ISSUE385|COMPUTERSHOPPER|MARCH2020 39
THEORIGINALFIRETV Cube never saw
release in the UK, but one year and a
product generation later,anew version has
successfully arrived on British shores.
This is, once again, threedevices in one.
First and foremost, it’s astreaming device,
capable of playingall your favouriteBBC,ITV,
Channel 4and Channel 5shows,and Amazon
Prime andNetflix if you’repreparedtopay
theirsubscriptions. It will do this in 4K, with
HDR and Dolby Vision if theyare available.
Whereitdiffers from Amazon’sotherFire
TV products is that it canalso function as an
Alexasmartspeaker. Other streamers might
integrateAlexa-powered voicecontrols,but
this is the only one that is afullyfledged
smartspeaker in itsown right.
Finally,itcan act as auniversal remotefor
any otherdevices connected to your TV,
including soundbars and set-top boxes.
BOXOFTRICKS
It wouldbehard to guess that such a
nondescript black cube can keepsomany
plates in the air.Regardless,Amazon has
clearly given alot of thought to balancing
its discreet design with functionality; there
are even optionalIRblaster and Ethernet
adaptorextras, although there’snoHDMI
cable includedinthe box, so you’ll need to
provide your own.
The remoteissmall, butdoes the job with
its limited number of buttons. As with other
Fire TV devices, there’s acircular pad in the
middle fornavigatingmenus and so forth.
Crucially,there are also volume controls,as
Amazon wants to take over your soundbar.
It handlesthis well,too.Pairing aspeaker
during setup is easy,and Alexa seamlessly
controls both it andthe TV by accurately
parsing voice commands. We were soon
talking to theFire TV Cubetomuteand
adjust the volume as needed.
The only problem
arises if there’sanother
Alexaspeakersomewhere
within earshot, as they’ll
both respond to thewake
word. That can be fairly
annoying, and is only
fixed by turning off one
or manually setting
distinct wake words.
Thereare also limits
to what the Fire TV Cube
can control.Itcan’t
AMAZON FireTVCube
★★★★★
£110•Fromwww.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
WiththefullAlexafeaturesetonboard,the
FireTVCubeissmarterthantheaverage
streamingbox
MEDIA STREAMERANDSMARTSPEAKER
controlconnectedgamesconsoles,other
thanswitchtotherelevantinput channel,
althoughyou’d needaseparateinput–a
controllllller –toplllay games anyway, soiiit’’’snot
thatmuchofanissue.
Also,unlike the FireTVStick 4K (Shopper
375), the Fire TV Cube is ridiculously fast and
responsive.That’s hardly surprising given its
overkill internals: ahexa-core 2.2GHz
processor backedupby2GB of RAMismore
thanenoughfor streamingmedia, even in 4K,
and whileit’s not quite as overpowered as the
Nvidia Shield TV,Amazon isn’t trying to make
agamingplatform here.
What it is makingisaplatform to push its
own products,sowhile Netflix and terrestrial
channelsare available to download, expect
themtoplaysecondfiddle to Amazon TV
shows, which are peppered aroundthe
menus to encourage youtokeepthat
Prime subscription alive.STREAM BUILDING
Generally,the range of apps is good,with
music fromSpotify andTidal joiningthe
expectedAmazon Music. There’s an Audible
app, as well as support forvarious radio
stations,while YouTube sits alongside Apple
TV and Netflix. Theonly big omissions we
spottedwere BT Sport and NowTV.
Unfortunately,wehad a
wholeheap of problems
getting 4K content to run
from Amazon’s own shows,
with everything defaulting
to 1080p despitethe TV
detecting it was4Kat
startup.Amazon’sadvice
was to make surethe
internetconnection was
fast enoughand to ensure
we were using acable
capable of supportingHDCP 2.2,bothconditions we had already
met, so thecauseremainsamystery.Netflix
played 4K content just fine.
As an Echo device, it’s not toobad.Even
tucked intoaTVstand behind aperforated
door,itnever struggledtohear the wake word
and, while soundquality is only so-sowhen
the TV is off,musicrequests are played
through theTVspeakers when it’s on, so you
mightfind it does thetrick as adedicated
living-room smart speaker. It waseven able
to deliver alivefeed from aRingvideo
doorbell to the big screen.FAIRAND SQUARE
As streaming products go,it’shardtofault
the FireTVCube.Itunifiesthe key devices
hooked up to your TV andpresents afast,
shinyinterface to pick out most of the
content you might wanttostream. The Alexa
integration is particularly impressive,and
doesn’t feel likeagimmickatall.
At £110, however,it’snot quiteaward-
worthy.Ifyou have asmartTV, then you’ll
likely have much of the functionality already,
and if you have an Echo device,then asimple
universal remotewillcomplete the trio of
major functions.Wait forasale,then, unless
you’re desperate foratrue all-in-onestreamer.
AlanMartinVIDEOOUTPUTS1x HDMI•NETWORKING802.11ac Wi-Fi,
Ethernet (requiresadaptor)•DIMENSIONS77x86x86mm•
STREAMINGFORMATSUPnP,AirPlay, DLNA,Plex•
INTERNETSTREAMINGSERVICESAmazon Video,Netflix,
AppleTV, BBCiPlayer,ITV Hub, All4,My5•WARRANTY
OneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.amazon.co.uk•PART
CODEFire TV Cube