Amazon simplifies its lineup with the new Fire TV Stick HD

By Phil Nickinson Published October 17, 2024

It’s a little hard to believe we’ve gone through most of 2024 without a new Amazon Fire TV Stick. That is, until now. The Fire TV Stick HD has been announced, with the $35 device reducing the Fire TV Stick lineup from four to three and in the process replacing the two oldest sticks in the family. The $40 Fire TV Stick and the $30 Fire TV Stick Lite will still be around while they’re in stock. But after that, they’re gone.

The other two current devices remain the second-generation Fire TV Stick 4K, and the second-gen Fire TV Stick 4K Max, which we still consider to be the best Fire TV Stick to get.

There’s not a ton to write home about here. The Fire TV Stick HD, as the name implies, tops out at 1080p. It does support HDR, HDR 10, HDR10+, and HLG, but there’s no Dolby Vision, or Dolby Atmos for audio, for that matter. (It does support HDMI passthrough of Dolby-encoded audio, though.) It comes with the basic Alexa Voice remote, uses the older Wi-Fi 5 (that’s 802.11ac) standard, and has just 8GB of storage for apps and movies or whatever, along with 1GB of RAM. It’ll work with Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service, but not Xbox Game Pass.

It’s also lacking other Fire TV OS features like the Ambient Experience, which allows for AI-generated artwork, and you won’t even get picture-in-picture support on this stick.

So this stick’s as much about Amazon consolidating things at the low end as it is anything else. Good for a spare room, perhaps, but probably not for your living room.