If you’re buying a new TV, chances are that it’s going to be a 4K TV. They’re better, cheaper and more abundant than ever. (Heck, you can get a 50- or 55-inch 4K by TCL or Vizio for under $1,000 – sometimes well under $1,000 – and the picture quality is going to be pretty fantastic.) Most of these 4K TVs will have some kind of smart operating system built into them, and many will be Roku TVs, which is one of the most popular smart TV operating systems. However, Roku is now making even easier and cheaper for those non-Roku 4K TVs to switch over.
That’s because Roku just announced two new 4K HDR streaming sticks, the Premiere ($40) and Premiere+ ($50), and both devices are well cheaper than Amazon’s and Google’s cheapest 4K streaming sticks, which both run around $69. And Apple’s option, the Apple TV 4K ($179), costs way way more.
The Roku Premiere and Premiere+ are both really small, lightweight and portable devices, with similar form factors to Roku’s current Express line of streaming sticks. The new sticks don’t really skimp out on the features, either. Both have powerful quad-core processors, are able to stream 4K HDR content, and are updated with the latest Roku OS. And both streaming sticks come with Roku remotes. The only real difference between the Premiere and Premiere+ is that the latter supports Google Assistant, meaning if you have a Google Home smart speaker (or any device with Google Assistant) you’ll be able to give it voice commands to control the Roku TV. Basically, if you’re a Google Assistant home rather than an Alexa Home, and you want to control your TV with your voice, you should spend the extra $10 on the Premiere+.
The voice remote allows you to do voice search and controls for your Roku device and Google Assistant support applies to Google Home and Google Mini devices (or any google device that has assistant on it). This allows you to give google devices commands that control your Roku devices. Does that make sense? Would it be possible to please update?
Both of Roku’s new streaming sticks are great deals. In fact, the Premiere and Premiere+ are now the cheapest 4K streaming sticks you can buy – and by some margin. Both new devices will be available next month and you can bet your bottom dollar that Amazon and Google will soon follow suit with cheaper alternatives of their own.
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