Roku has two new budget streaming sticks, including a cheaper 4K HDR model, and there’s a surprising upgrade out of the box jacob.krol@futurenet.com (Jacob Krol) | usagoldmines.com

• Roku has announced the new Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus
• They replace the Express and Express 4K+
• You get a voice remote in the box, plus a compact design, but the Streaming Stick 4K is also sticking around

Roku has introduced two new streaming sticks that slim down the overall build even further, and aim to stretch the value by including one of the brand’s most popular accessories.

The Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus are the smallest sticks from Roku yet, and represent the new entry points to the brand’s lineup, replacing the Express and Express 4K+.

Both aim to offer most of the features you’d want to see in any streaming device – stick or box – and are priced competitively at $29.99 / £29.99 for the Stick and $39.99 / £ 39.99 for the Plus(we’re waiting on Australian pricing to be confirmed). Preorders are open now, and the official shipment start date is May 6.

These are the smallest and most compact devices from the brand so far – they’re super-slim sticks that are only slightly thicker than an HDMI port.

That slim design should make it easy to plug the Stick into the HDMI slot on the back of your TV, and Roku says the design won’t block your other ports. That’s a pretty nice upgrade, and the brand says these sticks are over 35% smaller than other brands, though it stops short of naming the others.

The overall design of the Stick and Stick Plus is pretty simple: there’s a physical power button and a USB-C port, although Roku doesn’t want you to plug either stick into a wall socket; rather, it says you can just plug the USB cable right into the back of your TV, as these don’t need a huge amount of power to run.

The other appeal is portability, something Roku thinks is becoming a bigger trend. If you’re heading on vacation to a hotel or an Airbnb, given how small the Stick or Stick Plus are you could grab the stick and cable to bring it with you to access your favorite streaming services away from home. That’s pretty nice.

As the names suggests, the Roku Streaming Stick and Roku Stick Plus give you full access to the Roku platform, so you’ll get easy access to all of the best streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Apple TV+, and Max. That classic experience with the promise of future updates is all still here.

The biggest change is that Roku is including a voice remote in the box with the Stick or Stick Plus. This way, you can simply use your voice to ask for your favorite shows and pull up other content. This also levels the playing field with the Amazon Fire Stick lineup, as the entry-level Fire Stick HD (priced at $34.99 / £39.99 / AU$69) does ship with an Alexa voice remote as well.

Roku’s Streaming Stick supports up to an HD experience (up to 1080p resolution), while the Streaming Stick Plus delivers up to a 4K experience with support for HLG, HDR 10, and HDR 10+, depending on the TV you plug the stick into. If you’re looking for support for Dolby Vision you’ll need to opt for the Streaming Stick 4K, a pre-existing model that retails for $49.99 / £49.99.

If you’re already sold – maybe you’ve been after a more affordable streaming stick from Roku and don’t need support for Dolby Vision – the Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus are up for preorder now directly from Roku priced at $29.99 / £29.99 and $39.99 / £39.99.

We’ll be going hands-on and testing both of Roku’s new sticks as soon as we can.

@techradar

♬ Innovation Technology – ZydSounds

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