Amazon's $34.99 Fire TV Stick HD is now the company’s sole 1080p media streamer, replacing the Fire TV Stick and the Fire TV Stick Lite. It uses the top-notch Amazon Fire TV platform, offers Alexa voice control, and even supports HDR10 and Dolby Atmos content. Our only real complaint is that it relies on Wi-Fi 5 rather than Wi-Fi 6. Overall, the Fire TV Stick HD earns our Editors' Choice award because it's the most economical way to add a modern streaming platform and voice assistant to your aging 1080p TV. If you have a 4K TV, however, you should spend the extra $15 for the more powerful Fire TV Stick 4K, also an Editors' Choice winner.

Design: The Same Stick and Software

The Fire TV Stick HD reuses the design of the Fire TV Stick Lite. It’s a 3.4-inch long, 1.2-inch wide black bar with an HDMI plug on one end and a micro USB port on the side for power via the included USB cable and wall adapter. It’s very easy to plug into your TV. If the HDMI inputs on your TV are cramped, the streamer comes with a short, narrow HDMI extender that adds a few inches of cable between the stick and the port.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

The Fire TV Stick HD keeps the remote from the standard Fire TV Stick. It’s a flat and rectangular black wand with a large, glossy, and circular navigation pad near the top. A pinhole microphone sits above the pad, along with power and Alexa buttons. Menu and playback controls, a volume rocker, a live TV button, a mute button, and dedicated service buttons for Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, and Peacock sit below the pad. It’s simple to use, and I like that it lets you control your TV’s volume; the remote for the Fire TV Stick Lite didn't have that capability.

As mentioned, the Fire TV Stick HD runs on Amazon’s Fire TV smart TV platform. It’s a well-equipped system that supports all major streaming services, including Apple TV+, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube, plus Amazon’s in-house Prime Video and Twitch. The platform lets you mirror your Windows PC’s screen using Miracast/WiDi, though it doesn’t support Apple AirPlay or Google Cast for convenient streaming from your smartphone or tablet. If you want those features, you should check out the $29.99 Roku Express or the significantly more expensive Google TV Streamer ($99.99), respectively.

The Fire TV system also includes the Alexa voice assistant, which you can access by pressing the Alexa button on the remote and speaking into it. Alexa lets you control your TV and any compatible smart home devices on your network, as well as search for content. It can provide general information, such as sports scores and weather forecasts, too. This implementation isn't as convenient as hands-free Alexa on the $139.99 Fire TV Cube and Amazon’s Echo speakers and smart displays, but it’s still helpful and doesn't come with the privacy concerns of those always-listening devices.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

Features: HDR10 and Dolby Atmos, Even in 1080p

In terms of hardware and capabilities, the Fire TV Stick HD is simply a Fire TV Stick Lite, which itself is almost exactly the same as the Fire TV Stick. All three have quad-core 1.7GHz processors, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage. For connectivity, you get Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0. They all support high dynamic range (HDR) content in HDR10, HDR10+, and hybrid log gamma (HLG), but not Dolby Vision. 

The one thing that differentiates the HD and the Lite from the third-generation Fire TV Stick is that the latter can decode Dolby Atmos spatial audio content. This isn’t as dire an issue as it sounds, however, because you can still listen to Dolby Atmos audio via the Fire TV Stick HD. Like the Lite, it has HDMI audio pass-through for Dolby Digital signals (including Dolby Atmos). This means that the media streamer doesn't decode the signal but rather sends it along. If you have a TV or soundbar that can handle Dolby Atmos, they can then decode the signal.

When I loaded Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness through Disney+ on the Fire TV Stick HD, my soundbar immediately detected that it was receiving a Dolby Atmos signal. So, whether what you want to watch has Dolby Atmos or not, the Fire TV Stick HD ultimately offers the same experience as the Fire TV Stick.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

The Fire TV Stick HD's interface is generally quite responsive, though its performance isn't to the level of the Fire TV Stick 4K. The latter has double the RAM (2GB) and supports the faster and more stable Wi-Fi 6 standard. I noticed a bit more choppiness and sluggishness in testing the Stick HD. Switching tabs can occasionally cause hiccups with the menus, and libraries take a few seconds to populate. Of course, whether the difference in Wi-Fi support will affect your experience depends on your home environment. My apartment in Brooklyn, filled with Wi-Fi devices, can benefit more from Wi-Fi 6's better handling of crowded bands than a more spacious house in the suburbs, for instance. The slower connection speed isn’t necessarily an issue for loading 1080p video, however, since it requires much less bandwidth than 4K video.