Amazon Fire TV Review

NOTE: This review includes First Impressions, Current Impressions, Hardware, Software and a summary. (Exclude the amateurish images!)

It has been a while since I’ve written anything on this blog and I apologise to anyone who is slightly bothered by that. However, over Christmas I received a present that has not only surprised me with it’s brilliance but encouraged me to want to write an in-depth review and summary of why I love it. That product, as you may have guessed from the title, is the Amazon Fire TV.

I admit, I asked for the Amazon Fire TV as a present from my parents for Christmas, wanting an alternative to my noisy, slow and increasingly lacking in space Xbox 360 that could deliver me Netflix, 4OD, iPlayer and other catch up services without the insufferable whirring noise that my 7 year old machine makes. I wanted a small little box that didn’t mean I had to turn up my TV a couple of extra notches to hear the content and a little box that always had the apps on it and didn’t require me to delete and reshuffle my app/demo choice when I wanted to watch a certain programme (I own the 20GB Xbox).

I began to scour the internet for the best little box for this job. I came across the obvious choices of the Roku 3, Apple TV and the Chromecast. Finally, I came across the Amazon Fire TV, it was on for a bit off and so sent the link to mum and dad and that was my request for Christmas. I realised after sending the link that this little box was much more than just catch up, it had it’s own Amazon content, alongside Netflix, it had the addition of a Game Controller (which I put an order in for as well, as I read it was a must for some big games on the Fire TV) and it also had highly-praised voice input which was something that, as a nerd, intrigued me!

Other things that intrigued me about the Fire TV over it’s competition is that it looked to have a more modern, cleaner UI, the ASAP feature (more on that later) and the ability to play Android games on it which screamed potential to me!

First Impressions of Hardware

As I took the Fire TV out of it’s little black box, it appeared to me to be exactly what I was looking for. It is a very good looking box, without doing anything remarkable! It’s about an centimetre and a half tall and about 6 or so centimetres in square diameter. It’s got a matte black finish with an engraved Amazon logo on the top. The only lights or power indicators is a really sophisticated mini-LED on the front of the device that simply light up when it’s plugged in and off when it is not. Overall, my summary of the box itself is that it fits right in front of your TV and on top of any other boxes you have in your TV set up really nicely and that’s the best you can ask for it really.

The Fire TV comes with a fairly standard remote that properly has most of the same functions the remotes for the Roku and Apple TV have. Back, Home, Menu, Rewind, Play/Pause and Fast-Forward. The buttons feel really solid and give off a nice click when you press all of them, no mushiness or uncertainty when hitting a button. The controller also features a voice capture button for searching, however we’ll go more into that later in the review.

The last piece of hardware was the gaming controller which felt like a cheaper version of an Xbox Controller, simply put. The sticks were a little flimsy and the triggers didn’t have as much spring to them as the Xbox. Despite saying all this, it felt like a controller than could handle any Android game that was thrown at it!

First Impressions of Software

When I first booted up the device, the software took a while to update, however this was 100% down to what can only be described as my abysmal internet speeds. Once everything was done, I began installing apps and games left and right, scrolling through pages and pages of apps looking for the important ones such as Netflix, iPlayer, Plex, Youtube, Twitch etc and coming across some other favourites such as TuneIn and a live TV Player, Notifications for Fire TV and others. I was intrigued to see some big games on there such as the Walking Dead Games, Terraria, MineCraft, Asphalt, three GTA games, three Sonic the Hedgehog games, Modern Combat 4, Dead Trigger 2, Riptide GP2, Ryaman and other games that a lot of mobile games would recognise the names of.

After about an hour of fiddling around, setting up accounts, downloading games etc, I sat back and realise that I had just accomplished all these tasks without having to wait once (excluding download times obviously). Which considering my aforementioned abysmal internet speeds was quite the feat. The menus whizzed by instantly with no delay, applications that I’d recently opened were ready and waiting when I clicked back on them again. All-in-all, this device felt like it wanted to get things done and get them done fast.

The voice search on the Fire TV was one of it’s highlight features in the advertising and was something I was intrigued to try out, for the first hour or so it worked 100% fine, even with some commands that were mumbled. 

