I couldn’t discern any performance differences between the Ultra and Streaming Stick+ while using Hulu, Pluto TV, and Plex, and while Netflix launched about a second faster on the Ultra, navigation speed and content loading times were about the same.
Still, the speed increases aren’t universal. Vue’s channel grid also loaded about a second sooner on the Ultra, and it was a split-second faster at refreshing program data when scrolling down the grid guide.
PlayStation Vue, Sling TV, and Tubi TV all launched roughly a couple seconds faster on the Ultra than they did on a Roku Streaming Stick+. These claims held up in some of the apps I tested.
Roku remote buttons software#
With those hardware improvements and some software optimizations, the company claims that it’s seen an average 17 percent improvement in app launch times for the top 100 streaming apps, and a 33 percent improvement for live TV streaming apps in particular. While Roku doesn’t give out exact tech specs, new Ultra has more memory and a higher clock speed on its quad-core processor than previous models, all in service of loading apps faster. The Roku Ultra remains the only Roku player with all these ports, including USB, microSD, and ethernet. (The Ultra from 2016 also had optical audio output for sound systems that require a Toslink connection, but Roku eliminated it from subsequent upgrades.) In a nice touch, a button on top of the streaming box plays a sound on the remote to help you find it. It still has a USB port for playing media from external drives, a microSD card slot for storing more apps, an HDMI port, and an ethernet jack that supports speeds up to 100Mbps. Improvements insideįrom the outside, the new Roku Ultra looks no different than last year’s model. If you’re interested in voice control, smart home integration, broader 4K HDR format support, or easy browsing across different content sources, venturing outside the Roku ecosystem will get you a more capable streamer. But looking out over the entire streaming device landscape, Roku is still behind the times in a few key areas.
Roku remote buttons upgrade#
Compared to the $60 Roku Streaming Stick+, which also supports 4K HDR video, those extra buttons make the new Roku Ultra a slightly more enticing upgrade than it used to be.
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