Cube-Shaped Amazon Fire TV Replaces Your Echo

Whether or not you’re a full-on cord cutter and you’ve eliminated traditional cable TV from your entertainment diet altogether, no one can deny the amazing convenience of streaming media. And you’ve got lots of options in this space, like the $25 Roku Express, but the newest Amazon Fire TV could have a brand new trick up its sleeve. Maybe it really is hip to be square.

According to a report by AFTV news, two new Amazon Fire TV models are in the works. The first, listed as “AFTN” in leaked benchmarks, is similar to the Google Chromecast. It’s a dongle that plugs into your TV’s HDMI port and grabs its power by way of micro USB. Unlike the circular Chromecast, this model takes on a square shape.

The yet-unnamed device will fit somewhere between the full-size Fire TV and the more compact Fire TV Stick to function as a third main model in the lineup. It’ll be very similar to the Fire TV Stick, except it will also support 4K and HDR content. Key specs include a 1.5GHz quad core CPU, Mali-450 MP GPU, 2GB of RAM, and 8 GB of storage.

The more interesting of the two new products, though, is that cube on the right. Showing up as “AFTA” in leaks, the new Amazon Fire TV device features far-field microphones and the same buttons on top as the Echo Dot. This leads us to believe that it’ll be fully Alexa-enabled for hands-free operation. There’s also a built-in speaker and an LED light bar. A regular voice remote is also included.

More likely than not, the cube-shaped device — which is perhaps somewhat reminiscent of the Borg’s vessel in TNG — will serve as the top-tier offering in the Amazon Fire TV lineup. Some additional ports are rumored, like Ethernet and expandable storage.

We’re expecting the “AFTN” dongle to be announced this month with retail availability to follow next month at an estimated price of $60 to $80. The “AFTA” top-tier Fire TV box could retail over $100 with a launch either late this year or early next year.