Roku unveils more powerful HDR and 60fps 4K Streaming Stick+ and more!

A whole new Roku line-up is here powered by a fresh Roku OS 8

Roku quietly announced that it has renewed its entire line-up of smart TV viewing devices. 

Roku now has five new streaming players in the Roku Express, Roku Express+, Roku Streaming Stick, Roku Streaming Stick+ and Roku Ultra, plus the new Roku OS 8 software running them all.

The totally new model is the Streaming Stick+ which manages to crams enough smarts in to offer 4K and HDR playback at 60fps despite being tiny. It also manages a Wi-Fi range of four times that found in last year’s Streaming Stick and now packs voice controls into the remote. This is priced at $70 (£52).

There is also an updated Streaming Stick with that four times Wi-Fi range, voice remote and HD quality playback for $50 (£38).

The Roku Ultra is the top-end device which offers 4K, HDR, 60fps playback, Ethernet, microSD, voice remote with headphone port and remote finder button for when it inevitably gets lost. All this tops out at a price of $99 (£75).

The Roku Express and Roku Express+ are aimed at the entry level with five times more powerful processing than last year’s models, and in the case of the Express+ the option to connection via HDMI or composite A/V ports. The Roku Express and Roku Express+ cost $30 (£23) and $40 (£30) respectively. 

The new Roku 8 OS offers voice controls, fast TV start, a smart EPG for going forwards and backwards in time of shows, private listening for antenna TV and a Roku search of local antenna TV, plus a 4K Spotlight Channel update for finding 4K, HDR and Dolby Vision content more easily.

All the new Roku devices are available to pre-order now with shipping expected in November.

Also check out: 7 essential Roku tips: get more from your Roku streamer

Luke Edwards

Luke is a former freelance writer for T3 with over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many others Luke wrote about health tech, software and apps, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and plenty more. In his free time, Luke used to climb mountains, swim outside and contort his body into silly positions while breathing as calmly as possible.