Amazon is launching its first Fire TV Stick to support 4K HDR content. The new Fire TV Stick 4K is up for pre-order for $50 and it should begin shipping October 31st.
The new model seems to be the latest flagship Fire TV — while Amazon is continuing to sell the Fire TV 4K pendant for $70, it’s no longer featured in the Fire TV Family lineup, and when you visit the product page for the pendant, there’s a message saying “there’s a newer version of Amazon Fire TV” which takes you to the Fire TV Stick 4K page.
While the new Fire TV Stick 4K is only $10 more expensive than the latest Amazon Fire TV Stick with 1080p video support, Amazon says the 4K version is more than 80 percent more powerful thanks to its 1.7 GHz MediaTek MT8695 quad-core processor. It also features 1.5 GB of RAM and 8GB of storage.
The new stick supports 802.11ac WiFi and it supports Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos audio.
It also comes with a new Alexa voice remote that includes support for controlling the volume and power on your TV, sound bar, or other A/V accessories. It also has navigation buttons and a microphone and Alexa button that you can press to use voice commands. Or you can pair your Fire TV Stick 4K with an Alexa-enabled smart speaker like an Echo or Echo Dot to control for hands-free navigation.
If you already have a Fire TV or two lying around, the new Alexa voice remote is also available for pre-order as a standalone accessory for $30. It’s compatible with older Fire TV and Fire TV stick devices, and the new remote will start shipping October 31st.
Amazon is also offering a few promotional bundle deals:
- Fire TV Stick 4K + Echo Dot for $80
- Fire TV Stick 4K 2-pack for $90 (coupon:Â TWOPACK)
- Fire TV Recast + Fire TV 4K Stick + HDTV antenna for $250
While the Fire TV Stick 4K may be Amazon’s smallest, cheapest 4K-ready media streamer to date, it’s still not the cheapest on the market. Roku recently introduced a new line of Premiere media streamers with 4K support and starting prices of just $40.
Must be a mighty thin profit margin… guess it all comes from content.