I like Roku’s mid-range streaming stick despite fresh annoyances

Price When Reviewed

$39.99

Best Prices Today: Roku Streaming Stick Plus

$29

$29.99

$29.99

$34.99

$39.99

At a listing value of $40—and infrequently on sale for much less—the Roku Streaming Stick Plus hits a candy spot.

It’s not the most affordable streaming dongle Roku sells, nevertheless it’s the least costly choice with 4K HDR video, and it sports activities barely higher efficiency than the $30 Roku Streaming Stick. Its moveable design can be an enchancment over the Roku Express 4K+, which Roku beforehand offered on the similar value.

I nonetheless have some misgivings about Roku’s software program, which is regularly getting extra difficult and bloated. But should you benefit from the Roku expertise as it’s, the Roku Streaming Stick Plus is a stable choice.

What’s included with the Roku Streaming Stick Plus

The Roku Streaming Stick Plus has the identical finger-sized design because the cheaper Roku Streaming Stick I reviewed in July, distinguished solely by its embossed black “Roku” brand as a substitute of a painted-on purple one. Its built-in HDMI connector plugs straight into one in all your TV’s HDMI ports, and if it doesn’t match throughout the spacing of these ports, you may request a free extender cable.

Unlike earlier Roku fashions, the Streaming Stick Plus doesn’t embody an influence adapter. Instead, you get a five-foot USB-A-to USB-C cable to plug into the USB energy port on most trendy TVs. The dongle had no hassle drawing sufficient energy this fashion from the TVs I examined it with, however you may have to go attempting to find an outlet adapter for outdated TVs that don’t present USB energy.

For video, the Roku Streaming Stick Plus streams at as much as 4K decision with help for HDR and HDR10+, however not Dolby Vision. You have to step as much as the $50 Roku Streaming Stick 4K for that. On the audio facet, Dolby Atmos can be lacking, as that characteristic is just obtainable on the $100 Roku Ultra.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Roku now ships the identical fundamental Voice Remote with all of its lower-end gamers. Like each different Roku present mannequin, it contains buttons to regulate your TV’s quantity and energy, offering a single-remote resolution until you may have an exterior sound system that doesn’t help HDMI-CEC. If that’s the case, you’ll want a separate distant for quantity changes. (Because the Streaming Stick Plus doesn’t settle for IR enter, it received’t work with fundamental common remotes.)

One factor lacking from this mannequin is Bluetooth help. You can nonetheless join earbuds to your telephone and use Roku’s cellular app for personal listening, however the Roku Ultra stays the one participant that helps pairing headphones or earbuds on to the streaming system.

Roku Streaming Stick Plus efficiency and Wi-Fi reception

Roku does an admirable job optimizing its software program to run on light-weight {hardware}, so there isn’t an enormous efficiency distinction between every of its gamers. Still, the Roku Streaming Stick Plus does have some noticeable enhancements over the cheaper Streaming Stick.

In my side-by-side testing, the Streaming Stick Plus sometimes loaded apps just a few seconds quicker, and was faster at filling program information particulars as I scrolled by the Pluto TV app. Netflix specifically appeared to profit, because the Streaming Stick Plus would typically would return to the place I used to be in Netflix’s menu system after switching to a special app. (With the cheaper Streaming Stick, Netflix often wanted a full reload.)

The Roku Streaming Stick Plus additionally helps Wi-Fi 5, somewhat than Wi-Fi 4 as on the Streaming Stick, and I noticed higher Wi-Fi efficiency at lengthy vary because of this. Testing from the far finish of my again yard on a transportable monitor, the Roku Streaming Stick Plus maintained speeds round 20Mbps, whereas the Streaming Stick averaged lower than 10Mbps and displayed a weak sign warning. Meanwhile, the $50 Roku Streaming Stick 4K achieved speeds of round 100Mbps in the identical check.

The improved Wi-Fi received’t matter in areas with stable reception—each fashions maintained 100Mbps connections within the workplace the place my router is positioned—nevertheless it may make a distinction on the fringes.

If you wish to use wired ethernet, Roku says the Streaming Stick Plus is suitable with USB-C-to-ethernet adapters that provide energy, however I used to be unable to get it related with a number of multiport USB-C hubs. The Roku Ultra is a greater wager if ethernet is a should.

Roku software program: Familiar structure, new distractions

Jared Newman / Foundry

While Roku has historically prided itself on simplicity, lately that mission has been at odds with the economics of Roku’s enterprise, which requires ever-more advert income and—extra lately—a push for extra subscriptions.

This manifests itself in a bunch of the way:

• The Home part, which as soon as introduced an easy listing of your put in apps, now contains promotional content material tiles and hyperlinks to varied content material submenus.
• The left sidebar menu now has a banner advert on the backside, which implies the default menu choices don’t all match and you need to scroll up and right down to see all of them.
• The banner advertisements in each the Home part and sidebar menu now have animations and video.
• More of Roku’s personal apps at the moment are pre-installed, together with the recently acquired Frndly TV and the recently launched Howdy.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Fundamentally, it’s wonderful for Roku to attempt shifting previous the app grid paradigm and recommending extra issues to look at from the house display screen. People do need assistance sorting by all their streaming companies, and different streaming platforms have been making an attempt to deal with that drawback for years.

But a number of what Roku’s doing weighs too closely on the facet of upselling extra companies as a substitute of serving to navigate what you’re already paying for. To wit: Roku has a helpful “Continue Watching” characteristic that tracks all of the exhibits you’re watching throughout totally different companies, nevertheless it’s buried in a “What to Watch” menu that’s all too simple to disregard. Why not put it within the newly-expanded Home part as a substitute?

Jared Newman / Foundry

Roku nonetheless deserves credit score for nailing a number of the little issues. Many people admire the distant’s devoted fast-forward, rewind, and play/pause buttons—Google TV and Apple TV gadgets omit these—in addition to the “Replay” button that jumps again in time with closed captions quickly enabled. Roku additionally does an ideal job surfacing free content material by its Featured Free menu and Roku Channel app, and help for Apple’s AirPlay turns out to be useful for sharing content material from iPhones and iPads. The expertise is general constructive; there’s simply a lot room for enchancment.

Jared Newman / Foundry

Roku Streaming Stick Plus vs. the remainder

For most Roku followers, the Streaming Stick Plus is a greater choice than the $30 Streaming Stick, with speedier app load instances, higher Wi-Fi connectivity, and 4K HDR video help. It’s additionally value contemplating over the $50 Roku Streaming Stick 4K should you don’t care about Dolby Vision and have a good Wi-Fi setup.

I’d additionally choose the Roku Streaming Stick Plus over Amazon’s low-cost Fire TV Sticks, as a result of for as cluttered as Roku’s software program has turn out to be, Amazon’s continues to be quite a bit worse. If you like a extra content-forward interface, take into account Walmart’s Onn streaming gadgets (the $20 Onn box, $30 Onn 4K Plus, or $50 Onn 4K Pro) as options.

Otherwise, the center dongle in Roku’s lineup ought to be all you want.

This evaluation is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best streaming devices.