Plenty of 4K TVs are still fed by the sluggish apps they shipped with, or by an old HD stick carried over from the previous set. Fixing that has become cheap: the Fire TV Stick 4K Select drops from $49.99 to $17.99 on Amazon, a 64% cut, with no Prime membership required. Amazon tends to discount its own devices a few days ahead of Prime Big Deal Days, and at this level I doubt there is much margin left on the hardware, if any.
4K, HDR10+ and the Redesigned Fire TV Home Screen
The Select is Amazon’s entry point to 4K streaming. It outputs 4K Ultra HD with HDR10+, the format that adjusts brightness and contrast scene by scene on compatible TVs, and the listing names no other HDR format, so I would not expect Dolby Vision. Setup is the usual routine for a stick: plug it into an HDMI port, connect it to Wi-Fi and sign in.
What you see on screen is the 2026 version of Fire TV, which Amazon calls its biggest update to the interface. The home screen has dedicated content categories and room to pin more apps, and the recommendations now come from Alexa+. The app catalog is the familiar one, with Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, Hulu, Peacock and Paramount+, most of them with their own subscription fees, alongside free channels supported by ads.
The remote has a button for Alexa: press it, say the name of a show, and the stick searches across your apps and launches it. With Alexa+ the request can be phrased the way you would say it to a person in the room, and the assistant also shows Amazon Photos, controls compatible smart home devices and answers general questions. For a family that spends ten minutes each evening scrolling through four services, the search is probably the feature that gets used most.
Cloud gaming is included too, through Xbox Game Pass and Amazon’s Luna. Amazon cites Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Hogwarts Legacy among the games that can be streamed with no console, though a Game Pass subscription and a compatible controller are required and sold separately. New Game Pass users get one month included with the purchase, according to the listing.
Two limits are stated on the product page, and both deserve a look. This stick blocks sideloading, so only apps from the Amazon Appstore can be installed, which is the part I find hardest to accept if you rely on an app Amazon does not carry. Amazon also notes that a newer model of the product exists.
For the stick alone, with no accessory: the Fire TV Stick 4K Select is $17.99 instead of $49.99 on Amazon, open to all customers and with free returns. Amazon also lists a bundle with a 2-year protection plan at $21.98.