Roku Roku Streaming Stick Plus

It is one of the latest offerings from Roku which is a complete entertainment package. If you are a videophile and 4K HDR content enthusiast, this streaming stick is the best of all. It packs functionality with affordability.

The price of the Roku Streaming Stick Plus starts at $45 on leading online shopping platforms.

Specifications of the Roku Streaming Stick Plus

Video capabilities: 4K, HDR, HDR 10Audio capabilities: Dolby Audio, DTS Digital SurroundProcessor: Quad-coreIn-box contents: Roku Streaming Stick Plus, voice remote, AAA batteries (✕2), USB power cable, long-range wireless receiverVoice Assistant support: Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri

Design and aesthetics of the Roku Streaming Stick+

The Roku Streaming Stick+ is a long, roughly cylindrical-shaped device, vaguely like a futuristic pen drive, and has a shiny appearance too. It is quite long though and may stick out from your TV if the HDMI ports are placed on the sides of your TV. 

It comes with some pretty long cables for powering the device. The device has a mini-USB port for connection. The bundled cord is also capable of amplifying wireless signals.

One downside to this is that it isn’t that aesthetically pleasing with the tangling cables and their length. You need to set it aside or tape it off to get a clean look.

The user interface of the Roku Streaming Stick+

Running on their proprietary software, Roku has the best interface of all the streaming devices, except for the Apple TV. Its UI is very simple, clean, and streamlined. The home screen shows you all the downloaded apps.

You can simply open any app and start binge-watching. You can easily organize all the apps up to an extent; you can put favorite ones on the front and less used ones on the latter. There are over 5,000 apps on the interface, but sadly enough you can’t group them all into folders.

This saves your time while navigating through the apps and from needless clicking.

Performance of the Roku Streaming Stick+

Measuring the performance of any online content streaming device is not an easy task. The performance of the device depends on a thousand factors, like your Internet Service Provider, the network you are connected to, the compression algorithm of the content you are streaming, the resolution of the content, and many more.  

Remote control of the Roku Streaming Stick+

Remote controls have gotten better and better with each passing year. From ugly and bulky-shaped remotes to slim and sleek remotes, they have now become an accessory in themselves.

Roku’s remote controls have also gone through the same journey. The Roku Streaming Stick+ has a matte-finished remote which has a very comfortable grip and has all the useful buttons as well.

You get a D-pad, back, home, select/OK, rewind, play/pause, voice search, options, and fast-forward buttons. Apart from these you also get four dedicated buttons for the OTT platforms like Netflix, Hulu, PlayStation Vue, and Sling TV.

In my opinion, it is not a great option as everyone doesn’t have the same preferences. If the buttons could have been customizable according to personal choices, then it would have been a great one.

Quite thankful enough, you also get the volume up/down and the power on/off button as well. 

Content and app support on the Roku Streaming Stick+

The Roku streaming device runs on its software platform which has over 5,000 apps which include TV, movies, sports, music, fitness, and games. At this price point, there’s so much for you to discover that you wouldn’t find on any other device. However, most of the apps are very niche and are not worth wasting your time navigating through.

The Roku Streaming Stick Plus does not have any extra port for any USB device or microSD cards. So, you are unable to play the content directly, but you stream your content through the built-in Roku media player or Play On or Plex.

Here are some of the pros and cons of the Roku Streaming Stick+:

Bottom Line

With this product, Roku has packed in all the best features of their previous products in an inexpensive and user-friendly package. Other 4K HDR streaming devices like the Google Chromecast Ultra fall short on some features or the Apple TV 4K, which are way too expensive to afford for the majority.

However, everything couldn’t be merry. The Roku Streaming Stick Plus could have an audio jack, and a USB/microSD card port. The search results could have been better in terms of depth rather than breadth.

But, all in all, it is a fairly good package for the amount you spend, and you wouldn’t regret buying it.