Amazon has just published the specs for its new budget-friendly Fire TV 2-Series Smart TVs that were announced last week. For the most part, the specs are aligned with what you’d expect from a budget TV, but there are a few surprises, specifically with the larger and higher resolution 40-inch 1080p model.
Bold = Better| Fire TV 2-Series 32-inch | Fire TV 2-Series 40-inch | |
| List Price | $199.99 | $249.99 |
| Screen Size | 32 inches | 40 inches |
| Resolution | 720p 1366 x 768 | 1080p 1920 x 1080 |
| CPU Model | MediaTek T36 | MediaTek T31 |
| CPU Cores | 4-core | 4-core |
| CPU Speed | 1.45 GHz | 1.5 GHz |
| GPU | Mali-G52 | Mali-G52 |
| RAM | 1.5 GB | 2 GB |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 5 802.11ac | Wi-Fi 5 802.11ac |
| Ethernet | 10/100 Mbps | 10/100 Mbps |
| Internal Storage | 16 GB | 16 GB |
| Operating System | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) | Fire OS 7 (Android 9) |
| HDR Types | HDR10, HLG | HDR10, HLG |
| Video Decoding | H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), AV1, and more | H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), AV1, and more |
| HDMI Ports | 3 (2 x 1.4, 1 x ARC) | 3 (2 x 1.4, 1 x ARC) |
| Audio Ports | 1 x Optical 1 x 3.5mm Headphone | 1 x Optical 1 x 3.5mm Headphone |
| USB | 1 x USB 2.0 | 1 x USB 2.0 |
| IR Port | 1 (Blaster sold seperatly) | 1 (Blaster sold seperatly) |
| Speakers | 2 x 8W Dolby Digital w/ Dolby Atmos Passthrough | 2 x 8W Dolby Digital w/ Dolby Atmos Passthrough |
Amazon isn’t rocking the boat with the components powering its new line of cheap non-4K Fire TV Smart TVs. The 32-inch 720p model is powered by a MediaTek T36 quad-core processor clocked at 1.45Ghz. This is the same SoC used in Toshiba’s V35 Series of non-4K Fire TV Smart TVs, which were released in 2021. What is slightly surprising is the processor choice for the larger 40-inch 1080p Fire TV 2-Series Smart TV. It uses the MediaTek MT9020 T31 quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz. Despite it being a 1080p TV, it’s using the same hardware powering most 4K Fire TV Smart TV models.
I expected both Fire TV 2-Series sizes to use the same lower-end hardware, but the 40-inch 1080p model having the guts of a 4K TV should make it perform much better than the 32-inch 720p model. I’d recommend people considering the smaller size to highly consider the larger TV based on that fact alone. The spec difference continues into the RAM of these TV, where the 32-inch has 1.5 GB and the 40-inch model has 2 GB.
All other hardware specs of the pair of Fire TV 2-Series TVs are the same between the two. Both use a Mali-G52 GPU, both have 802.11ac dual band WiFi 5, both have 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, both support Bluetooth 5.0, and both have 16GB of internal storage. Both TVs are also listed as supporting AV1 video decoding, but there is a note stating that the codec specs are only for the North American release, so it seems as though decoding capabilities will vary from region to region. These TVs are being sold in the US, UK, Germany, Canada, and Mexico.
The last spec to note is the listing of the Fire TV 2-Series TVs as having a 64-bit architecture. I suspect this is a mistake. While all modern Fire TV devices, including Fire TV Smart TVs, do have 64-bit hardware, they all run a 32-bit version of Fire OS on that hardware. The 2nd-gen Fire TV box is the only Fire TV model to ever run a true 64-bit version of Fire OS, so I doubt Amazon actually decided these budget TVs are going to be the first models to change that. I’ve reached out to Amazon about this possible mistake and will update this post if they respond or update the spec page.
Update
Amazon has confirmed with me that the 64-bit listing was a mistake and has updated the spec page. Like all other Fire TV Smart TVs, the Fire TV 2-Series TVs are running a 32-bit version of Fire OS.
All and all, the new Fire TV 2-Series Smart TVs are on par with most Fire TV Smart TVs released so far. They aren’t improving on anything but they also aren’t cutting any corners. The boost in processing power, RAM, screen size, and resolution of the 40-inch 1080p model for $249.99 easily makes it the one to choose over the 32-inch 720p model for $199.99.
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Presumably they can also decode MPEG-2. They have to be able to do that to work as TVs in the US.
Definitely. I just listed a few of the codecs people tend to care most about. Both TVs can decode MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VP8, VP9, AV1, H.265 HEVC, and H.264 AVC video.
I’ve been using local media streaming boxes since my old firmware modified DVD player in the aughts. The last TV I bought was a Vizio M-Series back in 2015. Obviously its a damn reliable set, but its basically incapable of any kind of video playing you might want to do. I didn’t expect anything more. You need a box for local media streaming.
So I was simply amazed at how well my girlfriend’s 2020 LG budget 4k set played local videos. You might find a file with a sound codec incompatibility here and there, but for an unadvertised feature, its a dang capable media player.
I didn’t see 2 series spec. from developer.amazon.com. Am I the only one who can’t see it?
So, is Amazon done with Dolby Vision? It’s a little disappointing a lot of Prime content is showing support for HDR10, but not Dolby Vision for FireTVs that support it.