Last year, Amazon launched the Amazon Fire TV box based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor for $100. The company has recently introduced an upgraded model powered by Mediatek MT8173 quad core processor (2x Cortex A72, 2x Cortex A53), and with support for 4K videos, while keeping the same price tag.
Fire TV 2015 specifications:
- SoC – Mediatek MT8173 quad core processor with 2x ARM Cortex A72 cores @ 2.0 GHz and two ARM Cortex A53 cores @ 1.6 Ghz, and a PowerVR GX6250 GPU
- System Memory – 2GB
- Storage – 8GB internal storage + micro SD slot up to 128GB
- Video Output – HDMI up to 2160p30, 108060, 720p60. HDMI CEC and HDCP 2.2 support
- Video Codecs – H.265, H.264
- Audio Support
- Codecs – AAC-LC, AC3, eAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), FLAC, MP3, PCM/Wave, Vorbis, Dolby Atmos (EC3_JOC)
- Dolby Audio, 5.1 surround sound, 2ch stereo, and HDMI audio pass through up to 7.1
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1 LE with support for HID 1.0 , SPP 1.2, HOGP 1.0, GATT, A2DP 1.2, and AVRCP 1.0
- USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port
- Power Supply – TBD
- Dimensions – 115 mm x 115 mm x 17.8 mm
- Weight – 270 g
The device will run Fire OS 5 based on Android 5.1, and including its own voice assistant: Alexa. Amazon Fire TV will ship with Amazon Fire TV Voice Remote, a power adapter, two AAA batteries and a Quick Start Guide. There’s also a Gaming Edition which replaces Fire TV Voice Remote by Fire TV game controller, and adds a 32GB microSD card, as well as Shovel Knight and Disney’s DuckTales games.
Amazon Fire TV 2015 can be purchased on Amazon US for $99.99, while Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition goes for $139.99, and the products are scheduled to ship on October 5. The remote control and game controller can also be bought separately for respectively $29.99 and $49.99.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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That 10/100M Ethernet, really hurt my feelings. I cant f.. believe it.Why destroy a perfect combo with a wrong selection O.o
@Demetris
… i always ask myself the same … why not giga controller ? with such powerfull SoC combo, i still miss giga lan cable … that will always be better than wifi ac.
Gigalan makes the perfect combo for Kodi and a NAS with a lot of BDs/3D, and other hd files to be played.
I also miss optical jack … 🙁 damn i have a great … i mean a monster high-end amp a great sound, but it’s the best of the last generation – so optical /coax … no hdmi. But it does not mean it’s a bad amp … it’s great. If i want good audio with thoses android box that lacks optical/coax i need to use adapters to extract digital audio from hdmi to share with my ht system 🙁
Agreed on the gig-e although the best these boxes do is around 300-400Mbps but still far better than a measly 100Mbps. And no 2160p60? Missing a few crucial elements to be more than sheeple fodder.
More people with wifi than Gb ethernet these days
Will be interesting to see how well these play, compared to the signage boxes we use (cisco dmps, signetix, intel nucs etc as you can add an extra zero for the pricing for all those)
Compared to most other similar ones, Amazon should have a fairly reasonable length of support
(maybe except apple tv)
USB support seems a bit slow and limited. Also, how do you get HiFi audio out to your hifi system ?
Would like to see a comparative review of this v the Shield with its new V2 firmware – incl figures for power consumption
@paul
I don’t have either devices, so if a power consumption comparison is written, it won’t be done by me…
Too bad the ethernet port is a joke. 10/100 Mbps 10 years after every laptop in the world ships at Gigabit and some servers ship with 10G onboard… Feels so 1990. Let’s wait for a serious brand to make some serious hardware.
Can this Soc be software upgraded to give HDR or does HDR need hardware support built in.
@Theguyuk
HDMI 2.0a is required for HDR. Amazon Fire 2015 appears to use HDMI 1.4, so this won’t be possible.
Now if you had a device with HDMI 2.0 (no a), it might be upgradable by firmware but it depends as explained @ http://www.hdmi.org/manufacturer/hdmi_2_0/hdmi_2_0a_faq.aspx#148 :
@cnxsoft
Chears