Amazon Fire Tv Cube 2Nd Gen Review

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The Fire TV Cube’s other perk over the competition (and why some may spend more for it), is that it packs in Alexa skills and tricks, and improves on them for the biggest screen in your home. All the Cube is missing is the ability to edit your home-screen layout, as YouTube is finally landing on the Fire TV platform soon (details below). Still, this tiny box is one pretty package, and it offers a compelling view of the future of TV. The Fire TV Cube came out in October 2019. Identical to the original model, the Fire TV Cube measures 3.4 x 3.4 x 3.0 inches. Yes, that’s right, it’s not actually cube. I guess marketing didn’t like Fire TV Box. The Apple TV 4K (3.9 x 3.9 x 1.4 inches) and Roku Ultra (4.9 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches) are smaller overall, but wider. Don’t overlook the other pack-in: an IR blaster necessary for the Fire TV Cube to communicate with a cable box. What’s missing? The Roku Ultra’s USB port allows playback of local media files, and while some might not have the collection of files to warrant such a feature, a $120 streaming box should have every perk that a $100 competitor does.

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Navigating the Fire TV home screen, however, can be an exercise in accepting that many things are out of your control. For starters, a giant The Walking Dead ad filled between a quarter to a half of my TV whenever I was near the top of the home screen. A couple of times, I saw that ad turn into video when my cursor stayed on it for too long while I was click up to the section navigation row at the very top. The Roku Ultra (like all Roku devices) home screen places ads on the right side of the screen, while the Apple TV 4K is ad-free. Next, you find the Recent and Your Apps and Channels sections, which my activity slowly filled with boxes for YouTube, Succession, USA, HBO, and Pluto TV. Many of these function similarly to the Continue Watching row in the Apple TV interface. I prefer Apple and Roku’s interfaces, however, because you can drag and drop apps wherever you want, in a grid. Then, a row for the free content on IMDb TV. Under that, you get On Now, a row showing live channels from the apps you’ve downloaded. The best part about this section is that it previews the content your cursor lingers over — which I prefer here than in the ads at the top of the screen — with audio. I saw Pluto TV’s myriad of second-run ’live’ content, where content ranged from a documentary about Richard Pryor to the MTV dating game show Next. Just as importantly, you can simply command Alexa to play the show you want to see. For example, when I said, “Alexa, play Succession,” and the Fire TV Cube opened the critically-acclaimed show in the HBO Go app, so I could start nodding my head to its excellent theme song and stop clicking through menus. While I’m a smart home-skeptic, I’ve found this version of Alexa to be a reliable entertainment navigator. From searching for and downloading apps — just say “Alexa, open HBO,” followed by “Alexa, download this app” — to controlling what you see (“Alexa, pause”), the Fire TV Cube’s voice controls give you a pretty strong grip on your content, without you having to keep a grip on your clicker. More impressively for me is how Alexa can also control your not-smart home hardware. Alexa turned on my TV (“Alexa, turn on the TV”) and cable box, and it also switched between the HDMI inputs on the TV. Other TV and cable controls include volume adjustment, and even channel selection (“Alexa, tune to MTV”), so you can lose your cable box remote too. MORE: How to Control Your TV with Alexa Setting it all up was so easy, even a smart home skeptic (like me) could do it. The Fire TV Cube identified the maker of my TV and cable box. The assistant can control select TVs, soundbars, A/V receivers and (for those like me, who haven’t cut the cord) cable and satellite boxes. It can even switch to my PS4. When you’re navigating the menus, looking for things to watch, Alexa will also take commands for showing a movie’s trailer, add and remove it from your Watchlist and show you more ways to watch something. Or, if you’re ready to hit play, “Alexa, watch now” does the trick. Looking to switch back to the Fire TV Cube from one of your other devices? Just say, “Alexa, show me the home screen,” and you’ll get switched back. This Alexa isn’t just for bingeing shows. With a simple “play Lana Del Rey” I was enjoying the luscious jam “Summertime Sadness,” and enjoying well-formatted on-screen lyrics that scrolled in synchrony with the song. One time I tried this without turning the TV on first, which was a mistake, as I didn’t realize music playback is TV-only. This decision is likely tied to how the Fire TV Cube is no Echo Plus when it comes to sound quality. Alexa’s video Flash Briefings are also here, as “Alexa, play my Flash Briefing” gave me a clip from Newsy. The Alexa app gives you the option to get other Flash Briefing content, from the likes of BBC News, the Nintendo Switch eShop and ESPN. Once you’ve picked a show to watch, Alexa can also show you different options in your neighborhood. Alexa’s recommendations for “the best pizza near me” in Soho, wasn’t exactly a home-run, though, with the assistant’s top suggestions focusing on traditional Italian restaurants and leaving out iconic local favorites such as Lombardi’s and Prince Street Pizza. As I watched an episode of WWE Raw in the USA app, I was able to get the short-term forecast by saying “Alexa, show me the weather.” The forecast arrived in a graphic shown briefly on-screen before returning me to my regularly scheduled predetermined grappling. I particularly enjoyed the well-designed Spotify app. Yes, Fire TV certainly needs a Spotify app, for those of us who don’t have a great sound system in every room. The Fire TV Cube provides access to all of the same content seen on the other Fire TV devices, including “tens of thousands of channels, apps, and Alexa skills,” and more than 500,000 movies and TV episodes. I didn’t think the 2018 Fire TV Cube was slow, but the 2nd Gen Fire TV Cube shows me how wrong I was. Armed with the stopwatch app on my iPhone, and both this year and last year’s Fire TV Cube (set to different wake-words) I saw significantly faster load times and switch times on the new model. I saw the biggest differential when switching from a separate HDMI input to the Fire TV Cube (which was asleep) and opening the YouTube app (which had been force quit). The original Fire TV Cube took an average of 28 seconds to perform this task, while the 2nd Gen Fire TV Cube completed it in 7 seconds, a quarter of the time. I also saw a difference in switching HDMI inputs, as the new Fire TV Cube completed that task in 3 seconds – nearly half the time of the 5.9 seconds it took the original model. Opening the Netflix app for the first time also took half as much time, with the new Fire TV Cube finishing in 10.88 seconds while the older Cube took needed 21 minutes and 4 seconds. I didn’t see that same gap on smaller tasks, though. Alexa turned off my TV in 2.3 seconds on the new Fire TV Cube, while it needed 2.8 seconds on the older model. That half-second gap is negligible at best. I saw that same teeny difference when asking the Fire TV Cube to play music, with the old Fire TV Cube finishing in 8.1 seconds while the new model completed it in 7.6 seconds. The Fire TV’s interface is still fast and responsive when you click around with the Alexa remote. I’d say the buttons in the Roku Ultra and Apple TV 4K remotes work just as fast, though the touchpad swipes in the Siri remote took a while to get used to, and provided a high learning curve. The Fire TV Cube’s far-field voice recognition, powered by eight microphones on its top side provided adequate listening capabilities, so you can command Alexa no matter what you’re doing or if you’re far away from the Cube. This allowed the Cube to hear me say “Alexa, pause” even as Michael Cole yelled “The big dog!” during Roman Reigns’ entrance on an old episode of Raw. The sharpness allowed me to make out tiny details like the feathers of Crowley’s ultra-white wings, the gold threads on the sleeves of his top and the black veins in Aziraphale’s eyes. You’re not going to get that quality everywhere, though. The HBO Go app streamed Succession with a slight fuzziness to it, rendering the petty Roy family’s clothes with a dullness that would disappoint their snobbish tastes. The Fire TV Cube looks to leverage Alexa for better, smarter searching, and the results are good but flawed. When I asked Alexa to “show me Succession” it presented its master page of content about the HBO show, so I could see where I had it, and the other options for purchase. Search results menus present you with the number-based selection system, so you don’t need to speak a title’s whole name to activate it. And if a title isn’t in your first six results, “Alexa, show me more” scrolls down to the next results. When you try a more complex query, you might see the seams in the system. When I asked Alexa for 1990s movies starring Alec Baldwin, the results put 2004’s Along Came Polly as the third result, well ahead of the many other 90’s films starring the 30 Rock actor. Not sure what you want to watch? Alexa also lets you browse by genre. if you need a laugh. Its results, though, are kind of odd; The Best Of Friends and Friends sit side by side, as do the English and Spanish language versions of the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs. $120 is a lot of money, especially compared to the affordable Fire TV Stick ($40) and Fire TV Stick 4K ($50). So, why would you want to spend more for the Fire TV Cube? The major differences here are the Cube’s faster hexa-core processor (both sticks feature quad-core chips) and how it can control the rest of your hardware, such as the cable box, TV and sound bar. So, next time your TV watching experience takes a nose-dive because you can’t find your remote, think about the wonders of a TV that you control with your voice. And just like last year’s model, the 8-mic array on the top gives the Fire TV Cube enables far-field voice controls, something the Fire sticks don’t offer. The Fire TV Cube offers Dolby Atmos audio, which the Fire TV Stick 4K does and the normal Fire TV Stick does not. You don’t need the Fire TV Cube for 4K, as the $70 cheaper Fire TV Stick 4K matches it on resolution. We love the stick’s fast navigation and solid 4K image quality, but wish it didn’t need a power adapter, as the Roku Streaming Stick+ works fine without one.

