Amazon’s new Fire TV adapter sounds fast, but it faces a limitation

Amazon has finally updated its Fire TV Stick, moving away from the old micro-USB port. The new second-generation Fire TV Stick HD now uses a USB-C port, which sounds like good news. But in classic Amazon fashion, there’s a catch that might disappoint anyone hoping for faster speeds.

You see, Amazon quietly released a matching USB-C Ethernet adapter alongside the new stick. As noted by AFTVnews, if you check the details, you’ll notice it says “up to 480mbps.”

Of course, 480Mbps is much lower than the 1,000Mbps you’d expect from Gigabit Ethernet. It’s actually the maximum speed for USB 2.0.

If you’re not aware, Amazon didn’t include a USB 3.x port in the new Fire TV Stick HD. It’s believed to be using the same hardware as the last six years, just with a different connector. Because USB 2.0 tops out at 480Mbps, even if the adapter can handle Gigabit speeds, the port limits it. In real use, you’ll probably get around 350Mbps. That’s better than the old 100Mbps micro-USB adapter, but still nowhere near true Gigabit speeds.

So why did Amazon make a faster adapter? It’s mainly to prepare for the future. When Amazon finally releases a Fire TV with a real USB 3.x port, this adapter will work at full speed. For now, people with the new HD stick only get half the speed.

As expected, this USB-C adapter doesn’t work with older Fire TV models, since they use micro-USB. It also won’t work with higher-end devices like the Fire TV Cube 3 or the 4K Max Stick. It only works with the new stick.

Interestingly, Amazon isn’t calling this adapter “Gigabit” anywhere. The company seems to be avoiding the topic, probably because it would reveal the old hardware inside.

To be fair, most people don’t need 1Gbps — streaming a 4K movie only takes about 25Mbps. But if you run a Plex server or want fast local network speeds, you might be disappointed.