Streaming TV gives us all a wealth of entertainment without having to move from the couch.
From the latest TV series to movies to sports and music. We've never had more options. On
the flip side, the endless options for how to access these shows can leave many wannabe
viewers completely confused. Enter Amazon Fire Stick Lite. This little device claims to add a
range of streaming services to your TV all at a very low price.
This little device is pretty well named. Not only is it quite literally very light, it's a simple stick shape with an HDMI
plug at one end and a micro USB socket for power on the other side. You also get an HDMI
extender if you need it. A power plug, and a USB cable. And that's it. This is clearly meant to be
a no fuss, easy install product. It's quite basic with simple playback controls and a central
control rocker for selections. However, I did have some problems at the installing
stage. It missed quite a few of my attempts at trying to use the keyboard inputs, for passwords
and email addresses. Sometimes it wouldn't register at all. And sometimes it would decide that a
single tap was actually 15 I thought it might be interference so I switched from directly
plugging the firestick TV light into my TV by using the HDMI extender. But it didn't make
much difference. It was much easier to set up for streaming services that allow you to sign
in on a laptop or tablet and then punch in a quick code. The firestick uses a carousel style
interface which is typical for smart TV products. So it's easy to navigate around if you've
used streaming services before when you're flicking through the content. This one is very
focused on amazon prime video content and content you can buy or rent through Amazon itself.
But you can also install a range of apps to cover most streaming services Australians are likely
to want to watch such as ABC I view, SBS on demand, nine now seven plus and 10 play, plus
subscription services such as Netflix and Disney plus, and plenty more niche sports, TV and
movie streaming services. Another interesting feature of the Firestick is that it's
compatible with Apple TV and Apple TV. Plus, this is easily the cheapest way to access those
services, not counting subscription and content costs. And in my opinion, it's a good
option for using Apple TV as Apple hasn't done a great job of content discovery on its own
platform, mixing in every other app amongst its own Apple TV content. On the amazon fire
stick TV lite, the content is directly there to discover easily. The big notable
admission is the lack of support for full foxtel streaming, there are apps for keyo and binge but
no support if you've got a purely IP based Foxtel subscription. If you enter
voice control you can also use Amazon Alexa assistant for Content Search and for smart
home control. If you have Alexa already set up in your home. Alexa, play Netflix getting
Netflix from fire TV. Device control works okay, although it gets a little confused searching
for content, but that might be because it struggles to understand Australian
accents. The Amazon Lite is an entry level product in Amazon's Fire TV Stick range. And that
brings with it some real limitations. It's only capable of displaying up to 1080p
resolution not 4k despite the fact that plenty of services including amazon prime video
itself provide 4k content. This is frustrating as one of the content areas on the devices
interface calls out as 4k content, despite the fact that it can't display those shows and
movies that way. Amazon has other Fire TV products available in the US that can handle 4k
with ease. But here in Australia there's simply not selling them. The Lite is the only option that
Amazon offers in the Australian market. It's a mystery why Amazon doesn't sell the 4k
version in Australia considering there's probably millions of them in a warehouse somewhere.
So should you buy it? There's a wider market of devices out there that don't cost much more
than the amazon fire tv stick lite that offer access to 4k content with ease. Amazon prime
video is available across a lot of other set top box devices, gaming consoles and more. So
it's not the only way to access amazon prime content in Australia. However, if you are
looking for a budget way to access Apple TV and Apple TV plus, or you want to integrate
your streaming with Alexa and you're happy with a basic product that is low budget,
then this might be worth considering.