All those television shows to watch, and only your TV’s shit streaming interface with which to watch them. How are you supposed to reach your murder documentaries or rewatch Firefly for the umpteenth time when your TV’s built-in streaming menu is clunky and slow? Don’t cheap out on a streaming device. You need one capable of 4K if you want to watch 4K on your 4K TV.

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max is their best streaming stick. It plugs right into the back or side of your TV’s HDMI port, so aside from a power cable there’s nothing to tuck away or hide. And even though Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days starts on October 6 (and runs through the 7th), you can get a hefty discount on a Fire TV stick already.

amazon’s best streaming stick

Amazon makes a range of television streaming devices, most of them in the space-saving stick format. It’s the Fire TV Stick 4K Max that occupies the top rung of the ladder.

Want more detail? Head over to my Fire TV Stick 4K Max review, and take a detour, if you like, through our guide to the Best 4K Streaming Devices. There you’ll find rundowns on competing streaming sticks and boxes from other brands, such as Roku and Apple.

more fire tv sticks on sale

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Select is a 4K-capable streaming stick, but only HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG 4K. It doesn’t support the premium Dolby Vision video format or Dolby Atmos audio format. Right now it’s only $2 more than the sale price of the Amazon Fire TV Stick HD, which can’t display 4K shows and movies. Skip it. You may as well buy the 4K version so that if you upgrade to a 4K TV in the future, you don’t have to run out and buy another streaming device.

With just as much RAM as the 4K Max (2 GB), the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus is nearly as fast as its higher-priced sibling. Its processor is a bit slower, and it just has half the onboard storage—8 GB compared to 16 GB—but it’s close in terms of performance. It’s also capable of displaying Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, just like the 4K Max,

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K (3rd Gen) is brand-new for 2026, and although it can play HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG 4K content, it doesn’t support Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos. It’s more like an update of the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, with a jump from Bluetooth 5.0 to Bluetooth 5.3 and from WiFi 5 to WiFi 6, both faster standards. Make sure to click the coupon to get the sale price for this one.