It supports 60Hz 4K, HDR10, and Dolby Atmos. The Cube runs on an Amlogic quad-core 1.5GHz processor and a Mali-450 MP3 GPU, the same family of chipsets that powers some Android TV boxes. It doesn’t ship with an HDMI cable, though it does come with an Ethernet adapter. On the back of the box there are ports for HDMI, microUSB, and an IR extender. There’s an LED strip that runs across the top of the cube’s face, which lights up blue when you're talking to Alexa. It’s shiny, with sharp edges and four physical buttons on its matte-black top. The Fire TV Cube has the full microphone array of an Echo, with a new design-most Echos are round, the Cube is square. And while the company deserves a lot of credit for democratizing a pleasant-sounding virtual assistant in our homes, this next push in voice feels like a strange combination of features, none of which stand out as exceptional. It turns out Amazon’s promise for the future of TV doesn't quite come through in its earliest form. Even if you really enjoy chatting with your TV, your significant other or roommate may very well move out within a week. But there’s a good chance you’ll end up doing what I did: going back to the fuddy-duddy Fire TV remote, because that’s the easiest way to scroll through multiple media options. Maybe if you have kids, they’ll love shouting at the TV to get their cartoon fix. Maybe you’ll still be delighted by the Cube at first if you buy one. Alexa on a TV interface demands a level of conversation like no other streaming TV product I’ve used before.Īfter a few nights of using the Cube, I began to hate the sound of my own voice.

If you’re thinking of buying the Amazon Fire TV Cube because you’re delighted by the idea of having an Amazon Echo and a Fire TV device mashed into one device, let me stop you right there.

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