What is an Amazon Fire TV Stick?’: Amazon’s portable but powerful streaming device, explained

• The Amazon Fire TV Stick is a portable streaming device that can give you access to thousands of movies and TV shows.
• Most Amazon Fire TV Stick models are currently on sale on Amazon with discounts.
• Much like other streaming devices, the Amazon Fire TV Stick lets you watch Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, and other streaming services — as long as you have subscriptions to them.
• All you need to do to use an Amazon Fire TV Stick is plug it into your TV, connect it to the internet, and get watching.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick is a streaming video player sold by Amazon. Similar in many ways to the Roku Streaming Stick, the Fire TV stick is the entry-level product in Amazon’s streaming media player family, typically priced at about £40.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick is shaped like an oversized USB flash drive, and plugs directly into your TV’s HDMI video input. Rather than storing files, though, it’s a full-featured streaming player, able to turn any television with an HDMI port into a Smart TV.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick is free to use and set up, and it’s free to download nearly every major app. However, to watch subscription-based apps like Netflix or Hulu, you’ll need to pay for them separately.

You can purchase the Amazon Fire TV Stick in both a basic version, and 4K version. The only difference between the two is that the 4K version can stream — as the name implies — in 4K resolution.

Amazon says that the Fire TV Stick adds “tens of thousands” of channels to your TV. That includes all the streaming services you are most familiar with, including Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, Disney + and HBO Now, along with network TV apps, sports, and, of course, thousands of less common niche channels you may not be familiar with.

The stick comes with a remote control that has a built-in microphone for voice control. Because this is an Amazon product, you might expect that it has Alexa support, and you would be right — you can give commands to the Fire TV Stick using Alexa, and control all your home automation products (like the Ring doorbell, Philips Hue lights, and ecobee thermostat, among others) just as if you were talking to an Amazon Echo speaker.

How to set up an Amazon Fire TV Stick

Setting up an Amazon Fire Stick is little more than a three step process.

You simply need to plug the Fire TV stick into its supplied power adapter and then plug the stick into your TV’s HDMI video input. Then, turn on your TV and make sure it’s set to the correct HDMI input.

Finally, using the remote control, step through the welcome and setup instructions on the TV screen.  You’ll need to enter your Wi-Fi password and log into your Amazon account. You don’t need a VPN or anything of the sort.

After that, setup is largely complete; you’ll just need to add and log into any streaming channels you use (like Netflix, Hulu, and so on).

Get a fantastic deal on the Amazon Fire Stick here while stocks last