On Wednesday, Roku revealed two new streaming units at an occasion in New York. The corporate says its Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus are probably the most compact available on the market, measuring 35 p.c smaller than different manufacturers’ fashions. Nevertheless, Roku says there is not any compromise on efficiency regardless of the small measurement.
The entry-level Streaming Stick is $30 and it knocks the Roku Specific out of the corporate’s lineup. It has lots of the options you’d count on from Roku, corresponding to customized suggestions, entry to 1000’s of streaming channels, a voice distant and Backdrops — a method to show artwork and images in your TV once you’re not streaming something.
The $40 Streaming Stick Plus, in the meantime, replaces the Roku Specific 4K+. Naturally, this has all the options of the Streaming Stick in addition to help for 4K and HDR streaming. Roku notes the small measurement of each sticks makes it straightforward to convey both with you once you journey, so you’ll be able to plug one right into a TV at your resort or trip rental and preserve watching your reveals.
The Roku Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus is coming to the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. US pre-orders are open in the present day and the sticks will turn into out there from Roku immediately and main retailers on Could 6.
Elsewhere, the corporate previewed new TVs with “distinctive {hardware} improvements” and “under-the-hood enhancements.” Roku is promising richer and extra vivid visuals, together with improved audio high quality and quicker app launches in its 2025 lineup. The corporate pledged to ship customized manufacturing facility calibration for the brand new Roku Professional Sequence fashions.
Plus Sequence TVs are getting a function referred to as Roku Sensible Image Max, which robotically adjusts image settings on a scene-by-scene foundation that will help you keep away from fiddling in menus greater than you’ll want to. The Plus Sequence will now have mini-LED backlighting with the intention of bettering image high quality with out growing costs. These fashions can even have the built-in distant finder button and built-in cable administration that had been launched on Professional Sequence items. Going ahead, all Roku TVs may have a Bluetooth headphone possibility too.
Roku additionally introduced software program updates, which it claims will make streaming on Roku OS “smoother and extra customized.” In the meantime, revamped content material discovery options embody customized sports activities highlights and a “Coming quickly to theaters” row for films. (Hey, cinemas want all the assistance they’ll get.) On high of that, the Backdrops function is coming to all Roku TVs and streaming units in Canada beginning in the present day.