The FCC has just approved a new unreleased Fire TV remote in the US. All indication points to this new remote being a direct replacement for the Fire TV Alexa Voice Remote that currently ships with the 3rd-gen Fire TV Cube and all Fire TV Smart TVs from Amazon’s own Omni and 4-Series TVs to 3rd-party TVs from Hisense, Xiaomi, Toshiba, Insignia, and others. While the remote will likely look and function identically to the existing remote, the FCC submission seems to indicate that Amazon is now taking the lead and pulling this remote in-house for the first time, instead of relying on a 3rd-party.
The new remote carries FCC ID 2A4DH-8726 and model number K7Q3MT. It looks to be a swap-in replacement for remote model number YKF470, pictured above, which first passed through FCC approval way back in 2019 under FCC ID PUW-2K19-YKF470. This remote first appeared with the release of the Anker Nebula Fire TV Soundbar in 2019 before it began shipping with Toshiba and Insignia Fire TV Smart TV remotes in 2020. Since then, it has been Amazon’s go-to remote for all Fire TV Smart TVs, as well as vehicles with built-in Fire TV rear seat entertainment systems and, most recently, being the remote that shipped with the new Fire TV Cube.
The new remote is already listed on Amazon’s Safety and Compliance Information pages for the Fire TV Cube and for its Fire TV Omni Smart TVs, alongside the existing remote. While the new remote has a different operating temperature range than the existing remote, indicating the internal circuitry is likely made of all-new components, I don’t expect the new remote to look any different. I hope I’m wrong and we see some external improvements with the new remote, but Amazon has swapped out existing remotes with new models that look exactly the same on several occasions now, so I expect this new remote to have a similar silent release.
An assortment of 3rd-party Fire TV Smart TV remotes from 2017 thru 2020
The most interesting thing about the new remote is Amazon’s more hands-on approach to it. All Fire TV Smart TV remotes dating back to the first one released in 2017 with the very first Fire TV Smart TVs by Element and Westinghouse have been submitted to the FCC by their 3rd-party manufacturer, Jiangsu Huitong Group Co., Ltd. This new remote is the first Fire TV Smart TV remote that has been submitted to the FCC by Amazon, and not a 3rd-party, just like Amazon’s in-house Fire TV Stick remotes. Early Fire TV Smart TV remotes were pretty bad and nowhere near the quality of Amazon’s Fire TV Stick remotes. The 3rd-party smart TV remotes have slowly gotten better with each new iteration and the latest version shipping with smart TVs today is nearly on par with Amazon’s own remotes in quality. Hopefully, this new remote with seemingly closer ties to Amazon will continue that trend by being just as good, if not better, than the remote it’s about to replace.
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I wish they would release some sort of high-end remote without the ‘ad’ buttons and made of higher quality materials (ala the Apple TV remote)
Does this one fix the battery issue, I doubt it.
I have had every Fire TV remote since the beginning. My question is: how much bloat are they putting in the new Fire system?
I don’t use many of the ones that I can’t take out for example, Amazon, shopping, internet. Kids,( only me and hubby, Frebee(?) On and on.
Then I have to clean out cashe every day.some of the games I like I am not able to load….
FreeVee is actually a decent channel.
Yeah, FreeVee is the (very poorly chosen) new name for IMDB’s streaming app. I believe its regularly part of Android TV nowadays. Basically a bunch of old shows and some newer content, all commercial supported. Nice little diversion into nostalgia if you’re looking for it. I recently enjoyed some old Night Court, for instance.
Congratulations good keep it up !! great job Thanks !!