I have to be honest -- I'm not really a big fan of Fire TVs or the sticks, and there are a lot of them. Sure, they are fine for a lot of people, but I don't like the Fire TV UI as much as I like Apple TV's or Roku's. That largely comes down to personal preference, but I feel like I've been spoiled by the ad-free Apple TV UI. I'm not here to complain about user interfaces, but I actually have something to praise about the Fire TV.
Completely hands-free is a game-changer
I don't need a remote anymore
Admittedly, if I'm watching TV, chances are good that my remote is close by, where I can always reach for it. However, there are times when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to reach for it. With Alexa's voice functionality working the way it does, I can walk into the room and get my TV turned on and switched to the correct HDMI input before I even sit down. This is such a cool feature that I can't believe it doesn't come standard on all TVs by this point.
Now, I don't think I'll go out and only buy Fire TVs from this point forward, but credit is due here. This level of accessibility is something many companies talk about, but I've never seen it implemented in this way before. It's nice too, because I have a second, smaller Fire TV set up in the same room, and the remote actually controls both of them. By using Alexa voice controls, I make sure my older Fire TV doesn't turn on with my main display. This gives me a lot more control over my room, and I know not everybody has two TVs plugged into the same room. It's a unique problem, but I'm glad it can be solved.
I don't fully trust it yet
I have some problems to work through
My biggest problem is having to toggle the switch on and off all the time. I don't like the idea that my TV is always listening to me, so I tend to keep the switch flipped off as soon as I'm done using it. I understand this is a personal problem that doesn't apply to everybody, but I can't shake the feeling just yet. I also know how common it is for devices to think I'm talking to them when I haven't said anything of the sort -- my Google Home is very guilty of this -- and I'd like to avoid this once I get cozy.
I'm able to walk into the room and turn on my TV just fine, but once I get to where I'm going, I don't want to have the potential problem of Alexa thinking I'm asking something when I'm not. This means I usually use the remote to turn the TV off, or I have to get up, walk to the TV, toggle the switch, ask Alexa to turn the TV off, and then leave the room. It's just a few seconds I'm wasting by doing this, and I'm sure I'd be just fine if I left the voice commands on the entire time, so maybe it's something I'll revisit down the road. Once I get past this hurdle, I don't think I'll have any complaints.