Roku Announces New 4K Streaming Sticks and Set-Top Box

Not to be outdone by Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Roku has announced new Roku Streaming Stick 4K and Streaming Stick 4K+ models, plus a new Roku Ultra LT set-top box.

“The Roku Streaming Stick has been a fan favorite for years and we’ve redesigned it in the Roku Streaming Stick 4K to be faster and more powerful than ever,” Roku’s Mark Ely says. “It’s super-charged so you can stream in beautiful 4K and Dolby Vision even at a distance from your router and tucked neatly behind your TV. We’ve also added the Roku Voice Remote Pro to the Roku Streaming Stick 4K+ enabling TV lovers to find their remote just by using their voice. Whatever your streaming needs, we’ve got an incredible product lineup that features innovations from our singular focus on the TV streaming business.”

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The updated Roku Streaming Stick 4K offers 4K, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+ and it provides 30 percent better performance and double the Wi-Fi speeds of its predecessor. And the new Roku Streaming Stick 4K+ is essentially a bundle of the updated Roku Streaming Stick 4K with the Roku Voice Remote Pro. That remote comes with a rechargeable battery, a voice-activated lost remote finder, TV controls, personal shortcut buttons, private listening, hands-free, and push-to-talk Roku Voice support.

Roku also announced a refreshed Roku Ultra LT that comes with a faster processor, more storage, and a new Wi-Fi radio that provides up to 50 percent longer range than its predecessor. It also supports Dolby Vision, Bluetooth audio streaming, and Ethernet port.

The Roku Streaming Stick 4K retails for $49.99, while the Roku Streaming Stick 4K+ will cost $69.99. (By comparison, the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max costs $54.99.) The Roku Ultra LT, oddly, is exclusive to Walmart in the U.S. and will cost $79.99. Each device will become available in the coming weeks, Roku says.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 6 comments

  • jdjan

    Premium Member
    20 September, 2021 - 11:23 am

    <p>I love Roku boxes/sticks. The interface and experience has always been great, but the company keeps getting into spats with Google. The dedicated YouTubeTV app was pulled as a result of these disputes and, while you can use YouTube TV by going in via the YouTube app, it’s an annoying extra step. </p><p><br></p><p>Google may well be the culprit (I haven’t been following the story), but I know that I won’t be buying any more Rokus as a consequence. My two remaining Roku devices will be replaced with something else when they crap out.</p>

    • crunchyfrog

      20 September, 2021 - 6:47 pm

      <p>I may be incorrect but if you buy a new Roku and had YouTube TV on your old Roku, you won’t be able to download it to the new device.</p>

      • jdjan

        Premium Member
        20 September, 2021 - 7:05 pm

        <p>You are correct. However, Google came up with a workaround. They embedded YouTube TV into the regular YouTube app. </p><p><br></p><p>But it’s annoying. To watch TV you have to open up Roku, open YouTube app, scroll down to YouTubeTV, then wait 10-15 seconds while the interface updates and then you get YTTV. It’s annoying.</p><p><br></p><p>Like I said above, I’m not sure if it’s Roku or Google’s fault. I don’t care. It needs to work better for consumers. Ultimately I think Roku loses out, because I won’t buy one again.</p>

  • ikjadoon

    20 September, 2021 - 2:08 pm

    <p>Glad to see Dolby Vision on more models; the HDR format war doesn’t need to drag on much longer.</p><p><br></p><p>The Switch, PlayStation, and AMD GPUs are the hold-outs I can remember.</p>

  • crunchyfrog

    20 September, 2021 - 6:50 pm

    <p>Roku sticks have been unreliable in the past so I moved to the Ultra series boxes. They are great but I discovered that they are not powerful enough to process true 4K content from a video file, only streaming compressed 4K. For that I had to buy an Nvidia Shield Pro.</p><p><br></p>

  • Tiny

    Premium Member
    20 September, 2021 - 7:24 pm

    <p>My only complaint about ROKU is nit-picky. I wish that I could reprogram the dedicated channel buttons. It is a real PITA when you accidentally start a subscription channel you don’t want.</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC