Replacing my Fire Stick with this was the best decision I made

• Hands-free Alexa is a big deal
• Streaming sticks still have their place, but not on this TV

On every TV in my house, the first thing I did was go out and get a streaming device just so I didn’t have to rely on the TV’s interface anymore. I love my streaming devices, and while my favorite is the Apple TV 4K, I have love for all the devices. Last year, I had the opportunity to review both the Fire TV Omni QLED and the Fire TV Stick 4K Select. Both are solid pieces of technology, but after a while, I ended up unplugging my Fire TV Stick. No, it’s not because the stick is bad, but it’s because I like using my TV better.

I know that sounds like it’s going against everything I just said, and that’s because it is. Maybe it’s because my TV is so new that I haven’t noticed any slowdowns yet, so I don’t feel the need for a stick. The bigger reason is hands-free Alexa. This is a real game-changer for me, and while I was initially hesitant about having a mic always listening to me on my TV, I came around to it. Now, I can’t imagine going back to a world without hands-free Alexa, and it eliminated my need for a streaming device — at least on that TV.

Hands-free Alexa is a big deal

One of my favorite additions

Voice controls aren’t anything new, and you’ve been able to talk to your devices for several years at this point. When I had a Google Chromecast 4K in my bedroom, I used to use my Google Home Mini to turn on the TV and start watching things. It worked great, but I eventually replaced my Chromecast with a Roku Ultra and just used voice controls with the remote.

Building off that, Alexa isn’t anything new. It’s been included with Fire TV devices for a long time now, but going completely hands-free is different. Instead of having to talk into my remote or using a separate device, I can rely on my TV for everything. I wanted to declutter my living room a little bit, so I moved my PS5 upstairs into the room where this Fire TV is. I have it plugged into the HDMI 3 slot, and I can walk into the room and say, “Alexa, turn on the TV and change to HDMI 3.” This turns on my TV and sets it to the correct HDMI, all without needing to pick up anything. It’s a huge time saver, and I love the feature. I haven’t had to touch my remote in months, granted, it’s because I don’t need to do much more than that. If you had to scroll through Netflix or YouTube, then you’d still need to have your remote handy. If you only use your remote to turn your TV on and off, then this is a big change.

Another big thing I noticed was the sheer speed of everything. Again, it might come down to the TV just being new, but I feel like it performs just as well as my 4K Select stick did, so it essentially eliminated the need for it. The Fire TV interface isn’t really my favorite interface among the streamers, so any way I can speed up navigating through it, the better. If you know exactly what you’re searching for or want to do, the hands-free Alexa makes it a breeze. It loses a bunch of its value if you need to scroll through a bunch of menus. In that case, it’s still nice to have around because it makes it easy to pause things or control the volume without having the remote nearby.

Streaming sticks still have their place, but not on this TV

I need them to fight back

It’s been a very long time since I’ve felt like technology actually caught me off guard. There’s so much that comes out nowadays that I feel like I take for granted. When I first read about hands-free Alexa, I didn’t even think much about it. It wasn’t until I got to try it myself that I realized how useful it can be. It’s definitely something that gets better if you know exactly what to ask because it can’t just be magic and guess your thoughts. I’ve liked using it to ask questions when I’m watching something, and I was surprised to see if just answer things directly through my TV speakers.

I want to reiterate that Alexa is still available on your Fire TV Stick, much like Siri is included with your Apple TV. There’s nothing inherently different about the Alexa that works on my Fire TV, but the fact that I get to use it without a remote is what changes everything. A streaming stick doesn’t have that type of functionality, and I’m really not sure how it ever could. My streaming stick is tucked away behind my TV in most cases, so even if they did start adding microphones to them, I wonder how effective voice commands could be since my voice would be muffled by the TV.

What I will say is that I don’t think it’s worth going out and buying a new TV just for this. If you’re not inconvenienced by using your remote to issue voice commands, then I don’t think you’ll see this as a transformative feature. I’m somebody who didn’t use voice controls regularly, but with it becoming so easy now, I use them a lot more.

I’m all for making things easier, and I’d say hands-free Alexa does just that. With that said, I don’t think this would ever fully replace my Roku Ultra or Apple TV 4K. I still like both of those devices a lot, and I’d put up not having hands-free voice controls to use them. I think part of the reason I like my TV having the controls built in so much is that I was already using a Fire TV Stick with my Fire TV. I already said I’m not a huge fan of that interface, so being able to take shortcuts around it is what helps the voice controls take it over the edge. I don’t think it’s particularly difficult to navigate through the Roku or Apple interfaces, but the Amazon one feels clunky to me.

For a lot of people, streaming sticks and boxes will still reign supreme. I’m right there with you, to be fair. However, in my very specific scenario of using a Fire TV Stick with my Fire TV, I’ll keep the stick unplugged and use my hands-free Alexa. The nice thing is that when my TV starts to show signs of slowing down, I can just plug the stick back in and go to work.