Amazon Fire Stick – PC Webopaedia

The Amazon Fire Stick or called Fire TV Stick is among the Amazon Fire TV line of micro consoles and digital media players created by Amazon. These devices mainly deliver high-quality video and audio content streamed via the Internet and connected to a smart TV via HDMI or other similar ports.

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Fire TV Stick Generations

First Generation (2014)

The first generation of the Amazon Fire TV Stick was released in November 2014. It’s a smaller version of the Fire TV dongle that’s plugged in via HDMI port on HD televisions. It features 1 GB RAM and 8 GB worth of internal storage.

This Fire TV Stick has an alias called “Montoya” and is bundled with remote control (with Alexa voice assistant and without Alexa) upon purchase. It uses the Fire OS 5 as its main operating system. If you are concerned about Alexa subscription fees, please check out our article How much does Alexa Cost?.

Second Generation (2016)

Two years later after its first release, Amazon launched the Fire TV Stick With Alexa Voice Remote. It featured an improved remote, MediaTek Quad-core 1.3 GHz processor, and upgraded wireless hardware, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Like the first-generation Fire TV Stick, it also runs using the Fire OS 5 operating system.

This Fire TV Stick also had a 4K version, released in 2019.

Fire TV Stick 4K (2018)

The first Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K was officially released in October 2018. Codenamed “Mantis”, it was the successor of the third-generation Fire TV models. It featured 4K support, a 1.7 GHz Quad-core processor, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, and HDR10+ support.

It had an improved, backward-compatible voice remote with an infrared transmitter and TV buttons for TV control. This Fire TV Stick runs using the Fire OS 6 operating system. The remote for this model is also sold separately for other Fire TV Stick models as an upgrade.

Third Generation (2020)

This generation of the Fire TV Stick featured two new models, namely the Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick Lite. Released in October 2020, the Fire TV Stick model included a remote with TV controls, while the Fire TV Stick Lite’s remote only contained basic controls. Both are using the Fire OS 7 as their main operating system.

These devices also had similar hardware as the Fire TV Stick 4K, including a 1080p maximum resolution and 1 GB RAM. A year later, this Fire TV Stick model was re-issued with an improved 3rd Gen Alexa Voice Remote.

Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2021)

The Fire TV Stick 4K Max was released in October 2021. It featured Wi-Fi 6 support, 2 GB RAM, and a 1.8 GHz processor. Besides 4K and Dolby Atmos support, it’s also the first Fire TV Stick model with hardware accelerated AV1 support—a new and open-source video coding format that’s used for efficient video streaming.

Similar to the third-generation Fire TV Stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max runs using the Fire OS 7 operating system.