Hands-free voice control makes launching videos fast and easy; Fastest Fire TV streaming device yet; Broad HDR and surround-sound audio format support;

Not all apps play nice with Alexa; The Fire TV interface is still too chaotic; Alexa could use better privacy controls;

A Cube on which to watch The Cube (or anything else, really)

Well designed; Easy setup; Alexa functionality is well thought through;

Do you really need it if you have a 4K smart TV?; Pricey;

A Cube on which to watch The Cube (or anything else, really)

Well designed; Easy setup; Alexa functionality is well thought through;

Do you really need it if you have a 4K smart TV?; Pricey;

Amazon's Fire TV media streamers have offered the Alexa voice assistant, voice search, and voice commands for a few years now. All you have to do is press the button on the remote and speak into the pinhole microphone to control Fire TV with your voice. If you have an Echo, an Echo Dot, or another Amazon device that lets you use Alexa with a wake-up word, you can pair it with a Fire TV to control your streaming media experience by voice. Or you can get a $119.99 Amazon Fire TV Cube and enjoy all of the features of the Fire TV/Echo combination, including hands-free control of your home theater, in one package. The Fire TV Cube has a far-field microphone array that can pick up your voice and activate Alexa with a wake word instead of through a button press and a single mic on a remote. It's certainly more expensive than the Fire TV Stick 4K, but the addition of hands-free Alexa commands makes it an excellent media streamer for anyone who doesn't already own Fire TV and Echo devices...

The Amazon Fire TV Cube combines the best features of the Fire TV with the hands-free voice control and Alexa capabilities of the Echo, in a single media streamer.

Hands-free voice control with Alexa; Lots of connected apps and services; Far-field microphone array can understand your voice over TV audio; Voice control works for home theater as well as smart home devices

Does not support Google Play content; No Dolby Vision capability; Alexa can occasionally get confused by syntax

The all-new Fire TV Cube is, by far, our favorite Amazon streaming device – better in so many ways than the Amazon Fire TV Cube that was released in 2017. The processor upgrade and inclusion of Dolby Vision are great new additions and, in spite of a few shortcomings, help solidify the Cube's spot as one of the best streaming players to be released this year.

4K HDR playback; TV/AV control center; Includes a Voice Remote; Native YouTube app;

HDMI cable not included; Home screen is mostly Amazon content; Language recognition isn't perfect

The first Amazon Fire TV Cube was one of our favorite media streamers, with all of the features of the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K, along with a far-field microphone array and infrared emitters to let you use Alexa and control your home theater entirely with your voice. The new, second-generation Fire TV Cube doesn't try to tweak what the original already does well. It looks and functions identically, and has the same $119.99 price, but a faster processor makes apps load much more quickly, and support for additional HDR formats makes it even more flexible when streaming 4K HDR content to your TV. As such, it once again earns our Editors' Choice.Design Physically, the new Fire TV Cube is identical to the first one. It's a three-inch cube with glossy black plastic sides and a matte black plastic top, with the front face denoted by a translucent strip hiding a series of LEDs on the top front edge. The top panel holds Alexa, volume up/down, and microphone mute buttons, along with eight pi...

The second-generation Amazon Fire TV Cube improves on the the media streaming capabilities and hands-free Alexa controls from the first version with faster performance and expanded HDR support.

Hands-free Alexa voice support; Infrared blaster can control your home theater by voice; Fast performance; Supports all major HDR formats

Expensive compared with smaller 4K media streamers

The Cube is a good choice if this is your first Fire TV and Amazon Echo product, but if you already have both in your living room, it's harder to recommend.

When Amazon officially announced its new Fire TV Cube, the device was oversimplified in headlines as a Fire TV stick and Echo speaker crammed together into a glossy black box. The fact that the Fire TV Cube would be able to control a TV was almost a footnote, and descriptions of those capabilities were often limited to turning the TV on and off and its volume up and down. Turns out, the Fire TV Cube is more advanced than that. Way more. The Fire TV Cube puts Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant in a Fire TV device, but thanks to HDMI CEC and an IR blaster, the Fire TV Cube also makes you master of your entire entertainment system (even if it’s complicated) using the power of your voice. On paper, it sounds great. In practice, it’s far better than we expected. You won’t be throwing your remote controls in a garbage bin and saying goodbye forever, but the Fire TV Cube will allow you to stuff those button-laden wands in a drawer and forget about them for days at a time. That’s only part of the ...

Unprecedented hardware control; Lightning fast processor; Intuitive voice recognition; 4K, HDR, Dolby Atmos; Ethernet adapter included;

No Dolby Vision;

Amazon's Fire TV media streamers have offered the Alexa voice assistant, voice search, and voice commands for a few years now. All you have to do is press the button on the remote and speak into the pinhole microphone to control Fire TV with your voice. If you have an Echo, an Echo Dot, or another Amazon device that lets you use Alexa with a wake-up word, you can pair it with a Fire TV to control your streaming media experience by voice. Or you can get a $119.99 Amazon Fire TV Cube and enjoy all of the features of the Fire TV/Echo combination, including hands-free control of your home theater, in one package. The Fire TV Cube has a far-field microphone array that can pick up your voice and activate Alexa with a wake word instead of through a button press and a single mic on a remote. It's certainly more expensive than the Fire TV Stick 4K, but the addition of hands-free Alexa commands makes it an excellent media streamer for anyone who doesn't already own Fire TV and Echo devices,...

The Amazon Fire TV Cube combines the best features of the Fire TV with the hands-free voice control and Alexa capabilities of the Echo, in a single media streamer.

Hands-free voice control with Alexa; Lots of connected apps and services; Far-field microphone array can understand your voice over TV audio; Voice control works for home theater as well as smart home devices

Does not support Google Play content; No Dolby Vision capability; Alexa can occasionally get confused by syntax