Amazon has announced the latest addition to its Fire TV Stick range, with the budget-friendly Fire TV Stick 4K Select.
As we’ve hailed the Fire TV Stick 4K Max as being the best Fire TV Stick, the upcoming Fire TV Stick 4K Select has a lot to live up to.
Ahead of our review, we’ve dissected the specs of the Fire TV Stick 4K Select to the 4K Max and noted what’s the difference below.
Price
The Fire TV Stick 4K Select is available for pre-order now, ahead of its official release from mid-October, and has an RRP of £49.99 / $39.99.
On the other hand, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is slightly more expensive at £69.99 / $59.99. Even so, as it’s an older model you are more likely to find a price cut for the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, especially during events such as Amazon Big Deal Days.
Fire TV Stick 4K Max has double the storage and memory
Much like other affordable Fire TV Sticks, the Fire TV Stick 4K Select is fitted with 1GB of memory and 8GB of storage. Although 8GB of storage is likely enough for downloading multiple streaming apps, this storage isn’t expandable. If you have numerous apps to download, it might be better to opt for the Fire TV Stick 4K Max instead as it boasts a whopping 16GB.
Not only that, but the Fire TV Stick 4K Max also sports 2GB of RAM which should, in theory, mean the device will run faster and smoother compared to its counterpart.
Both offer up to 4K picture quality
As their respective names give away, both the Fire TV Stick 4K Select and Fire TV Stick 4K Max offer up to 4K picture quality. As we’re yet to review the 4K Select, we can’t attest to its picture quality, however we found the 4K of the Max to offer a detailed image (although this can depend on your TV).
In addition, both Fire TV Sticks support HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG too.
Fire TV Stick 4K Max supports Dolby Vision
Following on from the above, while the Fire TV Stick 4K Select does include plenty of display technologies, it lacks Dolby Vision support. However, as the Fire TV Stick 4K Select has HDR10 support, you can still expect a reasonably detailed, sharp and colourful picture.
On the other hand, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max benefits from Dolby Vision support, which means picture quality should be brighter with a more vibrant colour compared to otherwise.
Fire TV Stick 4K Max supports Wi-Fi 6E
Although it’s technically the older of the two, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max supports the newer Wi-Fi 6E technology whereas the Fire TV Stick 4K Select supports Wi-Fi 6. Essentially, this means that the Fire TV Stick 4K Max should see faster speeds than the Stick 4K Select.
Even so, as long as you have a decent router and network connection, then you’ll likely not really be able to tell the difference with the Wi-Fi. It’s just that Wi-Fi 6E has access to a wider range of radio channels available.
Fire TV Stick 4K Select runs on Vega OS
Prior to Amazon’s recent hardware launch, all of its Fire TV devices ran on Fire OS, Amazon’s own Android-based operating system. Fire OS is a fairly intuitive system to run through, and with the inclusion of Alexa searching for content is made that bit simpler too.
Sure, Fire OS has a tendency to prioritise Amazon content, which can be annoying at times, but otherwise it’s a perfectly fine OS.
The Fire TV Stick 4K Select, alongside the rest of the recently launched Fire TVs, will instead run on Vega OS which is Amazon’s new operating system. As we’re yet to review Vega OS, we can’t comment on how it measures up to Fire OS, however Amazon promises we can expect it to be “highly responsive with an efficient footprint, enabling fast app launches and smooth navigation”.
Early Verdict
As we’re yet to review the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, we won’t provide a conclusive verdict on which Fire Stick you should opt for. However, judging by specs alone, the Fire TV Stick 4K Select seems like a promising option for those who want 4K picture quality for a more affordable price.
On the other hand, considering we hailed the Fire TV Stick 4K Max as being “the best streaming stick Amazon has produced so far”, it remains a solid choice for most households.
We’ll be sure to update this versus once we’ve reviewed the Fire TV Stick 4K Select.
The post Fire TV Stick 4K Select vs Fire TV Stick 4K Max: Which 4K streamer should you get? appeared first on Trusted Reviews.