Amazon India has launched the streaming device – Amazon Fire TV Stick in India at a price tag of Rs. 3,999. The Amazon Fire TV Stick available on Amazon.in and select retailers like Reliance Digital & Croma starting from today. The Amazon Fire TV Stick is touted as the Google Chromecast alternative. To rejuvenate users, Amazon has launch offers like 105GB (35GB each month) of free data on your Airtel broadband and 4G Wi-Fi connection for a period of three months, and 240GB free data (80GB each month for 3 months) on You Broadband connection for a period of three months. There’s also a three-month free premium subscription for Eros Now, six months of ad-free streaming on Gaana, and a month of ad-free streaming on Voot. In addition to this, who buy the Fire TV Stick before 31st May and subscribe to the annual membership for Prime Video, Amazon will credit Rs. 499 back into Amazon Pay balance. Apart from this, if you’re already a Prime member, then Amazon Fire TV Stick (after buying it) comes with your credentials and there is no need to configure it.
Like Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV Stick also plugged into your TV’s HDMI port easily and without any problem, you can easily watch Prime Video on your TV. When compared with Google Chromecast, the Amazon Fire TV Stick works differently. In Google Chromecast, you have to use the phone to cast the content while the Amazon Fire TV Stick has a voice remote which can be used to navigate the interface or search by speaking to it. At the launch event, the spokesperson also said that voice search will also pick up the names of Hind titles, though we’ll only know how well once we’ve spent some time with it. As of now, there is no support for Amazon Alexa but we hope that in coming days might be there some support.
On the specifications front, the Amazon Fire TV Stick is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek processor which is paired with 1GB of RAM. It has 8GB of internal storage and comes with 802.11 ac dual-band Wi-Fi for connectivity. As said above, the Amazon Fire TV Stick also comes with voice control enabled remote that lets you search Amazon Video content using just your voice and offers spoken language support for Indian customers in Hindi and English. The Amazon Fire TV Stick comes with ‘ASAP’, it is an Advanced Streaming and Prediction feature which monitors a user’s content streaming habits and predicts the movies and TV shows accordingly. In addition to this, it reduces wait time and Amazon claims that this can speed up streaming by 50 percent.
With the launch of Amazon Fire TV Stick, the company also announced the availability of the animated version of Bahubali: The Lost Legends, Suicide Squad and stand-up comedy by Kenny Sebastian in Prime Video as well. By any chance, if you can recall the first TV Stick and compare with the newly launched Fire TV Stick, then you can easily see the difference and find that the newly launched Fire TV Stick is compact. On the newly launched Fire TV Stick, users get access to more than 3,000 apps, games, and services.
At the launch event, Amazon spokesperson demonstrated that how Fire TV Stick works and it was quite noticeable that how much Amazon is focused on making content available to users in the best possible way. For example, after plugging the Fire TV Stick into the TV, you search for a particular actor, then it will show all the results of that actor and the movies done by him. Above all, while watching the movie, you can also search for different movies done by that particular actor. isn’t that amazing?
The one thing that distinguishes Amazon Fire TV Stick from Google Chromecast is that the Fire TV Stick comes with data monitoring feature where people can choose the video quality based on their preference. Apart from this, the Amazon Fire TV Stick has support for High-Efficiency Video Codec (HVEC) which means your movies/TV shows will use less data and take less time to buffer. In addition to this, you’ve got access to the standard quality controls check on the apps that are using the most data, and even set monthly quotas in case you’re worried about your Internet’s FUP.
The Amazon Fire TV Stick comes with parental control through which parents can set a PIN to restrict access to mature content. For your information, all the movies and TV shows in the Amazon Prime Video catalog, as well as apps from the Amazon Appstore, come with maturity ratings by age group.
Amazon Fire TV Stick Challenges:
We all know that there are problems with data connectivity in India, so there is a big challenge for Amazon to stream the content on low internet speed. Time will tell rest of the story.
Press Release Quote:
Commenting on the launch, Marc Whitten, Vice President, Amazon Fire TV, said:
“Fire TV Stick offers access to a vast selection of movies and TV shows, popular apps, and features designed specifically for customers in India including powerful voice search for Amazon Video titles in Hindi and English. Fire TV Stick also offers Data Monitoring and other features to help customers in India get the most from their data plan and stream more content using less bandwidth.”
Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President and Country Manager of Amazon India, said:
“We started Prime with unlimited fast delivery and then added unlimited access to Prime Video at no additional cost. Now, Fire TV Stick transforms TV viewing and makes the Prime experience even better. Customers can now instantly stream their favorite movies and TV shows right from an HDTV, and easily find new content using just their voice.”
Amazon Fire TV Stick specifications:
Amazon Fire TV Stick Launch Offers:
- Rs. 499 Amazon Pay credit for customers who buy Fire TV Stick and sign-up for an annual Amazon Prime membership.
- 105 GB free data (35 GB per month) for Airtel broadband and 4G home Wi-Fi devices for up to 3 months from the date of activation.
- 240GB free data (80 GB each month) for YOU Broadband Customers up to 3 months from the activation date.
- Free 3 months of Premium Eros Now Subscription.
- Ad-Free Streaming on Gaana for 6 months.
- One month of ad-free streaming from Voot and Voot Kids.
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