Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsNo Kindle book reader. Low memory, not room for many apps. Great for Amazon Prime Video!
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2020
Pros:
* Apps run well. It’s a pleasure to use this for Amazon Prime Video! Easy to see what is available and to navigate the app. Being able to do X-ray while the movie is playing is pretty cool.
* The built-in IMDB app is pretty good. Lots of good shows there. Good thing since it can’t be uninstalled.
* Internet browser is ok. Have to use the remote so it’s a little clunky, but it works. But can’t use it to load up the Kindle web reader app! I tried! :(
* I have an Echo, a couple of Dots and also Alexa-connected Phillips Hue house lighting. The Alexa integration on the the remote is great. I use it all the time for the lights. Also, when you use the remote to ask for the weather, it briefly flashes on the TV. Thanks to this, I was able to turn off the mic on the TV Room Dot. So that means less chance TV sound will accidentally wake up Alexa...Yay!
* Fire TV initial setup asked me what brand TV I have, and set up the correct power, volume and mute controls on the Fire TV remote. Nice touch.
Cons
*No Kindle App. You give me Freetime & Gamecircle that I’ll never use and yet there’s no Kindle app. The Kindle Keyboard device is the thing that first got me to Amazon, back when all they did was books. That’s their original thing and yet you don’t give me a Kindle app on the Fire TV? What a missed opportunity, Amazon! I’m trying to stay away from small screens as much as possible to keep eye strain to a minimum, and the Fire Stick obviously works fine for reading WaPo, so where is the thinking on no Kindle app? Amazon wake up. Give us our Kindle books. Lol.
*Low Memory. I would love to try The Great Courses Plus or even HBO, or Acorn but I don’t think I could run more than one of them. By the time I installed Netflix, YouTube, WaPo, the Internet Browser and MSNBC, and a couple of small utilities, I didn’t have a lot of memory left. I know Android requires operating memory. Missed opportunity, but thanks for making room for Gamecircle and Freetime. ;)
*WaPo app is limited to a few free stories. It will not let me log in to my account so that I can have the full news like the full app on my phone will give me. Doesn’t the Fire Stick run on Android? Wouldn’t it be worth the time to convert the Android version over? People like me that have to wear readers would love to be able to take them off and read the news across the room. That’s another missed opportunity for Amazon!
Additional thoughts:
I guess I was spoiled by having a Roku. It’s an old one, I bought it in 2012 but I never had storage problems. Even now that it’s 8 years old, I have 22 apps on it and no memory problems. Really the only reason I bought this Fire Stick is because Amazon Prime Video and the YouTube app both run so slow on my old Roku. They have become bigger and slower as more features were added and sometimes they actually cause the Roku to restart. The newer Rokus have a faster processor, so I was going to get a new Roku, but then I saw this on sale with a promo code for half price. I know how Android requires operating memory, but I noticed that this HD version had the same 8 gb memory as the 4K one, so I figured if that’s what they would use in the higher priced one, I’d be ok. I didn’t count on so many Amazon apps bloating the device. I never intend to play games, I don’t have kids, I use Google photos for pictures, etc etc. Why can’t I delete these unused apps? It’s not like Amazon is receiving any financial gain from them mandatorily taking up space? If I had more room I’d be signing up for HBO and The Great Courses Plus at the very least...but again, Amazon shoots themselves in the foot by not giving us enough memory. I’d even pay a little extra for more memory but you don’t give that option.
So, I’m keeping my Roku hooked up and I’ll use it for the apps it does ok on...
Maybe by conserving operating memory on the stick, I could try out HBO, PBS or The Great Courses, and hopefully not have memory issues like some have reported. I don’t imagine I could run all three of them though. :(
I just don’t understand why there aren’t more reviews talking about this. All those people using HBO and other channels along with Netflix, Hulu, etc. why aren’t they talking about having memory problems? I know this will be lost in a sea of reviews but I hope someone does read it and finds it helpful! :)
