Everything I loved and hated about the $120 Fire TV Cube, Amazon’s ambitious vision for the future of TV (AMZN)

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As much as technology simplifies our lives, it can simultaneously introduce plenty of unique complications.

Our smart TVs are separate from our smart speakers, which are separate from our smartphones. We have multiple TV streaming accounts and multiple music streaming accounts, and no easy way to access them all at once. 

This is where Amazon's new Fire TV Cube comes in. 

The device — which regularly costs $120, but is on sale for $90 during Amazon's Prime Day — seems aimed at becoming something of a hub, a place where your home technology and your entertainment technology live together in harmony. 

In theory, this is a solid premise. When I first heard about all the Fire TV Cube would be able to do, and got a demo of the device, I was blown away. This product, I thought, would solve any and all of my smart home woes.

But in practice, the Fire TV is more complicated than that. While it simplified my life in a lot of ways, it also created new, unforeseen issues. Even after nearly two weeks of using it, I'm still not sure how to feel about it. 

Here's everything I love and hate about using the Amazon Fire TV Cube:

Now, I know the Fire TV Cube doesn't look like anything special at first glance — it's just a shiny black cube with the same buttons as a regular Echo device and a light strip on the front. 

But that actually became a huge selling point as time went on. 

The Fire TV Cube is designed to blend in with the rest of your home entertainment system, and it does. I placed it on my TV stand next to my TV and could pretty much forget it was there. 

In this case, boring actually is better. 

One of the most important things you need to know about the Fire TV Cube is that it doesn't come with an HDMI cord. 

No HDMI cord means you can't actually plug the Fire TV Cube into your TV right out of the box. If you're lucky enough to have one lying around the house, you'll be good to go — otherwise, it'll set you back another $7 or so. 

While frustrating, this isn't unusual — Apple TVs don't come with HDMI cords in the box, either. 

The Fire TV Cube remote control has its flaws (we'll get to that in a minute) but it has one major advantage over one of its main competitors, Apple TV. 

I use an Apple TV in my daily life, and I have no main complaints about it except for the terrible remote. Its touchpad is wonky — sometimes it's too sensitive, while other times I can't get it to work no matter how much I swipe, tap, and press. 

Thankfully, Amazon included the same remote it's used with past Fire TVs. It's sort of a no-muss, no-fuss TV remote that's easy to use and won't unexpectedly fast forward through an entire episode (which has happened to me several times with the Apple TV remote). 

After two weeks of using the Fire TV Cube, I still can't see the sense of making a TV remote that can't control the volume. 

For the first time months, I had to have two remotes sitting out — the Fire TV remote and the standard remote that came with my TV. Using my voice to change the volume was simply too slow, too unreliable, and too inconvenient.

Asking your TV to turn the volume up or down makes no sense. I can't figure out a single way that it's more convenient, unless, I suppose, something plays more loudly than you anticipated when you're standing across the room.

Mostly, it's just annoying.

Yes, I am capable of reaching down, picking up my remote, and flipping on the TV. It's not hard. 

But what if all I had to do was shout from across the room and make my disembodied smart assistant do it instead? 

Being able to ask Alexa to perform such a seemingly basic task — and have her do it correctly each and every time — was a major selling point of the Fire TV Cube, and it quickly won me over. 

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