Cheap voice search and much better wireless make it a better entry-level option.

It's a good time to be in the market for a streaming TV box. Roku just updated its lineup earlier this week with the tiny $30 Roku Express and some mainstream boxes that bring 4K video support for less than $100. Google is expected to release a 4K version of its popular Chromecast dongle at its product event next week. And Amazon has just announced a new version of its $40 Fire TV Stick.

For most people, the most noticeable upgrade will be the included Alexa Voice Remote, which can be used to search for media, launch apps, and control playback, among other things. Voice input can go a long way toward solving the normally frustrating experience of tapping out text using a giant on-screen keyboard, and Amazon is offering the feature in a cheaper package than either Roku or Apple.

4K TV and streamers are becoming more common and more affordable, but the Fire TV Stick is still aimed primarily at people with 720p and 1080p TVs and relatively basic needs. It's still getting a few hardware upgrades that should make the experience better, though. It trades its dual-core Broadcom SoC for a quad-core MT8127 chip from MediaTek. Its 1.3GHz ARM Cortex A7 cores and quad-core ARM Mali 450 GPU would be laughably outdated in any smartphone, but they're well-suited for 1080p media streaming and should provide a noticeable improvement to UI fluidity and general responsiveness. The SoC also supports 1080p decode for h.265/HEVC content.

The other big upgrade is 867Mbps 802.11ac Wi-Fi, a major improvement from the 2.4GHz-only 802.11n in the previous model. And Bluetooth 4.1 support, an upgrade from Bluetooth 3.0, should help save battery life for connected accessories. Other specs remain unchanged: it still includes just 1GB of RAM and 8GB of non-expandable internal storage that, along with the low-end SoC, will limit its usefulness beyond media streaming.

The Fire TV Stick can be ordered now, and Amazon's page says it will be released on October 20.