Review of the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Smart TV Box: Netflix, Dolby Vision, and Auto Frame Rate

The Fire TV Stick 4K is an incredibly underrated smart TV device in the form of a stick that offers capabilities beyond the imagination of many Chinese TV boxes. If you’re looking to access the world’s largest streaming service for movies and series, Netflix, in maximum 4K quality, this is arguably the best solution available right now. Moreover, the Fire TV Stick 4K supports not only standard HDR and the more advanced HDR10+ but also the most cutting-edge Dolby Vision standard. The device is licensed for Dolby Vision, and on Netflix, movies and series are available in this format.

Amazon’s Unique Approach

Do you use subscriptions to domestic legal online cinemas such as IVI, Megogo, or Kinopoisk HD? No problem here either. The Fire TV Stick 4K supports HDCP 2.2 and Widevine L1, enabling maximum 4K quality with HDR support. In addition, it can seamlessly play 4K/60 fps HDR videos on YouTube, handle heavy torrent files, and even stream IPTV in Ultra HD quality.

Of course, there are some drawbacks, mainly due to the fact that this device is not officially sold in our countries and is therefore tailored to Western services. Its Fire TV OS interface, while based on Android, is overly cluttered with ads and does not support the Russian language. Naturally, this can be fixed through customization, but it requires some skills and knowledge, which not everyone might have. There are solutions, of course, and I’ll discuss them in this review as well.

Technical Specifications

I’m sure many people choose devices based on technical specifications, but Amazon has taken a more original approach. Similar to Apple, they believe that it’s more important for users to know what the device can do rather than which processor it runs on. As a result, the provided technical data is quite limited, and I discovered some details only after testing and disassembling the device, which I’ll share as we go.

• Processor: 4-core, 1.7 GHz + GE8300 GPU
• Memory: 1.5 GB RAM + 8 GB storage
• Wireless interfaces: Dual-band WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4G/5G with MIMO support + Bluetooth 5.0 L.E
• Video capabilities: 4K/60 fps playback with H.265/H.264/VP9 codecs, support for HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision
• Audio capabilities: Support for multichannel audio Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Atmos
• Extras: Remote with voice search, AFR (Auto Frame Rate)

Another important aspect is the price. It fluctuates depending on discounts and sales, so it’s worth checking. But right now, for the Black Friday sale, the price is reduced to $24.99, and at this price, it’s a must-buy. Depending on the country you order from, you may need a forwarding service, but this won’t significantly affect the overall cost. For example, shipping to Ukraine via Nova Poshta from the U.S. cost me only $3.9 (calculated as 0.5 kg). At the same time, the stick is definitely better than any “Chinese” device under $50, or perhaps even under $100.

Packaging and Bundle

Let’s get acquainted with the device. The compact, bright orange box closely resembles the packaging of another popular device—Xiaomi Mi TV Stick. In fact, Xiaomi didn’t just copy the box but also the device itself: a similar form factor, the same focus on streaming services, and a very similar remote control—all of this was borrowed from Amazon. At the same time, Xiaomi’s stick is much weaker in terms of specifications and costs more.

The manufacturer highlighted the key advantages in a list. In my opinion, the main selling points are the support for the HDR format Dolby Vision and multichannel Dolby Atmos sound—features that competitors don’t offer. And, of course, licensed Netflix, which is supported by only about a dozen devices currently (and very few with Dolby Vision support). What else? The Alexa voice assistant isn’t particularly popular in our region due to the lack of support for local languages, but it can still be used, and overall, it’s a fairly advanced voice assistant. As for 4K and WiFi 802.11AC, those are considered the bare minimum these days.

Package contents: stick, HDMI extender, power adapter, micro USB cable, and remote control.

The device is low-powered, so it uses a compact 5V/1A power adapter. You can also power it directly from your TV’s USB port if it can provide the required current.

Remote Control

The compact remote connects via Bluetooth and supports voice search. The microphone is located at the top, and the voice search works slightly differently than on other TV boxes. Instead of simply pressing the microphone button, you need to press and hold it. Whatever you say while holding the button becomes your voice command or query. Other than that, it’s a typical compact remote with a minimal set of useful buttons for navigation, volume control, and media playback.

Its ergonomic shape with a rounded back makes the remote one of the most comfortable I’ve ever held. Convenience and minimalism. Nothing extra, everything is logically arranged, and control is intuitive, relying on muscle memory.

The remote is powered by two AAA batteries. Amazon Basics batteries were included in the package.

