Amazon Fire TV (2015) review: A powerful streaming box to tangle you in Amazon's jungle

The selection of set-top boxes available to Brits is growing fast and becoming more competitive, with a host of streaming tech from the likes of Sky, Apple and Roku vying for your cash. Amazon is a high-profile competitor, and its latest streaming device delivers plenty of features and access to many of the UK's most important streaming apps, with Now TV the only notable exception.

has some cool advantages over Roku and competing devices, including excellent parental controls, great support and the ability to work with tricky hotel Wi-Fi systems (although Roku recently added that last feature). It's also the only major UK set-top box to have 4K streaming and voice search. It falls down, however, in prioritising Amazon's own selection of TV shows and movies over other providers -- a hard sell that's embodied in the menus and search results, which make it tough to find other programming. Moreover, the UK version of the hardware lacks two key services found on the US version -- the Alexa voice assistant and FreeTime kids' programming package.

If you're already a heavy Amazon Prime user, that may not bother you, but if you're looking for the broadest possible range of TV apps and services, you'd be better off with the £60 Roku 2 box, which recently added Amazon's own streaming service to its line-up. Alternately, the £35 Fire TV Stick delivers much of the same functionality of the Fire TV box reviewed here at less than half the price.

Version and pricing information: This review applies to the 2015 Amazon Fire TV, in the UK. A 2015 Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition available only in the US includes a game controller, 32GB SD card and two free games, but doesn't include the voice remote. The Amazon Fire TV sells for £80 in the UK. You can find the US version of this review here.

The hardware: Slick, simple and square

The Fire TV box gets off on the right foot with a slim, sharp design. It's typically tiny for the breed, a perfect square that's shorter than any Roku and either the old Apple TV or the new one, and substantial enough to not get pulled around by connected cords. There's not much else to it: glossy black sides, matte black top with the Amazon logo, a tiny LED on the front and the ports on the back.

Those include one HDMI, one Ethernet, one microSD slot, a USB port and a power connector. The previous version included an optical digital audio jack, which helps with connections to older AV receivers and other audio gear that lacks HDMI, but the new one drops it. In exchange, Amazon added the microSD slot, which can take cards up to 128GB.

While it seems like a great option to allow memory expansion via inexpensive cards -- as opposed, say, to charging an extra £40 for 32GB more, like Apple does -- most people will be fine with the internal storage of 8GB. That's because beyond games, most apps are relatively small. If you plan to do a lot of gaming on the Fire TV, the expandable memory could be a boon.

The USB port allows the Fire TV to play media files from attached USB thumbdrives and other devices. I tested it briefly with the VLC player app and it worked well, although it wouldn't play back 4K files at 4K resolution, only 1080p. The same went for 4K files I had loaded on a microSD card: they only played back at 1080p on the Fire TV. Amazon says 4K support is rolling out to more apps soon, however.

The new Fire TV has 75 percent more processing power than the old one, according to Amazon, with a 64-bit quad-core processor, a dedicated graphics processor (GPU) and 2GB of memory. In my experience these kinds of claims matter little in daily use; most streaming boxes released in the last couple years are very snappy to respond. The exception, again, is for gaming, where the Fire TV's beefier silicon could prove useful.

One advantage over streaming sticks is the presence of an Ethernet port, and in many locations Ethernet will provide a more reliable, higher-bandwidth stream than Wi-Fi (something that's especially important for 4K streaming, which generally needs a hefty 15Mbps connection). Of course, Fire TV supports the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, too, and it worked flawlessly in our test lab.

The remote: Voice tops a top-notch clicker

I've always liked the Fire TV remote, and the new version is an improvement. It's a bit longer with a better-integrated battery cover and better feel on the clicks, particularly the central circle button used to select items. The matte, slightly rubbery exterior feels nice and natural, an impression augmented by the rounded back with its index-finger-friendly indentation.

Button placement prioritises voice, with the mic button and actual microphone topmost on the clicker. Voice is well done from an interface perspective. Click and hold the button from anywhere in the menu system and an onscreen prompt appears with the word "listening" and a blue waveform graphic. Speak, and stuff happens (see below). If the system recognises what you say there's a reassuring speech-to-text rendition of your words onscreen. If not, which happens much more rarely than you might think, you'll get a "Sorry, could you repeat that? It wasn't quite clear."

I appreciate the inclusion of actual fast-forward and rewind keys in addition to the standard play-pause. In addition to Home and Back, there's a key with three horizontal lines, reminiscent of the Android hamburger, that does the same thing: open up menus in some apps for additional functions. More often than not, however, pressing it does nothing.

