Amazon Fire TV: a $99 streaming box promising better search, performance, and gaming

Amazon is ready to battle Apple, Roku, and Google to earn a spot in your living room.

The Fire TV streaming box was announced at Amazon's press event in New York this morning, focusing on improving search, performance, and gaming over competitors. The new box is already available for purchase from Amazon for $99, as well as the new gaming controller accessory, the Fire Game Controller, for $39.

The Fire TV's focus on gaming goes well beyond current streaming devices like the Apple TV, Chromecast and Roku's boxes. The included Bluetooth remote will be capable of playing some games, but Fire Game Controller allows for a more game console-like experience. Amazon is working with several developers, including Sega, EA, and Disney, in addition to mobile game developers, to populate its game library, which Amazon claims will be in the thousands. Amazon Game Studies will also be developing games for the Fire TV, including a third-person shooter called Sev Zero.

 

For search, Amazon is implementing voice search using a mic built into the remote. The idea is to finally ditch the annoying process of typing in search phrases letter-by-letter, which is how search is done on Roku's boxes. From the initial demo, it's unclear whether the search will be able to comb through services other than Amazon Instant, but Fire TV will support a healthy collection of apps, including Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, Hulu Plus, Watch ESPN, Showtime, MLB, iHeartRadio and Disney.

On the performance side, the Fire TV has a quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM, which Amazon claims delivers 3 times the performance of competitors like Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast. Amazon also highlighted a new "ASAP" feature designed to get movies and TV shows streaming faster, cutting down on tedious "buffering" screens.

 

 

The device itself has a familiar set top box look, although its slimmer than average; Amazon says Fire TV is thinner than a dime standing on its edge. Around the back, you get all the typical connections, including HDMI, an optical audio output, Ethernet and USB. Dual band Wi-Fi is built-in as well, and the remote works via Bluetooth, so you won't need to point it at the box to control it.

The biggest surprise of all from Amazon's new box may be the price. Amazon has a history of offering aggressively-priced hardware, but the Fire TV's $99 price is significantly more than current budget options like the $35 Google Chromecast and $49 Roku Streaming Stick. That puts more pressure on Amazon to deliver a superior overall experience to justify its price. The good news is we'll have our hands-on a unit shortly to find out how the Fire TV stacks up.

Article by Matthew Moskovciak