Amazon has introduced new versions of its Fire TV Products along with the launch of its $50 tablet. The company has announced the new Fire TV that supports 4K Ultra HD.
The 4K capabilities of the new Amazon Fire TV will let users access the 4K UHD streams of Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Video, and Netflix. The TV supports High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) that will deliver more 1080p high-definition streams from Amazon Video as it roughly 2 times more efficient at encoding video than the current industry standard and also uses less bandwidth to deliver high-quality video streams. Amazon claims that Amazon Fire TV has 5x the processing power than the latest generation Roku and 8x the processing power of Chromecast.
Amazon Fire TV key specifications
- MediaTek Quad-core up to 2 Ghz, Dual-core @ 2.0 GHz + Dual-core @ 1.6 GHz and GPU Power VR GX6250
- 2GB RAM, 8 GB internal storage, expanded to 128GB via micro SD card slot.
- Dimensions: 4.5″ x 4.5″ x 0.7″ (115 mm x 115 mm x 17.8 mm); Weight: 9.5 oz. (270 g)
- Wi-Fi Connectivity Dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi (MIMO), 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth 4.1
- Ports: DC Jack, HDMI output, 10/100 Ethernet, microSD slot, USB 2.0
- Audio Support Dolby Audio, 5.1 surround sound, 2ch stereo, and HDMI audio pass through up to 7.1
- Content Formats Supported Video: H.265, H.264, Audio: AAC-LC, AC3, eAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), FLAC, MP3, PCM/Wave, Vorbis, Dolby
- Atmos (EC3_JOC), Photo: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP
Along with the Fire TV, Amazon has also introduced new Fire TV Stick that comes with a Voice Remote. It comes with a a dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and has 4x the storage and 2x the memory of Chromecast. It also supports Dolby Audio and better Wi-Fi performance. Amazon has integrated “Alexa,” the popular cloud-based assistant found in the enigmatic Echo speaker. Alexa will come to the Fire TV through its voice-enabled remote control and allow you to find TV shows and movies, weather reports, sports scores, apps by simply speaking into the new Fire TV remote.
The new Amazon Fire TV and the Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote are available for pre-order today and are priced at $99.99 and $49.99 respectively. Shipping for the Fire TV will start from October 5 while that for the Fire TV Stick will start from October 22.