Craig Lloyd
Amazon has introduced a new version of its Fire TV Stick for $49, which comes with 4K support, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+, as well as an all-new Alexa Voice Remote.
The new streaming dongle comes with a faster 1.7GHz quad-core processor (compared to 1.3GHz in the existing model), making it “the most powerful streaming media stick available,” according to Amazon.
As for the new remote, it’s got all the same cool features as the old one, including voice search and being able to turn on all of your equipment. However, this new Alexa Voice Remote now comes with dedicated power, volume, and mute buttons. And as always, you can pair an Echo device to the Fire TV to control the interface entirely with your voice, if that’s your thing.
While Amazon has offered a 4K streaming device for a while now, this is the first time that the Fire TV Stick, in particular, has gotten the upgrade to the higher resolution. And with that upgrade, this new Fire TV Stick 4K seems to replace the main Fire TV model, which means Amazon’s full line of Fire TV streaming devices only consists of the Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Stick 4K, and the Fire TV Cube (the Fire TV Cube also now comes with the new Alexa Voice Remote).
As for how the Fire TV Stick 4K compares to other streaming devices on the market, it’s not the cheapest available (that honor goes to Roku’s Premiere at $40), but it’s certainly on the low end of 4K streaming sticks/dongles/boxes—the Chromecast Ultra is $70 and the Apple TV 4K is on the high end at $180.
