Roku vs Amazon Fire

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Will compare and review Roku streaming devices against Amazon Fire TV using PS Vue and Amazon Prime.  Will also discuss our experience with the Sideclick.

The following comparison and review will be based on the following Roku and Amazon Fire devices:

  • Roku Ultra (hardwired via Ethernet)

  • Roku Streaming Stick (not 4K)

  • Amazon Fire 4K Stick

TLTR (too long to read): Brief Synopsis

  • Would recommend Roku

  • Would NOT recommend Amazon Fire due to our issues with it dropping wireless connection often

  • The Roku remote’s ability to power on/off the TV as well as control the volume is a big benefit, but with you could program the app shortcut buttons…a mute and back (last channel) buttons would also be nice

  • Screen saver function on Roku is fun (aquarium option on Roku Ultra)

  • We prefer interface on Roku over Amazon Fire Stick

  • Sideclick is a great addition

Detailed write-up:

Amazon Fire:

We got the Amazon Fire 4K TV Stick on Amazon Prime day for 1/2 off.  Have wanted to pick up am Amazon Fire device to give it a try and although we like the Amazon Fire 4K TV stick, we have had a lot of issues with it dropping wireless connection and buffering.  We have had it in 2 different rooms where we have also had the Roku Streaming Stick (non-4K) and consistently the Amazon Fire 4K Stick had more issues.  Even when it was in the same room as our wireless router, it would drop/lose connection often.  We also preferred the interface of Roku over Amazon Fire and it seemed to be easier to add apps to the Roku.  The Roku’s remote is much better since you have the ability to turn the TV on/off and control the TV’s volume.  At this point in time, wouldn’t recommend buying an Amazon Fire device due to the experience we have had with ours.

Roku:

Will start with the bad first…the only real complaint we have with Roku is with the PS Vue app, which may be more of a problem with the app than the device.  When using PS Vue, there are times when we hit okay to select a show and the show title will stay on the middle of the screen along with the play/pause button.  The only reason to get it to go away is his rewind on the remote then hit play.  Other than that, we have no complaints with our Roku.

Now for the good…the ability to turn on/off the TV as well as control the TV’s volume from the remote makes Roku’s remote the best.  We enjoy Roku’s interface as it is simple to use and adding apps is super easy.  We like using the YouTube, iHeartRadio and TuneIn apps to listen to music and the Reuters app for news is also nice as you get to choose how long you have to watch news.  Other than the issue above in the previous paragraph, we have had no issues with Roku while watching PS Vue and Amazon Prime.  Our wireless (Streaming Stick) has had very few buffering issues (only 2-5 over the past 6+ months).  We also like the screen saver savers available on Roku (especially the aquarium on the Roku Ultra) and the ability to change the interface colors and theme.  Would definitely recommend Roku to everyone and are looking to buy another Streaming Stick (Streaming Stick + with 4K) for one of our other rooms. 

Although we love the Roku remote, we wish we had the ability to program the app shortcut buttons to apps we want. For example, one of our remotes has Hulu, DirectTV Now, Sling TV and Netflix, which we do not use any of those services.  Would be nice if we could reprogram those buttons to apps we do use.  Also, wish there was an ability to program the volume the buttons to operate our receiver instead of the TV volume (see Sideclick paragraph below for fix).  On top of programming the shortcut buttons, having mute and back (last channel) buttons would also be very beneficial. None of these are big deal breakers or reasons to not purchase Roku, since all other offering at this time do not have these features either. However, any of these functions would make the remote even better than it already is.

Sideclick:

In the brief synopsis we mentioned the Sideclick is a great add-on.  If you have multiple devices to control, such as an A/V receiver, the Sideclick is extremely useful.  We have programmed it to turn on/off our receiver along with controlling the volume, which allows us to put our A/V receiver remote away.  Although it makes the remote bulky and can sometimes fall off, it is worth having, especially for the price. You can program the buttons to do anything, so you could use it to program several devices if you needed to (such as also controlling TV Input).