Appearance and Interfaces

The design and appearance of devices like this don’t hold much importance since the stick will be hidden from view, plugged directly into the TV’s HDMI port. As such, it features a minimalist design: a rectangular body with a clean Amazon logo on the surface.

However, HDMI ports on some TVs are often recessed or placed too close to the TV body, making it physically impossible to connect the stick, which is wider and thicker than a standard HDMI plug. For such cases, a small HDMI extender is included.

The body has a single micro USB port, intended for power supply. Through experimentation, I discovered that OTG support is available. I connected a USB hub with external power and was able to use a flash drive and a wireless mouse.

The back of the stick features only technical information. From there, I learned that this model is called E9L29Y.

That’s pretty much it. To better understand the size, take a look at the following photo.

Disassembly

The case is held together by clips, so it can be opened using a “special pry tool” or another thin metal object. Inside, it’s immediately apparent that the design was approached with great care. All components are covered with metal shields, which are additionally topped with thick metal plates. On the inside of the case, there’s also a copper plate to help dissipate heat.

The reverse side is similar in design.

This results in a fairly thick “sandwich” with a substantial surface area for heat dissipation. Ideally, adding some ventilation holes in the plastic would improve this even further, but even in its current design, overheating is not an issue for the stick. Stress tests confirmed this, but more on that later.

For now, let’s look at the components. The chipset used is the Mediatek MT8695, which turned out to be a very capable processor and, in my opinion, superior in many ways to the popular solutions from Amlogic. The RAM is IDE77 D9WRN by Micron, with a capacity of 1.5 GB, which is perhaps the stick’s main limitation. However, if you don’t push it too hard, the memory is sufficient. You can also spot the MTK MT6393AN integrated circuit.

On the reverse side, you’ll find the Sandisk SDINBDG4 flash memory with an 8 GB capacity. To the left, there’s a hermetically sealed WiFi + Bluetooth module, with antenna traces running directly along the board.

Video

The Fire TV Stick 4K supports auto frame rate (AFR), which works in apps that support this feature. For example, AFR is supported by players like KODI, VIMU, and the Smart YouTube app.

Color depth is supported up to 12-bit.

There’s also a display calibration feature to adjust the image to fit your screen (useful if the image doesn’t match the screen boundaries).

HDR can function either continuously or only when playing supported content.

Other settings are fairly standard. For example, you can configure WiFi, connect Bluetooth devices like wireless headphones or an alternative remote, grant app permissions, change the language, and so on. But there are also some interesting features. For instance, in the System Status Monitor utility, you can enable resource monitoring (CPU, memory, internet). This utility also displays the current refresh rate and resolution.

In the advanced options, there’s even a feature to display media playback information. It shows video resolution, frame rate, the codec in use, and whether hardware acceleration is enabled. This was particularly helpful when testing the stick’s multimedia capabilities.

Lastly, there are detailed launcher settings (available in Russian). You can customize which elements are displayed, choose the sources for recommendations, configure a weather widget, remove unnecessary items, and much more.

Performance and Heating

The Fire TV Stick 4K is powered by a quad-core MT8695 processor running at 1.7 GHz, with a PowerVR Rogue GE8300 GPU as its video accelerator. It supports hardware decoding for AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265, VP8, and VP9 codecs, as well as hardware-level decoding for Dolby Vision. The main limitation of the device is its RAM capacity—only 1.5 GB, of which 400 MB to 500 MB is typically free. For app installation, 5.5 GB of storage is available, leaving about 2 GB free after installing essential apps.

Running benchmarks on a device designed primarily for video playback might seem unnecessary, but for curiosity’s sake, I ran Geekbench 5. The results were 121 points in single-core mode and 401 points in multi-core mode. These results are comparable to the quad-core Snapdragon 425 used in older budget smartphones. So, you shouldn’t expect blazing-fast speeds when launching apps, but the system interface and animations are smooth. It’s a much better experience than, for example, the Mi TV Stick with an Amlogic S805Y and 1 GB of RAM.

Storage performance:

• Average write speed: 35 MB/s
• Average read speed: 232 MB/s

These tests were conducted on a partially filled drive, so speeds dropped slightly toward the end. Nevertheless, the performance is stable, with consistent results reflected in the graph.

CPDT benchmark results:

• Write speed: 32 MB/s
• Read speed: 282 MB/s

RAM copy speed was measured at 3260 MB/s.

What’s more important is how the Fire TV Stick handles high loads. In similar devices, the cooling system often fails under heavy loads, such as streaming torrents or IPTV, leading to overheating and throttling. Throttling can result in slowdowns, lag, and even crashes or reboots. However, none of this applies to the Fire TV Stick 4K.

