The newest Amazon Fire TV Cube is nice. Really good, even, with the addition of HDMI-in that enables for even higher management of issues like cable and satellite tv for pc set-top bins. Same, too, goes for the addition of USB-A and a full-blown Ethernet port.

But it’s that latter function that many a reader of our Fire TV Cube overview (and our Fire TV Omni QLED overview, too) has had caught of their craw.

First, a little bit context. Ethernet is a superb choice to have. Yes, even on this golden age of Wi-Fi, and even because the Fire TV Cube itself has added assist for Wi-Fi 6E, the newest normal is quicker and simply higher than what got here earlier than it. Never thoughts the truth that solely the latest of routers helps it — that’s an issue for an additional day, and future-proofing a tool on this manner is an effective factor.

Regardless, bodily connecting your gadget to your community through Ethernet is nearly all the time higher than going wi-fi. If it’s not an inconvenience to take action, we recommend you plug it in.

The earlier two fashions of Fire TV Cube, initially launched in 2018 and up to date a tad a 12 months later, supported Ethernet through a Micro USB dongle. That’s not perfect because it requires you to first buy mentioned dongle (which Amazon itself was joyful to promote you), and it additionally requires you to plug yet one more factor into a tool that just about actually had the interior room to spare.

So the addition of a full Ethernet port within the newest Fire TV Cube is an effective factor.

Just one drawback, although. The port itself is what’s often known as a ten/100 port, also called Fast Ethernet. That means you’re not going to get past the theoretical pace of 100Mbps of information flowing by means of. And word that we’re speaking about megabits per second in that 10/100 quantity, not megabytes. We’re speaking pace, not file measurement.

For distinction, the highest theoretical pace of Wi-Fi 6E on the Fire TV Cube is a ridiculous (however superior) 9.6Gbps. Note the uppercase G there for gigabits, not megabits. That’s much more knowledge transferring round.

In different phrases, you nearly don’t wish to plug the Cube into your router if what you’re frightened about is pure theoretical knowledge throughput (and if in case you have a Wi-Fi 6E router). And to be truthful to the Fire TV Cube, this isn’t the one time we’ve seen this occur. It’s a fundamental numbers recreation at this level. Anything operating Wi-Fi 4 (beforehand often known as 802.11n) and newer has a better theoretical wi-fi pace than what a ten/100 connection will get you.

Does any of this even matter? Yes and no.

It issues for those who’re the type who calls for that each function on a brand-new gadget be the newest and best with out understanding that each design determination has a trade-off, be it cash or warmth or one thing else altogether. Hardware is difficult. We’ll name this the Veruca Salt state of mind. You won’t like {that a} gadget has lesser specs, however that doesn’t imply it wasn’t executed for a purpose, even for those who don’t agree with it.

It issues for those who want one thing past 100Base/TX for no matter purpose, be it pace, capability, or distance. If you even know what 100Base/TX is, you’ve probably been rolling your eyes for a while, and that’s advantageous. (If you want it for the Fire TV Cube? Well, we should always speak.)

And, advantageous, it perhaps issues for those who’re going to be pushing content material in 8K decision, which you nearly assuredly usually are not. You’re undoubtedly not streaming it but, anyway.

But it doesn’t matter for those who perceive that you don’t want Gigabit Ethernet to do something you count on the Fire TV Cube to do in the present day, in 2022. Or probably in 2023 or 2024. Probably in 2025, too. You don’t want it to stream Netflix films in 4K; a paltry 15Mbps ought to do, Netflix says. You don’t want it to play video games on Luna, Amazon’s streaming gaming platform; 10Mbps is okay for that. Pick one other regular use case. Same reply.

In reality, Amazon says just about the identical factor. In an emailed response as we have been wrapping up this piece, we have been instructed the reasoning behind the ten/100 Ethernet port was that “10/100 Ethernet is sufficient to meet the throughput requirements for all primary Cube use cases including the most demanding streaming use case — 4K 60 fps [Dolby Vision] with Atmos and Picture-in-Picture.”

In addition, Amazon — which completely is aware of whether or not you’re utilizing Wi-Fi or Ethernet with its units — mentioned that “the majority of our customers prefer Wi-Fi over wired ethernet and therefore we biased toward investing in Wi-Fi 6E that drives Gigabit speeds over Wi-Fi instead.”

Also, it makes excellent sense whenever you keep in mind that the , because the title suggests, helps Wi-Fi 6E. And Eero is owned by Amazon. So it could be so simple as that.

Look on the examples above. On the left is the Apple TV 4K (2021 mannequin) with Gigabit Ethernet. On the precise is the Amazon Fire TV Cube with Fast Ethernet. Both are related through Ethernet to the identical swap and router. Apple TV is roughly 10 occasions sooner. But does it stream video 10 occasions sooner? Or higher? Or in any discernible manner?

Your house web connection — which isn’t the identical factor as Ethernet pace — has extra to do with any of this than a ten/100 Ethernet connector. If you’re restricted to, say, a theoretical 50Mbps most coming into your own home, it’s possible you’ll nicely have points. Maybe even at 100Mbps, which is not less than nearer to the typical American broadband pace, per Ookla. It’s all about the place the bottleneck is discovered. If you limit the water additional upstream, it’ll be drier downstream. (Or the items of your pie might be smaller. Pick your individual metaphor.)

The drawback is that we see “10/100” on a spec sheet and instantly know that it’s simply not so good as “10/100/1000.” And we wish higher. We need one of the best. For $140.

If Gigabit Ethernet is that vital to you, you’ll have to seize an Apple TV 4K. (And you’ll be able to for a music today.) Or snag an getting old — however nonetheless excellent — NVIDIA Shield TV.

Just know that everybody else is streaming the identical issues simply the identical as you’re, it doesn’t matter what they paid or what spec they have been fixated on.

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