Amazon's New Fire TV Stick HD Is Slimmer, Faster And USB Powered
Amazon is refreshing its least expensive Fire TV Stick dongle with a new model that offers a range of improvements, not the least of which is a farewell bid to the requirement for a power adapter that plugs into your wall. Instead, the latest version of Amazon's entry-level Fire Stick HD draws power from your television's USB port. It also boasts Amazon's newest Fire TV experience.
The newest Fire Stick HD still plugs into a free HDMI port on your TV, but instead of running a power cable from the streaming stick to a separate power adapter that plugs into a wall outlet, Amazon is touting a new Direct Power feature that runs off USB power.
Amazon bundles a short USB-C to USB-A cable with the Fire Stick HD, with the USB-C end plugging into the streaming dongle and USB-A end going into a USB port on your TV. If you don't have a USB port on your TV (or if it's already occupied), you can still use a separate power adapter, but you'll have to pick one up on your own.
The latest Fire Stick HD variant is also the slimmest Fire Stick to date, with Amazon saying its both smaller in volume and width than previous models. It's also faster by more than 30% on average than the last-generation Fire Stick HD, according to Amazon, which should allow for apps to load more quickly.
Alexa+ is part of the package too, and it comes with a voice remote. Other features include Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, 8GB of onboard storage, 1080p and 720p support, Dolby-encoded audio (HDMI pass-through), and support for HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG formats.
Amazon's asking price is $34.99, though unless you really need Direct Power via USB, sale pricing on its higher end models are better buys (a couple of which support NVIDIA's GeForce NOW cloud game streaming service), at least until this new entry goes on sale too. Likewise, you can pick up the previous-generation Fire Stick HD at a discount.
The second-generation Fire Stick HD is available to preorder and will release on April 29, 2026. Amazon's also offering a 20% discount with a trade-in on all of its Fire TV Sticks and the Fire TV Cube.
