The Amazon Fire TV Cube is still a fine device, but you can get nearly the same features for less money.
An Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K bundled with a new Echo Dot does nearly the same stuff as a Fire TV Cube — and for just two-thirds of the cost.
I'm going to to out on a bit of limb here — I have yet to use the new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. It ships at the end of October. But barring some sort of huge performance catastrophe in which it runs ridiculously slower than the Fire TV Cube (and I'm willing to give Amazon the benefit of the doubt here), I'm pretty confident in the following statement:
You probably shouldn't buy the $119 Amazon Fire TV Cube. Instead, I'd pick up an . Here's why:
Dolby Vision is important
If you're just getting into the world of 4K televisions, know this: HDR is important. It's short for high-dynamic range, and it basically makes colors more colorful — because it can show a greater, more dynamic range of colors — and because it also will help make blacks look darker. It allows for greater contrast.
There are two main flavors of HDR. There's the open-source HDR10 (and now HDR10+, and there's the proprietary Dolby Vision. Generally speaking, Dolby Vision is considered to be the better of the two standards.
The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is the first Fire TV to support the Dolby Vision HDR standard.
In addition to your television having to support one or both of those standards, whatever device you have connected to it also will need to support an HDR standard if you want to watch content in HDR.
The new Fire TV Stick 4K supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. In fact, it's the first (and only) Fire TV device to support Dolby Vision. The Fire TV Cube does not.
For a lot of folks who have 4K televisions that support Dolby Vision, that's all you need to know.
For those who are looking to buy devices to last a good while, this is the way I'd go. The $119 Fire TV Cube will not get a magic update with Dolby Vision due to the processor it's using.
An Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K bundled with a new Echo Dot does nearly the same stuff as a Fire TV Cube — and for just two-thirds of the cost.
I'm going to to out on a bit of limb here — I have yet to use the new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. It ships at the end of October. But barring some sort of huge performance catastrophe in which it runs ridiculously slower than the Fire TV Cube (and I'm willing to give Amazon the benefit of the doubt here), I'm pretty confident in the following statement:
You probably shouldn't buy the $119 Amazon Fire TV Cube. Instead, I'd pick up an . Here's why:
Dolby Vision is important
If you're just getting into the world of 4K televisions, know this: HDR is important. It's short for high-dynamic range, and it basically makes colors more colorful — because it can show a greater, more dynamic range of colors — and because it also will help make blacks look darker. It allows for greater contrast.
There are two main flavors of HDR. There's the open-source HDR10 (and now HDR10+, and there's the proprietary Dolby Vision. Generally speaking, Dolby Vision is considered to be the better of the two standards.
The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is the first Fire TV to support the Dolby Vision HDR standard.
In addition to your television having to support one or both of those standards, whatever device you have connected to it also will need to support an HDR standard if you want to watch content in HDR.
The new Fire TV Stick 4K supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. In fact, it's the first (and only) Fire TV device to support Dolby Vision. The Fire TV Cube does not.
For a lot of folks who have 4K televisions that support Dolby Vision, that's all you need to know.
For those who are looking to buy devices to last a good while, this is the way I'd go. The $119 Fire TV Cube will not get a magic update with Dolby Vision due to the processor it's using.