Amazon Fire TV Stick, sharp picture quality, fast streaming, free & live TV, Alexa Voice Remote with TV controls by Amazon

This is my second or third FireStick purchase! We love them! Ours is basically on 24/7 and last years before a connection issue calls for a repurchase.
The best part of a FireStick is how easy they are to setup! It’s basically plug into your device and enter an email address and everything is done for you. My second one even remembered my apps and had them listed for me to download.
The remote batteries last forever! The remotes voice control is a very cool feature and is helpful overall. Honestly we don’t even use most of what the Fire Stick is capable of, it has lots of cool things to explore and take advantage of if needed.
Overall the Fire Stick is fantastic and I see no reason to change. When this one breaks I’ll buy another. My whole family loves them for ease of use.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick is a fantastic streaming device that delivers sharp picture quality and smooth performance. It makes watching movies, shows, and even live TV quick and easy. The interface is user-friendly, and the variety of free streaming options is a big plus. The Alexa voice remote is very convenient, allowing you to search, control playback, and even manage TV power and volume with simple voice commands. Setup is simple, and everything runs fast without lag. A great choice for upgrading any TV into a smart entertainment center.

This is so easy to setup and use, I wish I got this years ago. I’ll be honest, and I feel a bit foolish admitting this, but: Despite hearing about the Fire TV stick’s existence for years, I never considered it because I thought there was a monthly fee! I didn’t want to pay for anything beyond my subscriptions, so I never even read the details. I put my television in a box in the attic when I ‘cut the cord’ with my cable company in 2012 and it’s been there ever since. I’ve been watching ‘TV’ on my desktop PC or on my Kindle.

This worked well enough for years, but during the pandemic I began spending a lot more time streaming shows and despite replacing my desk chair with a more comfortable chair, it just wasn’t ergonomic and became more and more uncomfortable, so I needed to reconsider my TV setup. Enter the Fire Stick! This time I read the details – and then re-read them, and then Youtubed videos about it, because I couldn’t believe it really didn’t cost anything per month! You just buy the stick and plug it in and that’s it?! Yep!

So here’s a few noteworthy points: First, it does not use USB; I saw this pop up in the questions for this product quite a bit. Technically the wall adapter plugs into the included USB cord – just like your kindle charger, etc. But there’s no USB needed for the actual television end, it uses an HDMI port and that’s it. Interestingly, I almost didn’t get it because I was sure the TV I bought back in 2009 wouldn’t have an HDMI port, but I finally went up to the attic to check and sure enough, it has one! So be sure your TV has an HDMI port, that’s required.

Setup was ridiculously easy. Just attach the items in the box together and plug it into the HDMI port on the back of your TV and then plug the other end into a wall outlet. That’s it! Then turn the TV on and the setup will walk you through the rest, signing you into your Amazon account, calibrating the included remote control, updating (several times), choosing streaming apps to start with, etc. It’s all very simple.

If you want to watch paid streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, etc you must have a paid subscription to them. But there’s other services/apps such as Pluto TV and others that are totally free and have a decent variety of ad-supported content, both shows and movies as well as news. And Amazon’s apps are of course there, like Amazon Music and Prime Video (if you subscribe to Prime Video). I only have Hulu and Prime Video currently as paid subscriptions, but there’s plenty of free content to supplement. In fact, I even have my local news which surprised me (they must stream on a live app and I never realized it).

So basically, it aggregates various paid and free streaming apps to one place and this little stick presents them all in one nice looking interface, letting you use your remote to choose programming, just like TV. To be clear, the Fire TV stick runs off your wifi signal, so be sure you have wifi at home. On one hand it doesn’t give you anything you can’t get without it, but on the other hand, the convenience of having it all accessible in one place is fantastic and makes it feel like I’m getting all kinds of new content. Some of the apps I’ve never even heard of, so there is new-to-me content in that regard.

The interface is excellent and fairly intuitive, and the remote works great. I am super glad I opted for the Fire TV stick option that comes with the remote that also has TV controls like volume and mute, so I can do it all with the remote that came with it. Now I can sit in my living room like a normal person and watch TV (streaming services) comfortably from my couch; I should have got this years ago.

Just be sure you have:

1. A TV with an HDMI port
2. Wifi at home
3. OPTIONAL: Paid services if you want to watch Hulu, Netflix, etc. Otherwise you can still use this to access free content.