Amazon Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen) review: Blazing speed

Best Prices Today: Amazon Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen)

$139.99

$139.99

Now in its third generation, the Fire TV Cube is a fairly simple proposition: a combination of a Fire TV Stick with an Echo Dot; a TV media streamer that will double as a smart speaker.

Upgraded hardware means the Fire TV Cube is smooth and fast, and Alexa brings capable hands-free controls with it. The only real hesitations are the high price – although more flexible if you need an Echo Dot anyway – and the fact that Amazon’s ad-laden Fire TV software is sometimes a frustration.

Design and build

• Clean and minimalist design
• Sounds more like a speaker than a streamer

The third generation of the Fire TV Cube looks a lot like those that came before it.

This is a compact cube (funny, that…) meant to sit beside or near your TV, rather than hiding behind it, as you’ll need it out in the open for voice commands are working well.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

This means that unlike other media streamers, you’ll need somewhere for the Cube to sit, and you’ll need to be happy with how it looks.

Thankfully, the minimalist charcoal design is pretty flawless, only occasionally interrupted by the bright blue LED surround that kicks in with Alexa voice commands.

There’s a merciful lack of visible logos on the mesh fabric packaging (they’re limited to the underside of the cube) and only four simple buttons to interrupt the top, which will be familiar to all Echo owners: two buttons of volume, a select button and a microphone mute button.

The 3^rd-gen Cube also comes with a slightly improved remote designed to provide a fuller TV experience with channel up and down buttons, a shortcut to the Settings menu, and a Recents button that helps you dive between apps without returning to the home screen every time.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Beyond that, it’s a pretty standard remote, powered by a few AAA cells, with a selection of preset app buttons at the bottom (Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Music on mine – but that will vary depending on the country) and of course an Alexa button at the top.

Ports and performance

• HDMI pass-through
• Impressive speed thanks to the 8-core processor
• 4K Upscaling

There are more ports on the back of this Fire TV Cube than ever before, and for good reason. Next to the power socket you will find an IR extender (useful if you TO DO want to hide the Cube), USB-A port, 100 Mbps Ethernet and a pair of HDMI sockets.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

The USB-A port lets you connect game controllers, webcams, hard drives, and other basic USB peripherals, which is welcome. Ethernet of course allows for faster and more reliable internet connections, although the onboard Wi-Fi 6E should be good enough for most people anyway.

The two HDMI ports are an input and an output respectively, driving one of the Cube’s neatest tricks: the HDMI passthrough, which lets you connect another device to your TV via the Amazon kit.

This is better suited to set-top boxes like Sky, or cable if you’re in the US, because then you can use the Fire or Alexa remote to change channels or drive other controls, saving you an HDMI port and streamline your setup so you don’t have to switch HDMI inputs every time you want to turn on your set-top box.

You could use it for a game console, but you probably don’t want to, because the passthrough adds a little extra lag to the connection – not a problem for TV, but frustrating for gameplay.

One of the other benefits of passthrough is that you’ll get the Fire TV Cube’s 4K upscaling, which works for both its own content and anything on the passthrough. It’s a bit more advanced than the default scaling your TV might already offer, although in practice the effects still aren’t life-changing.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

What’s impressive is the overall performance of the octa-core processor inside the Cube. This thing is fast, loading almost any app in seconds. It is significantly faster than the Amazon-powered JVC Fire TV I use day-to-day, but also faster than any of the recent Roku or Chromecast streamers I’ve tested recently.

The Cube also supports a wide range of standards, with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision to deliver 4K HDR video, and Dolby Atmos alongside 7.1 surround support.

From a pure performance standpoint, it’s hard to beat.

Smart software and features

• Busy Fire TV Interface
• Lots of ads and promoted items
• Smooth voice commands

The software and smart side of this is a mixed bag.

I’m very used to Amazon’s Fire TV software – like I said, I use a Fire TV – but even I have to admit it’s far from the best.

The good thing is that it’s pretty simple and straightforward to use, with simply laid out settings and an interface that makes sense most of the time.

Trouble is, there’s a lot of that interface, with rows of content the moment you turn on the TV, and big banners devoted to Amazon’s latest series and software. Half of your home screen tends to be made up of ads, one way or another, so you’ll have to get used to Amazon using your TV to serve you content.

Jared Newman / Foundry

You can, of course, install the full range of third-party apps you’d expect on a modern streamer, and it all works smoothly. The only downside here is that the interface’s focus on content rather than apps takes a bit longer to access, and they’re also not integrated into the “Recently Watched” row – only Prime series and live TV channels appear here.

Aside from what’s on screen, you also get all the goodness of Alexa in this little box. The obvious level is that this means you can use Alexa to navigate the TV interface, although of course most Fire TV devices have had it in some form or another for some time thanks to the inclusion of voice-activated remote controls.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

The biggest advantage of the Fire TV Cube is that Alexa works hands-free, and even when the TV is off. It’s functionally an Echo Dot on top of a TV streamer, with all the usual goodies of a small smart speaker: reminders, queries, smart home controls and music playback (here you get all the benefits of the audio system you have connected to). TV).

That means the Fire TV Cube does double duty, saving you the cost of an Echo Dot (or allowing you to move an existing one to another room in the house). Assuming you’re happy Amazon is driving your smart home smarts, that’s a big draw and sweetens the high price.

Pricing & Availability

The Fire TV Cube is available now on Amazon (of course), but you can also buy one from other tech retailers like Best Buy in the US or Currys in the UK.

Price is the sticking point here. At $140 / £140, it’s more expensive than any Roku or Google Chromecast device in some way, and more than double Amazon’s own Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

Of the mainstream options, only the Apple TV 4K is around the same price, which should tell you something about the premium positioning here.

Even subtracting the $50/£55 price of an Echo Dot, assuming you could buy one otherwise, the Fire TV Cube always emerges as one of the most expensive streamers on the market.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Check out our guide to the best streaming sticks to see some of these more affordable options.

Verdict

If you’re already all-in on Amazon, or still looking to buy an Echo Dot, then the 3^rd gen Fire TV Cube might just be worth it, especially given the smooth performance and benefits like HDMI passthrough.

But it won’t be the device to win people over to the Alexa ecosystem, as you can find plenty of basic features elsewhere for less.

If nothing else, if Amazon is going to insist on advertising so aggressively in its interface, the least it can do is offer better value on the hardware.

Specifications

• Processor: Octa-core 2.0 GHz processor
• Graphics: 800 MHz GPU
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Storage: 16 GB
• Video: 2160p/1080p/720p up to 60 fps
• HDR10 + Dolby Vision
• 7.1 surround sound, 2-channel stereo, Dolby Atmos
• Ports: HDMI in, HDMI out, USB-A, 100Mbps Ethernet, IR extender, power
• Connectivity: Tri-band Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.0 + LE, IR
• Dimensions: 86 × 86 × 77mm
• Weight: 513g