How I Feel Now

As I sit here today looking at the hardware of the Amazon Fire TV, my initial impressions are still within tact. However, having had it now for around a month, I have found other great things about this little black box. The Amazon Fire TV only requires two cables to work, a power and an HDMI, which in this day and age makes sense. What this means is that the Fire TV is a very portable device which resulted in me taking it to my girlfriend’s so we could watch movies with the family, play some of the trivia and racing games. We genuinely spent one evening where the Fire TV was the base of everything we did. We began by played Asphalt for a bit, taking it in turns to do races; we then watched some trailers on YouTube of the up and coming movies we thought my girlfriend’s mum would be interested in seeing; we then proceeded to watch a movie whilst we grazed on snacks; next we loaded up a trivia game (You Don’t Know Jack) and played that with the controller, game controller and our phones connected which was cool; then we rounded off the evening by watching some live TV off the BBC with the TV Player app. I only realise at the end of the night that the whole of boxing day was spent on my Fire TV which is something no other device I’ve owned before has managed to do.

Both controllers still work a dream and the I’ve come to realise that soft-touch plastic is the absolute perfect material for a TV remote. My opinion on the gaming controller remain exactly the same, it’s not Xbox 360/One/PS3/PS4 quality, but it is extremely sufficient for playing anything the Fire TV can throw at you and it doesn’t hinder the experience which is important.

The Amazon Fire TV’s software just seems to work. Everything around us these days has become so smart and intelligent that we are starting to become overwhelmed with all the different things it can do and are asking the intelligent technology to “just do what I want and not get in the way”. I personally think the Amazon Fire TV eventuates that brilliantly. My prime example of this is when you try and explain what it does to your parents/grandparents and they ask “so can we watch iPlayer on it?” or “can I watch live TV on it?” or “can I catch up on my latest boring period dramas on it?” and the answer to all these is a resounding “Yes!”. What makes this answer even more satisfying is when you hand them the remote, tell them to hold down the search button and simply speak what they want and then they find it. “Period Drama”, they find it. “Ripper Street”, they find it. “Another boring period drama”, they’d likely find something.

The Confusing Bit

For the past 1,400 words I’ve been praising the socks off the Amazon Fire TV as I am overall very happy with the device. However, this is because (through an accidental set of button clicks) I’m now a student Amazon Prime user. This allows me to make the Amazon Fire TV a LOT more useful! 

You see, the incredible problem with the Amazon Fire TV is that the search/voice search is ALL Amazon content (supposedly Netflix are adding in their compatibility soon) and therefore all results you find with need to be paid for somehow. Now with the Fire TV you do get 30 day free Prime Trial. However, once this runs out, you are looking at £79 a year for Amazon Prime. The perks of this are that you get next-day-delivery on a LOT of Amazon products and you get some tv and film content; I say “some” as this is where the annoyance slips in. The Amazon Fire TV allows you to see ALL Amazon Instant Video content when searching and you may find this absolutely fine if you don’t mind spending £9.99 on a HD movie or £3.50-£5 to rent it, it may be fine if you have the money or the intention to spend £25 on the newest series of Arrow (even though you can buy both the 1st AND 2nd season on DVDs for £25 - as opposed to the £40 you’ll spend on both on Amazon Instant Video). However, if you are a student, like you can’t afford to be spending these sums of money on TV Programmes you may be able to see on Netflix or even cheekily torrent.

Credit to Amazon, they do have different sections on their home menu for Prime content and do define it in the language they use such as “Best movies to buy” as opposed to “Best Movies on Prime” so you know all of the following movies will cost money. In addition, when searching with voice you can add the word “Prime” into your search and 95% of the time it will define your search down to only Prime results. For example, you can search “Prime Horror films” or “Prime TV Programmes” using your voice and it will bring up only Prime content (or the first half the options will be Prime content only anyway).