Fire TV Cube vs. the competition

Alexa’s also a lot more capable than Siri and Roku’s voice search. The latter are primarily used for search while Alexa can move through the Fire TV interface, as well as control other devices and look up information. MORE: Our Favorite Streaming Media Players and Sticks My favorite feature in Apple TV’s Siri, and one that the Fire TV Cube lacks, is the capability to vocally spell out your passwords. As a proponent of long, hard-to-guess passwords, I get tired of using a clicker to move around a keyboard. Fortunately, the Fire TV, just like Roku and Apple TV, have an app you can use to easily enter text. The $120 Fire TV Cube is much cheaper than the $180 Apple TV 4K, and aside from home screen control, it’s hard for the latter to justify its price. However the $100 Roku Ultra is even more affordable, though the additional $20 will be worth it for those who want more capable voice commands, especially for controlling entertainment devices. Alexa may be increasingly ubiquitous (it’s coming to glasses and earbuds too!) but the Fire TV Cube makes a lot of sense. Yes, the cheaper Fire TV sticks both offer some Alexa tricks via the their remotes, but the Cube makes the remote less necessary, and it controls your cable box, which no other streaming device offers. And now, with an even faster processor behind the wheel, the Fire TV Cube becomes an even better navigator for your entertainment experiences. If only it gave us more control of its home screen, or packed its Ethernet adapter into the actual Cube, we’d be completely sold. For more complete control of your home screen, the Apple TV 4K is the best option, as it doesn’t even have the ads that appear on the Roku Ultra. The Fire TV Cube’s view of voice-activated entertainment is superior, and makes a strong case for its high price.

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