Fire TV Stick 4K Max streaming device, Wi-Fi 6, Alexa Voice Remote (includes TV controls)
[{'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'If you have a 4k firestick, there’s no need to upgrade to this. Although it says more memory, better hardware, etc etc, you won’t really notice a difference between this and the regular 4k firestick. If you are wanting to upgrade from any other version of the firestick you will notice it is a lot faster, smoother, and the apps don’t take so long to load.\n\nI have a Fire Cube, a few 4k firesticks, and a whole bunch of older models so if you are buying this thinking it will be faster than the regular 4k firestick, you will be disappointed.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': 'The Good:\n-Fast\n-Great wifi coverage from previous model\n-No lag\n-Good voice recognition\n-Same compact design as previous models\n-Easy set up\n\nThe Bad:\n-None\n\nThe Bottom Line:\nI have the old 4K version of the Firestick and this new 4K max version is well worth the upgrade. I was getting some lag with my older Firestick but this new one has a faster processor and has no lag. What I’ve noticed the most if the wifi coverage is much better. I use my Firestick in the garage and this stick gets much better coverage there. The design is the same as previous models and is super easy to set up. The voice integration and Alexa work great. Overall I would recommend this Firestick 4K max as a worthy upgrade for its increased speed and wifi coverage!'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I pre-ordered this device in a final Hail-Mary that maybe, just maybe, Amazon had finally produced a device that actually works the way it\'s supposed to. Alas...\n\nThe Fire Stick 4K and the 3rd-gen Fire Stick both have a design flaw that affects users of multi-channel surround-sound receivers. When "Surround Sound" is set to "Best Available," the device sends stereo content (from, e.g., live TV) to the receiver not in 2-channel PCM, but in a 5-channel "wrapper" with sound on the front left and right speakers and silence on the other three. This prevents the receiver from processing the pass-through signal into 5.1-channel pseudo-surround using, e.g., Dolby ProLogic II. The only workaround is to set "Surround Sound" to "Dolby Digital," which has the side effect of downgrading Dolby Digital Plus content (from, e.g., Netflix or Prime Video) to the lower-resolution legacy format.\n\nSo, the user has three choices: (1) sacrifice the receiver\'s surround-sound processing capability for stereo content; (2) sacrifice the higher-fidelity DD+ for multi-channel content, or (3) cycle through the menus (Home -> Settings -> Display & Sounds -> Audio -> Surround Sound -> ... ) each time and change the setting to actually get the desired sound mode. Or, the user can use one device for live TV and other stereo content, a second device for multi-channel content, and switch between devices (and remotes) each time to get the same effect.\n\nThis has been a known issue with the Fire Stick 4K for three years, discussed in the product forums, yet it never shows up in any independent reviews of these devices. My hope, obviously, was that Amazon had addressed and fixed it for the new 4K Max; I even contacted Amazon Support before pre-ordering to describe the foregoing design flaw and ask specifically if the new device would have it as well. I was assured -- twice -- that it didn\'t. It does. Not only has Amazon buried its head in the sand, it has purposefully built this same design flaw into two more devices: the 3rd-gen Fire Stick, and now the 4K Max.\n\nTo my knowledge, no other manufacturer\'s streaming devices have this problem, viz., require the user to jump through all these hoops to get DD+ surround and PL-II surround from all sources, or else do without one or the other. Every non-Amazon streaming device I have used sends stereo content to the receiver in 2-channel PCM (as does the 2nd-gen Fire Stick), and multi-channel content in DD+ where available; i.e., the pass-through audio works exactly the way it\'s supposed to.\n\nObviously this was the first thing I checked so I didn\'t bother to evaluate the device\'s other features and performance before it went right back in the box to be returned. If you don\'t use a separate sound system this device may work for you; I have no idea how it works with a soundbar but if you have a multi-channel surround receiver/speaker system, stay away from this and other Fire TV devices.\n\nI think this is it for me as far as Amazon devices go; every one I\'ve bought has at least one annoying glitch like this, each more disappointing and exasperating than the last, and their tech-support associates either don\'t have a clue or flat-out lie. It\'s been a frustrating experience to say the least.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-3 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Pre-ordered (and received a day early!) as soon as I saw the spec sheets after the announcement. Finally a device that can handle all major formats for HDR (Dolby Vision, HR10, HR10+, VP9, and even AV1). One device to potentially rule all the streaming services. And pretty much the cheapest one available! I primarily use Youtube, Prime Video, and Disney+ for streaming content and Kodi to play content from my local network. I was able to set up everything well and HDR triggers were good, but the "Match Framerate" feature doesn\'t work with Disney+. Disney+ is stuck displaying the awful 60fps (soap opera effect). Tried various settings including accessing the secret display menu, but something about how Disney+ packages their video makes the Firestick unable to match the framerate. And once that happens, it seems to break the rest of the apps for framerate. Super frustrating. I got this because I hated how my nVidia Shield didn\'t do VP9. It seems no streaming device exists at the moment that can hand whatever content is out there in its proper format. If Amazon or Disney (not sure who has to do it) updates their software, then it could easily be the best streaming device on the market. Until then, you will likely need multiple devices to get the max quality from all of your sources.