Perhaps in a precursor to the often-rumoured launch of the company’s Echo devices in Canada, Amazon has revealed that its Fire TV Stick Basic Edition streaming media player, is finally making its way north of the U.S. border.
The Android-powered Fire TV Stick Basic Edition gives users access to thousands of movies, TV shows, apps, and games. The streaming stick is available in Canada as well as more than 100 other regions around the world.
“Last year, we made Amazon Prime Video available to customers globally, and today, we’re building on that momentum as we introduce Fire TV Stick Basic Edition to new customers around the world,” said Marc Whitten, vice president of Amazon Fire TV, in a press statement sent to MobileSyrup.
“This makes streaming content from apps like Prime Video fast and easy and we can’t wait to hear what customers think.”
Specifically, in Canada where we have limited access to streaming apps, the Fire TV Stick Basic Edition is compatible with Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube, among other apps. The Fire TV Stick also gives users access to Amazon original video content like The Grand Tour, The Tick, American Gods and The Man in the High Castle.
In terms of specs, the streaming device features a quad-core processor, 1GB of memory and 8GB of internal storage for games and apps. The device is also compatible 802.11ac Wi-Fi and offers High-Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC) 1080p HD streaming, along with Dolby Audio.
It’s worth noting that the Fire TV Stick Basic Edition doesn’t feature built-in Amazon Alexa functionality or compatibility with 4K content. This is the first time Amazon has opted to officially bring one of its Fire TV devices to the Canadian market. It’s unclear if the online retail giant also has plans to bring its more powerful 4K compatible Fire TV to Canada as well.
To put Amazon’s new Basic Edition streaming stick in perspective with other similar devices currently available in Canada, Roku’s comparable Express set-top dongle is priced at $39.99 CAD.
Amazon’s Fire TV Stick Basic Edition is available to purchase now from Amazon.ca for $49.99 CAD and is set to begin shipping tomorrow.
Source: Amazon
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