I’ve been using the second-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max interchangeably on my living room TV and my monitor for a while now, and it’s become a staple of my streaming setup. I like the user interface, shows and movies look great in 4K HDR, and its Wi-Fi 6E connection ensures buffer-free streaming. However, with Amazon recently announcing the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, it has got me thinking a lot about what the next-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max could and should have.
Amazon last updated the Fire TV Stick 4K Max in September 2023, so it’s been two years since its last refresh. With Amazon launching its new operating system, Vega OS, alongside the 4K Select, I have no doubt that a refresh of the 4K Max with Vega OS is coming soon. Whenever Amazon decides it’s time, here are the five upgrades I believe the next-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max needs to have to be worth the wait and people’s money.
- Brand
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Amazon
- Resolution
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4K
- Audio codecs
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Dolby Atmos
USB-C is an absolute must for the next Fire TV Stick 4K Max
Micro USB is a relic of the past
Even when Amazon launched the current generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max in 2023, many people, including myself, wondered why the company continued to use Micro USB on its high-end streaming stick. USB-C was already common on every Android phone back then, as well as on laptops, and even the iPhone had just switched to using it.
Fast-forward to 2025, and Micro USB remains as outdated as it was in 2023. When Amazon likely updates the Fire TV Stick 4K Max soon, it should switch to USB-C instead of Micro USB. First, USB-C is more universal and supports much faster data transfer and better power delivery than Micro USB. Second, USB-C is much easier to connect because it works regardless of the way you plug it in, unlike Micro USB, which only fits in one way. Additionally, USB-C supports faster Ethernet speeds, so if you use an Ethernet adapter with your Fire TV Stick, you could experience significantly improved download speeds.
Increased and upgraded RAM for better performance
3GB or 4GB of RAM can go a long way on a streaming stick
The current Fire TV Stick 4K Max is equipped with 2GB of RAM, and I believe the next-generation 4K Max would benefit significantly from more RAM. Am omcrease to 3GB would be decent, but a more sizable bump to 4GB would be even better. More RAM would simply help with running more apps, multitasking, and managing background processes, ultimately creating a smoother streaming experience.
Additionally, not only would more RAM be beneficial, but faster RAM would also give the next Fire TV Stick 4K Max an even better edge. The 2GB of RAM it’s equipped with now is LPDDR4, which has been outdated for a while. If you’re wondering what LPDDR stands for, it’s Low-Power Double Data Rate memory, a common type of RAM used in smartphones and streaming devices due to its compactness, speed, and power efficiency. Most flagship phones now feature LPDDR5, which is faster and more efficient than LPDDR4, and this upgrade would give the next-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max that extra boost in performance it needs.
A more capable processor
Vega OS may be efficient, but Amazon should still upgrade the 4K Max’s processing power regardless
If Amazon intends for the next-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max to be the best streaming stick on the market when it launches, it needs to be equipped with a more powerful processor. The current Fire TV Stick 4K Max features a quad-core MediaTek processor with speeds of up to 2.0 GHz. Based on my streaming experience with it, I wouldn’t describe it as slow, but I also wouldn’t call it blazing fast either.
The Fire TV Stick 4K and 4K Select both feature a quad-core MediaTek processor with speeds of up to 1.7 GHz, so the difference between them and the 4K Max isn’t substantial at all. Obviously, due to the size constraints of a streaming stick, and to keep the cost reasonable, I’m not saying the Fire TV Stick 4K Max needs the performance of an Apple TV 4K, but I think a notable bump in processing power to make the Fire TV Stick 4K Max feel more snappy would go a long way in convincing people to upgrade. Additionally, if Alexa+ and AI are going to become a larger part of the Fire TV experience, then that extra processing power could go a long way in making those features actually feel smooth and responsive.
Amazon is already saying that thanks to its new operating system, Vega OS, apps will launch “remarkably fast” on the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, and that Vega is “responsive and highly efficient.” If those claims are true, that’s great, but I hope Amazon doesn’t use Vega OS as an excuse to cop out on meaningful hardware upgrades. Software optimizations can only take you so far.
Slightly modify the design
Make the Fire TV Stick 4K Max stand out
When Amazon introduced the second-generation (and current) Fire TV Stick 4K Max in 2023, it adopted a rounder design compared to the boxier look of the first-generation model. I’m not suggesting Amazon needs to completely overhaul the design of the next-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max, but a small design tweak could go a long way in helping it stand out within the lineup.
Currently, the Fire TV Stick 4K, 4K Select, and 4K Max all look the same. If Amazon made the 4K Max more distinctive — perhaps with a different shape, material, or color — it could increase its visual appeal and help reduce the confusion consumers have with the Fire TV Stick lineup by clearly distinguishing its premium streaming stick from the others.
Storage boost and Wi-Fi 7
Upgrades that will make the next Fire TV Stick 4K Max more future-proof
This is the upgrade I think is least likely to be expected from the next-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max, but I believe it would still be a nice addition either way. Currently, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max has 16GB of storage, which is double the 8GB found in the 4K and 4K Select models. For its next-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max, I think that if Amazon increased the storage to 32GB, it would ease most people’s worries about running out of storage space and enable them to download more apps and games.
Additionally, while the 4K Max already features fairly fast Wi-Fi 6E capabilities, if Amazon added Wi-Fi 7 to it, it would make the connection speeds even faster, more reliable, and make it more future-proof once it eventually launches.
When will the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max come out?
While Amazon announced the Fire TV Stick 4K Select at its recent fall hardware event, there was no indication or tease about when a new Fire TV Stick 4K Max might be coming. One of the key features of the Fire TV Stick 4K Select is that it runs a new Linux-based operating system, Vega OS, which Amazon has reportedly been developing for several years. This differs from all the other Fire TV Sticks, which run Fire OS, an Android-based operating system that Amazon has used on its Fire TV lineup for over ten years.
Undoubtedly, a Vega OS version of the Fire TV Stick 4K Max will be released eventually, but the timeframe for that isn’t exactly certain, and there have been no concrete leaks on when it could be. I think this is because Amazon is using the Fire TV Stick 4K Select as a testbed for Vega OS. I believe once Vega OS is further developed and tweaked based on people’s feedback about the 4K Select, it will then launch a new 4K Max with Vega OS. So it could still be a while before that happens, but given the second-generation 4K Max on shelves right now is already two years old, I find it hard to believe Amazon won’t launch a new 4K Max sometime in 2026.
