Roku Streaming Stick 4K Review: Is it Worth it?

Lots of TVs these days come with built-in streaming capabilities. They tend to be slow as hell, though, so I bypass all of them with a dedicated streaming device. You should think about getting one, too.

You get to pick your service—Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, or Chromecast—and get better features, such as voice controls and smarter remote controls, to boot. “Wha—one more purchase!?” I can hear you thinking it.

So yes, one more purchase. It’s (often) worth it. You just need to make sure it can handle 4K. Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K, at first glance of its $40 price tag, is an affordable way to fulfill that requirement. And just look at how easy it is to install on literally any TV.

A streaming stick—a device that brings the streaming networks like Hulu and Netflix to your TV—is very convenient. It plugs straight into the back of the TV, tucked away and out of sight. Plus, it’s cheaper than a big streaming box.

But it makes compromises. Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K, like most streaming sticks, trades away speed for its small size and low price. Whether it’s right for you depends on your priorities.

easy to tuck behind a tv

Because it’s just a stick that plugs straight into your TV’s HDMI port, you don’t need to find a place to hide a bulky box. You don’t need to hide a dangling HDMI cable. It just tucks behind even the slimmest TV, out of the way and out of sight.

When I tried to tuck the Ultra 4K behind our test TV (a TCL QM7 55-inch 4K), it wouldn’t fit between the wall and the TV back when mounted to a Sanus low-profile wall mount. The stick gave me no such problems. It’ll fit practically anywhere.

The Streaming Stick 4K is fast enough, although it’s not quite as snappy as the Roku Ultra 4K. It isn’t unusable. There’s a hint of a delay while scrolling through the home screen and opening apps that’s noticeable, but not frustratingly so. It’s just there, being middling.

The extra speed of the Ultra 4K is nice to have, and the Apple TV 4K’s speed is outright blistering, but the Roku stick is perfectly usable, if not particularly awe-inspiring. It’s… fine. That’s one of the key aspects you trade away to attain the stick’s smaller form.

Roku’s screen interface is simple and intuitive to use. It’s my favorite of the TV streaming devices. Apps are kept separate on the right side of the screen in their own bunch of tiles, and categories, such as settings and the channel marketplace, are kept in a column on the left.

It’s clean and breezy to navigate. The playful screensavers and backgrounds have a cheekiness that make the other services, such as Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, seem cold and sterile by comparison. I don’t even mind the advertisements, since they’re worked into the scenery.

Like the Roku Ultra 4K that sits at the top of Roku’s food chain, the Streaming Stick 4K supports Dolby Vision, HDR, and, of course, streaming in 4K resolution. On the audio side, though, the stick doesn’t support Dolby Atmos, while the Ultra does.

In short, Dolby Atmos is a technology designed to give a more “three-dimensional” sound across your speakers, whether it’s just the TV’s (most likely crappy) built-in speakers, a soundbar (big upgrade), or a proper surround sound system.

Will you miss it if you choose the Streaming Stick 4K over the Ultra 4K? It depends on what your audio setup looks like. Through the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4 that I’m testing, yeah, I do miss it when I’m A/B-ing it against the Ultra 4K that I’d also been testing.

A remote with less features

If you’ve read my reviews of the Roku Ultra 4K and Apple TV 4K (nudge nudge), you’ll know that I pay a lot of attention to streaming devices’ remotes. You end up interacting with them much more than you do with the streaming box itself, so I care more about them than a box or stick that’ll stay hidden behind a TV.

The Streaming Stick 4K’s remote is classic Roku. That recognizable remote has changed little in form since 2011 because it just works. It’s comfortable to hold, and it’s intuitive to use in a dark room while also having more shortcut buttons than the Apple TV remote.

There’s no hands-free voice detection, which the Roku Ultra 4K has. That’s a bummer. It’s very cool when I can yell at the Ultra 4K from the kitchen, “Hey Roku, go to Netflix,” and the TV flickers to life and does just that.

But it does have a voice control button, which you can hold as you give it commands to search for a title or tell it to go to a specific streaming channel. Volume controls and mute are on the right side, where I can easily find them without looking at them or confusing them for other buttons.

There’s no motion-activated backlight, unlike the Ultra 4K’s remote, and instead of the latter’s internal battery that recharges via USB-C cable, the stick’s remote runs on two AAA batteries.

There’s no customizable shortcut button or guide button that takes you straight to Roku’s live TV channel schedule. Otherwise, the remotes are the same, though the buttons on the stick’s remote are snappier and clickier than the Ultra’s.

how to know if you should buy it

So who buys the Streaming Stick 4K over the Ultra 4K? Somebody who has no conceivable way to tuck a bulky streaming box anywhere out of sight and doesn’t want ugly wires hanging out the bottom of the TV like intestines in a haunted house display.

Or somebody who doesn’t have a 4K TV or an interest in watching 4K content but who doesn’t want to step all the way down the Roku Express, which needs to be tucked or set down somewhere and doesn’t have voice control in its remote.

Or somebody who wants a device for traveling. I know a bunch of people who bring a streaming stick of one brand or another when they take off for vacation. It takes up basically no room in your luggage and no fiddling with once you reach the hotel room TV.

If you’re looking for the ultimate in video quality, step up to the Ultra 4K to get Dolby Atmos and the faster streaming. You’ll get a better remote, too. Sure, the Ultra 4K costs $80 versus the Streaming Stick 4K’s $40.

But given the fact that you’re probably paying decent money for streaming channels that keep ballooning their prices up and up, another $40 for a device that’ll last you years is easily justifiable.

If you care about the finest TV streaming experience for your 4K TV, look elsewhere for a streaming device. The Roku Ultra 4K and Apple TV 4K will each bring you to streaming nirvana, as long as you work just a little bit extra on installing it to get there.

alternatives

• Roku Express 4K+ for $24: There isn’t much reason to recommend the Express 4K+ over the Streaming Stick 4K. They both lack Dolby Atmos support and include the same remote (with the same omissions compared to the Roku Ultra 4K), but the Express 4K+ also lacks Dolby Vision compatibility. Even though the Express 4K+ comes with an adhesive strip so you can stick it on the back of your TV, it’s still bulkier than the stick. It’s only $15 less than the Streaming Stick 4K. Eat peanut butter for lunch one day to save up the difference, if you must.
• Roku Ultra 4K for $79: I don’t call it the “best streaming box for watching TV in 4K resolution” for nothing. The Roku Ultra 4K is faster than the Streaming Stick 4K, but of course, you have to find a way to hide the HDMI cable that dangles from the back of the TV. The Ultra’s remote is also more feature-rich. The Ultra 4K also comes with an Ethernet port in addition to its Wi-Fi, so you can use a wired connection for even greater speed. The Streaming Stick 4K is Wi-FI only.
• Apple TV 4K (3rd Generation) for $159: The Roku Ultra 4K’s chief competition, the Apple TV 4K is lightning fast, with a clean, although less playful and intuitive, user interface. But it comes at a significantly higher price, so except for diehard Apple fans, the Roku Ultra 4K beats it out. Plus, the performance and price tag are simply in a higher price bracket than the Roku Streaming Stick 4K.