Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite
At less than $30, the Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite’s picture and sound quality can’t be beaten. In fact, it’s so good you may even forget you’re not watching movies and shows in 4K.
Roku Express
Even though the Roku Express is one of the company’s entry-level devices, it’s still a solid performer when it comes to picture, sound, and app variety.
Streaming devicesare an excellent way to add smart features to a TV that may not have them. They’re also great for accessing apps and other content that your smart TV may not support. After all, not every smart TV can support all the niche film genres you adore or the ability to cast photos, videos, and music using features like Apple AirPlay and Chromecast.
But not all streaming gear is created equal, and if you’re looking to spend as little as possible on these plug-and-play HDMI devices, you’ll want to make sure your streaming must-haves are in good hands. This is why we’re going to compare the Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite and the Roku Express. They’re two of the cheapest streaming devices you can buy, and each peripheral has its pros, cons, and quirks.
Price, availability, and specs
The Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite retails for $30 but is often on sale. As of the publication of this article, you can find the Fire TV Stick Lite for $18 on Amazon, as well as stores like Best Buy and Target. The Roku Express also retails for $30 and is often on sale. Right now, you can buy it for $25 on Amazon and also in stores like Best Buy and Walmart.
Streaming devices are getting to the point where it can be difficult to tell one brand apart from another. In fact, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick devices look nearly identical to Roku’s Streaming Stick peripherals. That being said, there are a number of engineering and cosmetic differences between the Fire TV Stick Lite and Roku Express models.
Like most stick streamers, the Fire TV Stick Lite is a small, rectangular, and matte black device that can be super-easy to plug directly into a TV’s HDMI port. It also comes with an HDMI extender in case your TV’s HDMI ports are difficult to reach. In addition, there’s a micro USB port on the side of the Fire TV Stick Lite to connect to a standard USB cable, though you’ll probably have to supply your own USB power brick. The remote is also pretty simple. Matching the matte black shell of the streaming device, it features basic navigation buttons, including a microphone toggle for accessingAlexa.
More akin to a traditional streaming device, the Roku Express is designed to sit on a surface. The front of the Express is glossy, while the sides and rear are matte black. Roku provides an HDMI cable in the box for plugging the Express into your TV, as well as a micro USB to standard USB cable. And like with the Fire TV Stick Lite, you will need to provide your own USB power brick.
Regarding the Express remote, the shell matches the matte black portion of the streaming device and includes a number of handy shortcut buttons that you won’t find on the Fire Stick’s controller. These include launch buttons for Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and Paramount+, as well as basic navigation commands.
Excellent operating systems power both the Fire TV Stick Lite and the Roku Express. As for the former, Fire TV OS is the digital brains behind the operation, and it’s a solid platform for sure. Menus and layouts are colorful and attention-grabbing, but you’re going to see a big focus on Amazon branding. This mostly presents as movie and show suggestions being sourced from Prime Video and IMDB TV, as opposed to third-party apps like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+.
Moving from one screen to the next feels intuitive and responsive, and this even carries over into Alexa functionality. Performing content searches, web searches, and smart home commands are easy and straightforward, and there’s little in the way of timeouts or ignored actions. However, if you’d like to mirror content from a smartphone, tablet, or computer, the Fire TV Stick Lite supports Miracast and WiDi but lacks Apple AirPlay or Chromecast support.
Meanwhile, over in the Roku world, the Express is powered by the Roku TV OS, which hasn’t changed much over the last several years. But this is very much a case of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” as Roku’s first-party platform gives you everything you could ask for. Shows, movies, and apps are simple to search for and download using the Express remote, but unlike most other Roku models, the Express doesn’t have a built-in microphone for content searches. And like the Fire TV Stick Lite, the Roku Express remote also doesn’t include TV controls.
Conveniently, the Roku Express supports Apple AirPlay 2 if you’d like to mirror content from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to your TV. Plus, you can download the Roku mobile app to control your Roku devices, search for movies and shows, and more.
Video and audio quality
Unlike the higher-performing hardware of Amazon and Roku’s device lineups, both the Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite and Roku Express are capped at 1080p resolution. This makes them ideal streaming devices for smaller TVs and for folks who don’t mind missing out on 4K if it means saving a little money. That doesn’t mean you should expect lackluster video and audio quality from either peripheral, though.
