chromecast 3rd gen vs amazon 4k firestick

#Chromecast 3rd gen vs amazon 4k firestick for free#
#Chromecast 3rd gen vs amazon 4k firestick tv#

#Chromecast 3rd gen vs amazon 4k firestick tv#

The Apple TV experience isn't the best – you can't buy new content using the Fire TV app, but you can watch anything you already own or choose to buy using another device. For many, the purchase of a low-cost media streamer such as these is purely for access to those services that their TV can't manage.Īt the time of writing, the only notable absentees for Amazon are Rakuten and Google Play Movies & TV.

#Chromecast 3rd gen vs amazon 4k firestick for free#

Here's how to stream TV shows and movies for free (including Disney Plus)Īpps are, of course, key to this particular face-off.

**Winner** Chromecast – with recent additions like profiles and a superior search and recommendations engine, Google TV gets the win. But Google has the edge in the all-important recommendations section.

The UI on the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is still perfectly intuitive and easy to navigate you won't struggle in the slightest to find the apps or shows you need. When you track down a film or TV show that you have rights to watch on multiple services, Google TV gives you the choice of service and will even default to the cheapest or free option where possible, rather than trying to sell you the version from Google’s own catalogue. You can refine the AI by telling it what you have already seen, but it has a pretty decent handle on our tastes right from the off. Content is organised into helpful rows of suggestions, including quite a few categories we haven't seen on other services, such as Neo-noir, Futuristic Shows, Films about Robots and Space exploration movies. The For You home page is a genuinely useful content discovery tool.

Of course, that's a perfectly understandable approach given the low price of this dongle, but the latest Google TV platform, found on this Chromecast and now smart TVs such as those from Sony and TCL, has removed those shackles. That bias is even more obvious on the Home page which, although better than it used to be, feels a little too much like an opportunity for Amazon to sell you its programming and films. The voice-search functions are equally effective, but the results you get from the Amazon streamer are heavily weighted towards content found on Prime Video even when you might get it free on other services. In terms of pure usability, though, the Chromecast is streets ahead. You can use them to power on and off your TV as well as turn the volume up and down too. Both remotes are a good size and well thought out, and they each allow quick and natural search and control functions of your on-screen experience. Voice control was an all-new feature introduced with this particular Chromecast model and it lifts the Google streamer's usability right up to the excellent level of the Fire Stick. That's no big deal for these dongles themselves, given that they're tucked away, but the Chromecast's matching remote control certainly looks cheerier than the Fire Stick's. It comes in a choice of three colours – Snow (white), Sunrise (pink) or Sky (blue) it's just plain gun-metal grey for the Fire Stick. The penny toffee-shaped Chromecast is a little more touchy feely. They slot into one of your TV's HDMI ports and require their own power through a USB cable that needs to run between the streamer and a wall socket. **Winner** Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K – cheaper and sometimes as little as half the price of the Chromecast when bought on sale.īoth of these dongle-based streamers have a similar design ethos: make it small and keep it out of sight. We wouldn't be surprised to see it come down again in the coming months, but be warned that a new version of the Fire TV Stick 4K is likely to launch at some point soon – and that would replace the current version and bring with it, no doubt, a price bump. The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K has been around since the end of 2018, and we have seen its price drop to as low as £30/$29 on occasions.

And keep an eye on Google's store if you are also in the market for another Google device such as a Pixel smartphone or Nest smart speaker. The Chromecast is considerably newer than the Fire TV Stick, so standalone discounts are harder to come by, but you can sometimes find it in bundles such as the free giveaways YouTube TV subscriptions. The difference in price between these devices may be small, but every penny counts at this end of the media streamer market.Īt launch, the Chromecast with Google TV was the more expensive of the two, at £60/$50, with the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K coming in at £50/$40.