Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsWon't work with any VPN but...
Reviewed in Canada on October 19, 2022
Having owned several Amazon 4k firesticks, I felt it would be fun to try the Amazon 4k MAX firestick, to see if there were some improvements. In all honesty, I'd have to say yes ( for the most part ). It does run faster thanks to the extra Gb's. Picture quality is actually a bit better as well. It works well with Apollo iptv, and Tivimate, with 0 buffering, and my high-speed internet is only about 25mbs on a good day, still, no buffering with this Max firestick. I also like that with a USB splitter, I can attach it to the Max firestick with whatever size USB thumb drive (I used a 64Gb usb thumb drive) but a 32gb will do the job well for recording your favorite TV shows or movies. I could not do this with the older 4K firestick, and it wasn't for the lack of trying. So the positives are, great picture quality, no buffering, faster processor, and the ability to record movies etc. The ONLY flaw I can find, and it's a pretty major one, is that for some weird reason, it will not allow me to add a VPN. As most streamers know, it's important to have a legit VPN, which hides your isp from your internet provider. That way, they can't throttle your connection. With my old 4k firesticks, the VPN that I have a paid subscription for ( PIA = Private Internet Access) works fine, but with this new MAX firestick it won't even allow me to sign into my PIA. This bothers me, however, with that said, the Max is still working fine, and I have had no issues with buffering or being throttled by my internet provider. I just don't like the idea of being located via my isp address...so I'm a bit paranoid about it. I decided to keep this new Max regardless of the fact that for some reason, it does not like any VPN ( I tried others to make sure ) but they too failed, so it's not a VPN issue. Nothing is perfect I guess, but this Firestick Max...is pretty close