Fire TV is provided for a one-minute update – a very long minute. With the latest review of its experience, Fire TV finally offers a user interface that rises to that of rival streaming devices.
When Chromecast with Google TV Arriving on the spot this year, Google gave other streaming devices $ 50 for their money. It is well designed, fast and offers clean and organized recommendations with a working layout. At the time, both Roku and Fire TV experiences seemed wrong by comparison. But the new Fire TV update offers a much better experience for the Alexa set that prefers it to other streaming devices, with new navigation tools for finding content, adding user profiles for a more personalized view, and a much improved home screen. Fire TV Stick Lite and the third generation Stick TV Fire users will receive it first, and Amazon said other devices will receive the update in early 2021.
The first thing that existing Fire TV users will notice is a reorganization of applications, menus and content. Rather than the main navigation functions being located at the top of the home screen, they now appear closer to the middle under a reflector banner to promote content and features. This new menu is also where you’ll find icons for your main apps, with a “more” button on the next right that will display the rest. I liked this design quite a bit, because I think I generally only jump between four or five main applications at a time, depending on what I was looking for. Below this line on the home screen, you’ll find categories for “next”, recently used apps, original Prime, live and future events, recommendations for IMDb TV advertising content (which is owned by Amazon and appears everywhere on Fire TV), as well as genre- and application-specific content suggestions.
The main navigation menu has been reduced from its previous iteration. To the left of the home tab, you will now see a library tab. Here Fire TV will record your selections, rentals and purchases from the watch list. On the right side of the start tab, you’ll see new “find” and “live” options. Amazon has paired its TVs and movies from the old experience and nested them under its “find” discovery screen. Here you can search for apps, TV shows, movies and free content, as well as content by genre. This, for me, was one of the best decisions Amazon made about discovering content, although ads and content promoted by Amazon still fall into these categories – something I hated about the previous experience that I managed to report here . Is it unbearable? Not. But it’s still a big differentiator between the experience you get with Fire TV and, say, Apple TV.
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Meanwhile, the dedicated live TV tab is a welcome addition to the Fire TV experience for anyone who has officially cut the cable. The live tab will display breaking news and sports suggestions here, or if you prefer the old-school live and linear channel surface feel, you can use the channel guidance feature to find something to watch. I liked this Sling TV navigation tool for something to watch, but I could see some room for improvement. When I used the guide for this application, I was able to navigate the channel, but no real-time teasers of the show were displayed. Instead, the guide only showed me how much of the show was left to watch with a thumbnail for the series or movie. Again, not a break-deal, but a live feed of the series while browsing would be a big improvement here.
However, a big bonus of the new Fire TV is the addition of individual user profiles. Fire TV will support up to six profiles, which will give multi-user households a more personalized viewing experience. Specific settings, viewing history, watchlists, live TV, and recommended content will be tailored to each individual profile, which means you no longer need to see suggestions for goofed if the disturbing reality of television is not really your thing – even if someone else in your house is an avid viewer. In addition, profiles allow parents to age-restrict content with Amazon Kids profiles that filter out things that might be right for you, but not for 5-year-olds.
Voice support is no longer a particularly interesting feature, as it is present on almost any recent streaming device. But it was a welcome addition to a Vizio M-Series quantum unit that I analyzed. In addition, we used a fourth generation powered by LEDs Echo Dot to test the new Fire TV experience and I must admit, the fact that I have a completely hands-free option to turn on the TV and launch content felt like a luxury – especially since I kept losing the thin Fire TV remote under a mountain of blankets and pillows. To be honest, I prefer Google Assistant to Alexa for most things, but Alexa has done a pretty good job of handling commands for things like powering my TV, opening apps, and displaying content. Several times, Alexa hit the Hulu user’s screen when I asked her to show me content in the app, but this was often resolved by repeating the command again.
In the end, I think Amazon managed to run home with the redesign of Fire TV. Browsing makes more sense, user profiles offer better customization, and finding content is easier here than it was in the past. There is room for improvement, to be sure. As I mentioned, real-time TV teasers would be an excellent update to the experience, as well as fewer recommendations for Amazon’s own content and features (although they somehow managed to feel less ubiquitous than in the previous version of the interface). ). Amazon didn’t entice me from the Google TV experience I love, but Alexa enthusiasts and streamers looking for a cheap device won’t be disappointed.
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- The new Fire TV offers up to six user profiles for better personalization and content recommendations, including for kids.
- Alexa voice control allows hands-free navigation by genre, title or category – either with a compatible Fire TV remote or with a connected smart home device.
- An improved home tab and a navigation menu make discovery easy and fairly simple.
- Expect to see ads and promotional banners for content owned by Amazon almost everywhere.