With Disney Plus and Netflix spearheading the Dolby Vision invasion, you might be on the lookout for an affordable streamer that can keep up with the better HDR format. You're looking for an affordable way to stream Dolby Vision content The Roku Streaming Stick 4K fixes that with a long-range antenna that should do a better job latching onto your Wi-Fi. Sometimes that means our smart TVs don't get the best Wi-Fi reception and wreak havoc on your streaming experience. Your TV is a few rooms away from your routerįor many of us, our routers aren't right next to our living room TV. (Image credit: Future) Should you buy the Roku Streaming Stick 4K (2021)? Buy it if.įor first time buyers and folks looking to upgrade their first- or second-gen Roku devices, the new Roku Streaming Stick 4K is a very good value, offering modern specs and formats at a great price. The Roku Streaming Stick 4K antenna and power cable. If you already have a 4K HDR streaming stick from Roku - even one that doesn’t offer Dolby Vision / HDR10+ support - you’ll still see about 90% of the same features and performance as the latest model. The downside to investing in the app rather than making major changes to the player itself is that there’s then little reason to upgrade. Where Roku says it’s putting more of its innovation is in the Roku app that now allows you to stream content from the Roku Channel anywhere and will soon support up to four devices for private listening. Last year we almost lost YouTube TV from the service due to an ongoing conflict between Roku and Google, but that has since been resolved. Currently, you can find all the mainstay apps like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Hulu and more, alongside the most recent crop of services like HBO Max, Disney Plus and Peacock. On the user interface front, we haven't seen much change in the last few years, however Roku has done a good job of keeping up on the latest streaming services. Watching shows like The Book of Boba Fett on Disney Plus looked great in HDR and never stuttered on our 80+ Mbps connection. With both HDR formats on-board you can buy pretty much any model of high-end HDR TV from Samsung, LG or Sony and be able to watch shows and movies in every format. We also appreciate seeing both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support on the streaming stick and slightly faster connection speeds. Apps opened quickly without almost any load time, and for apps like Netflix and Amazon, the screen filled with title cards allowing us to practically jump right in to the next show. (Image credit: Future) Performanceīased on everything we knew about the new Roku Streaming Stick, we were expecting a moderate boost in performance, and that's exactly what we got: with a new SoC installed the Roku Streaming Stick does offer a slightly faster boot up speed (around 30%) and a hair faster navigation. The Roku Streaming Stick 4K remote is good, but not amazing. You can also replace the remote entirely with the Roku app that allows you to control the streaming stick and offers private listening. The Roku Streaming Stick 4K supports Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands, as well as AirPlay 2 streaming from iPhone, iPad or Mac. That being said, you don’t always need to use the remote if you don’t want to. Weirdly our remote didn’t sync up with our player - potentially, Roku says, because there are a number of other Roku devices elsewhere in the house - but we were able to get it connected to a Roku Voice Remote Pro.Īdmittedly there’s not a huge difference between the two remotes but the Pro offers an always-listening assistant that can be summoned with “Hey Roku” and a rechargeable battery. If it does, you might not get the maximum range from the antenna.Īlso included in the box is a Roku voice remote with two AAA batteries. To maximize its range Roku recommends keeping it away from the HDMI ports on the TV and making sure it doesn’t get tangled up with other cords. You’ll notice that in between the head and tail of the streaming stick is a solid plastic bar - that’s the long-range Wi-Fi antenna. To get power, you’ll either need to plug it into a USB port on the TV or use the included power adapter to plug it into the wall. It’s about the size of a USB thumb drive and it plugs right into the HDMI port on your TV. The new Roku Streaming Stick looks a lot like the old Roku Streaming Stick. The Roku Streaming Stick with the power cord / antenna on the left and voice remote on the right.
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