Gadgetory

what's up prized by fans i'm brian tong in the battle for streaming box supremacy never stopped its a prizefight punch-out between the new kid on the block Amazons fire TV and the reigning champ the Roku 3 our judges for this fight are executive editor John Babs the bone Falcone - your associate editor Matthew Big Show moscovia and myself can't go wrong Tom we'll take each round scorer and average them out to the nearest tenth of a point the final prize fight score will be an average of all rounds using the same system let's get this started round 1 is design Amazon's first entry has a slim and square matte black profile that remind you of an optical drive and it will fit right in with your TV setup the Roku 3 brings its black glossy finish and a smaller package with thicker curves just the way I like it they're classic fabric tag and a solid weight now the fire TVs remote is really one of the best out of the gates with the right size and feel compared to Roku's bulkier design these are still just two black boxes but we're giving the fire TV the edge with a 4.3 and roku gets off the floor next router user interface can navigate the fire TV does things right and wrong here it's really one of the snappiest UIs and videos play almost instantly but its biggest drawback is that the content feels jumbled and unorganized you have a watch list for videos but you can't pin apps and services to specific locations for favorites at the moment its focus is on Amazon Prime content but there still isn't a place just for prime content and then try to watch a series like 24 it shows you pricing for episodes but you'll have to make a few extra moves to find out that Prime members can watch it for free no bueno now we know that these issues will be resolved over time but it's still frustrating now its voice search accuracy is really stellar it's the first time for a streaming boxin I'm impressed with how well it works fast in the Furious but it doesn't search deep enough with other services and its content organization needs to be better the Roku 3s interface and content is just organized better plain and simple there's plenty of customization to personalize the entire layout of your channels I still think that the UI needs a fresh coat of paint especially with some apps still retaining the horizontal scroll look and feel but let's not forget it's killer Universal search that pulls from rows whose multiple content sources and tells you what service and the price it will cost across multiple apps that's a killer feature the Roku 3 gets a 4.7 and fire TV gets up to 1.3 after averaging two rounds Roku leaves round three is both of these $99 boxes bring HDMI 1080p video support dual band Wi-Fi and Ethernet the Roku brings a micro SD card slot for additional storage and a USB port to connect external drives the fire TVs USB port isn't used for anything yet it adds an optical audio output but its quad-core processor and 2 gigs of RAM make a difference in performance that you could feel now the Roku is remote with a headphone jack for private listening is still a favorite feature no one can touch but the fire TVs remote has voice search capability that is really a joy to use brian tom and I promise you I had nothing to do with that movie now if you're in the Kindle ecosystem you can use a Kindle Fire HDX as a second screen for their awesome x-ray feature that delivers more content and info during a movie and if you're watching a movie on your HDX you can just split to your fire TV both remotes can act as controllers for some basic games but if you're talking about gaming the fire TV has an option for a $40 wireless game controller and the power of this machine allows you to play real games for the first time on a streaming box that is not a dedicated gaming console both boxes let you stream your personal photos or videos but having to upload to Amazon's Cloud Drive is an extra step Amazon brings even more to the table with free time that limits the content kids can watch and is a big deal for families but sling box users can use a Roku to watch their Slingbox from home on another TV and this is really a killer feature Roku is once an untouchable in this round but the fire TV brings things we have never seen in this space Amazon gets a perfect 5 and Roku get a 4.3 the final round that decides it all is content the fire TV brings almost every major service you can think of on launch like Netflix Hulu and YouTube but its biggest omission is HBO GO which is coming later so you won't be able to share your HBO subscription just yet and Time Warner customers are also left out for now it has music covered with Pandora and iHeartRadio and I won't dock it for its lack of my favorite CNET app Amazon does get a nod for its gaming content and it's only going to get better but nothing can compete with the over 1,000 plus channels of content on roku that includes HBO Go and Time Warner now Roku has pretty much everything covered from movies to music to sports and news including Amazon Prime and it's still the king of content right now it's pretty clear roku takes us down with a perfect 5 and on gets a four so let's average out all four rounds and both sides claim two rounds of their own but it's the Roku 3 that takes this battle four point five to four point two and is your prize fight winner Amazons fire TV is an impressive entry that will only get better and if you live in the Amazon ecosystem this is the streaming box for you but until then Roku is content library still reigns supreme I'm Brian Tong thanks for watching and we'll catch you guys next time for another prize fight