Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K adds HDR and remote with IR device control

It’s been two years since Amazon revamped the Fire TV Stick, an HDMI dongle running an entertainment-centric variant of the retailer’s Fire OS operating system, and the intervening months have seen the launch of both Google’s Chromecast Ultra and Roku’s Streaming Stick+. The two drive resolutions up to 4K and support high dynamic range (HDR) standards, which gave them a leg up on the Seattle company’s long-in-the-tooth hardware. But the retailer is fighting back today.

Amazon this morning debuted the Fire TV Stick 4K, a top-to-bottom refresh of the Fire TV Stick that supports 4K Ultra HD (UHD) in HDR formats including Dolby Vision and HDR10+. That’s not all — it also announced today a new Alexa Voice Remote that leverages “multidirectional” infrared tech, Bluetooth, and a cloud-based backend to command TVs, receivers, HDMI switchers, and more.