Hands on: Roku Streaming Stick 4K (2021) review
The Roku Streaming Stick (2021) isn’t pretty the large overhaul we had been waiting for for Roku’s famous mid-variety streaming stick, however it does provide a few quality improvements.
Among them are aid for Dolby Vision and HDR10+ in addition to a brand new processor that ought to accelerate the startup process.
Elsewhere, Roku is running on enhancing the Roku cellular app to be greater beneficial whilst you’re now no longer proper subsequent for your streaming stick and the Stick’s particular promoting point – longer Wi-Fi variety – stays intact.
Still, there’s a sense of new release right here that’s tough to shake. And even as it’d provide some right improvements for parents simply beginning out with cord-cutting, each person with a particularly current streaming stick in all likelihood won’t see plenty of a motive to upgrade.
Price and launch date
The new Roku Streaming Stick 4K have become to be had in mid-October 2021 and become launched along the Roku Streaming Stick 4K+ that consists of the Roku Voice Remote Pro.
In phrases of pricing you’re searching at $49.ninety nine / £49.ninety nine (round AU$70) for the Roku Streaming Stick 4K and $69.ninety nine (round AU$100) for the Roku Streaming Stick 4K+.
Compared to the competition, that’s relatively near the brand-new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max that costs $54.ninety nine / £55 / AU$ninety nine and the Chromecast with Google TV that got here out remaining 12 months and is going for $49.ninety nine / £59.ninety nine / AU$ninety nine. Both of these gamers provide comparable functions to the brand new Roku Streaming Stick 4K and, for a few, may also be higher values.
Design
The new Roku Streaming Stick appears lots just like the antique Roku Streaming Stick. It’s approximately the dimensions of a USB thumb power and it plugs proper into the HDMI port to your TV.
To get strength, you’ll both want to plug it right into a USB port at the TV or use the protected strength adapter to plug it into the wall.
You’ll note that during among the top and tail of the streaming stick is a strong plastic bar – that’s the long-variety Wi-Fi antenna. To maximize its variety Roku recommends preserving it farfar from the HDMI ports at the TV and ensuring it doesn’t get twisted up with different cords. If it does, you won’t get the most variety from the antenna.
Also protected withinside the container is a Roku voice faraway with AAA batteries. Weirdly our faraway didn’t sync up with our participant – potentially, Roku says, due to the fact there are some of different Roku gadgets some place else withinside the house – however we had been capable of get it linked to a Roku Voice Remote Pro.
Admittedly there’s now no longer a massive distinction among the 2 remotes however the Pro gives an constantly-listening assistant that may be summoned with “Hey Roku” and a chargeable battery.
That being said, you don’t constantly want to apply the faraway in case you don’t need to. The Roku Streaming Stick 4K helps Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands, in addition to AirPlay 2 streaming from iPhone, iPad or Mac. You also can update the faraway completely with the Roku app that permits you to govern the streaming stick and gives personal listening.
Performance
Based on the entirety we knew approximately the brand new Roku Streaming Stick, we had been waiting for a slight enhance in overall performance, and that is precisely what we got: with a brand new SoC mounted the Roku Streaming Stick does provide a barely quicker boot up speed (round 30%) and a hair quicker navigation, however it hasn’t felt substantial.
That being said, we do respect seeing each Dolby Vision and HDR10+ aid at the streaming stick and barely quicker connection speeds. With each HDR codecs on-board you could purchase quite plenty any version of high-give up HDR TV from Samsung, LG or Sony and have the ability to observe indicates and films in each format.
The consumer interface and app choice hasn’t modified plenty withinside the previous couple of years both. We’ve gotten some new large streaming offerings like HBO Max, Disney Plus and Peacock, however we’ve additionally misplaced YouTube TV to an ongoing negotiation among the 2 companies.
Where Roku says it’s placing greater of its innovation is withinside the Roku app that now permits you to movement content material from the Roku Channel everywhere and could quickly aid as much as 4 gadgets for personal listening.
The drawback to making an investment withinside the app in preference to making essential modifications to the participant itself is that there’s then little motive to upgrade. If you have already got a 4K HDR streaming stick from Roku – even one which doesn’t provide Dolby Vision / HDR10+ aid – you’ll nevertheless see approximately 90% of the identical functions and overall performance because the present day version.