Amazon has just announced an all-new Fire TV Stick 2 with Alexa Voice Remote for $39.99. The new device looks exactly like the previous model from the outside, but is all-new on the inside. Packed in is a quad-core 1.3 Ghz Mediatek 8127D processor with Mali-450 GPU. That’s a considerable jump from the 1 Ghz dual core CPU powering the previous generation Fire TV Stick. Connectivity also receives a bump up with the addition of dual-band/dual-antenna 802.11ac WiFi. Interestingly, ethernet connectivity is listed as “optional” so it seems the new Fire TV Stick may support OTG cables and USB-to-Ethernet adapters out of the box without needing to root the device. (See update below.)
RAM and internal storage remain the same at 1GB and 8GB respectively. The new Fire TV Stick 2 is still a 1080p device, so there’s no 4K support, but the new hardware does now decode h.265 HEVC natively. The new hardware now only ships with a voice remote, but is priced $10 less than the old voice remote bundle. The new Fire TV Stick 2 with Voice Remote is available for pre-order now and will arrive at customer’s doors on October 20th.
Update
Amazon has informed me the listing of ethernet as optional for the new Fire TV Stick 2 was a mistake. The product page has been updated to say ethernet is not an option for the Fire TV Stick 2.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
The page has the specs up.
Quad MediaTek 1.3ghz
Mali 450 gpu
1gb ram / 8gb storage
now plays x265
No 4k
Specs seem very close to what Elias had guess a couple weeks back. Also says “HDMI extender”, so I hope they are back to providing a 3″ extender, instend of that crappy adapter that makes you use a full length hdmi cable.
I swear Elias updated his article with specs the same time as I added them in the comments. sorry for the repeat.
No problem, I appreciate the info regardless. I like to get the main info up quick and fill the detailed specs in as I find them. So if you see an article immediately when it goes up, it may change a few minutes later. I’ll usually say “story developing…” at the end of the post if I’m still filling in the details.
Any release date for the uk ?
Hopefully this side of Christmas!
No headphone socket on the remote is a bummer (hopefully to come on fire TV 3)
Agreed on the remote. Amazon must have meant that you’ll get new features in the remote for the same base price (i.e. A voice remote instead of the old basic Stick remote), when they sent that note out to people who ordered the out of stock first gen sticks.
I wouldn’t bother holding out for a headphone remote, the quality of such remotes I’ve always found barely tolerable.
Obviously Amazon could deliver something better but with their basic approach I wouldn’t bet on it.
If you need it, might be worth looking at bluetooth adapters/*phones instead.
I use the game controller’s headphone jack all the time and find it works better than BT headphones. My only complaint is the size and lack of dedicated media buttons, so I usually have the regular remote next to me also.
I have the original game controller so no headphone socket.
Looks like I might have to pick one up then at some point.
I think this new stick will satisfy me. Better wifi, faster cpu, x265, and still $40. Unreal! Already pre-ordered two. lol
I wonder if the 1gb ram will still be split 50/50 between cpu and graphics. Wouldn’t one unified pool be more versatile?
According to the developer specs page, it remains split. https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/devices/fire-tv/docs/device-and-platform-specifications
Great link M C !!!! thanks
ANyway, I always thought unified memory was preferred. I’m surprised they partition it. Maybe to ensure app developers do not over use a certain allotment?
Doesn’t Amazon normally announce new hardware at the same time? No mention of a 4K HDR FTV.
If I were Amazon, I’d wait till next year for Fire TV 3. There is very little HDR content available. Also, barely anyone has an HDR tv. I bought a 4k set last year, not realizing HDR would be a thing.
Next year the HDR SOCs will be cheaper, and Amazon can provide other upgrades easier than they can right now.
In the past they have, but lately they’ve been releasing a single product at a time. The Fire HD8 tablet just got updated on its own without updating any of the other tablets. The basic Kindle was updated earlier this year without updating any other Kindles. So the fact a Fire TV 3 wasn’t announced today doesn’t necessarily mean we wont see it this year.
Can you get confirmation on the ability to use ethernet with an adapter without the need to root the device?
Also what is the cheapest product that is reliable that will accomplish this?
Thanks.
I’m working on it. Amazon PR is looking into it right now and will get back to me soon. I’ll write a separate post about it once I get more details.
As far as cheapest products, assuming it uses an OTG cable and USB ethernet adapter, I would go with this OTG cable for $1.69 and this ethernet adapter for $13 because they already work on the existing Fir TV Stick if its rooted and they’re one of the least expensive options.
I haven’t heard back from Amazon yet, but the page now says “no” instead of “optional” for ethernet, so looks like it may have been a typo.
Thanks again for researching this, I hope the answer is not no but it does not look good.
If one buys the traditional Fire TV is there a way to hook up an av wire for audio only that would somehow be able to hook into the box, perhaps via the usb? I would like to be able to listen to audio streaming and be able to turn the TV off.
Also, if you are listening to Tune In or IHeart radio or any streaming station, can you have a chosen screensaver appear after a certain number of minutes, perhaps something that would make the screen go completely dark?
Thanks again for your help.
You are better off with the Echo Dot if you want to use the Fire TV Stick as a way to stream music, especially without having to use the TV.
I heard back from Amazon and just updated the post. They say ethernet is not an option and it was a mistake on the page.
If you want to listen to audio with the TV off, you’ll have use a splitter that breaks audio out of the HDMI cable and plug that into your audio equipment.
