Amazon will release new Fire TV Sticks from time to time, and most are only mildly interesting, but the Amazon Fire TV Stick TV 4K Max brings two new interesting features with 4K AV1 video playback, as well as Wi-Fi 6 connectivity which should prevent buffering for higher bitrate 4K videos.
The new device builds upon the MediaTek MT8695 based Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K released in 2018, with a more powerful MediaTek MT8696 processor clocked at 1.8 GHz, more memory (2GB vs 1.5 GB), and the same 8GB of storage for the Android 9 based Amazon Fire 7 OS. Amazon claims the new stick is 40% faster, despite a frequency bump from 1.7 GHz to 1.8 GHz only, and MT8696 relies on Cortex-A73 cores Cortex-A55 cores (See comments), instead of the Cortex-A53 cores found in MediaTek MT8695, so the performance improvement probably refers to the faster GPU.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (codename: AFTKA) specifications:
- SoC – MediaTek MT8696 with quad-core Arm processor @ 1.8 GHz, Imagination GE9215 GPU @ 750MHz
- System Memory – 2GB DDR4
- Storage – 8GB storage
- Video Output – HDMI up to 4Kp60
- Video codecs
- AV1 up to 3840x2160p (4K) @ 60fps, 100Mbps, Main Profile Level 5.1, Color space 8-bit and 10-bit input with HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG.
- H.265 (HEVC) up to 3840x2160p (4K) @ 60fps, 35 Mbps, Main 10 Profile Level 5.1, Color space 8-bit and 10-bit input with HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG.
- H.264 up to 3840x2160p (4K) @ 60fps, 20 Mbps, High 10 Profile Level 5.2
- H.263 up to 1080p30
- VP8 up to 1080p30
- VP9 up to 4K @ 60fps, Profile 2 up to 30 Mbps
- MPEG-2 up to 1080p @ 60fps
- MPEG-4 up to 1080p @ 30fps
- HDR
- Dolby Vision. Dolby Vision support for Profile 4-MEL, 5, 8, 9
- HDR10, HDR10+, HLG
- Audio codecs
- Dolby Atmos, AC3 (Dolby Digital), eAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus) up to 48kHz, 8 channels, 16-bit and 24-bit
- AAC-LC, HE-AACv1 (AAC+) and HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+) up to 48kHz, 6 channels, 16-bit and 24-bit
- FLAC up to 48kHz, 2 channels, 16-bit and 24-bit (no dither for 24 bit)
- MIDI (Type 0 and 1), DLS (Version 1 and 2), XMF, and Mobile XMF. Ringtone formats RTTTL/RTX, OTA, and iMelody.
- MP3 up to 48kHz, 2 channels in DSP (16-bit and 24-bit) and software (16-bit).
- Vorbis, Opus
- PCM/Wave up to 96kHz, 6 channels, 16-bit and 24-bit.
- AMR-NB
- DRM – Microsoft PlayReady 3.3, Google WideVine L1 V14.1.2, HDCP 2.2, Fairplay
- Connectivity
- 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax Wi-Fi 6; 2×2 MIMO (2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz dual-band) via MediaTek MT7921LS
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Optional 10/100 Mbps Ethernet with external dongle
The dongle supports Miracast display mirroring, near-field Alexa control through the microphone button on the remote control, and far-field Alexa control when linked through an Echo device. Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max ships with a short HDMI female to male adapter, a USB cable and power adapter, and a 3rd gen Alexa voice-enabled remote control with two AAA batteries.
Amazon says their latest stick can stream videos from Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Peacock, and others, and live and free TV is available through SLING TV, YouTube TV,IMDb TV, Pluto TV, Tubi, and more. The price starts at $54.99 with default accessories, but the media streamer is currently out of stock. More details may also be found on the developer site.
Thanks to Anonymous for the tip.
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.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress
