Amazon Fire TV Cube review: controls more than just TV, supports 4K HDR, picks up commands even while video or music is playing, but the remote lacks features
Alexa turns out to be a good match for your living room — For the past few years, Amazon has had two of the most popular living room products …
Context & Ripple Effects
Two weeks after Amazon announced the Fire TV Cube at $119.99, The Verge's verdict lands: Alexa finally works as a living-room controller, hearing commands even while video or music plays and reaching beyond the TV to other devices. That closes a gap The Verge flagged in its 2017 Fire TV review, where solid Alexa integration came paired with a remote missing volume buttons.
The Cube is also the template for what followed: by late 2018 Amazon shipped the cheaper Stick 4K with a more capable remote, and in 2019 it stretched the brand across more than 20 Fire TV devices including an Anker-made soundbar, explicitly framing the line as a fight against Roku.
First-order effects
- Buyers of the $119.99 Cube get hands-free, far-field Alexa that controls the TV and connected equipment mid-playback — but they pay flagship money for a remote that underperforms the one bundled with cheaper Fire TV hardware.
Second-order effects
- Roku and Google face pressure to match always-listening, whole-room voice control rather than remote-bound assistants, while Amazon's own cheaper Sticks absorb buyers who want the ecosystem without the Cube premium.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the set-top box stops being the product and becomes a vessel for the assistant — a trajectory visible in the 2022 Cube follow-up, where hands-free voice improved further but ads and a mediocre remote remained the standing trade-offs.
The trend: Streaming hardware is consolidating around voice assistants as the primary interface, with each Fire TV generation trading remote quality for deeper Alexa reach.