Like most other streaming device clickers, the Fire TV doesn't require line of sight to the box, so you can point it anywhere, or bury the box deep in the recesses of your entertainment system, and still maintain control. It lacks the nifty headphone jack of the Roku 3 and Roku 4 remotes, but, much like the new Apple TV, you can pair a pair of Bluetooth headphones with the Fire TV for wireless private listening.

Voice search: Satisfying recognition, but not so smart in the UK

The Fire TV's voice search is pleasingly accurate, with the built-in microphone never mangling my words, and doing a great job of finding results. The experience was solid enough that I preferred using voice search over typing in my search terms, which isn't fun using a four-way navigation button to find my way around an on-screen keyboard.

Voice search may be smart, but in the US it's a whole lot smarter. Those living in the States enjoy access to Alexa, the Siri-esque voice assistant Amazon first debuted on the Echo speaker. When you ask a question of the Fire TV, Alexa's dulcet robotic voice replies via your speakers, and results appear onscreen. Alexa can create to-do lists, check the weather, sport results, and even crack a joke on request -- but sadly this feature isn't available on boxes in the UK. Asking the Fire TV, "Tell me a joke," simply searches Amazon's catalogue for that exact phrase.

The lack of Alexa in the UK also means the Fire TV's voice search powers don't match those of the latest Apple TV, which uses Siri to handle information such as sport results, or context-sensitive searches such as, "I want to watch a good Ryan Reynolds movie."

A bigger problem with search on Fire TV is that it doesn't find programming available through non-Amazon services. For instance, if you have Netflix installed, and search on Fire TV for Netflix's original series "House of Cards", the only search results will be series and individual episodes available to buy from Amazon -- even though the whole series is available at no extra cost from the Netflix app. The lack of universal search is part of a larger gripe with Fire TV -- a hard sell on Amazon's own programming.

Search results and interface: The hard sell

The good news is that, just like the previous version, the Fire TV couldn't be easier to use. It accurately recognises search terms, both from voice and text. Its interface is lightning-fast to respond, as well, and its menu system is simple to understand, with the familiar left-hand menu that opens up big, friendly icons and thumbnails on the rest of the screen.

The bad news is that, just like the previous version, the search results themselves, as well as the whole interface at large, shunts you into buying stuff from Amazon. It puts Amazon content front and centre in numerous ways and denigrates other content -- from Netflix, iPlayer, All 4 or wherever -- in comparison.

The majority of the main menu also is devoted to Amazon programming. Below Search and Home, almost all of the the rest of the items on the left navigation column -- Prime Video, Movies, TV, Watchlist, Video Library, Music and Photos -- lead to Amazon's own services. There are no TV shows from iPlayer under "TV" and no movies from Netflix under "Movies", unless they're the ones you get from Amazon. At the top of the menu screen is a persistent ad, which usually just pushes Amazon TV shows and movies, though I also spotted an ad for the Microsoft Surface tablet, which feels a little jarring in a product you've paid just shy of £80 for.

Even when I was inside the Netflix app, voice search would pull me out and present me with the Amazon choices. Amazon's system-wide voice and text search still omit Netflix results completely.

That's fine for people who only subscribe to Amazon Prime, but for those who also subscribe to Netflix, it could mean paying extra for something you can get for "free" as part of that subscription.

If you want to arrange the Fire TV interface to your liking, you're out of luck. Unlike with a Roku or Apple TV, there's no way to move or customise which apps appear where. The closest you'll get is the "Recent" tab under Home, which shows a list of recently used apps, games and other stuff. It too favours Amazon content, because it surfaces individual shows and movies from Amazon (and only Amazon). The most recent episode of "Narcos," a Netflix series, won't appear there, but if you watch "Hand of God" (an Amazon show), it will. So will "House of Cards"...as long as you watch it via Amazon and not Netflix.

Likewise, the Music tab leads only to Amazon's Music service, not to apps like Spotify Connect or Rdio. And the Photos tab leads to Amazon Cloud Drive photos, not to another photo app. To find those apps you'll have to delve into the categories under the Apps tab, or add them via the Amazon website. You get the idea.

The 4K factor: Eyes-on with a less important add-on

The other major new addition to Fire TV is support for 4K video. Of course you don't need a 4K TV to use the box, but if you have one, it may be appealing. As with all external streamers, you'll need to connect the Fire TV to an HDCP 2.2-capable input on your 4K TV to enable 4K playback with most copy-protected content, which includes just about everything on Netflix, Amazon and other major apps (Amazon has an excellent guide to the requirements).

