Fire TV Cube 4

The Fire TV Cube 4 is Amazon’s most polished streaming box, and after three weeks the lab’s takeaway is that it has stopped feeling like a content-store first, hardware second device. The HDMI input passthrough alone makes it the best smart-home hub for households juggling cable + streaming + Alexa devices.

What we tested

We ran the Cube 4 on a Samsung S95D, tested HDMI passthrough with a TiVo Stream 4K, hands-free Alexa under typical living-room noise (kids, TV at 30 dB), and 4K HDR streaming across Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney+. Smart-home control was tested with 14 connected devices.

Where it shines

• Octa-core silicon makes Fire OS feel responsive instead of laggy — a problem the older Cube actually had
• HDMI input passthrough remains a real feature — pipe a cable box through the Cube and use Alexa to switch sources
• Hands-free Alexa picked up commands across the room with TV at moderate volume, where the Echo Show often missed
• WiFi 6E inside means no more buffering when the rest of the house is on Zoom

Where it falls short

The Fire TV homepage is still 70% Amazon advertising disguised as recommendations. The Apple TV experience is cleaner if ads bother you. Apple Music subscribers get a reduced-feature client — no spatial audio, weird search behavior. And privacy-conscious users should know Alexa is always listening.

The verdict

The Fire TV Cube 4 is the best $140 streaming + smart-home hybrid we have tested. Buy it if you live in the Alexa/Amazon ecosystem and want one device for streaming and home control; if you hate ads, save longer for the Apple TV 4K.