This is something that can lead to a lot of frustration and is based more on Amazon’s business model rather than the Fire TV itself as the Fire TV does have a UI that compliments both formats and a lot of the time, it is understandable as to why certain contents are to pay for such as Game of Thrones, Avengers Assemble, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: Last Stand, Frozen, Taken, The Dark Knight Trilogy and much more. You’ve also got the content that is clearly paid for because it has only just left the cinema or come to DVD such as Let’s Be Cops, Sin City 2, The Guest, Before I Go To Sleep, Equaliser, Sex Tape and such. 95% of this content can be rented along with bought, so if you don’t want to commit to a £9.99 purchase, films range from £2.49-£4.49 depending on definition and how old or popular the film is.

It’s a situation that can cause a lot of confusion and sometimes annoyance, however I would never say there isn’t enough content within the Amazon Prime market for you to feel completely cheated and a lot of the content that is purchasable is so due to usually obvious reasons.

Gaming

When describing my reasons for purchasing the Amazon Fire TV, I mentioned that it had the ability to play games on it. Now if you’re a US reader, you’ll argue you can do that with the Android TV Player, however in the UK that’s not an option. In short, gaming on the Amazon Fire TV feels to me like a whole new genre. I would say the Amazon Fire TV’s attempt at gaming hits the family market right on the head.

I’ve not actually mentioned yet, but the Fire TV’s basis software is Android. It is a slightly modified version of the Fire Tablet software blown up to have vertical menus basically. Therefore, the Fire TV runs Android games.. oh and it runs them well! The Fire TV is packing a Qualcomm Quad Core 1.7Ghz processor, a Qualcomm Adreno 400 graphics card, 2gb of RAM and 8gb of Hard Drive space. This means the Fire TV is fully equipped to play every game that the Fire TV offers! What this allows is not only the security that every game you get will work on the device (like a dedicated games console) but also some really good looking games!

I’ve mentioned above some of the highlight games that the Amazon Fire TV offers. There are some big games on there and some that have kept me playing even a month on such as The Wolf Among Us TellTale series which I think is the perfect type of game for the AFTV and has ended up being a game my girlfriend and I have gotten into watching/playing. A lot of the games on Amazon Fire TV have the potential to be great family games too but lack multiplayer support; if you just pass the controller around though it can still be great fun.

Another genre of games that are starting to become a big hit are the games that require you to use your own handheld device. A couple examples of this are ‘Fibbage’ and ‘You Don’t Know Jack’. Fibre requires you to go to a web-page then insert a “room code” which then allow you to all be within the same session, then the whole game is played on your own personal devices which adds an extra layer or competitiveness and reminds me of card-games that require you to hide answers from others such as Poker and Rummy. ‘You Don’t Know Jack’ is a similar concept except you download an app that has to be on the same WiFi as your Fire TV. These types of games are great for nearly everyone, the games are only limited by those that don’t own an Android or iOS device.

To summarise my opinions on games for the Fire TV would be to simply announce that they surprised me a hell of a lot. I didn’t expect to come into this and still be playing games on the platform a month later!

Other Points to Note

The Amazon Fire TV has many features that allow it to take over your living room in almost area that you’d want it to. If you weren’t bothered about specific content, this device can cover gaming, Live TV and movie/tv content. When you put that into perspective, for £79 you’re buying a device that can arguably satisfy every need. When it comes to film/tv content, as long you’re willing to Subscribe to either Prime or Netflix then you’re absolutely sorted. When it comes to gaming, as long as you aren’t looking for AAA titles with life-like graphics then you’re absolutely sorted. When it comes to TV as long as you don’t want every channel that Sky or even Freeview can offer then you’re absolutely sorted. 

Those three statements sum up the Fire TV really, it is a device capable of doing everything but none of it exceptionally well. However saying that, it feels like it does two out of those three things really well for the market it’s aiming for. And if you can name a device out there that can do it better, please point it my way!

Now, I’ve skimmed over the Voice Search of the Amazon Fire TV and it’s something that I truly think is the future. We live in a world these days where voice-controls are getting better and better and I believe the Amazon Fire TV’s voice control is the best there is out there right now. It’s advantage is that you hold a button to turn it on, speak into the controller itself, then let go to stop the recording. Therefore you have a voice recognition remote that is only picking up a minor amount of noise so there’s no chance it’ll hear something else after your speaking, plus you are holding the remote right in front of your face as opposed to trying to shout at the device as you may do with your phone or the Amazon Echo.

