Is the new Fire TV Stick 2021 a lie?
- allaboutfiretv
- Jun 5, 2021
- 3 min read
A new Youtube video came out on 5 June 2021 with a shocking title: "Did Amazon lie?". Today, we will talk about the contents of the video, why it is important to your decision to buy the Amazon Fire TV Stick 2021 release, and how you can weigh your options.
Summary:
Free Tech went into some detail to study the 2021 release of the Amazon Fire TV Stick
He concluded that the main difference between the 2020 and 2021 release is solely the remote for Fire TV Stick, not the actual software
All Amazon did, was to make changes on the Fire TV Stick Remote and re-titled their 2020 release into a 2021 release
What we think: Only for those who already bought the Fire Stick 3rd Generation in 2020, this could be problematic. For new buyers, read on the actual specifications and capabilities and choose based on your own preferences. Reviews don't lie!
Introduction
Free Tech actually went into some detail to study the 2021 release of the Amazon Fire TV Stick and found some questionable things. He concluded that the main difference between the 2020 and 2021 release is solely the remote for Fire TV Stick. However, the device software is no different from the 2020 release (which is no longer on sale). If you are interested to watch the video, feel free to scroll to the end and watch it!
If you go to the Official Amazon Store and scroll down a little to their helpful comparison table, you would see the Fire TV Stick with its release year labelled as "2021". And that is the biggest issue in question here: is Amazon playing a trick on consumers by labelling a device that barely had any change as a new release? Well, that is what some may think. But we think that this does not affect EVERYONE.
Facing the problem
Firstly, we think about what Amazon stands to gain from this "trickery". The only, and pretty obvious, gain could be that they get to announce a new release and get more customers to buy their "new" product. And this is a problem because those who bought the Fire Stick in 2020 may very well buy this "2021" product and end up with an identical one which they already own. This also does tell something about the marketing team at Amazon... So if you are an existing user of the Amazon Fire TV Stick (non-4K) and you are looking for an upgrade in software, this product is definitely not for you.
Why this is not that big a problem.
However, there is hardly any impact to a new user or someone who is looking to replace an old or impaired streaming device. The Amazon Fire TV Stick 2020 version is not even on sale anymore, at least on the Official Amazon store. Whatever you are buying, really is the best (or only) version of this particular Amazon Fire TV Stick series. Furthermore, it is not like Amazon hid or lied about the specifications on this "new" release. If you know what you want, reading the information found on the product or reviews like our recent article to find out what you are getting into, will still enable you to make a well-informed and worth buy.
Conclusion
The move made by Amazon does seem sort of sneaky and really, we see it as a sort of marketing gimmick just to get more new buyers. We understand how existing customers may get annoyed and even hurt from this breach of trust. It would be kind of lame if Amazon labels this as a new product for some minor changes to the remote, with no improvement in technical capabilities. But that is also the thing, an "upgrade" was never explicitly promised, it is just an implied promise (though rightly so) from being a "new release". Hence, we think that the outrage from existing consumers are justified.
All that being said, even while there are some hard feelings about their marketing methods, the Amazon Fire TV Stick still stands tall among the best streaming devices in 2021. That is something that can be said to be objective, and the same time also subjective to your personal preferences. So read up on what is available (like our review on the Fire TV Stick (3rd Gen) with Alexa Voice Remote) and make your own choice!
留言