Amazon continues its move away from Android on Fire TV, with its latest Fire TV Stick 4K moving over to Vega OS, though with upgrades including support for using your TV’s USB port for power and a massively improved remote.
Available starting today, the new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K costs $59.99 – $29.99 as a part of Prime Day deals next week. The new streamer, Amazon touts, is around 20-40% faster in most tasks compared to other 4K streaming devices and TVs while also being smaller than prior generations.
One welcome upgrade here is that you can power the new Fire TV Stick 4K using your TV’s USB port, making it a whole lot easier to power the streamer.
Amazon is also debuting a new remote here which has an asymmetric design that’s flat on top and rounded at the bottom. It has a metal home button for easy recognition, a customizable Star button, and IR controls for your other TV hardware such as a soundbar. Amazon is also launching a standalone version of this remote for other Fire TV devices.
The big change compared to the last generation, though, is that the latest Fire TV Stick 4K ditches Android in favor of Vega OS. Amazon’s new platform is indeed faster and continues to add more apps in time – Amazon says over 2,000 apps have been added this year – but it also loses support for sideloading, a popular option among many Fire TV users.
As mentioned, the new Fire TV Stick costs $59.99 and is available for purchase starting today in the US.
More on TV:
- Amazon explains why Fire TV ditched Android for VegaOS, but only one part makes sense
- Google TV now has over 300 free channels – here’s the full list
- Android 16 will come to Amazon Fire TV despite new VegaOS focus
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