With the Amazon Fire TV Stick, it is all done through the Fire TV homepage, and there’s no need for a secondary device like a smartphone or tablet. The media player allows for easier switching between accounts because each member of the household can stream straight from their smartphone, tablet, or PC, so there’s no need to re-login to your accounts or share passwords. The Chromecast may be preferred if you intend for multiple people to stream with it. This list used to be relatively limited but has expanded to include all the major services and apps, including NOW TV, Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video. To watch a streaming service via Google Chromecast, it needs to be compatible. These devices are more expensive, at £59.99 and £49.99 respectively, but offer 4K streaming so that you can get the most from your TV. If you have 4K TV, you might want to consider investing in either the Chromecast with Google TV or Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K. In the case of the Fire TV Stick, Amazon boasts it is also 50% more powerful than its 2019 predecessor and comes with support for Dolby Atmos Audio. This makes both devices a great option if you intend to use them to get better use out of an old TV.
Streaming qualityīoth devices stream in full HD. The others include controls for power, volume and play/pause. This includes a voice button that you can activate Alexa with by holding down and speaking your request. The Alexa Voice Remote is small and black, like the Fire TV Stick itself, and has 11 buttons in total. The Amazon Fire TV Stick also comes with an accompanying remote. Both are then connected to power adaptors and are hidden from sight when in use.
It is small and thin and can, again, fit between any other products plugged in behind the TV. The design of the Amazon Fire TV Stick is a black USB-style stick, similar to that of the NOW TV Smart Stick. This bendy cable allows you to fit the Chromecast between any other devices that might be occupying other ports. The Google Chromecast is a black, round dongle with a short, flexible HDMI cable. While both the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Chromecast are set up to slot into the HDMI port found on the back of your TV, this is where most of the design similarities end. At a price point of £29.99, it still offers HD streaming and voice control, but the device comes with the ‘Lite’ version of the remote that does not have volume or power buttons. If you like the look of the Fire TV Stick but want to save a little bit of money, there is the Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite. For that extra £9.99, you get HD streaming, voice search via the Alexa Voice Remote and more comprehensive TV controls. The Amazon Fire TV Stick is less than £10 more expensive at £39.99. You don’t get a remote for that price, but the device has a bendy HDMI cable that makes it easy to squeeze into a port even when space is limited. The Google Chromecast is the cheaper of the two devices at £30. Here are the key differences between Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV Stick as we talk through their designs, apps, channels and streaming quality.įor a full breakout of the Fire TV Stick’s cost, channels and features, read our Amazon Fire TV Stick review. And while both devices do this job well, some features or apps are only available on specific smart TV sticks. Chromecast vs Fire TV Stick: what’s the difference?įor less than £40, both the Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire TV Stick allow you to watch your favourite streaming services on older or ‘non-smart’ TVs.
To see what’s available outside of these brands, read our Nvidia Shield TV Pro review and Roku Express 4K review. Or, if it is Google’s Chromecast that has piqued your interest, try our Chromecast vs Chromecast Ultra explainer and Chromecast with Google TV review. However, we have also included a breakdown of every device offered by Amazon and Google so that you can see what’s on offer and whether it’s worth spending a little more.įind out more about Amazon’s smart home devices by reading our Amazon Fire TV Cube review and Amazon Echo Dot review. To make this fight as fair as possible, we will be focusing our attention on the brand’s most iconic streaming devices, the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Google Chromecast.