There have been a few signs of a new Fire TV Stick 4K being released soon, but nothing concrete until now. Several leaked photos of an unreleased Fire TV Stick 4K and a completely new remote have been acquired by German site WinFuture from independent retailer sources. While specs are unknown, these photos reveal a lot about the upcoming model.
The shape of this upcoming Fire TV Stick 4K most closely resembles the thin and long form factor of the 2nd-gen Fire TV Stick HD released earlier this year. Relative to the wider body of the existing Fire TV Stick 4K Select, Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, and Fire TV Stick 4K Max’s, this new shape fits better alongside cables and other devices without blocking access to adjacent HDMI ports.
This will be the first Fire TV Stick to have “4K” written on the housing, possibly to differentiate it from other models that will use the same form factor. The three current 4K-capable Fire TV Stick models look identical and can only be differentiated by the model number written in tiny text on the back. The relatively thin box and the image of the stick plugged into a TV’s USB port for power strongly indicate that this will be the first Fire TV Stick 4K that does not include a power plug in the box.
This new Fire TV Stick 4K appears to come with an all-new remote. This is likely the remote that passed through FCC approval last month. While there have been numerous Fire TV remotes released over the years, they’ve all somewhat resembled the original remote released in 2014. This new one is the first to abandon the existing design.
While the flat top and circular bottom of the new remote are drastically different from the existing one, so is the button layout. The fast-forward and rewind buttons have been removed to make room for channel up and down buttons, which have never been included in a standard Fire TV remote. Only the more premium enhanced and Pro remotes have had channel buttons. Amazon has also added a new Star button, which will likely be programmable to launch an app of your choice or perform an action, like the customizable buttons on the Fire TV Pro remote.
The home button on the new remote appears to be made of a reflective orange material. It also does not protrude from the remote body like all the other buttons do, possibly to help differentiate it in the dark from other buttons. Amazon has also moved the microphone button from the top center, where it has been on all past Fire TV remotes, to the top right.
While none of the specs of this new Fire TV Stick 4K are known, it will almost certainly not run an Android-based OS, since Amazon has said that all future Fire TV Sticks will run its new Vega OS. That means you will not be able to sideload apps onto it and it will be missing many of the apps available on the current Fire TV Stick 4K. Amazon typically releases new Fire TVs in the fall, so this new model should be available soon.