Amazon had a busy time announcing a new Fire TV product as well as a new Fire tablet and revisions to the Echo voice and audio products.
The new Fire TV streamer upgrades the previous version, released in 2015, and uses an Amlogic S905Z chip which has 4×Cortex A53 cores at 1.5 GHz with a Mali450 GPU. RAM remains at 2GB and storage at 8GB (but the microSD slot goes). Wired ethernet becomes an option and there is no USB support. Video is boosted from 30 fps to 60fps at 3840 x 2160 via HDMI 2,0a and HDR support is added via HDR10 (with HEVC or VP9).
Audio support is passthrough of Atmos or 5.1 via the HDMI or optical and the remote has been upgraded to support Alexa. The box is available on the 25th October at $69 or $79 bundled with an Echo Dot.
The company has also upgraded the Fire 10 tablet to have a 1920 x 1200 IPS LCD display (the best on an Amazon tablet for some time) 2GB of memory and 32GB of storage (microSD available) and uses a quad core 1.8Ghz processor. It keeps the original camera and has support for Alexa. Pricing is $150 in the US for 32GB and $189 for 64GB and it will be available on October 15th.
Amazon has also upgraded the Echo line with a new, smaller, Echo device, a new speaker unit called the Echo Plus and a small device called the Echo Spot. The second generation Echo has two volume buttons, better speakers and microphone and (finally!) a 3.5mm jack socket for external connections. The price will be $99.99 in the US and there will be fabric, wood, and metallic finishes.
The Echo Plus will cost $150 and looks more like the original Echo, but has a Zigbee hub for IoT functions. It also has Dolby processing on the sound. The Echo Spot has a 2.5″ circular display that can show data feeds (although video is supported) and can be used for video conference calls. It will cost $130 and will arrive in mid-December. As it has a clock face, it may see usage in bedrooms.
The new devices allow synchronised music around the home.
Amazon’s Echo Spot has a 2.5″ circular display
Analyst Comment
The Fire is, as always with Amazon, very competitive, especially in the bundle and makes the Apple offering look especially expensive, but that doesn’t usually worry Apple. The Spot looks expensive for an alarm clock, but as a general purpose radio, alarm and IoT controller it might be useful!
