Amazon confirms Omni and 4-Series TVs, launches Fire TV Stick 4K Max
Amazon is officially a TV manufacturer. The company has announced its first lineup of Amazon-branded 4K Fire TVs, which will begin shipping in October, reports The Verge.
This is a major expansion from the company’s “Fire TV Edition” collaborations, where its popular streaming software comes preloaded on sets manufactured by other TV makers. Instead, with its new Omni and 4-Series it is launching what it refers to as Amazon-built TVs.
The Omni series is the higher-end of the two, and as well as offering better picture quality, its other key selling point is hands-free voice control. Amazon includes far-field microphones in each model of the Omni series, which comes in 43, 50, 55, 65, and 75 inches. (Only the 65- and 75-inch models have Dolby Vision, but the others at least get HDR10.)
The company believes that by building the TV itself, it can create a more seamless Fire TV user experience than ever before. That’s led by the content-forward Fire TV interface and wide app selection, but Amazon believes that Alexa voice controls add a major convenience factor.
On Omni sets, voice commands are always available — even if the TV is off. These voice commands can be used for finding something to watch, like always, but you can also adjust the TV’s brightness, volume, or switch inputs with Alexa.
Meanwhile, Amazon has announced the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, which it describes as its best streaming stick to date. Supposedly 40% more powerful than Fire TV Stick 4K, it features a new quad-core 1.8GHz processer and 2GB of RAM, so your apps start faster and navigation is more fluid. Fire TV Stick 4K Max is also Amazon’s first streaming media player to offer Wi-Fi 6 support.
The device supports 4K UHD, HDR, and HDR10+ streaming, as well as Dolby Atmos. It comes with the latest Alexa Voice Remote so you can easily search for the content you want to watch, manage your compatible smart home devices, and more.
