If you’re looking to upgrade the streaming experience on your TV, a streaming stick is one of the easiest and most affordable ways to do it, and that’s one of the main reasons why Fire TV Sticks remain so popular.

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick lineup includes four models, each with its own feature set and price point. At the low end is the Fire TV Stick HD, designed for basic 1080p streaming and priced at $35. At the other end is the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Amazon’s most powerful streaming stick. It supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, includes Wi-Fi 6E and 16GB of storage, and normally costs $60, though it’s often on sale for as low as $40.

However, beyond its Fire TV Sticks, there’s one device in Amazon’s streaming lineup that often gets overlooked: the Fire TV Cube.

While it’s not as cheap, coming in at $140, the Fire TV Cube’s biggest advantage is that it’s not a streaming stick at all. Instead, it’s a set-top box, similar to the Roku Ultra and Apple TV 4K. That larger form factor allows it to pack in faster, more powerful hardware and additional features like Ethernet, ultimately delivering a far better streaming experience than a Fire TV Stick. The problem is that Amazon hasn’t updated it in years.

Dimensions

86 x 86 x 77 mm

What’s Included

Power cable, Fire remote

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi 6E Tri-band. Also supports 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax

Ethernet

Yes

The Fire TV Cube is the most powerful in Amazon’s streaming devices lineup. It’s faster than it was before, offers improved connectivity, and the hands-free Alexa experience is solid.

The Fire TV Cube could be so much more

A new Fire TV Cube should run Fire OS, not Vega OS

Lately, there’s been a lot of discussion about Fire TV Stick replacements following Amazon’s announcement of Vega OS, its new Linux-based operating system that doesn’t support sideloading. Amazon has already confirmed that all future Fire TV Sticks will run Vega OS instead of Fire OS, the Android-based platform it has used across its streaming devices for more than a decade.

As a result, alternatives like the Onn 4K Pro and Google TV Streamer have become increasingly popular among Fire TV users looking for an exit strategy. But Amazon may already have a solution to the problem it created for itself: the Fire TV Cube.

Notably, when Amazon announced its plans for all future Fire TV Sticks to run Vega OS, it didn’t say anything about a future Fire TV Cube. That gives me a glimmer of hope that the company could launch a new version of its flagship streamer with Fire OS instead of Vega OS.

The Fire TV Cube is certainly due for an upgrade. Amazon last refreshed it in October 2022, nearly four years ago, and its hardware is starting to show its age. It comes with 16GB of storage, 2GB of RAM, and a 10/100 Ethernet port. Meanwhile, one of its biggest competitors, the $100 Google TV Streamer, offers 32GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, and Gigabit Ethernet, which is 10 times faster than the 10/100 Ethernet port on the Fire TV Cube.

A next-generation Fire TV Cube could have significant potential if Amazon took a page from Google’s playbook and modernized the hardware. More RAM, more storage, Gigabit Ethernet, and built-in Thread support for smart home devices would all be welcome upgrades.

If Amazon paired those improvements with a competitive price that undercuts the Apple TV 4K while remaining close to the Google TV Streamer, it could have a real winner on its hands.

But only if it doesn’t ruin it with Vega OS.

Fire OS 16 is in the works

Amazon hasn’t abandoned Android yet

Credit: Amazon

When Amazon first announced Vega OS last year, there was widespread concern that it would eventually replace Fire OS altogether. Amazon quickly moved to calm those fears, saying it was now a “multi-OS company” and would continue supporting both Vega OS and Fire OS.

So far, that’s exactly what it’s done. Despite its major push toward Vega OS, Amazon has continued to update Fire OS with features such as a redesigned user interface and has even released new versions of the operating system. Fire OS 14, which is based on Android 14, has already launched on select smart TVs.

More recently, developer documentation confirmed that Amazon is also working on Fire OS 16, based on Android 16, which the company says “incorporates updates from Android 15 (API 35) and Android 16 (API 36).” That should bring additional performance improvements and extend app compatibility for years to come.

With Fire OS 16 already in development and Fire OS 14 now available on smart TVs, there’s still a clear path for Amazon to launch a new Fire TV Cube running Fire OS instead of Vega OS if it chooses to.

And I think it should.

Set-top streaming devices are typically aimed at enthusiasts and power users. If Amazon releases a new Fire TV Cube with modern hardware but pairs it with Vega OS and lacks sideloading support, it would ruin the device, and I don’t think many power users will be interested. One of the biggest advantages Fire OS has over competing platforms like Apple TV and Roku is its flexibility, and stripping that away from its flagship streaming device would be a huge mistake.

Amazon hasn’t officially revealed whether it’s working on a new Fire TV Cube, but with the current model now nearly four years old, it could be in its pipeline. And if it is, hopefully Amazon decides to chart a different path for the Fire TV Cube than it has for its Fire TV Sticks and Vega OS.