[ad_1]
Amazon is ready to face Roku this holiday season with the Fire TV Stick 4K streaming player.
The new dongle is 80% faster than the standard Fire TV Stick and supports 4K HDR video in Dolby Vision and HDR10 + formats. More importantly, it includes a new remote with buttons for volume, power and mute. You no longer need a separate remote control (or a Sideclick) to control the basic functions of the TV.
The Fire TV Stick 4K product will be available from October 31st for $ 50. It will indeed replace the Amazon Fire TV pendant, which the company abandons after only one year on the market. The Fire TV Cube, with built-in Alexa handsfree voice commands, will also start shipping with the new remote on October 31 for $ 120. Amazon will continue to sell the regular Fire TV stick for $ 40, but since it lacks the volume and power controls of the TV, you probably should not mind. (If you already have a Fire TV, you can purchase the new remote separately for $ 30.)
Why is it important? Despite more than 25 million active users worldwide, more than the 22 million reported by Roku last month, Amazon seems to have lost the plot with its streaming players over the last year. The Fire TV suspension was a step back from previous Fire TV packages, especially in terms of performance. Although the Cube Fire TV Cube's Alexa hands-free controls are impressive, its lack of remote volume control makes television control unnecessarily frustrating. The 4K TV Fire corrects some of Amazon's biggest missteps, while cutting the comparable Roku Streaming Stick + price by $ 20.
Not only for 4K
It should be noted that the Fire TV Stick 4K is not just faster than the basic Fire TV Stick. It should also surpass the Fire TV Cube and Fire TV suspensions. These devices contain a 1.5 GHz quad-core chip, which, according to Amazon, makes them 40% more powerful than the Fire TV Stick. For comparison, the Fire TV Stick 4K has a 1.7 GHz processor, 80% faster than the non-4K version.
For owners of 4K HDR TVs, the Fire TV Stick 4K also has the advantage of supporting Dolby Vision and HDR10 + formats. Compared to HDR10, these formats can optimize scene-by-scene colors if the content supports it. (Amazon Prime Video offers a selection of videos in HDR10, HDR10 + and Dolby Vision, while Netflix supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision only.) Amazon does not plan to support HDR10 + or Dolby Vision over its old ones 4K Fire TV devices.
Even the support of Fire TV Cube for Alexa hands-free voice commands may not be necessary, as you can combine a 4K Fire TV with an Echo Dot speaker for a lower price of 80 €. The Cube Fire TV does not offer decoder, TV volume, and audio / V voice commands, but you can still control basic playback and start video in applications such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. (Speaking of bundles, Amazon will also sell a pair of Fire TV Stick 4K devices for $ 90 and offer the Fire TV Stick, a Fire Recast Digital TV Over-the-Air (usually $ 230), and a 35-mile antenna for $ 250.
Amazon's Fire TV lineup is now much better against rival Roku, who recently completed its own line of 4K devices with the new $ 40 Premiere and $ 50 Premiere. The first one has the right to boast of being the least expensive 4K HDR player, but it lacks volume and power controls, does not support HDR10 + nor Dolby Vision and uses a Wi-Fi adapter -If aging 802.11n instead of the last 802.11ac. The latter adds these television controls, but otherwise has the same problems. For modern Wi-Fi connectivity, you'd need the $ 70 Roku Streaming Stick +, which still does not support HDR10 + or Dolby Vision.
Certainly, Roku's software is much simpler and less Amazon-centric, and Amazon says not to expect major changes to its own Fire TV operating system, whose chaotic menus and intrusive banner ads have made lower our critical scores in the past. We will be eager to review all these new devices and make an appropriate verdict soon.
[ad_2]
Source link
