As you may have heard, Amazon has announced the Fire TV Stick to rival the Google Chromecast and Roku Streaming Stick. Here we take a look at how the three HDMI-dongle streaming sticks compare in price, specs and features. See: 6 best media streamers UK: What's the best media steamer 2014?
Amazon Fire TV Stick vs Chromecast vs Roku Streaming Stick: Price and availability
Streaming sticks are more affordable than a more traditional media set-top box like the Apple TV, Google Nexus Player and Roku 3. We can compare the price of these three but the spanner in the works is that Amazon has only confirmed the Fire TV Stick for the US so far, although it is likely to follow the Fire TV box to the UK at some point.
Amazon's Fire TV Stick is $39 and although the device will be released on 18 November, the site warns that orders placed now are unlikely to arrive until 15 January 2015 due to high demand. This means a UK launch before Christmas seems doubtful.
Google's Chromecast is a little cheaper at $35 (although available at $32 at the time of writing) and the Roku Streaming Stick is the most expensive of the trio at $49. These are readily available in the UK right now at £30 and £49 respectively – although look out for deals on the Chromecast which regularly pop up.
See below for a price comparison chart.
| Amazon Fire TV Stick | Google Chromecast | Roku Streaming Stick | |
| US price | $39 | $35 | $49 |
| UK price | TBC | £30 | £49 |
Amazon Fire TV Stick vs Chromecast vs Roku Streaming Stick: Specs and features
On the whole, these streaming sticks are very similar. They all plug straight into your TV via a spare HDMI port (requiring microUSB power) and connect to your internet over Wi-Fi in order to stream content. And while, their specs are closely matched, there are some differences to point out including which services are supported and what you get in the box. See Apple TV vs Chromecast review.
Remotes and apps
It's natural to use a physical controller with your TV or whatever is plugged into it, and the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Roku Streaming Stick both come with one. Amazon also sells an optional voice control remote and gaming controller.
On the other hand, the Chromecast is controlled via a smartphones or tablet app. You search for the content you want to view, then 'cast' it to the Chromecast to be displayed on the big screen.
This isn't exclusive to the Chromecast though, as you can still send content to the Streaming Stick with the same method for Netflix and YouTube. Amazon has a Fire TV Remote app with which you can voice search for content.
Gaming
As we just mentioned, there's an optional game pad for the Fire TV Stick and it supports games like Minecraft Pocket Edition, Asphalt 8, Riptide and more. Amazon says there are more than 200 available making it the best for gaming.
The Roku Streaming Stick has around 100 games available but the controller doesn't support motion control like the Roku 3's does. The Chromecast only has a handful of pretty basic games which you can play.
Specs
As we've mentioned, the specs of these three streaming sticks is similar. However, the newer Fire TV Stick is superior with a dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage. It also has dual-band Wi-Fi with dual-antenna (MIMO) which is also found on the Roku Streaming Stick.
Both the Chromecast and Roku Streaming Stick have a single-core processor and 512 MB of RAM. The former does have more storage at 2 GB, though, which is double that of the Roku.
These devices are mostly for streaming content from the internet so we wouldn't worry about storage and we've not seen any performance issues with the Chromecast or Roku Streaming Stick. What is more important is which services you can access on them (see below).
It's worth noting that depending the design of your TV, you might not be able to insert a streaming stick and will require an HDMI extension cable. Amazon and Google include one in the box but Roku doesn't.
Services
All the above specs and features are great but mean nothing if you can't watch some great content on your. With the right device, you can mirror your smartphone or tablet's screen on the TV via the streaming stick – but the big name services are more important.
Since the Fire TV Stick has only been announced for the US, we can't comment on what it will offer in the UK but it should match up with the Fire TV box so that's what we're going with for now but keep in mind that it's not official from Amazon. Also note that services do get added so the below is correct as of 4/11/14.
If you're a big Amazon Prime Instant Video user then the Fire TV Stick is the device for you as it's not available on rivals. It also supports (going by the Fire TV box) Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Demand 5, YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, Vevo, Plex, Sky News, Tune In and Flixster. There are more but we're sticking to the main ones to keep things simpler here. Note the lack of 4OD, ITV Player, Sky Now TV and Sky Store.
See also: Netflix vs Amazon Prime Instant Video.
The Roku Streaming Stick also supports many of the above with key names including BBC iPlayer, 4OD, Demand 5, ITV Player, YouTube, Netflix, Sky Now TV, Sky Store, Plex, Sky News, Vevo, Spotify, Flixster and Rdio.
One of the Chromecast's big selling points was access to the Google Play store (movies and music) but Roku just added this as a new channel. It is the only one with Blinkbox and Wuaki.tv, though. The device also supports, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, BT Sport, YouTube, Sky Now TV, Vevo, Rdio, and Deezer.
It lacks 4OD, Sky Store and Demand 5 but it's worth noting that it can mirror content from the Chrome web browser from a PC or laptop on the same network.
See below for a table of the big name players.
| Amazon Fire TV Stick | Google Chromecast | Roku Streaming Stick | |
| Netflix | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon Instant Video | Yes | ||
| Google Play Movies & TV | Yes | Yes | |
| BBC iPlayer | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ITV Player | Yes | Yes | |
| 4OD | Yes | ||
| Demand 5 | Yes | Yes | |
| YouTube | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sky Now TV | Yes | Yes | |
| Sky Store | Yes | ||
| Plex | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Wuaki.tv | Yes | ||
| Blinkbox | Yes | ||
| Flixster | Yes | Yes | |
| Amazon Music | Yes | ||
| Google Play Music | Yes | ||
| Blinkbox Music | Yes | ||
| Spotify | Yes | Yes | |
| Rdio | Yes | Yes | |
| Total | 11 | 10 | 12 |
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