As for the screensaver, you could upload a black image to Amazon Drive and then select it as the screensaver photo album on the Fire TV.
How does this compare to the roku stick? I couldn’t find any detailed specs for the role stick anywhere
I would guess it’s about equal or slightly better to the new Roku Stick as far as raw power. The Roku Stick has 512MB RAM though, so the Fire TV Stick beats it there.
More RAM & storage. I’m betting the FTV stick cpu/gpu are also faster. Also better remote with Voice, x265 compatability, etc.. $10 cheaper. Amazon always gives more for the buck than Roku does.
So no new Fire TV?
Is this as fast as a fire tv 1?
No. The Fire TV 1 had a quad-core 1.6 Ghz CPU. Plus I don’t think the new Stick’s GPU will be as good as the Fire TV 1’s GPU.
I’ll benchmark the new Fire TV Stick once I get it, and compare to all existing Fire TV and Fire TV Stick models, to know for sure.
Fire TV 1 in the lounge. Fire stick in the bedroom (an early model) and the sluggishness of the latter is so frustrating I often just give up and use the Amazon Video app on the iPad!
If this new model is closer to the Fire TV 1 in interface speed it will be a definite buy (when it comes to the UK!)
On the other hand, if a Fire TV 3 was in the offing, that would go in the lounge and the Gen 1 would go in the bedroom…..
Are you listening Amazon? You’ll get more money out of me lol
This is what I want to, gonna get rid of my Nexus player in the bedroom and put my 1st gen Fire TV in there and get a 3 fire the living room. Compliment then with the new Chromecast that will be announced next week.
Hurry up Amazon and announce the 3 already.
Anyone think this will work with HD Homerun?
There’s no reason it shouldn’t.
So the CPU is going from 40nm to 28nm. That should help power usage and heat. To this day, I still suspect my current FTV stick throttles due to overheating. I finally resorted to setting it to 720p to get smooth playback in Netflix.
Any predictions when a new Fire TV box will be announced?
I own a Fire TV 2 and Roku 4. I can’t stand the UI anymore on the Roku. If you open apps side by side, the ones on the Fire TV are much slicker, faster and presented in a more modern way.
Is this because Fire runs on Android and Roku is a older proprietary format language?
Roku runs brightscript which is terrible. Only a few native apps like Netflix, Vudu, Youtube use HTML5. Also I will never buy another Roku after I tried to hook the newest stick to my older 2008 Toshiba TV and got a purple screen when playing something. Roku teases you will the UI and the app UI but when you play something purple screen. Just give us a HDCP error on the UI so we know it does not work. I hate being teased.
Can you explain this? Just curious. HTML 5 is notorious slow isn’t it? It must be hard to code for that?
It’s not that HTML5 is hard to code for. It’s actually easier in a way because it’s a language used for the web, which most programmers already know. The issue is that HTML5 is not native code. It’s like running an app inside of another app. It just often results in a sluggish experience.
Thanks for the response. Makes total sense.
I did some reading yesterday and from what I gathered the CEO of Roku is a coder by trade and wanted to create a custom language for his box.
In the long run I think it’s foolish. You have a code base like Android that EVERYONE develops for. Why not create your own custom interface and take advantage of the android community.
I’ve looked at dozen’s of apps side by side. No matter what I see written, my own observation is that most Roku apps are clunky. It looks dated, the images are small, and getting around is harder for me than Amazon Fire TV.
…I also would give anything if Time Warner would port their app to the Fire TV. That’s the one thing I don’t have that Roku does.
For S40 I will be per-ordering one of these things.
Is there anyone able to order one and then reship it to my address in Italy? Please PM me / let me know it possible. Thanks.
Will the old Fire TV stick still be available? If so will they reduce the price?
It doesn’t appear so. Before today the old Fire TV Stick was just out of stock. Now it’s listed as unavailable.
So do we know if this is the same remote that is in with the FTV2 and the older Stick with Voice? Still wifi direct, or back to bluetooth?
All indication is that it is exactly the same remote, but we don’t know for sure. Dimensions of the remote are identical and the images being used are pixel-for-pixel the same as the existing voice remote. Plus, there hasn’t been an FCC filing for a new remote.
Thanks buddy. You are really on top of this stuff!
Is there any reason a non-voice remote wouldn’t work with this? I want to take the voice remove from Fire TV Stick 2 since I am tired of ham-handed media control on Fire TV 2 with the game controller.
I assume I could just replace my original Fire TV Stick with this one and use the old stick’s non-voice remote. Could be wrong though.
They need to maintain BT remote support on the Fire TV 1, 2, and Stick 1, so it would be silly to remove it from the Stick 2. I’m confident you’ll be able to use the older BT remotes on the new Stick, but I’ll be sure to test all remotes and controllers the day I receive the Fire TV Stick 2 and write a post about it.
I figured as much. Thanks for the testing, though I’m not sure I will hold off from preordering regardless. Fire TV Stick is great for traveling but the current model does get frustratingly sluggish sometimes so this should be a good replacement.
I wonder if we’ll see any Black Friday deals this year on the new ftv stick?!. I’d love to grab a bargain of this for anything less than $40..I’d bite for $35, and if we’re lucky maybe even as low as $25 in some limited means.
Any idea if the new stick will support hardware decoding of mpeg2? Can’t find any mention of it anywhere – H.265 is a boon!
have 3 pre-ordered, curious about clock speed on new quad-core processor, seen 1.3 Ghz and 1.6 Ghz, which is right, and how does that affect “30% faster” claim?