Prior to the eventual roll out to the retail markets of the Roku 4 before the Holidays last year, its predecessor, the Roku 3, was dubbed as the gold standard in video streaming.
Despite the advent of competition from Amazon, Google, and Apple, the Roku 3 was able to keep its reputation intact amid hitting the market way back in 2013.
So the pressure was actually on the Roku 4 to come out really better than the Roku 3 if it wants to maintain the reputation of the American tech company in the specialized field of video streaming.
True to its hype, the Roku 4 did come out late last year as the hands-down best video streaming system that money can buy as it offered more options compared to its closest competitors in Apple TV and the Amazon Firestick, notes Tech Radar.
Roku 4 also works best with a 4K TV, which is already considered as Ultra HD, and with its quad-core processor, it has an amazing OS that makes it capable of streaming 4K videos at 60 frames per second with hardly any problem at all.
For its price of $129.99, Roku 4 is faster, more well-rounded, and more open than any product that Roku has released in recent years. It borrowed from the great features of its predecessors and adding more to its legacy in equal measure.
The Roku 4 is also the most egalitarian streaming set-top box there is in the market today. It does not promote streaming services, it actually allows the consumers a freedom of choice. It does not care if the user picks Netflix over Amazon, or Vudu over Hulu because it does not sell its users an Rdio subscription.
Comparable to a frisbee
In terms of design, if experts look to the Roku 3 as a hockey puck, the Roku 4 can be considered similar to a frisbee. While it is wider, it is nonetheless shorter overall.
The Roku 4 measures 2 x 16.5 x 16.5 centimeters for its height, width, and diameter, respectively. The flat top allows users to stack items on top of it and the dimensions seem like a true feat once users learn what’s really under the hood.
In addition to its quad-core ARM processor, the Roku 4 also comes with an 802.11 ac Wi-Fi antenna and a 1.5GB of RAM. However, when compared to other streaming systems, the Roku 4’s 256 MB storage is not really that big. But in its defense, games are sparse and individual channels don’t take up much space of their own. After all, it’s a streaming system and not a gaming console.
Another thing going for the Roku 4 is its remote control, which is almost identical to the Roku 3. The major differences are that the A and B buttons have lost their colors and that the remote of Roku 4 no longer comes with the iconic purple wrist-strap that can be found on the Roku 3.
60 new Roku TV models in 2016
Meanwhile, Roku has just announced during the recently-concluded Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada that the company, along with its hardware partners including Haier, Hisense, and TCL – all Chinese manufacturers – are planning to introduce close to 60 new Roku TV models this year.
Roku and its hardware partners have sold around one million smart TVs to American consumers since its first foray into the market back in 2014, reports Variety.
Among those upcoming new Roku TVs include the first 4K TV sets powered by Roku’s smart operating system. TCL shall reportedly be the first to ship 4K Roku TVs this coming spring while the other hardware partners are expected to have their own ultra-high resolution Roku TVs launched and shipped later in the year.
It has been the strategy of Roku to team up with lesser-known and lower-cost manufacturers to sell streaming-capable TVs with a familiar interface and all the necessary apps to consumers who don’t want to spend big money for high-end TV sets from companies like Samsung, LG, Sony, or Sharp.