💪 Amazon is releasing a new $60 Fire TV Stick 4K with some worthwhile upgrades
🚀 It brings a major boost in performance and responsiveness with a quad-core processor, plus support for Wifi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3
🆕 Amazon is also releasing a new remote with an asymmetric design and more tactile buttons
🤖 Alexa+ is getting major attention too, with a new hub for it coming to Fire TV alongside a redesigned Amazon Music app later this fall
Amazon has upgraded its venerable Fire TV Stick 4K for 2026, and it provides the kind of upgrades you’ll actually notice.
The company says its new Fire TV Stick 4K can launch apps up to 35% faster and allows content to start playing nearly 20% more quickly than “a similarly priced 4K streaming stick from another leading brand”, according to Bloomberg.
The device includes 8GB of on-board storage, has a quad-core processor inside, and supports both Wifi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. Amazon also says it supports a range of HDR formats, although it excludes Dolby Vision.
Amazon is bundling a redesigned remote with this new Fire Stick model, with more tactile buttons and an asymmetric shape that makes it easier to tell when you’re holding it the correct side up.
It has also gained a customizable button, which was previously limited to the more premium Fire TV remote, that can be used to open a specific entertainment app or adjust settings.
The new Fire TV Remote will be available as a standalone purchase for $15, with Amazon adding an aluminium version in early 2027 that adds backlit buttons and a Find My Remote feature.
This new $60 Fire TV Stick 4K comes at a time when Amazon is streamlining its Fire Stick lineup, with the $40 Fire TV Stick HD below it, and the $85 Fire TV Stick 4K Max above it. The latter adds Dolby Vision support, more storage and a brisker processor, for reference.
Amazon is also making some software-driven changes for Fire TV, giving Alexa+ its own hub. This is designed to allow for the updated voice assistant to draw on real-world context “alongside a customer’s subscriptions and watch history to help it answer more complex questions and deliver smarter, more personal responses”, according to Amazon.
The new Alexa+ hub also makes it possible for the Fire TV Stick to pick up exchanges on a different device, and you can also ask it follow-up questions and scroll back in a conversation thread to see previous recommendations.
The rollout of Alexa+ extends to the Fire TV mobile app, while Amazon is also bringing the overhauled Amazon Music app to Fire TV later this fall with support for music videos, video podcasts, concerts and more.
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Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.