Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Select is nowhere to be found in the rollout plans for the new Fire TV interface launching in February – another setback for a device that’s struggled since launch.
Amazon just announced a major redesign of its Fire TV experience, promising faster performance and better organisation.
But whilst the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus and Fire TV Stick 4K Max are getting the update first in February, with expansion to “more devices” planned for spring, the Select – Amazon’s newest streaming stick, launched just three months ago – isn’t explicitly mentioned.
Amazon says the spring rollout will include “the latest generation Fire TV 4K streaming media players,” which likely also includes the Select, but we’ll have to wait and see.
It’s the latest blow for a device that’s faced problems from day one: limited app availability, delayed VPN support, no sideloading capability, and aggressive price cuts.
Now it’s being left out of the company’s biggest Fire TV update in years (for now).
Whether that’s reassuring or concerning depends entirely on which Fire TV device you own.
The New Interface And Who’s Getting It
Amazon’s redesigned Fire TV experience, which we reported on here, is the first major overhaul since 2020, bringing 20-30% speed improvements, a cleaner visual design, and better content organisation.
The navigation menu has moved from the left side back to the top (yes, again), content is now organised by type across all your services, and you can pin up to 20 apps instead of six.
The February rollout in the United States is limited to just two devices: the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus (the recently renamed version of the Fire TV Stick 4K) and the Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation).
Both are Android-based devices running Fire OS, Amazon’s customised version of Android that’s powered Fire TV devices for over a decade.
Amazon says it will expand the new UI to more countries and devices throughout spring, including Fire TV televisions and devices made by partners like Hisense, Insignia, Panasonic, and TCL. But the Fire TV Stick 4K Select? Not mentioned.
Another Setback For The Select
The Fire TV Stick 4K Select launched in October 2025 as Amazon’s “most affordable” 4K streaming device at £49.99. It’s also the first Fire TV device to run Vega OS, Amazon’s brand new operating system built directly on Linux rather than Android.
The switch to Vega OS was supposed to be a big deal – Amazon claimed the leaner, more efficient system would deliver better performance on cheaper hardware.
But in practice, it’s created a cascade of problems that have plagued the Select since day one.
Because Vega OS is built on a completely different foundation than Android, every single app needs to be completely rebuilt to work on it.
The Netflix app that runs on your Android-based Fire TV Stick won’t simply work on the Select – Netflix had to build an entirely new version specifically for Vega OS.
At launch, the Select supported around 900 apps compared to over 30,000 on Android-based Fire TV devices.
All the major UK streaming services made the jump – BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, 5, NOW, Netflix, Disney+ – which is genuinely impressive.
But plenty of smaller services haven’t bothered, and some specialist apps that Fire TV users rely on simply aren’t available.
This creates a chicken-and-egg problem: developers won’t invest time building Vega OS apps unless there’s a substantial user base to justify the expense, but customers won’t buy a device with limited app availability.
Amazon has tried to solve this by pricing the Select aggressively – it’s dropped to £19.99 during holiday sales, a 60% discount on a device barely two months old – but aggressive discounting on brand new hardware might suggest the device isn’t selling as well as Amazon hoped.
The Select also doesn’t support sideloading at all. On Android-based Fire TV devices, you can install apps from outside the Amazon Appstore if you want to – whether that’s Kodi, alternative media players, or legitimate apps that Amazon doesn’t carry.
It’s a feature enthusiasts have relied on for years. The Select? You can only install apps from the Amazon Appstore, full stop. That’s a technical limitation of Vega OS, not something Amazon is likely to change.
Then there’s VPN support. The Select launched in October without any VPN apps available – a glaring omission for a streaming device in 2025.
VPNs are important tools for Fire TV users, both for bypassing geo-restrictions (watching American Netflix from the UK, for example) and for privacy and security.
VPN apps finally appeared in late November, nearly two months after the Select launched. But only two providers are currently supported – NordVPN and IPVanish – with no word on when (or if) other major VPN services will follow.
Compare that to Android-based Fire TV devices, where virtually every major VPN provider has had apps available for years.
The Select also lacks Dolby Vision support (only HDR10+), has just 1GB of RAM compared to 2GB in the standard Fire TV Stick 4K, and uses WiFi 5 instead of WiFi 6.
For £49.99, that’s a tough sell when the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus costs just £10 more and doesn’t have any of these limitations.
Amazon has implemented a workaround for apps that haven’t been ported to Vega OS yet: cloud app streaming. For select video streaming apps without native Vega versions, Amazon runs the Android app on their AWS cloud servers and streams the interface to your device.
It’s technically clever, but Amazon is only providing this service free to developers for “at least the first 9 months.” After that, they’ll start charging based on monthly active users.
What happens then? Do smaller streaming services decide it’s not worth the cost and pull their apps? It’s genuinely unclear, adding yet another layer of uncertainty to the Select’s long-term app availability.
Now the Select is missing from the initial rollout of Amazon’s biggest Fire TV update in years. It’s another example of the device being left behind, getting features “later” – if at all.
What This Really Means
If you own an Android-based Fire TV Stick, this is actually reassuring. There’s been speculation about whether Amazon would phase out its Android-based devices in favour of Vega OS, but the fact that the 4K Plus and 4K Max are getting the new interface first suggests the Android-based sticks remain Amazon’s priority.
But if you bought a Select – or were considering one – this reinforces a troubling pattern.
There’s a possible technical explanation: because Vega OS is built directly on Linux, Amazon can’t simply push the Android version of the new interface to Vega OS devices – it would need to be rebuilt from scratch.
But Amazon knew it was planning this interface update when it launched the Select in October. If Vega OS is genuinely the future of Fire TV, you’d think Amazon would have prioritised getting the new interface ready for both platforms simultaneously.
What About The UK?
UK users won’t see the new interface in February regardless of which device they own – Amazon says the international rollout will happen “later in spring.” That could mean March, or it could mean May.
By the time the new interface reaches the UK, it’s entirely possible Amazon will have Vega OS support ready as well.
The Select might get the update at the same time as the Android-based devices in international markets. But that’s speculation – Amazon hasn’t said anything about when (or if) the Select will get the new interface.
Should This Change Your Buying Decision?
If you’re choosing between the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus and the Fire TV Stick 4K Select right now, this news reinforces what was already clear: the 4K Plus is the better device for most people.
At £59.99 (often on sale for less), you get Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support, WiFi 6, 2GB of RAM, access to over 30,000 apps, established VPN support, and the ability to sideload legitimate apps if needed.
And now we know you’ll get major interface updates first, too – at least for now.
The Select works fine for casual streaming of mainstream services on a budget. But if you want a device that gets new features promptly and has the full flexibility of the Fire TV platform, spend the extra tenner on the 4K Plus.
For a full comparison of all Fire TV devices, see our Fire TV specs comparison.
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Why no mention of the Cube? The best Fire TV device.
These devices for the consumer are for streaming, when turning the device on the highlighted app should be on the streaming app line and be the last service you used. You should not have to click through a large add banner and then a line of sponsored content to get to them. As this redesign doesn’t resolve that issue it’s pointless.