The Roku 4 has finally come out early this month and so far, the reviews coming along are generally positive, commending the American tech company based in Saratoga, California, for ensuring that its new streaming device lives up to the hype.
At a retail price of $129.99, which is $30 higher compared to the Roku 3, Roku 4 is still cheaper by $20 compared to the Apple TV released on September 9.
With the emergence of the streaming box, the days of TV are said to be coming to an end. The Roku 4 only shortened the numbered days of the boob tube because it further makes watching over-the-top TV content as easy as possible.
For one, Roku boasts of over 3,000 channels or apps. But more importantly, it has the stuff that viewers really want including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Sling TV, Vudu, Crackle, HBO Go, HBO Now, Showtime, YouTube, Vevo, GoPro, casual games, cable authentication apps, and more, details The Verge.
Similar design as its predecessor
The Roku 4 actually shares a similar design with the Roku 3, but the latest streaming device is larger.
The voice-activated remote control also looks very much like the earlier ones and also has the same headphone jack as the remote control of the Roku 3. However, the Roku 4 remote control has a physical button on top of the streaming box that sends an audio alert to the remote so it can easily be located whenever it is misplaced.
The latest Roku streaming service can stream 4K content, which is a significant upgrade from the 1080-pixel streaming capability of the Roku 3, notes Neurogadget.
Roku has also unveiled a new operating system and a redesigned mobile app with its latest streaming device. The new OS includes a minor update to the ‘Follow’ function that Roku introduced early this year. Instead of just being able to add new movie releases to one’s personal list of things that he or she wants to watch, the user can now add any movie to the list.
The ‘Follow’ function enables the user to get availability updates on movies, TV shows, or programs starring specific actors. It also gives pricing updates when a movie or an episode of a TV show goes down in price.
The new OS is called Roku OS7, which also sports a tool called My Feed, allowing users to keep track of their favorite TV shows and movies.
Roku 4 supports voice commands, so the user will just have to press the dedicated button from the remote and start talking. The device will automatically help the user find his TV show that he wants to see. However, it is important that the user speaks loud and clear because speaking softly will render the speech recognition software unable to understand the user.
A loaded streaming device
The Roku 4 is larger than the Roku 3 and that is because it has more content, hardware-wise, and it comes out as a really loaded streaming device.
Apparently, the bigger size of the box is meant to accommodate all of the new stuff inside the latest streaming device including a faster quad-core processor, support for modern Wi-Fi, an optical audio output, as well as the usual selection of HDMI, Ethernet, and USB ports.
The Roku 4 indeed supports 4K at 60 frames per second to ensure more fluid high-resolution video and not 4K at 30 frames per second, which is what its competitor, the Amazon Fire TV, is capable of offering.
However, it is not the real 4K because a user can only get the full 4K experience if he will be watching on a 4K TV and the video being watched was also shot in 4K. So there is a technical caveat for its 4K capability.
Although the Roku 4 is a great streaming box because of 4K support, faster processor, and a voice-activated remote control, users who already have the Roku 3 have the option not to take on the upgrade.
Because Roku as a whole still has the best-in-class streaming video boxes due largely in part to its volume of programming, content agnostic approach, and ease of use.