As demonstrated during disassembly, the device’s cooling design was taken seriously, and the results speak for themselves. The Fire TV Stick 4K passed the throttling test perfectly. I monitored the CPU clock speeds, and they didn’t drop below the maximum 1.69 GHz for even a second. There was a brief performance dip at one point when I started scrolling and using the mouse, but otherwise, the performance remained consistent. The maximum performance was recorded at 38.262 GIPS, with an average of 37.420 GIPS.

The CPU Slowdown Test showed only a 1% reduction in performance compared to the maximum, with no noticeable drop in CPU frequency.

As the Fire TV Stick 4K doesn’t have a wired internet option, WiFi performance is critically important. The results are excellent. In a room with the router, on the 5 GHz band, the real-world speed averaged 305 Mbps.

Typically, devices perform well on 5 GHz but fail in the 2.4 GHz band. However, in this case, the results were above average for 2.4 GHz as well, reaching 83 Mbps.

Multimedia Capabilities

Finally, the most important part of the testing: evaluating multimedia capabilities in real-world conditions. Since the Fire Stick is a device designed for streaming internet content, I focused on streaming services.

In Netflix, I immediately saw the Dolby Vision badge, as my Sony TV supports this HDR video technology. Videos with Dolby Vision are vibrant, high-contrast, and realistic.

To double-check, I looked at the TV’s operating mode, and the information panel also confirmed Dolby Vision.

I tested a couple of dozen series and movies, and the switch to the appropriate HDR mode worked correctly. When exiting Netflix, the TV automatically reverted to SDR.

Other online cinemas performed just as well. The stick streams movies effortlessly and supports HDR.

Using TorrServe and one of the many torrent aggregators, you can watch movies directly from torrents without downloading them to internal memory. Movies in the 20–30 GB range play perfectly, with working fast-forward functionality. For movies in the 50–60 GB range, the experience can vary depending on your internet connection. Generally, a stable 100 Mbps connection is sufficient, but occasional buffering pauses (2–3 times per movie) can occur.

The built-in System Status Monitor utility was particularly useful here. For instance, I tested the 4K/HDR movie Dune, which is over 20 GB. The utility showed that the HEVC codec was being used, hardware acceleration was active, and the movie was playing in HDR mode. There were no dropped frames, which means the stick handled the load well. The utility also revealed the film’s frame rate of 23.982 fps (right-hand table), and the auto frame rate feature correctly switched the TV to 23.97 Hz (top-left corner).

IPTV

Digital IPTV also worked flawlessly. Channel switching was fast, and hardware acceleration was active. Both SD and HD channels played smoothly, and even Ultra HD channels in 4K resolution were handled well.

Smart YouTube

In Smart YouTube, all available resolutions are supported. The stick can handle up to 4K/60fps with HDR. However, the AV1 codec is not supported.

Even the most demanding videos, like the 4K/60fps HDR clips Peru and Morocco (3840×2160 resolution at 60 fps), played without any dropped frames—not even at the start of playback. The system worked seamlessly. On the screenshot, the image might appear dim because it’s HDR content, but in reality, it looks vivid and bright.

For comparison, a screenshot of SDR video (which appears brighter in screenshots) also showed flawless playback: 4K/60fps with zero dropped frames. Smart YouTube performed wonderfully, and auto frame rate support ensures that the stick automatically switches the TV to the correct mode.

Conclusion

The Fire TV Stick 4K is an amazing device for a very low price, meeting the majority of modern user demands. The stick can handle virtually any internet content, whether it’s an online cinema, a streaming service like Netflix or YouTube, torrents, or IPTV. It supports multichannel audio, the advanced HDR standard Dolby Vision, and auto frame rate. Additionally, the device is very reliable and does not overheat, even during hours of continuous use. It also comes with a convenient Bluetooth remote control featuring voice search.

The only notable drawback is the need for initial setup. To get the stick fully functional and user-friendly, you’ll need to spend an evening or two tweaking it. Alternatively, you could use a script to simplify the process, which will increase the overall cost but save you a lot of time and effort.

Regardless, at this price point, there are few viable alternatives. For instance, you could consider the TiVo Stream 4K, which also supports Netflix and Dolby Vision, offers slightly more RAM, and is somewhat easier to configure. However, it lacks auto frame rate functionality.

In terms of pricing, the Fire TV Stick 4K is already a very affordable option, but with the current major sale in the U.S., its price has dropped to an all-time low.