It’s hard to muster much excitement for Amazon’s Fire TV hardware these days — the company’s main goal has been to offer cheap TVs and set top boxes for mainstream consumers who haven’t been swayed by more compelling offerings from Roku, Apple and Google. Apparently, not much is changing this year, judging from everything announced during Amazon’s 2025 device launch event. There’s a new lineup of Fire TV sets, as well as the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, which the company describes as “the fastest streaming stick under $40.”
Once again, the star of Amazon’s TV selection is the Fire TV Omni QLED Series, which starts at $480 for the 50-inch model. The company says these new sets offer 60 percent better brightness, almost double the amount of local dimming zones (which helps with contrast and black levels) and a new processor that’s over 40 percent faster. The Omni series can also automatically adjust their settings to deal with lighting changes in your room.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select
(Amazon)
The less exciting Fire TV 2-series and 4-series are 30 percent faster than before, but their main features are their low prices, starting at $160 and $330, respectively. All of Amazon’s new Fire TV sets also feature a new Dialog Boost option, as well as Omnisense, a feature that can automatically turn them on when you walk in the room (something that reeks of an Orwellian panopticon, much like the rest of Amazon’s Echo speakers and cameras).
Naturally, Amazon’s Fire TV devices are ways to lure you into Amazon’s $20-a-month Alexa+ subscription. With Alexa+, you can ask questions about actors on the screen, or have it suggest movies similar to a show you watched over the weekend. It can also direct you straight to content in Netflix and other services. None of that sounds compelling on its own, but if you have a ton of Echo devices, the AI benefits of Alexa+ might be worth the subscription.
As for the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, Amazon confirmed that it’s running its new Linux-based Vega OS, which replaces the old Android Fire TV software. That’s likely one reason why Amazon was able to bring the cost down to $40.
