Amazon’s ecosystem of smart devices, voice assistants and media streamers are quite enticing. They are straight out of the future, but they are also affordable. Each product is meant for a different user, for a different purpose. The Fire TV line of products include ones like the Fire TV Lite, the Fire TV 4K and lately the Fire TV Cube. As the name suggests, it looks like a cube with an edge that came out of an Echo series smart speaker. So, what’s a smart speaker doing on a media streaming device? Let us find out.
The resemblance to the Echo speaker is because the new Fire TV Cube has the Alexa voice assistant built in. That is right, this is an Alexa speaker that you can use voice commands to let it play content on your TV and do the entire of things you could with any other Echo speaker. Unlike the Echo speaker, this box would sit right next to your TV.
The Fire TV Cube is smaller than it looks. It is a cube measuring roughly 9 cm on each side, and it weighs around 465 g, not that the weight matters since it is unlikely to be moved around. It does not look odd, and you should fit your home’s decor and styling fine.
Hardware specifications do not matter in solutions like these. For the record, the Fire TV Cube runs a 6-core processor. There is a 4-core unit clocked to speeds of up to at 2.2 GHz and a dual-core one running to speeds of up to 1.9 GHz. The processor is bundled with 2GB of RAM. There is a graphics processor onboard since the device needs to be able to render all kinds of content on your display. It is an ARM Mali G52-MP2 GPU clocked at 800 MHz. The Fire TV Cube also has 16GB of internal storage for installing all the kinds of apps available on the store. The Fire TV with all its hardware can output videos streams ranging up to 4K. The Fire TV Cube also supports a range of modern HDR standards including HDR, HDR 10, HDR10+ HLG and even Dolby Vision. These are particularly handy if you own a modern TV. They allow you to truly experience what your TV is capable of in terms of dynamic range, contrast and colour saturation.
The Fire TV Cube is also a voice assistant, so you can use voice commands even if you are sitting at a distance. The microphones are designed to cut through the noise from the TV itself to hear commands from you. That means you can abandon all remote controls, simply say the magic word, ‘Alexa’, followed by your command. You can ask it to play your favourite movie, TV show or music but the truly nice thing about the Fire TV Cube is that you can use it for even controlling the TV. So, you could switch TV inputs from one HDMI port to another, or any other, using voice commands. The Fire TV acts as a universal remote, letting you use the power of IR to control other devices that may or may not be smart-enabled. It acts as a medium to convey voice commands into IR signals. Of course, the device comes with a dedicated remote control too, which has its own microphone if you prefer to whisper into it, rather than call out to your TV.
The benefit of using voice is that you do not have to navigate through a range of menus or even type out long movie names using the on-screen keyboard. A simple voice command is all that is needed. You can be even creative with the commands to get the kind of the content you want playing. All of this happens, because the Fire TV Cube has eight different microphones that hear you call out from all directions. It even works with the set top boxes across a range of providers. Once you switch to the set top box using voice commands, even switch to the channel of your choice. You will not have to hop between remotes, trying to find the right channel, whether it is HD or not, and so on.
Setting up the Fire TV Cube is simple. It is a box, which plugs into your TV using a HDMI cable. There is a power adapter that powers the unit. You also get an adapter for Ethernet connectivity if you choose not to use a wireless connection. A wired connection can be useful especially if you have a wired port or a router nearby. You can get the Fire TV Cube up and running in minutes.
The Fire TV Cube like most of its siblings, has Bluetooth compatibility, so you can connect your favourite speakers, or even wireless earphones to it, and watch movies and shows late into the night, without disturbing anyone. It also offers the flexibility to experience a cinema-like audio experience, minus the hassles and mess of connecting extra cables. The Wi-Fi support onboard is up to 802.11ac, so you can expect to stream buffer-free movies and TV shows. You can also connect Bluetooth controllers to the Fire TV and play games on it if you’d like.
Once you have the Fire TV Cube setup, you get access to thousands and thousands of shows from a range of media providers, from Amazon, Netflix as well many more international and local providers, including TV channels. Some of the apps let you watch live TV like the ones we have been used to using DTH connections. Of course, you may need to subscribe to them. A variety of music streaming providers are also available such as Amazon Music, and Gaana. You can also use the Fire TV Cube for playing podcasts, even playing games, and browsing the web, like you would using a smart TV. The Fire TV Cube has a larger speaker built into it that you can use to play music, ask questions, or play podcasts, even when the TV and external speakers are turned off.
Finally, the Fire TV also is your smart console for your home. If you have been tracking the smart home space, there are a range of smart lights, fans, TVs, appliances, power plugs, and more, that ship with Alexa support. All these devices can now be remotely controlled and monitored using the same Fire TV Cube that lets you watch your TV. So, you could, ask the Fire TV Cube to show the security camera feed to your door on your TV, and moments later, switch back to the movie you were watching.
The Amazon Fire TV Cube removes the need to own two devices for two different tasks. Reliance Digital is the coolest place to find all the latest in technology, from smart appliances, to smart solutions. You can find the entire range of Amazon’s Fire TV and Echo range of products, including the Fire TV Cube at reliancedigtal.in and if you prefer checking them out in person, head over to your nearest Reliance Digital store.