Summary

In a world where we are going from buying Freeview boxes and Sky boxes to buying Amazon Fire TVs, Chromecast, Apple TVs, Nexus Players and the such, one platform needs to stand above the rest. Now don’t get me wrong, when Apple release their updated version of the Apple TV, it will be a market leader; it will offer iTunes content that most people in the Western World use for their content, it will use an interface that is likely to be recognisable to anyone who’s used an iPad, iPod or iPhone and therefore recognisable to most of the Western world too. In addition, the Nexus Player is a device that has so much potential and with Google’s latest attempt at pushing advertising and their Play logo brand onto every screen in the world, the Nexus player’s sequel could be a top performer.

However, for me; right now… the Amazon Fire TV is the best set top box you can buy. You not only get the essential apps you get on other platforms, but you also have the additional option of Prime content which covers even more TV and Films that these other providers may not offer. On top of that it offers you it in an incredible fast and visually appealing style.

Gaming is something I never thought I’d enjoy on the Fire TV and to me was to be dismissed as a gimmick. Little did I know that a month later I’d be sitting here enjoying trivia games with my girlfriend, her sister and her girlfriend and playing The Wolf Among Us almost as a replacement to a TV show due to the size of the screen. Little did I know that Crossy Road was the answer to all our answers when it came to killing 5-10 minutes trying to beat my high score of 142. I also now want to see what other games work well on the big screen, I can imagine FPS games work well as they do on an Xbox or Playstation. Only the future will tell.

The Fire TV for me, is one of the most surprising purchases (gifts) i’ve received in recent years. For me, it’s in a category I’ve never really bought into before. However, unless I buy a Smart TV with LG’s webOS on it or Google’s Android TV, then I will likely be investing in the Amazon Fire TV2 if there ever is to be one.

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Below all of that review, I’ve decided to include some titles that I found would really be worth watching. This is intended to show people that Prime does offer some really good content that can rival Netflix and in some places better it (due to no country restrictions.)

Content worth watching on Amazon Instant Prime Video:

TV SHOWS

The Walking Dead (3 SEASONS)- needs no explanation, one of the few pieces of content about Zombies that doesn’t suck

Arrow (1 SEASON and likely the second season too as Amazon have an exclusive deal) - one of the best/if not the best TV Show based on a comic book hero

Lost (EVERY SEASON) - more famous for being confusing but nearly finished season 1 and hooked

Constantine (working off an exclusive offer of an episode a week, right after they’re aired live) - a clever series based on the DC Comics of a similar name

Prison Break (EVERY SEASON) - needs no words, a beautifully told story of a prison break, sounds hard to make interesting but is! 

The Inbetweeners (EVERY SEASON) - needs no introduction, the original and arguably one of the funniest British TV Shows of modern culture

Heroes (4 SEASONS)- a gripping series of a bunch of people who find they have super powers

One Tree Hill (EVERY SEASON) - MY guilty pleasure!

Sherlock (TWO SEASONS) - one of my favourite series, if not my favourite series ever. Based on the well-known detective but using incredibly clever filmography and incredible use of witt, brilliantly played of course by the incredible Benedict Cumberbatch

FILMS

12 Years a Slave - an incredible moving film about slavery and the struggles

Taken 2 - The sequel to the film that will always be remembered for “I Will find You and I Will Kill You”

Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino’s slight take on slavery and bounty hunters

Monsters Inc - an incredible classic for all ages/brilliant family film

Now You See Me - an engaging and clever movie about a group of magicians

Rush - a brilliant film on the bitter-sweet rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt

Life Of Pi - an incredible story of a boy who gets lost at sea with an incredible CGI tiger

Pitch Perfect - everyone’s guilty pleasure

Cars - brilliant Pixar movie about Cars basically

Toy Story 3 - the saddest film in the passed 5 years if you’re between the age of 20-25

Kick-Ass - a bunch of kids who dress up as superheroes sound stupid but actually a really good film

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - a movie about memory loss and the power of love and all that crap - actually a great movie!