Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select, Review: a disaster with Vega OS

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

In the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select offers us for the first time the Vega OS 1.1 system, as we will see this implies many limitations. The user environment hardly changes with respect to Fire OS and is operated with the same Bluetooth remote, which integrates a microphone for Alexa+. A hardware with just enough power to support the most popular streaming apps in 4K HDR quality with Dolby Atmos sound support.

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

• The new Amazon 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, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select maintains the design of its Android siblings. We only have a front HDMI 2.1 connector and a micro USB OTG port that should be prohibited. It mounts a Wifi 5 adapter 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 is Bluetooth and has a microphone to give commands to Alexa+. 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 is compatible with a physical keyboard but not with a mouse.

• USB: Allows the use of a micro USB OTG cable and supports HUB 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 the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select and 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 same Amazon launcher for Fire OS based on rows and with priority to the company’s content.

The overall performance fluid 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 to validated developers.

Network, storage, RAM and ports

The new TV-Box Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select integrates 1 GB of RAM DDR4 and for storage we have 8 GB eMMC. In the network section, it has a Wifi 5 wireless adapter and Bluetooth 5.0 that give us positive results. We also have a micro USB 2.0 OTG (400 MB/s) but although it detects 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, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select has the Mediatek MT8698 MCM SoC, a Quad Core with ARM Cortex-A55 processors up to 1.7 GHz and a Mali G310v2 GPU up to 500 MHz low-end. We can not perform performance tests, but it would have a power similar to the Fife TV 4K or the SoC Amlogic S905X5M that mount similar equipment. We note that this Stick within its limits consumes a lot and does 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 that we 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 available Luna which is the platform of Amazon itself.

• Controls: We can use USB or Bluetooth Gamepads.

Video and Audio Test

Multimedia playback

As for video playback, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select supports most codecs and also AV1. It offers us support for Atmos and HDR format with resolutions up to 4K@60fps. It has HDMI 2.1 video output with automatic refresh rate support. We found that we do not have media players for local content, we found PLEX 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 the streaming services to see how the most popular services work. The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select offers good compatibility with all popular streaming services. We can watch in 4K HDR quality and Atmos audio with Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, Crunchyroll or HBO Max. We also have apps for Youtube and some regional 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

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select is presented as a stick for 4K HDR streaming that offers us as a novelty the Vega OS system, an addition that brings 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.

This Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select as we have seen this device is not recommended and 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 new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select can be purchased on Amazon for $39.99
• We recommend buying another device without Vega OS.

Review