This week on TechHive: Don’t buy these streaming players

Jared Newman
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April 16, 2021

If you’re looking to cut the cord, picking the right streaming device can be daunting. First you’ve got to choose between Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Android TV, and each of those platforms offers numerous hardware options with varying sets of features.

But while I’ve written plenty about which streaming device to buy, perhaps I haven’t stressed enough which ones to avoid. With so many options to choose from, you can easily end up with outdated, overpriced, or just plain bad hardware if you’re not careful. Check out the full column on TechHive for my full list of streaming devices not to buy as of right now.

Weekly rewind

Roku updates galore: Roku made a bunch of announcements earlier this week, including new streamers, updated software, and its first remote with hands-free voice control. Here’s a quick summary:

  • The Roku Express 4K+ is a $40 streaming box with 4K HDR video support, replacing the current Roku Premiere. It has a better remote with voice control and TV volume/power buttons, plus it’s faster than the Premiere and supports 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi. While the Roku Streaming Stick+ is sticking around as a more portable option, the 4K+ will likely be the better pick for most people. Stay tuned for my review when the device launches in May.
  • The Roku Express 4K is a Walmart-only variant of the above. It’s $5 cheaper but lacks the aforementioned voice, volume, and power controls. In other words, it’s another one for the “don’t buy” pile.
  • The Roku Streambar Pro is a rebranded version of 2019’s Smart Soundbar, which is both a streaming player and soundbar rolled into one device. It’ll sell for the same $180, but with a better remote that includes a headphone jack and programmable buttons. Roku’s also adding a “virtual surround” mode—both to the Streambar Pro and Smart Soundbar—that can simulate surround sound without rear speakers.
  • The Roku Voice Remote Pro is an optional $30 remote for most modern Roku players. It’s the first Roku remote with a rechargeable battery, plus it supports hands-free voice control when you say “Hey Roku.” Strangely, it’s not being bundled with any Roku player for now. Over at Fast Company, I wrote about how it’s an answer to smart speakers like the Amazon Echo, and I’ll have a more in-depth review for TechHive soon.
  • Finally, Roku OS 10 is rolling out now. It’s not a huge update, but it does add Apple AirPlay 2 support on non-4K Roku devices, and it introduces a much-needed “instant resume” feature so you don’t have to restart apps from scratch after closing them. It will also let you input text by voice, create favorite channels in The Roku Channel, and search without leaving your current app.

Overall, it’s a rather Roku-like batch of updates, full of incremental improvements rather than drastic changes. But when you have more than 50 million active users, maybe it makes sense not to rock the boat.

An Apple streaming soundbar, perhaps? Here’s a fun Apple rumor to chew on: Bloomberg reports that a cross between the Apple TV streaming box and HomePod smart speaker is “in early development.” The rumored device would also include a camera, presumably for bringing Facetime calls into the living room.

The streaming soundbar concept is not new, of course. In addition to the Roku Streambar Pro that I mentioned above, we’ve also seem similar products based on Android TV and Fire TV. The idea is neat, but getting people to wrap their heads around it isn’t easy. If Apple ends up launching something similar, it might actually have the marketing chops to make it resonate.

More catch-up

Save more money

If you happened to click through to my TechHive column this week, you’ll have seen my suggestion to avoid Amazon’s Fire TV Stick Lite due to its substandard remote control.

I am, however, going to make one exception to the rule: If you sign up for a month of Discovery+, you can currently get the Fire TV Stick Lite for free. That effectively brings the price down to $5, and of course you can cancel your subscription after redeeming the offer to avoid being billed at the end. Use it for a spare TV, or consider buying yourself Amazon’s better remote to use with it.

Thanks for reading!

As always, you can send me your cord-cutting questions, comments, and feedback by replying to this email. I’ve got a bit of a backlog, but I always try to respond when I can!

Until next week,

Jared