Amazon has been at the forefront of the streaming services since it launched the Prime Video segment of their business. Ruled by some of the top names in the tech industry, the segment has witnessed exponential growth in recent years. To maintain this top position and to keep the ecosystem refreshing, Amazon launched its updated FireTV Cube 2nd Gen streaming box.
The new FireTV Cube is faster, supports more AV formats including Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision and now does include YouTube. The device marks a significant step up in terms of flexibility that it offers for controlling devices through voice. This cube-shaped device now gets a revamped hardware that includes a faster hexacore processor and native support for 4K.
The user experience feels snappy thanks to the updated processor that renders great visuals that are smooth and jitter-free. Navigation around the user interface doesn’t involve many hassles and oversees a simple and linear learning curve. The video and audio quality is up there with the segment best that we have seen in recent times. It supports 4K quality, with HDR, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision built-in. The sound quality when paired with a soundbar is crisp and clear, which makes the experience more joyful.
The most interesting bit of the FireTV Cube is the built-in Alexa support. We rarely interacted with the remote as the far-field mic present on the device helped us easily interact with Alexa despite a noisy background. Alexa can do a range of things from scheduling your next appointment, weather updates, controlling smart home devices to playing your favourite music.
Port selection includes a full HDMI, power input, IR port and a micro-USB port to connect an external ethernet adapter. Although this port selection does do the job, we would have appreciated a single Type-A input just to connect a USB stick to this box. Moreover, the absence of an HDMI cable in the packaging is a real bummer.
To sum it up, if you are in a market for a smart streaming device and are in tune with the Amazon Alexa ecosystem, give it a shot. The Amazon FireTV Cube is a no-brainer due to the range of functionality it offers.
