference. The Ambient Experience is OK very similar to Google Chromecast. Hopefully Amazon will be adding to this with the future updates. Overall it is worth the purchase if you use the Remote Pro.
As for the misleading info, like several others have reported, The 6 months free of MGM+ never appeared on my Prime Video account, I did not receive an email with a link and when I called customer service I was asked, ” and where did you see this offer?” Well… it was on my Fire TV start page which is where i ordered it from. It is also the last entry on the product description page. Their solution was, “Just pay for it, call us every month and we will refund the monthly fee.” Really?? Below is what is on the product page:
“Enjoy MGM+ on us – Receive a 6-month subscription to MGM+, including access to thousands of Hollywood movies and Original series with your Fire TV purchase. Terms apply.” Still Waiting.
M. J. Calo –
Update 10/20/2023: Disabling Ambient mode is still a valid fix for the signal issues.
Amazon support contacted me regarding the audio issues. Changing the audio setting from Best Available to either PCM or Dolby Digital Plus resolved the issue.
I am increasing my star rating from 3 to 4 stars now that these issues have been resolved. I am going to re-enable ambient mode and if the signal issues are gone, I will bump the rating to 5.
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Original Post: I was previously using a 1st Gen FireStick 4k Max. It was constantly running low on disk space. It is going to be extremely nice having the expanded storage.
We have had a few issues that mar the benefit of the added storage and slightly better performance. Originally, with Ambiant mode using default settings, I was having issues with my TV/Receiver failing to get a signal from the FireStick after trying to wake from sleep. I was able to remedy this by changing the sleep mode behavior from “No Signal” to “Blank Screen”.
Even after making the changes above, I am still running into an issue where my audio sometimes does not output sound from the FireStick when it wakes from sleep. I have been fixing this my toggling the audio mode for the HDMI input on my receiver between “Dolby Audio – Dolby Surround” and Stereo.
I have not experienced any of these issues with my Chromecast with Google TV or with the previous generations of the FireStick or Fire TV that I have owned.
My Audio Receiver is a Denon AVR-X2700H and my TV is a Samsung QN90A.
If Amazon is able to resolve the signal and audio issues it will be easy for me to revise my rating from 3 to 5 stars.
BobbyRed –
All issues reported below in original review and others discovered since, resolved via updates. Sideloaded app shortcuts now available on home screen. Added external USB storage no longer limited to ext4 file system. Missing storage access permission resolved. Lack of special access permission to Android data and OBB directory files resolved.
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Original review:
Received the new Firestick 4k Max Gen 2 on 29 Sep. Installation was easy as the stick came pre-registered for my account. I did not have to suffer through that long FireTV introduction that drives me crazy. Of course there were a few updates applied between stick and remote despite the OS being loaded on 13 Sep.
12.1 of 16gb storage is available to the user. The rest is used by the OS and Amazon bloat. Installed X-plore to get a couple of apps via LAN. Removed when done. Had 10gb storage available after installing and configuring 2 apps. Pre-installed DevInfo app indicates 530mb of RAM free of 1667mb total. Device is supposed to have 2gb RAM total. Somebody’s lying.
The interface is loaded with AndroidTV bloat as is the app library. On a bad note, Amazon is playing with shortcuts for sideloaded apps again. The only way I can launch sideloaded apps is via the App Library or Manage Installed Apps in Settings. This is a real inconvenience. I’m not the only one complaining. It appears other Firesticks configured with FIOS 8 are having the same or similar problem. No problem with shortcuts for anything installed via the App Store.
Unfortunately, both my 4k TV’s were in use at the time. I had to install and test on a 1080p TV. Performance is very good. This stick is very responsive. Had no buffering, pixelation, etc. I don’t expect any issues on 4K systems. Alexa did pop up and on the screen to remind me to take my medication. That is one feature I do like. My home is littered with Amazon Echos & Alexa compatible devices. The Alexa interface is definitely a plus.
Amazon still has a way to go from my perspective. I would like to see a MicroSDHC card slot and a USB port at the very least in future Firesticks. Another manufacturer has been providing these features and more in their streaming sticks for ages.
I won’t be using this as a replacement for my Tegra 3 or any of my Amlogc SoC 922x units. I plan to play with it for a while and send it off to my grandson.