Amazon Unveils New Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote for $39.99

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 28 Sep 2016

Amazon Fire TV

Amazon today unveiled its new Fire TV Stick that comes with Alexa built-in. The new streaming stick from Amazon now comes with an Alexa Voice remote — similar to Apple’s Siri remote that it bundles with the Apple TV 4 — that will allow users to easily issue voice commands to control media playback on the Fire TV Stick.

The new Fire TV stick comes with a quad-core processor and 802.11 ac MIMO Wi-Fi with Advanced Streaming and Prediction (ASAP) for Amazon Video to ensure that there is no lag or buffering involved even while playing back 1080p HD streams. The stick also supports HEVC for improved streaming quality. Amazon boasts that its Fire TV stick has access to over 7,000 channels and apps, and to over 300,000 movies and TV episodes.

As for the Alexa voice remote, it will allow new Fire TV Stick owners to find content by using simple commands like “find suspense thrillers” or “launch Hulu”. Just like on the fourth generation Apple TV, Alexa can also be used to jump to a specific point in a movie or TV episode that you are watching.

The new Fire TV Stick from Amazon goes on pre-order from today for $39.99. It will be available to customers from October 20th, with Amazon bundling one month of Sling TV, two months of Hulu subscription, and 10$ Amazon Video credit for customers who purchase and activate the device by October 31.

Amazon will also be rolling out a free software update for the latest generation Fire TV later this year that will bring with it a refreshed UI making it easier to find what to watch next easier. It will also offer accessibility improvements along with a customizable app list.