If you've been eyeing the Amazon Fire TV Cube, and read our review of the original, but just kept saying to yourself "I really wish this thing also had Dolby Vision for HDR, and could process voice commands on the device so that they'll execute quicker and maybe be a little more private," well, today is your day.
What is being billed as an "all-new" Fire TV Cube but mostly will look and act like the last one (just better) is now available for purchase today. (And also is available in Canada for the first time.)
And, well, that's it. The rest of the Fire TV Cube is pretty much the same. It still does 4K video just fine. It still does Dolby Atmos audio. It still has the microphone array so you can do all that hands-free Alexa stuff through it without needing a separate Echo device.
And now, thanks to some upgraded internals, it'll also handle the Dolby Vision flavor of HDR (that's still pretty much considered the best of the standards), and it's now processing those Alexa voice commands on (or in?) the Cube itself. That's good for a couple reasons. First is that it's faster than having to shoot those things up into the cloud, and then back down, before they actually do anything. And second is that it should take away some of those fears of Amazon employees possibly listening to you tell your Cube to turn to the Real Housewives Of A Lesser God night after night after night.
It's a good improvement to what originally was a good, if not necessarily a must-have, streaming setup.
Same cube, better features
This updated Fire TV Cube now supports Dolby Vision HDR and executes the Alexa voice commands on the device, so it's brighter, faster, and a better buy.
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K ($49 at Amazon)
If you don't need hands-free Alexa
If all you care about is the video stuff and don't need hands-free Alexa built in, this is the Fire TV device for you, with 4K, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support.
