To take on the fourth generation Apple TV, Amazon today unveiled a new Fire TV with Alexa integration and support for 4K content.
The new Fire TV is about 75 percent faster than its predecessors thanks to a quad-core MediaTek processor inside it. This makes the new Fire TV 5x more powerful than the latest generation Roku and 8x more powerful than Chromecast. It also features 4x more RAM than the Chromecast and Roku and a dedicated GPU for better performance.
Additionally, the media streamer now supports 4K Ultra HD videos and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) codec. It also features faster 802.11 ac MIMO Wi-Fi, which Amazon touts as the “best-in-class”, and support for Alexa. Apart from coming with 8GB of onboard storage, Amazon has also included a microSD card slot on the new Fire TV so that users can easily and cheaply increase its storage capacity.
“The team has packed an incredible amount of technology and innovation into a tiny package,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “The new Fire TV includes 4K support, more processing power, Alexa integration, the largest selection, and exclusive features—for less than $100. The new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote brings voice search and Alexa integration for less than $50. These are powerful devices at incredible prices.”
Amazon boasts that the new Fire TV has access to 4K content from Netflix, Prime Video, and Amazon Video, which is more than what any other streaming media player offers.
The new Amazon Fire TV is already up for pre-order for $99 and will start shipping from October 5. Amazon will also be offering a Fire TV game controller for comes with voice search and an audio jack to further improve your gaming experience. The built-in battery of the controller is good enough for up to 90 hours when used without headphones. Amazon also introduced the Fire TV Gaming Edition that includes the Fire TV, the game controller, 32GB microSd card, and two games — Disney’s Ducktales and Yacht Club’s Shovel Knight — for $139.99.
Amazon also updated the Fire TV Stick with Alexa support and introduced a voice remote for it. The remote will make it possible to search for your favorite movies by speaking into the remote and more. Plus, with Alexa integration, it will be possible to use the remote to check the status of the weather, sports scores, and more. The new Fire TV Stick is also available for pre-order starting fromt oday for $49.99 and will start shipping from October 22.
The existing Fire TV and Fire TV Stick will be getting an update to Fire OS 5 that will add support for Alexa to them.
[Via Amazon]