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What is the Difference Between New Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote and the Previous Fire TV Stick

The new Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote was launched by Amazon so how does it compare with the previous Fire TV Stick?  

Unlike the Chromecast Ultra which supports 4K and HDR, the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote still only supports 1080p and HDMI 1.4 just like the previous model.  Amazon is positioning the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote as a low cost streaming media solution for the mass market that still only has 1080p TV's while offering the Amazon Fire TV (2015) to those that want 4K support.

The Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote does improve the WI-FI speeds from the previous Fire TV Stick by now supporting 802.11ac rather than just 802.11n.  The Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote also now supports Bluetooth 4.1 vs the previously supported Bluetooth 3.0.

The Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote also uses a MediaTek Quad-core ARM 1.3 GHz compared to the Fire TV Stick's Broadcom Dual-core ARM A9 up to 1 GHz so it should be a lot faster.  Both have the same 1 GB memory and 8 GB storage sizes.  

The most prominent feature that Amazon is touting is that the new Fire TV Stick now comes with a Alexa Voice Remote Control where previously you had to purchase this remote separately.  This makes the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote a lot more competitive to the Roku Streaming Stick which also comes with a remote control.  

At the time of this writing the new Fire TV Stick is available for pre-order at $39 on Amazon which is a few dollars more than the $35 Chromecast on Best Buy but less than the latest $49 Roku Streaming Stick on Amazon.  For Prime members, Amazon will actually ship prior to the Oct 20 release day such that you receive it exactly on Oct 20- something that can only be done by a company like Amazon that controls the full product release, retail, and distribution process.