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Amazon's latest Fire TV Stick gives you room to lose your TV remote
- Amazon has announced a new entry-level Fire TV Stick, called the Fire TV Stick HD.
- This is basically identical to the previous model but includes a remote that can control your TV, soundbar, and receiver.
- The Fire TV Stick HD starts at $34.99 and is already available.
Amazon’s Fire TV products offer affordable price tags and access to plenty of streaming content, making it a great way to turn your dumb TV into a smart one. We haven’t seen a new entry-level Fire TV Stick in a few years, but Amazon has finally launched an upgraded model.
The new Fire TV Stick HD starts at just $34.99 and the most notable addition is a remote that lets you also control your TV, receiver, and soundbar. By contrast, the remote included with previous HD models didn’t include controls for your TV and other peripherals.
Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick model still has modest specs in line with the Fire TV Stick Lite. This includes a 1.7GHz quad-core processor, just 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage. The new model also makes some compromises compared to Fire TV 4K variants, missing out on Wi-Fi 6, Dolby Atmos support, and Dolby Vision HDR.
Otherwise, you can expect Wi-Fi 5, a variety of HDR standards (including HLG, HDR10/10 Plus), and Alexa support. This is also in line with the Fire TV Stick Lite. So it seems like the only real upgrades are the new remote and HDMI ARC functionality.
The new Fire TV Stick HD is already available on Amazon at the aforementioned price tag. So if you’re always misplacing your TV or soundbar remote, this model might be for you. But if you don’t mind juggling remotes, you should probably opt for the 4K or Lite models.