I did just that with the Sony XBR-75X950C, a high-end 75-inch TV, to judge 4K image quality between the old, non-4K Fire TV box and the new one. As I've seen in the past, 4K delivered only minor improvements at best over Amazon's "1080p HD" stream, the highest achievable with non-4K devices.

Switching quickly between the two boxes watching "Lawrence of Arabia" from a theatrical seating distance of about 8 feet, I detected slight increases in sharpness at times, for example in the shag of the rug and the actors' hands in Prince Faisal's tent. Even on the big 75-inch TV, however, the 1080p HD stream looked great, and it was tough to tell the difference. I also didn't detect much, if any, difference between the 4K and the Blu-ray version of the film; if anything, the Blu-ray looked a bit cleaner in parts.

Even for 4K TV owners who want that last bit of streaming image quality, however, the 4K capability of the Fire TV box might not be that important. That's because nearly every 4K TV already has the ability to stream 4K video from Netflix and Amazon, and often from other sources, including YouTube.

As of today, the only sources on the

box that support 4K are Amazon (duh) and Netflix. Amazon tells me that 4K support for both YouTube and Plex are coming soon, but didn't name any other forthcoming 4K-capable apps.

Fire TV isn't the only box capable of handling 4K. Both Nvidia's Shield and the Roku 4 will handle ultra-high definition, and can be found on sale in the UK if you're willing to do a little digging. Our reservations about 4K's limited advantages over 1080p streaming aren't limited to Amazon's box however, so don't expect a radically different 4K experience from a different set-top box.

The HDMI output on the Fire TV is only HDMI 1.4, not HDMI 2.0. It works fine for 4K material up to 30 frames per second, which includes just about everything available today. On the other hand, 4K material at 60 frames per second is certainly possible in the future, and the Fire TV won't be able to play it.

The lack of HDMI 2.0 support also means that the Fire TV box won't be able to play back HDR sources, which generally require HDMI 2.0a connections. HDR promises even better image quality than 4K, with brighter highlights and expanded colour. Amazon itself was the first to deliver HDR content, and offers a handful of HDR shows and movies. Ironically, if you have an HDR-capable TV, the only way to watch Amazon's HDR content is via the TV's own built-in Amazon app, not via the new Fire TV 4K. Amazon told me the Fire TV cannot be updated to support HDR.

Amazon touts the ability of the Fire TV to handle 1080p TV shows and movies that are delivered via the HEVC codec. HEVC is a new compression scheme that can deliver the same quality as its predecessor, AVC (aka H.264), but use half the bandwidth to do so. It's most often associated with 4K streaming, but Amazon is saying that it also provides benefits with 1080p content.

I asked for further clarification and here's what Amazon told me. "Currently HEVC is used for our Ultra HD titles, but 90 percent of the Amazon Video catalog (UHD and non-UHD) will be encoded with HEVC by the end of the year. Good examples include 'Elysium', 'After Earth' and 'Lawrence of Arabia'. We'll begin encoding non-UHD titles with HEVC in November."

The apps: A healthy selection, if you can find it

Amazon's Fire TV packs in dozens upon dozens of apps, but as anyone with a smartphone is well aware, it's app quality -- not quantity -- that counts. The Fire TV's hottest competition in the app selection stakes comes from Roku, whose variety of streaming boxes grant you access to BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Channel 4's All 4, Demand 5, Netflix, Sky's Now TV subscription service and Sky Store for one-off purchases or rentals, as well as Amazon Instant Video. As that list covers every major force on the UK TV scene there won't be many programmes that air here that you can't track down through one service or another.

From that list, Fire TV is only missing Sky's Now TV and Sky Store apps, making for a relatively healthy selection of apps and services. By comparison, the latest Apple TV only offers Now TV, Netflix and iPlayer.

There are caveats to the Fire TV's services. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, it can be hard to find non-Amazon apps in the interface, and non-Amazon programming doesn't show up in search results. Secondly, even Amazon's own-brand roster of films and movies can take some getting used to.

That's because Amazon divides all its films and TV into those you can buy as one-off purchases, and those than can be viewed at no extra cost when you're a member of its Prime Video service, which can be joined for either £5.99 per month, or as part of Amazon's broader £79 annual Prime membership, which also includes perks such as one-day free delivery on physical items.

Where things can get confusing is that Fire TV doesn't separate out those two categories, and so within the interface or in search results you'll often find movies or shows that are free with your Prime membership alongside those that will cost you cash. It can feel confusing, and it makes it tough to see exactly what your Prime Video membership gets you. This is in contrast with Netflix for instance, whose entire catalogue falls under the same subscription -- so what you see is what you get.

