Why I think Amazon 4K tv is better than cheap android tv boxes like Xiaomi Mi Tv Box 3 or similar android tv boxes? Let us have a comparison:
This particular comparison is specific to Indian Market, but I am pretty sure this applies to all markets/audience.
Remember we are going to analyse the fire tv 4K pendant design and not the FULL HD version.
The link can be found below:
This goes at a price of 69$. But you can buy at lower prices at the time of sales. The price of this was 34$ during the prime day sale (16th July, 2018).
Now it is time for the reasons:
Amazon Prime Video: Amazon prime video is one of the top streaming platforms after Netflix. For example in Indian market, they have a lot of Indian movies and shows. They have repeatedly put newly released bollywood and south indian movies. This puts them in a better place, ahead of netflix or hotstar. Now there are lot of ways to sideload amazon prime video on mi box 3 etc, but prime video doesn't run smoothly in these devices. Search doesn't work, browsing experience for content is not great and playback controls don't work smoothly either.
Greater App Support: When i bought a mi box 3 some months ago, I was expecting all my android streaming and media apps to work on it. But I was surprised to see popular apps like "Sony Liv", "Zee 5", "Voot", "hungama play" etc missing from the android tv marketplace. I tried to sideload these apps on mi box 3, but none of them worked smoothly. Whereas you can find all these apps on the amazon marketplace and they run smoothly in fire tv. This is applicable to global market as android tv marketplace has limited number of apps. This is a big plus for someone who is trying to replace a conventional dish tv connection with internet streaming.
- Greater Design : It is much smaller and sleeker than other android tv boxes. If you have a wall mounted Tv, it just hides behind the tv. It uses microusb cable to charge. One can directly give power to the device from the USB port of the TV. (Note : It works fine in maximum TVs)
Now Some people might have the following arguments:
Kodi and other streaming apps: Both the devices support Kodi and the addons and popular apps like plex etc. You won't find any difference.
USB pendrive support: All the android tv boxes have an option to put Pendrive so that you can play some local content using MX player / Vlc media player. Now I agree, this is a major feature missing from firestick or fire tv 4k pendant model.
But this can be fixed by using a special OTG cable (which costs somewhere around 3-4 $)
https://www.gearbest.com/usb-gadgets/pp_009961178435.html?wid=1433363
Thus, I believe it is better to buy the Amazon fire tv 4k device than buying a cheap android tv box for an average user.