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Amazon has just dumped a whole wave of new products and updates on us, with releases dates stretching out between the end of September and November.
Among the most eye-catching of the announcements was a new budget tablet – the Fire – which will cost less than £50, as well as a power boost for the hugely popular Fire TV.
Here’s a breakdown of all the new products coming.
Amazon’s immensely popular and impressive TV streaming box has been rebooted almost exactly a year after launch, and the big addition is 4K capability.
Shows that are on Amazon Prime – including the firm’s own Amazon Originals will be available to watch in 4K, as well certain other services that provide the feature; Netflix for example.
Remembering that a large pat of the Fire TV is also gaming, Amazon has redesigned the controller that works with Fire TV. It now comes with voice search built in – just like the Fire TV remote – as well as a better battery life and a headphone jack.
There’s expandable storage now on the Fire TV too, with a microSD slot having been added that gives up to 128GB extra memory space for downloads. That’s in addition to the 8GB that comes built in.
It’s due to start shipping on October 5, costing £79.99
The smaller version of the Fire TV family is the Stick, which crucially has had Amazon’s impressive voice search added to its remote.
Beyond that there isn’t too much more to report on the Stick front, though it does have all the other functionality of the full-sized Fire TV, and that includes the Mayday service; where customers can instantly connect to the Amazon help desk, let a technician take control of their device while they watch. The most interesting aspect of all this is that the technicians can annotate on the screen as they go – teaching customers how to make the changes themselves next time.
The Fire TV Stick will cost £44.99, and will start shipping on October 22.
The Amazon tablet family has been given a bolster too. At the higher end Amazon has introduced the HD 8 and HD 10 – two tablets whose numbers denote their screen size. They’re the thinnest tablets Amazon has made, with the 8 coming in four different colours, and the 10 in more traditional black and white.
The shiny finish on the rear cover of the 8 doesn’t necessarily cry premium, but the specs catch the eye.
Both have HD displays as there names suggest, but the 16:10 aspect ratio of the screen means the 8 offers 15% more video viewing area, while the 10 offers 22%. There’s also a 1.5GHz quad-core processor and expandable storage via microSD of up to 128GB.
Amazon’s new native OS for these tablets – Fire OS 5 – also offers some impressive new features. The first of which is a new homescreen that feels similar to the layout of Fire TV, where everything is broken down into categories. The same is true here, with TV, films, games and books all having their own dedicated screens.
What’s more, there are also so other smart new features that will appeal too; the first of which is Underground. This is Amazon’s new area dedicated to free apps that already exists online. The section is filled with downloads that used to cost something but are now free, and all apps that have in-app purchases come with all of those available for free too. For the bargain-hunters it’s a great feature.
Also part of the nuts and bolts is One Deck, a feature that automatically downloads TV shows and movies to your device so that you always have something to watch when offline. Downloads are based on the subscriptions you have, but also the space on your device.
An interesting and bold move from Amazon comes in the form of the Fire – their take on the budget tablet market. It’s been a year or so since budget tablets have been big news; when Lidl, Aldi, Argos and Tesco all made a move into the market, but now Amazon has had a go themselves.
The Fire comes in at less than £50, but still has Fire OS 5, and all the features mentioned above on offer. Amazon also claims it has twice the processing power of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 3 Lite – another budget device – as well as being twice as durable as the iPad Air 2.
The Fire is also the subject of one of the maddest offers we’ve ever heard of; a buy-five-get-one-free six pack (yes, really) for £249.95.
The Fire, like all the other products here, can be pre-ordered from today, but goes on sale on September 30.
Amazon also refreshed their kids version of the Fire tablet – which is the same tablet as above, but comes with a special child-friendly and centric interface.
The big news is that this latest edition will also have a new, child-friendly browser; loaded with pre-approved websites and videos from YouTube.
It’ll cost you £99.99, and comes out the same day as the standard Fire.
Phew. Get all that? It’s safe to say Amazon is good for new devices for a while.
