Amazon’s new Fire TV Cube goes up for pre-order today for $140 and ships October 25. Like earlier models, it’s a media streamer with a built-in microphone, allowing you to use either a remote control or your voice to control media playback.

But the new 3rd-gen Fire TV Cube has a faster processor than the 2nd-gen model and adds new features including a built-in speaker, a fabric-covered design, HDMI input, and support for WIFi 6E.

The new Fire TV Cube has a 4-mic array for picking up your voice from around the room. And thanks to HDMI input and an IR blaster, you can link it to your cable box or other devices so that you can not only use your voice to access content from Amazon apps and channels, but also from your cable provider. Amazon says you can turn your TV on or off, switch live TV channels, and perform other actions by voice.

Other features include USB and Ethernet ports, support for streaming audio to compatible hearing aids, and a new octa-core processor that Amazon says is 20% faster than the previous-gen.

The chip is a 32-bit Amlogic POP1-G processor with four ARM Cortex-A73 CPU cores @ 2.2 GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores at 2 GHz, and 800 MHz Mali-G52 MP8 graphics.

Video capabilities including support for 4K UHD video playback and Super Resolution upscaling of lower-res content to 4K.

The new Fire TV Cube also adds support for AV1 video decoding, which is new to the Fire TV family.

Amazon is also introducing a new Alexa Voice Remote Pro, but the remote doesn’t seem to come standard with the new Fire TV Cube. Instead it’s coming in November for $35 (and it’s up for pre-order starting today).

The new remote has a Remote Finder function that allows you to ask your Fire TV Cube to find your device if you can’t see it, new backlighting for easier use in the dark, and 2 programmable buttons that can be set to open apps or Alexa routines in addition to the four pre-set buttons for Prime Video, Netflix, Peacock, and DirecTV.

Here’s how the new Fire TV Cube stacks up against Amazon’s cheaper Fire TV Stick devices:

Fire TV Stick Lite (2020)Fire TV Stick (2020)Fire TV Stick 4K (2018)Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2021)Fire TV Cube (2022)
Video1080p @ 60 fps
HDR10+
1080p @ 60 fps
HDR10+
4K @ 60 fps
HDR10+
4K @ 60 fps
HDR10+
HDR10+4K @ 60 fps
HDR10+
CPUMT8695D
1.7 GHz quad-core
32-bit (software limitation)
MT8695D
1.7 GHz quad-core
32-bit (software limitation)
MT8695
1.7 GHz quad-core
32-bit (software limitation)
MT8696
1.8 GHz quad-core
32-bit (software limitation)
Amlogic POP1-G
4 x ARM Cortex-A73 cores @ 2.2 GHz
4 x ARM Cortex-A53 cores @ 2 GHz
32-bit (software limitation)
GPUIMG GE8300IMG GE8300IMG GE8300 (650 MHz)IMG GE9215 (750 MHz)Mali-G52 MP8 (800MHz)
RAM1GB DDR41GB DDR41.5 GB DDR42GB DDR42GB LPDDR4x-4244
Storage8GB8GB8GB8GB16GB
WiFiWiFi 5
2 x 2 MIMO
WiFi 5
2 x 2 MIMO
WiFi 5
2 x 2 MIMO
WiFi 6
2 x 2 MIMO
WiFi 6E
2 x 2 MIMO
BluetoothBT 5.0BT 5.0BT 5.0BT 5.0BT 5.2
Ethernet10/100 (with dongle)10/100 (with dongle)10/100 (with dongle)10/100 (with dongle)10/100 (built-in)
USB port✓
HDMI input✓
Hands-free Alexa ✓
Speaker✓
RemoteAlexa voice remote LiteAlexa voice remoteAlexa voice remoteAlexa voice remoteAlexa Voice Remote
OS Fire OS 7
(Android 9)
Fire OS 7
(Android 9)
Fire OS 6
(Android 7.1)
Fire OS 7
(Android 9)
Fire OS 7
(Android 9)
List Price$30$40$50$55$140

 

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One reply on “Amazon Fire TV Cube (3rd-gen) has a mic, speakers, WiFi 6E, HDMI input and a faster processor”

  1. I find it interesting how Amazon has gradually added more and more buttons to their remotes. They originally went with a bare-bones approach with very few and now they must realize there’s usefulness in being able to quickly and easily press a button for things like mute, changing the TV input, etc. I guess when you take steps backward with an initial design, you get to re-live evolution.

    I wonder if this remote will have a flatter bottom than their previous ones. The old ones are designed so a person can’t just reach over to the remote sitting on an end table and press a button without picking the remote up. Fortunately I have solved that dumb oversight with Sugru or a Sideclicker.

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