Gadgetory

Roku makes my favorite streamers but it has a whopping five new models for 2017 which one should you get my pick for most people is a $70 Roku streaming stick plus sure it's more expensive than most of the others but it's still affordable and it's mix of features and capabilities is the best on the market I'll tackle the other Roku's later in this video but for now let's take a closer look at the plus this tiny stick is designed to plug into the HDMI port on your TV and remain out of sight it includes a cable with something called an advanced wireless receiver that's supposed to improve Wi-Fi reception in my test that didn't make much of a difference but Wi-Fi recession was still fine more important is this 4k HDR video output streaming stick plus one of the least expensive streamers to deliver the highest quality 4k and high dynamic range videos from Netflix Amazon Vudu and other apps if you have compatible 4k TV that means we'll be getting the best picture for your streaming dollar and even if you don't have a 4k TV yet chances are good that your next TV will be 4k the plus is cheap enough you might want to get it now anyway and be ready for the future my favorite new feature is their emotes ability to control your TV buttons for power and volume are programmed automatically during setup using the information contained in your television you probably won't have to do anything to set it up worst case you'll have to type in the TV makers name otherwise everything I like about Roku is on board including the best search in the business simple menus that are easy to customize and more apps or can otherwise than the competition and all that goodness trickles down to the cheaper Roku's - my next favorite is the $50 streaming stick which is basically the non 4k version of the plus it's remote can do TV control and voice search - and response times were just as snappy if you have absolutely no plans to get a 4k TV save the 20 bucks and get the standard stick and if you don't care about that TV control remote with voice search get the Roku Express unlike last year's version is plenty snappy to respond it's not a stick so we need an HDMI cable but it's still tiny this is my go-to pick for ultra budget streaming hardware for people with older TVs that lack HDMI ports Roku sells the $40 Express plus it comes with a set of yellow red and white analog cables you can infuse that ancient set with a full suite of modern apps finally there's the most expensive Roku the $100 Roku ultra it has all the capabilities of streaming stick plus including 4k HDR in traditional streaming box form its remote has a headphone jack for private listening there's a cool remote finder that makes the clicker beep if it gets lost and you can connect an ethernet cable if your Wi-Fi isn't great those features probably aren't worth another 30 bucks to most people unless they just want the best Roku period in the end Roku's 2017 line up has a streamer for everyone but the star is a streaming stick plus