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Amazon Announces £50 4K-Capable Fire TV Stick

The new £50 media streamer supports 4K HDR video and features an updated Alexa Voice Remote. An upgraded processor should also mean faster menu navigation and app switching.

Will Greenwald
 & Will Greenwald Principal Writer, Consumer Electronics

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Amazon just unveiled its first sub-£50 media streamer capable of streaming 4K content.

The new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is a media hub that supports ultra high definition (UHD, or 4K) streaming video with high dynamic range (HDR) in HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision formats.

The Fire TV Stick 4K features a 1.7GHz quad-core processor that Amazon claims is 80 percent more powerful than the standard Fire TV Stick. This improved performance should result in faster menu navigation and app switching, but more importantly it enables 4K video streaming when the Fire TV Stick only supports video up to 1080p.

The Dolby Vision support is also notable; Roku recently announced its own sub-£50 4K media streamers, the Roku Premiere and Premiere+, but they only support HDR content in HDR10 and not Dolby Vision.

The Fire TV Stick 4K comes with a new Alexa Voice Remote. All Fire TV devices have come with the original wand-shaped, microphone-equipped Alexa Voice remote for a while, and this represents the first significant update to the device.

The new Alexa Voice Remote adds an infrared transmitter and dedicated buttons for power and volume control, letting users control their connected TV, soundbar, cable box, and other devices without using a separate remote. Of course, it still has a microphone for using the Alexa voice assistant on the Fire TV Stick 4K, and still connects to the stick wirelessly with Bluetooth, so you don't need line of sight with it (you still need to point the remote at the other devices you want to control).

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K ships Oct. 31 in the US and Canada, and will be available Nov. 14 in the UK, Germany, and India. It will retail for £49.99 and include the new Alexa Voice Remote. Current Fire TV device users can buy the new remote separately for £29.99, and it will be available at the same time as the Fire TV Stick 4K. The Amazon Fire TV Cube will also include the new Alexa Voice Remote starting Oct. 31.

Watch: 1 Cool Thing: Amazon Fire TV Cube

About Our Expert

Will Greenwald

Will Greenwald

Principal Writer, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I’m PCMag’s home theater and AR/VR expert, and your go-to source of information and recommendations for game consoles and accessories, smart displays, smart glasses, smart speakers, soundbars, TVs, and VR headsets. I’m an ISF-certified TV calibrator and THX-certified home theater technician, I've served as a CES Innovation Awards judge, and while Bandai hasn’t officially certified me, I’m also proficient at building Gundam plastic models up to MG-class. I also enjoy genre fiction writing, and my urban fantasy novel, Alex Norton, Paranormal Technical Support, is currently available on Amazon.

The Technology I Use

Where to start? I have a standard IT-issued Lenovo Thinkpad for writing and editing, supplemented with an iPad Air and an 8Bitdo Retro Keyboard when I want to write on the go. I also have a Lenovo Legion Go as a platform for running Portrait Displays’ Calman software and controlling the Klein K-10A colorimeter, Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Leo Bodnar 4K Video Signal Lag Tester I use for testing TVs. 

For gaming, I use a Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X, and a GeForce 5080-equipped MSI gaming laptop. I like collecting retro games as well, and have an Analogue Pocket and a ton of classic consoles and portables. Photography is another interest, and I use a Sony A7 IV when I’m shooting products and events, and a Fujifilm X-Pro3 for my own attempts at visual creativity. And for reading and writing, I’ve become partial to the Kobo Sage for books and the ReMarkable 2 with Type Folio.

When it comes to phones and tablets, I’m pretty platform-agnostic. I use a Google Pixel 8 for my phone and an iPad Air for a tablet. Android, iOS, and iPadOS are all totally fine, but I need a Windows PC. MacOS just isn’t for me.

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