Amazon already took their first step into our living rooms earlier this year with the Fire TV, a fairly powerful TV box that offers users all the services that they’ve become accustomed to, as well as access to games and a whole boat load of content from Amazon themselves. Now, the online giant is back, and this time they’re taking the Chromecast on headfirst. The Fire TV Stick was announced by Amazon today and it’s essentially what you think it is, but if you were thinking of something along the lines of the Chromecast, you can think again.
Where Amazon hopes the Fire TV Stick will stand out is not only with its $39 price tag, but as it offers an extremely similar experience as the Fire TV does. It features a remote in the package, you can use it as you would a set-top box and you can even hook up a controller and play games as you would on the Fire TV. Amazon isn’t holding any punches here, in their Press Release they gleefully tell us that this features a dual-core CPU, twice the amount of memory of the Chromecast at 1GB and dual-band WiFi which is important for those looking to stream in Full HD. What with the Chromecast practically bested here, it wouldn’t surprise us if the Fire TV Stick quickly became another successful product for Amazon. Being able to navigate a traditional UI, rather than having to rely on a smartphone or tablet like the Chromecast should appeal to a great many average users out there.
Sadly, the fancy voice-control enabled remote from the Fire TV isn’t included here, but it can be purchased for $29.99 separately. Otherwise, you can just install the Android app and use that for voice search. The Fire TV Stick is available for pre-order right now, but won’t be launching until November 19th. If you’re quick though – and an Amazon Prime member – you’ll be able to pre-order it for just $19 for the next two days. As cheap hardware goes, the Fire TV Stick seems like an excellent addition to your TV setup.