Best streaming stick 2024: Our favourite media streamers from Amazon, Google and Roku | Expert Reviews

The best TV streaming sticks you can buy in 2024

Price when reviewed: £70 | Check price at Amazon

After the success of its first maximum power streaming stick, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max has returned for a second run-out. The 2nd generation model upgrades upon the original in several ways, most notably through Wi-Fi 6E support, generally speedier performance and a handful of new features that keep it top of Amazon’s streaming stick tree.

The new incarnation is the first Fire TV Stick to include the Ambient Experience from Amazon’s Fire TV Omni QLED television, offering background music, customisable widgets and an ongoing slideshow of curated photography or art. There are new Alexa-powered AI features too, designed to give you a more conversational approach to searching out top movies and TV shows.

Elsewhere, the aforementioned boosts in speed are courtesy of a faster MediaTek MT8696T CPU, with the device seeing its four cores boosted from 1.8GHz on the first-gen model to 2GHz today, plus the Imagination Tech GE9215 GPU now runs at 850Hz rather than the old 750Hz. Better still, the internal storage has been doubled to 16GB instead of 8GB so you can use the stick for housing more content than ever before.

Outside of those key upgrades, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is pretty much business as usual for an Amazon streaming stick, with continued support for all the UHD formats and streaming services you could desire in the classic Fire Stick design.

Read our full Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max review for more details

Key specs – Streaming services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Now, Apple TV Plus, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My 5, YouTube; Resolution: Up to 3,840 x 2,160p (4K) at 60fps; HDR formats: Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG; Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax (Wi-Fi 6/6E); Audio support: Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital Plus; Smart assistants: Amazon Alexa; Storage: 8GB; Operating system: Fire OS 8