To find extra applications and services, you'll use the Apps tab way down at the bottom of the menu, which is broken down into categories like Top Free, Spotlight (with promoted apps), Recommended for You, Top Grossing, Recommended for You in Games and more. The Categories section is further broken down by genre. You can also search for and add apps at Amazon's website, which is quite a bit easier in my experience.

There's no native Spotify app for Fire TV, but the platform does support Spotify Connect. If you're a Spotify Premium subscriber, you can use the Spotify app on your phone or tablet to play music via the Fire TV. This feature doesn't work with free Spotify accounts.

By the way, some early Amazon user opinions complain about lack of support for 5.1 audio on some new Fire TV apps, namely Netflix. In my testing of a unit that Amazon supplied me, one with older software (version 5.0.2.1), that was the case, and in fact that unit also failed to show Amazon's own 4K content. Meanwhile a unit CNET bought from Amazon.com directly, one with software version 5.0.2.2, delivered 5.1 surround on Netflix as well as Amazon's 4K content. Amazon says the latest software will be available to all users.

In my testing, Plex and of course Amazon videos also delivered 5.1 surround.

Fire advantages: Hotel Wi-Fi, parental controls and everything Amazon

Fire TV offers a few extras you won't find on other streamers. Most of them are specific to Amazon content, or require Amazon content to work, but they're still potentially appealing.

One of the most useful for travellers is the ability to connect to Wi-Fi networks that require an extra layer of security, known as captive portal. It allows Fire TV to work with a hotel's Wi-Fi or wired Internet connection, even if those force connecting devices to see a special Web page to grant access. Such pages are typically filled with fine print, advertising and confirmation buttons, and might even ask for your name or room number. The Fire TV's native network setup screen (below) allows you to click "I agree" and input that information, after which you'll have all the connectivity your hotel room offers.

In addition to hotels, captive portal authentication is common in plenty of other locations, such as apartment complexes and offices. The feature should work on them all. Roku recently added this feature too but it requires you to use the Roku app to connect; it's not native to the device like with Fire TV.

X-Ray is Amazon's distraction engine. Watch an Amazon video with X-Ray and at any time you can summon information on the actors, the characters, the music and even trivia. Of course it doesn't work with video from non-Amazon apps. Meanwhile, using parental controls, you can block access to the Games & Apps, Photos and/or Music sections of the menu.

Also worth a mention is ASAP, the feature that starts streaming many TV shows and movies almost immediately. It works very well in our testing, beating any other app or device to the punch by a few seconds at least, but (all together now) IT ONLY WORKS WITH AMAZON CONTENT.

Like other streaming devices, Amazon has a dedicated Fire TV remote app for iOS and Android. It replicates all of the functions of the main remote, including voice recognition, and can ease entry of text characters via the keyboard on your phone.

If you enjoy a little casual gaming, Amazon also sells a Fire TV-compatible game controller to use with its roster of gaming apps. The controller has a built-in microphone for voice search, and a button layout that will be familiar to anyone who's encountered an Xbox controller in the last decade or so. The new controller is an improvement on older Amazon models. The shape felt more natural and compact, and the triggers, buttons and D-pad more solid rather than clicky and hollow. I didn't miss the dedicated transport controls found on the old one. Voice recognition seemed just as good as on the standard controller.

It's no grade-A controller like those of the PS4 or Xbox One, but I felt it more comfortable to play than the overlarge controller for the Nvidia Shield. You can add additional controllers for split-screen and co-op gaming on titles that support it. You can also supposedly pair the Fire TV with just about any third-party Bluetooth controller, although the PS4 controller I briefly tried didn't work.

At £40 the controller is also pricey. If you're considering spending that much extra on a controller, odds are you already own a fully fledged games console, or would be better off saving up to buy one. Also, bear in mind that the Fire TV's gaming app roster is rather ropey (Beach Buggy Racing, Crossy Road and Tetris might serve as brief diversions, but won't be troubling the Xbox or PlayStation), and I wouldn't hold out much hope of big-name console games making their way to Fire TV any time soon.

Conclusion: A good streamer that's best for heavy Amazon users

If you subscribe to Amazon Video and not to Netflix, Now TV and other services, the Fire TV is a great device. But if you get your streaming video from multiple sources, especially if you pay multiple monthly subscription fees for it, the £60 Roku 2 has the advantage.

Even if you're firmly and happily enmeshed in Amazon's jungle, the new box isn't the best value. At £35 the Fire TV Stick costs less than half as much (or less, if you don't want the voice remote), performs just as well and offers nearly every worthwhile feature the box does, with the exception of 4K and high-end game support. If you like the Fire TV's Amazon-friendly extras but want to pay less, go with the Stick instead of the box.