The Fire TV Stick Lite supports HDR10 and HDR10+ picture standards. Watching movies and shows in HDR and SDR quality delivers a vibrant and colorful picture, and the sound quality isn’t half bad either. Unfortunately, the Fire TV Stick Lite doesn’t support Dolby Atmos as the more advanced Fire TV Stick models do.
The Roku Express actually doesn’t support HDR at all, but this isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker. Even without enhanced colors and brightness, the Express still delivers a powerful 1080p picture that even gives some 4K streaming devices a run for their money. If sound quality is a big priority, the Roku Express may be a better bet than the Fire TV Stick Lite because the Expressdoessupport Dolby Atmos.
Performance
Both the Fire TV Stick Lite and the Roku Express hang out on the bottom rungs of streaming device speeds, but that doesn’t mean you should expect a world of agonizing load times.
In terms of interface navigation, the Fire TV Stick Lite can run slowly from time to time. This issue doesn’t present as much when streaming movies and shows or even when using Alexa, but you may experience some bandwidth bottlenecking on the Home screen and other OS panels. We’re guessing this has more to do with the fact that these Fire TV screens are chock-full of ads, graphics, and other attention-seeking UI elements. That being said, once you’re in an app or actually watching content, things run quite smoothly.
As for the Roku Express, navigating the Roku OS is a buttery-smooth experience and really always has been. And with Roku’s revamping of the Express model for 2022, overall internet performance is even better this time around. It’s also nice to be able to select whether you’d like your Express to live on your 2.4GHz or 5GHz Wi-Fi band.
Opening and closing apps, running searches, and using playback controls when viewing content is a pretty solid experience, too. But, like any streaming device (including the Fire TV Stick Lite), your Roku may glitch sometimes and you’ll need to do a hard reset, but these are rare occurrences.
Storage and expansion
When it comes to internal storage, the Fire TV Stick Lite comes with 8GB to play with. Downloading apps and performing firmware updates can chip away at that small gigabyte cache. Luckily, Amazon allows you to add extra storage by investing in a simple accessory called an On The Go (OTG) cable.
Once you’ve connected your Fire TV Stick Lite to an OTG setup, you’ll want to connect a USB 3.0 flash drive to the OTG (Amazon recommends no more than 128GB). You’ll then be able to go into your Fire TV Stick’s settings to use the USB drive as the default storage method. This can actually give your Fire TV Stick Lite a performance boost because it won’t be relying on available storage memory to run apps and execute UI functions.
As for the Roku Express, the numbers are a little less clear. Unlike Amazon, Roku doesn’t market the internal storage of its devices, although many sources have indicated that most Roku Express models fall somewhere between 256MB and 4GB. And unlike Roku models with microSD card support, the Roku Express doesn’t even have a way to expand storage.
Which is right for you?
When it comes to entry-level streaming, Amazon and Roku are two of the best brands you can go with, but which is truly the better of the two? That mostly boils down to what bells and whistles you need or can live without, but we thought we should answer that question ourselves. After careful consideration, we would recommend the Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite over the Roku Express.
HDR support isn’t a necessity for a 1080p streamer, but it’s definitely nice that the Fire TV Stick Lite includes it. We also like having the ability to use Alexa to search for movies and shows and control smart home devices. It’s also convenient that the HDMI connector is incorporated into the design of the Fire TV Stick Lite.
Alexa takes home the gold
The Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite may not support Dolby Atmos, but it’s a fast and efficient streaming device that works with HDR sources. It also benefits from a myriad of convenient Alexa integrations.
This doesn’t mean the Roku Express is a bad streaming device by any means; if you’re looking for a streamer that has an incredible variety of apps, the Roku Express is the device for the job. It’s also the better of the two streaming devices for folks who own a Dolby Atmos surround system or soundbar.
Best for surround sound owners
Not having HDR support or a built-in HDMI connector is a bit of a bummer, but the Roku Express makes up for its shortcomings with Dolby Atmos support and an amazing app catalog.