\n\nSo close!!!!!\n\nEdit: Since the the most popular review is disparaging other reviews, let me clarify:\nNo framerate issues on Disney+ with either my computer or my NVidia Shield - only with my Firestick. Apparently the newest Apple TV 4k can produce native framerate Disney+ as well. Someone coming from older Firesticks has probably only ever had the framerate issue with Disney+ so thinks it is normal or OK.\n\nDisney+ is definitely at the crux of the issue, but the Firestick programming isn\'t robust enough to overcome the issue like other devices.\n\nLike I said before, this is a fantastic device, but does not have the functional capabilities that more sophisticated (or admittedly fussy) users are looking for.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': "It's funny because there are lots of people that reviewed this the day it came out and day after bagging on this item. THEY HAVE no KNOWLEDGE when it comes to technology/electronics. I recieved it and haven't opened it yet due to the fact I was out of town. So I went into installing it having mixed feelings. But THEY WERE WRONG! THIS firestick is amazing. The processor is waaaay faster and responsive than older generation of firestick. When it comes to type I go crazy with moving it around to see how it process it. And let me tell you it doesn't lag or chop when using the keypad. Streaming movies and shows are fast. Everythinf about this is fast. But here is the thing, you really need a wifi 6 router to compute with the processor because all AX routers are wifi 6 and using that with the firestick y'all will see the difference trust me. If using a standard wifi 5 AC router then you probably won't see much of a difference. This DEVICE WAS BUILT FOR WI-FI 6 usage. Look at quad-core 1.8 GHz processor. Even says in the description to benefit from wifi 6 use a wifi 6 router. Here is the only 1 problem though, and that is when turning it on I notice that the picture is moved all the way to the right like if the display is pushed to the way right side. I just unplug the fire stick hdmi and plug it back in then its back to normal. Don't know if anyone else has this issue but thats not really a problem though."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-2 review-rating', 'review_body': "The purpose of this device is apparently to drive users to Prime Video and the other services with their own buttons on the remote. While it will play the limited number of Dolby Atmos titles available in Prime Video correctly, it degrades titles with Atmos tracks to Dolby Digital Plus on non-button services HBO Max, Apple TV+, et al.\n\nThe old Fire TV 4K had the same limitation, but Apple TV doesn't.\n\nThe Max is cheap and it supports Wi-Fi 6; nice, nice. But as a streaming device it's not in the top tier."}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'I have always been able to stop sponsered video autoplay not with the max the difference is not worth it unless you have a TV that is brand new. I am sick of the barrage of ads And the amount of greed.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-5 review-rating', 'review_body': ' This is my 3rd fireTV stick at our home. I use one for my old TV and the other for my projector both being 4K model, however, I had to get the most capable one for our new Sony TV. Being a user of the older model fireTV stick for 4+ years, I can confidently say that the max model is the game changer and for a nominal price difference, this model is highly recommended compared to other versions.\n\nMy 2 cents below:\n\nPros:\n- Compared to the older model, this model is very fast and does not slow down while operating and switching the apps\n- 4K video rendering is incredibly good on TV\n- This stick supports Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10+, and immersive Dolby Atmos audio\n- Remote has direct shortcuts for Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video & Disney+\n- Voice search through the dedicated Alexa button is almost accurate, however, sometimes voice search takes you to the home page and searches across all the apps instead of one particular app where you try to search\n- Live View Picture-in-Picture feature  is enabled in this stick \n- It has Wi-Fi 6 connectivity and hence as per the latest standard \n- Like other models, remote works without being in the line of sight of the stick making it so easy to operate \n- FireTV is compatible with more than any other stick in terms of apps compatibility and hence plenty of options to choose from compared to other competitive options \n- Reasonably priced considering the added features and speed enhancements \n- Very easy to set up overall and Amazon does give you the option to pre-link the device to your account while placing the order making it easier \n- Power adapter is included as well in the package \n\nCons:\n- None that I see for this price and the capability'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'This would have been my third firestick but I’m in the process of returning it. When I connected it, it changed all the colors on my screen while watching. Red was now brown, etc. Then I tried using the TV settings to see if I could make adjustments but that didn’t work. Reconnected my older Firestick and returning this one.'}, {'review_meta': 'Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2021', 'review_star': 'a-icon a-icon-star a-star-1 review-rating', 'review_body': 'Received today tested and return. There were a lot of amazon advertisements and apps you cannot delete. no improvement. Go ahead waste your money'}]