We present the newAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select in its analysis or review. A product that debuts theVega OS system and eliminates Android.

In theAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select offers us for the first time theVega OS 1.1 system, as we will see this impliesmany limitations. The user environment hardly changes with respect to Fire OS and is operated with the sameBluetooth remote, which integrates a microphone forAlexa+. A hardware with just enough power to support the most popular streaming appsin4K HDRquality withDolby Atmos sound support.

Let’s check in our review how this system behaves and what it offers compared to the rest.

• The newAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select can be purchased on Amazon for $39.99.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select Details

Specifications

• SoC: Mediatek MT8698 MCM
• CPU: 4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.7 GHz (64bit)
• GPU: Mali G310v2 @ 500 MHz
• System: Vega OS 1.1
• Memory: 1 GB RAM DDR4 / 8 GB eMMC
• Network: Wifi 5 Bluetooth 5.0
• Ports: HDMI 2.1 / micro USB OTG
• Extras: BT Remote / Manual / HDMI and DC Cables / AAA Batteries / DC 5V 1A (5W)
• Materials and measurements: Plastic / 99 x 30 x 30 x 14 mm / 42 gr.

Description

As we can see, theAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Selectmaintains the design of its Android siblings. We only have a frontHDMI 2.1 connector and amicro USB OTG port that should be prohibited. It mounts aWifi 5adapter and Bluetooth 5.0 with internal Wi-Fi antennas. The standard charger is 5 W and comes with AAA batteries for the remote.

The remote control isBluetooth and has amicrophone to give commands toAlexa+. It has dedicated keys to activate the microphone, Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube and Apps. If we use a micro USB adapter cable we find that it iscompatible with a physical keyboard but not with a mouse.

• USB: Allows the use of amicro USB OTG cable and supportsHUB with Ethernet.
• NOTE: If we are going to connect a HUB we must use a 10W charger or the system will be unstable.

System and Performance

Environment and system

We start theAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Selectand starts its assistant to guide us, we need Amazon account and internet connection. The remote is set to control our TV, if we connect it to a monitor we will not be able to adjust the volume with the remote. We have the sameAmazonlauncherfor Fire OSbased on rows and with priority to the company’s content.

The overall performancefluid although somewhat slow, we move well between the preinstalled apps, it seems that the user environment renders 1080p. You can see in the following video how it is displayed and the basic settings we found. We do not have development options to install external apk.

• The apps for Vega OS are in.vpkg format and are restricted tovalidated developers.

Network, storage, RAM and ports

The new TV-BoxAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select integrates1 GB of RAM DDR4 and for storage we have8 GBeMMC. In the network section, it has aWifi 5 wireless adapter and Bluetooth 5.0 that give uspositive results. We also have amicro USB 2.0 OTG (400 MB/s) but although itdetects USB drives we can not use them for anything.

• NOTE: Currently,we do not have a file explorer or similar available.

Performance and thermals

In terms of performance, theAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select has theMediatek MT8698 MCM SoC, a Quad Core with ARMCortex-A55 processorsup to 1.7 GHz and aMali G310v2 GPU up to500 MHz low-end. We can not perform performance tests, but it would have a power similar to theFife TV 4K or the SoCAmlogic S905X5M that mount similar equipment. We note that this Stick within its limits consumes a lot anddoes not go below 4 W, neither in average nor at rest, something quite strange.

• Consumption:Min 3.6 W / In use 4.4 W / Max 5.7 W.
• Thermal: Superficial heating / 0 db of noise.

Games and emulators

As for the games section, if we do a search we can see thatwe are very limited, we only find web games of the most basic. In addition,we do not have apps to play games in streaming, we do not even have availableLuna which is the platform of Amazon itself.

• Controls: We can useUSB or Bluetooth Gamepads.

Video and Audio Test

Multimedia playback

As for video playback, theAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select supports most codecs and alsoAV1. It offers us support for Atmos andHDR format with resolutions up to 4K@60fps. It hasHDMI 2.1 video output withautomatic refresh rate support. We found that wedo not have media players for local content, we foundPLEX limited in many of its functions. We do not have KODI or IPTV apps to load lists.

• Video: 4K@60 / HDR / Game Mode.
• Audio: Dolby Atmos and DTS in streaming apps.
• Passthough: HDMI 7.1 / Dolby Atmos / DTS-HD / PLEX.
• Tutorials:Install add-on in KODI / Judder, how to fix it / Multi-channel audio

Streaming services

We tested thestreaming services to see how the most popular services work. TheAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select offers good compatibility with all popular streaming services. We can watch in4K HDR quality andAtmos audio withPrime Video, Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, Crunchyroll or HBO Max. We also have apps forYoutube and someregional TV channels.

• Quality: 4K@60 HDR /Guide to 4K HDR and Dolby in streaming apps
• Certification: HDR10+ / Dolby Atmos / PlayReady, WideVine, Fairplay

Conclusions and purchase link

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select review

TheAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select is presented as a stick for4K HDR streaming that offers us as a novelty theVega OS system, an addition thatbrings only negative things to the user. We can not highlight anything positive about using this new system compared to Android.

Only for a corporation like Amazon can it seem a good idea to restrict the device it offers compared to the competition and its own range of Android sticks. As we can see we can only use the few apps that we find in their store and can not install external apps. Nor can we find games or apps like KODI, IPTV decent and we only have PLEX but limited. All this at an absurdly high price.

ThisAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select as we have seenthis device is not recommendedand would only have limited utility at a much lower price than the current one.

Where to buy the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select

• The newAmazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select can be purchased on Amazon for $39.99
• We recommendbuying another device without Vega OS.

Review