Roku Streaming Stick review: The only streaming device you need

Roku’s first Streaming Stick has been the best streaming device around for some time. It’s inexpensive, unobtrusive, and packs Roku’s ginormous collection of streaming channels.

But it’s not perfect. Compared to rivals like Amazon’s Fire TV Stick and the Apple TV, the Roku Stick is preposterously slow.

But Roku has introduced a new Streaming Stick for all of your Netflix and chilling needs. And it’s not only light years faster than its predecessor thanks to a quad-core processor, it’s also slimmer and features an updated smartphone app, too. Oh, and it’s still just $50.

In other words, the best streaming device just got better.

The stick

The new Roku Streaming Stick isn’t much to look at, because, well, there just isn’t much to it. The Stick is so small and slim it could easily pass as an abnormally large USB stick.

That’s all the more impressive when you consider that the original Roku Stick wasn’t very large to begin with. More than anything, the new Stick is far more streamlined. It measures just 3.3 x 0.8 x 0.5 inches. There are lipstick cases bigger than this thing. It’s actually kind of mind blowing that so much technology is packed into such a tiny gadget.

The old Stick’s cartoonish, bubbly purple design has been replaced with a more aggressive jet-black body that says, “I came here to kick ass and stream ‘Dora the Explorer’ for your two year old. And I’m almost out of episodes.”

There’s still a secondary USB cable you need to plug into the back of the Roku Stick to give it the power it needs to work. Depending on the kind of TV you have, you can plug the line into your TV’s available USB slot or just plug it into a wall outlet using the included power adapter.

The remote

The original Roku Stick’s remote was … well, chunky. But like the Stick itself, the remote’s size wasn’t much of an issue. It’s not as if you carried the remote around with you all day like your smartphone. At least I hope you didn’t.

This time around Roku has sliced off a good amount of the remote’s bulk, making the new one more comfortable to hold. It’s also lighter, which is important when you lose it in your bed and inevitably send it sailing across the room as you frantically flip the blankets over while trying to find it.

It’s also good to see that Roku has done away with the sad Blockbuster button on the remote and replaced it with a Google Play button. God knows the only people that ever pressed that button only did so by accident while trying to reach for the remote in the middle of the night.

Source: yahoo.com