When Amazon announced its latest Fire TV streaming box, the most interesting thing about it wasn't some new spec or feature -- it was the price. Amazon slashed the price of Fire TV by $20 to just $69.99, or less than half the price of the latest Apple TV, which has similar abilities.
Not only that, but Amazon threw in a couple of upgrades. Fire TV 2017 not only streams in 4K just like the previous version did, but it also supports HDR (high dynamic range) video, which can produce more vibrant color, at least for material that was shot with HDR. And with 4K, it can now accommodate footage with frame rates up to 60 fps (the previous gen maxed out at 30 fps for 4K video).
SEE ALSO:Amazon's new Echo Spot is here to replace your alarm clockAmazon also managed to shrink the size of the Fire TV considerably. At 2.6 x 2.6 x 0.6 inches (not counting the short HDMI plug hanging off it), the new Fire TV that Amazon sent us is smaller than a hockey puck. It looks like a square coaster for a small glass, like a champagne flute. The smaller form factor means there's no longer an Ethernet port -- you'll need a microUSB Ethernet adapter if you want to go that route.
The Amazon Fire TV is smaller than a hockey puck.Credit: HaLey Hamblin/MashableThe box's shiny finish and prominent-though-subtle Amazon logo evokes the aesthetics of the backsides of many of today's smartphones, although it scratches so easily it clearly doesn't share their durability. That's OK, though; if you asked most customers if they'd rather have a streaming box that scratches easily that costs $70 or one that stays perfect but costs $80, I think most people would rather save the 10 bucks. It's just going to hang from the back of your TV anyway.
Setting up the new Fire TV works pretty much the same as all previous Fire TV products, including the Fire TV Sticks: You plug it in, connect it to your Wi-Fi, sign in with your Amazon account, and you’re pretty much done. The device will suggest various free apps (like Netflix, Sling TV, and Hulu) to download at startup, and unfortunately there's no single sign-on option, so you'll be doing a lot of logging into various accounts at the beginning. It’ll also give you the option to turn on parental controls.
The parental controls on the Amazon Fire TV gives you specific controls for content a purchases.Credit: Pete Pachal/MashableIf you’re going to use the parental controls, be warned: You’ll need to enter and re-enter your five-digit Amazon PIN (the same across devices), even for free content. Not only will the controls protect paid content and downloads, but they’ll also require a PIN for titles rated for mature or adult audiences. You do get granular controls for this, though, so depending on the age of your kids, you may want to turn off the rating barriers.
OK, time to watch some stuff. After setting up the Fire TV 4K HDR with our test TV, a curved 65-inch Samsung TV with 4K (Ultra HD) resolution and HDR support, I started looking for some high-quality content. I set my sights on The Tick, the new Amazon series that’s offered in 4K.
Your mileage with 4K will vary depending on how the material was filmed.
The first few times I hit Play, all I saw were the three dots that indicated the box was “working.” They didn’t go away until I pressed the home button and tried again. Same thing happened on every title I tried. I quickly went to settings app to see if a quick reboot would fix things and it did. There’s a reason every support call begins with, “Have you tried turning it off and turning it on again?”
Back to The Tick. The opening animation looked gorgeously sharp. When I got to the scene where Arthur is staring at a wall full of newspaper clippings about the supervillain the Terror, I could easily read almost all of the headlines of the clippings ("HINDENBERG DISASTER: SABOTAGE BY THE TERROR" -- sounds… interesting).
The video looked good, but not eye-popping. I compared the 4K stream with the HD (1080p) version, and the headlines were almost as readable. Clearly your mileage with 4K will vary depending on how the material was filmed.
Amazon makes a note of 4K content in a series title with the term “Ultra HD,” although there isn’t a similar label for HDR. However, once you find an HDR title (there aren’t that many – here’s a pretty good list), if you call up the info/x-ray screen by, say, pausing the video, an “HDR” label will appear in the bottom left corner.
Amazon titles with HDR support, like "The Man in the High Castle," will let you know.Credit: Pete Pachal/MashableSo when I cued up The Man in the High Castle, the Fire TV assured me that, yes, this title was in HDR. The improved colors on HDR video are hard to quantify without a side-by-side video test, but I can say this is definitely a series that’s very conscious in its use of color, and it’s served well by HDR. Many of the scenes are in a muted, almost sepia-like tone, but when the colors pop – like in a view of a 1962 Nazi-occupied Times Square, they really pop. Simply, with HDR support on HDR material, streams look great.
The Alexa voice remoteCredit: Haley Hamblin/MashableThe new Fire TV isn’t the first one to come with an Alexa remote, but Alexa herself is more versatile than before. Amazon makes a point of saying you can order a pizza from Domino’s via voice to make your movie night more complete. You can also dim the lights, turn on your security system, and more from the remote – that is, assuming you’ve hooked up Alexa to all that stuff in the first place.
This new Fire TV “box” (kind of a misnomer since it’s barely worthy of the moniker) reminds me a lot of the original Google Chromecast. Not because of it’s shape, even though it’s pretty close to dongle-size, and not just because of its prowess as a streaming device.
The Fire TV is Chromecast-like for its value. When the Chromecast debuted at $35, it was an easy impulse buy. For the price of about three lunches, you had an easy and reliable way to stream videos to your TV. The new Fire TV is double that price, but it does a whole lot more. Amazon even offers Fire TV bundles, throwing in either an Echo Dot or an antenna, adding even more value. In a time where the price of smartphones is popping over the $1,000 mark, it’s refreshing to see a device that doesn’t need to convince you to buy it. Because at 70 bucks, why wouldn’t you?
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