Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick HD doesn’t need to be plugged into the wall

Amazon is expanding its product assortment Streaming devices With the new Fire TV Stick HD, a slimmer stick that you can power via your TV’s USB port and the included cable.

The new device is about 30% narrower than the previous generation HD stick, according to Amazon. The device’s direct power feature allows you to use it without a wall adapter.

Aidan Marcus, vice president of Fire TV at Amazon, told CNET in an interview that these new features may make it easier to place the device away from the back or side of your TV without wires or hardware sticking out.

“It’s very capable of upgrading any TV in your home,” Marcus said. “So, if you have your kitchen TV ideally located where it is, here’s a way to upgrade it.”

The device comes with Alexa Plus (for customers in the US, Canada and the UK), Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 support. Amazon says it launches and opens apps more quickly than the previous generation HD stick. If the stick isn’t getting enough power, it will alert you on the screen and give you options to fix it.

The device is available for pre-order now for $35 and is scheduled to ship by the end of April to Canada, Mexico, the US, the UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. If you’re in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, or Switzerland, you can sign up at your local Amazon site for more details.

Amazon said it will add a new accessibility feature to the Fire TV Stick HD in the coming weeks that will make it easier to see content on screen. The Adaptive Width setting will allow you to enlarge small text and menus while resizing the artwork proportionally and will allow multiple size options.

The company also announced on Wednesday that the Amazon Ember Artline TV, It was unveiled at CESis now available for pre-order in 55-inch and 65-inch models, starting at $900. The TVs will start shipping on April 22 in the US and Canada and in May in the UK and Germany.