Amazon’s latest Fire TV Stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, offers a host of improvements, including boosted performance, support for Wi-Fi 6e, and the addition of the Fire TV Ambient Experience.
The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max is the first streaming media player to come with the Fire TV Ambient Experience and features an upgraded 2.0 GHz quad-core processor, making it Amazon’s smartest and most powerful streaming stick to date.
The Fire TV Stick 4K Max, which is available on pre-order for $80, is also the “industry’s first” streaming stick to include support for Wi-Fi 6E, meaning customers with a compatible router can enjoy a smooth streaming experience with lower latency, faster speeds, and less interference from other Wi-Fi-enabled devices in the home.
With 4K Ultra HD and support for Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10+, and immersive Dolby Atmos audio, the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max purports to deliver Fire TV Stick’s best visual and audio experience to date as well. Fire TV Stick 4K Max also features 16GB of storage, doubling the previous generation’s capacity, enabling customers to store more apps and games directly on the device.
Previously only available on the Fire TV Omni QLED Series, the Fire TV Ambient Experience transforms the TV into an always-smart display. Now available with the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, simply tap of the Alexa button or ask Alexa to activate the Ambient Experience from the Shortcuts menu. This will instantly replace a blank TV screen with helpful information and beautiful artwork. You can also see information like calendars and reminders; leave Sticky Notes for family members; control smart devices like a thermostat or Ring doorbell; play audio from services like Amazon Music, Spotify, and others; and more.
The Ambient Experience can also turn your TV into an in-home art gallery, with no monthly subscription required. Today, Amazon added hundreds of new images to a collection of more than 2,000 free, gallery-quality pieces of artwork, and expanded its collection to include artists from France, Spain, Italy, Japan, and Australia with art from notable institutions including Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Museo del Prado in Madrid, and Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Florence. Customers can also choose from motion graphics, landscape art, personalized and always-evolving dynamic art, and personal photos.
The new Fire TV Stick 4K, meanwhile, delivers Fire TV Stick’s best performance yet under $70 (currently on pre-order). It introduces support for Wi-Fi 6 and features an updated 1.7 GHZ quad-core processor, making it nearly 30% more powerful than the previous generation. With Alexa Home Theater, you can wirelessly connect compatible Echo devices for audio across multiple speakers and inputs.
Complementing the launch of the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Fire TV Stick 4K is a new Fire TV Soundbar, a two-channel soundbar that offers room-filling sound with support for DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Audio. Measuring 24 inches, it is easy to set-up and compatible with all Fire TV devices. You can also use it without TV to listen to audio by connecting a mobile device via Bluetooth. It is available today for $200.
The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Fire TV Stick 4K both use more-sustainable materials and implement a design that reduces their overall lifetime energy consumption. Both also come in packaging that is made of wood-fibre-based materials from responsibly managed forests or recycled sources.
Both new Fire TV Sticks and the Fire TV Soundbar include Low Power Mode, which conserves energy when a device goes to sleep or standby mode due to inactivity. Plus, Amazon’s renewable energy projects will produce the clean energy equivalent to the electricity used by every customer’s Fire TV device by 2025.
“Our mission at Fire TV is to reinvent what customers can expect from a smart TV experience,” says Tapas Roy, Vice President of Fire TV. “That’s why the Fire TV Ambient Experience has resonated with so many customers – it’s made their TVs smarter and more useful, and their homes more beautiful. Today, we’re thrilled to bring the Ambient Experience to more customers around the world with the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and to also deliver Fire TV’s best 4K experience under $70 with the new Fire TV Stick 4K.”