[Review] Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K (with Alexa voice remote) with Unboxing. Does the Fire TV Stick 4K work in the Philippines?

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K (featuring Nougat the cat looking on while I unbox the device)

So I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an Amazon FireTV stick 4K (it isn't mine, it is actually my brother's but he allowed me to have it for a while). I thought I'd play with it a little bit and find out if the device will work in the Philippines.

Ok, I'll get to the point, the Amazon FireTV Stick 4K doesn't really work outside specific territories and it is unfortunate that the Philippines is not one of those territories. It still functions as a streaming receiver for Prime Video on your phone but no such luck in using the slick and responsive built-in interface of the device. According to the support page of Amazon's Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, these are the only countries where the devices are officially supported:

From Amazon.com's help section for Fire TV and Fire TV Stick

It does mention that the Fire TV/Fire TV Stick basic edition is compatible with Prime Video content for the following territories:

From Amazon.com's help section for Fire TV and Fire TV Stick

So while the hardware itself works with the TV to display the interface via HDMI, I am able to sign in using my Philippines based Amazon ID, wifi connection works, 4K content is not available, trailers and previews are shown without any problems, and accessing Alexa using the included remote also works (at least as well as Alexa is able to work given that it doesn't actually support a lot of localized/country-specific content). The interface of the Fire Stick 4K is very responsive and I would have liked to try it out more. For now, however, I would just need to make do with casting content from my Prime Video app on Android to the TV (sans the 4K support). The device just works as a Prime Video casting receiver for now and given the recent interoperability announcements from the Amazon and Google camps, I could not justify buying one for myself (and permanently occupy 1 HDMI slot in my TV). If you do not have an Android-based Smart TV and you are in one of the device's supported territories then, by all means, give it a try.

I would like to say something about the remote control, it is very nicely designed and there is that dedicated Alexa button on the remote which only activates while you are pressing it (the device doesn't constantly listen to the Alexa keyword which may be preferred for some privacy-conscious individuals). It is quite intuitive to use. Although you can use your own TV's remote control, there are some features (or buttons) that are only accessible via the remote, especially for Prime Video.

Note that using the device in conjunction with a VPN service that works with streaming services is outside of the scope of this post. This is only to determine whether the device works in the country out of the box.

Unboxing and initial setup pics: