RokuUltra | Streaming Device HD/4K/HDR/Dolby Vision with Dolby Atmos, Bluetooth Streaming, and Roku Voice Remote with Headphone Jack and Personal Shortcuts, includes Premium HDMI® Cable

We have been using Firestick Ultra. We have not been able to update the apps. This is why we were trying the Roku.Positives:Fast: The response time is very quick, opening apps immediately.Voice: The voice searching feature is able to find just what you want.Remote: Rechargeable remote, either using the Roku box and the enclosed cable, or through a standard outlet. The remote also has a find your remote feature, by depressing the talk button on the Roku box and saying "Roku, where's my remote".Picture Quality: The Roku Ultra's picture quality seems both sharper and the colors brighter than our Firestick.Live Channels: So many, perhaps hundred.Negatives:Website setup: Require captcha, which was very difficult to get through. I even tried the audio captcha, which was garbled and difficult to understand.Find my remote: The remote gives a high pitched chirping sound in find my remote mode. My concern is that the sound is not loud enough to find the remote when in the cushions of a sofa.Customer Service: English as a second language customer service assistant, making it difficult to understand the instructions. Also, I do not care for the assistant's insistence on knowing my email address after the issue is resolved.Overall: I am so far impressed with the Roku Ultra. While it is expensive, the one time purchase seems worth it.

Its everything I could have expected, a highly competent streaming player with all the options. We're definitely power users at my house. This has an extra powerful Wi-Fi if you are going to stay wireless, and also supports wired ethernet without an extra dongle (FireTV), if you've wired your house with CAT 6 ethernet like me :) . I already have a 4K TV with LG OS, a FireTV stick, and even a Tivo Romio Pro that streams. When my LG TV, FireTV, & Tivo use Wi-Fi they spend noticeably more time opening apps and opening shows than when connected via wired. With this Roku, the Wi-Fi seems nearly no different. I still connected it via Ethernet in the end, but was surprised how equivalent Wi-Fi seemed compared to my past experiences. Its hardware is fast and reliable, such that I've never perceived a delay induced by the hardware. Easy to configure out of the box too. The menus and channels are really easy to navigate, and easy on my eyes. And it supports seemingly all relevant audio and video formats like Dolby Vision & Dolby Atmos, which it audio-detects level of HDR support in your TV.The remote is probably is probably its most multi-faceted and yet simple and intuitive solution. It has volume buttons or mute on the right side by your thumb. it has a headphone jack on the left for silent watching if you don't want to disturb others. It is an RF remote meaning you can tuck the Roku away in a cabinet or behind a TV and it will still work without line-of-sight. But the Roku does have an IR sensor if you have another IR remote too. And most of the buttons are what you'd expect on a modern streamer, but feels simple, easy, and intuitive to use. The skip-back button (like my Tivo button) is something I use a lot, such as if I missed something or didn't hear them quite right. Surprisingly by default it displays closed captioning (subtitle) on the replay so you can see what they said if you were backing it up. But you can turn that off CC on rewind if you rewind often and don't want the distraction of text. And the voice-command button and subsequent command processing is surprisingly good. You can even say things like "skip forward 2 minutes" or whatever. And you can even save your last voice command in one of the two numbered buttons by holding one after, and then repeats that command if you touch it again. I actually use that a lot to skip for ward 30 seconds :) .However, some possible minor negatives are:(1) There is no 30-second instant skip-forward button on the remote. But you can use a voice command to skip any amount of time you want, including 30-seconds, and can store that in one of the configurable buttons. It just isn't exactly instant skip while it processes the command, but close enough.(2) Pausing and resuming leave the screen darkened and showing the progress bar and controls and takes a few seconds to resume normal brightness of the show or movie. That irks me compared to my LG TV that the back button can hide the bar so I can instantly be back into my show in its full picture.(3) Streaming apps may vary by platform, so don't expect them to be identical. For example, I REALLY like the Netflix app on my LG TV for #2 and for fast forwarding that can click right or left through easy picture snapshots rather than a traditional fast forward or rewind that appears in the Roku version of the same app.(4) The volume buttons on the right-side of the remote are easy to accidentally press if you aren't careful, but doesn't really get in the way.(5) If it doesn't detect Dolby Vision, double check that the device it is directly connected to supports it on that HDMI input. Definitely not the fault of this device, but it puzzled me for a while why it didn't detect Dolby Vision at first when my TV supports it (the TV did, but the HDMI input on my Blu-ray player didn't).Roku supports the widest channel library that I am aware of, and is the reason I bought this, for HBO Max. I use this when I want the best sound support to go through my sound system and it delivers a noticeable sound improvement in my home compared to my TV connected back to my A/V receiver. I actually have this plugged into the HDMI In port on my Oppo 4K Blu-ray player.

I bought a Roku Ultra a few years ago for my folks and all it did was buffer nonstop when I tried to watch any streaming service on it. It drove me mad and I ended up just giving it to a sibling, who actually has no problems with it working for them, haha.Still, I’ve owned Roku devices since they first launched and have always really liked and appreciated their simplicity for the most part and how well they worked for be in the past. So, reading the specs on this latest model, specifically the “50% better WiFi connectivity” that this ultra claimed, well, I thought I’d chance buying it even though it was pricey. And, after having set up this Ultra and after I tried out all my streaming services that I subscribe to on it. I have to say that I couldn’t be happier and couldn’t be more impressed with how wonderfully this latest model functions for me.I completely expect to have buffering issues at some point just because any streaming service will give you them eventually in my opinion. Yet, as far as the actual Roku being able to properly connect to my home’s WiFi network. Well, this model just works flawlessly I believe. I totally am convinced of and believe the advertised, increased, 50% better WiFi connectivity. To me it’s awesome when a product that I buy actually lives up the manufacturers claims :). Woohoo!Plus, I haven’t used a newer Roku in a while and I really am digging all the new features and functions. I haven’t tried the Voice Assist stuff yet but I’d be surprised if it didn’t work flawlessly as well.I also want to say just how grateful I am that Roku has continued to keep the overall aesthetics of the device to be very simplistic, clean looking, not cluttered and just super easy to understand, especially for both my folks. I set everything up for my parents but they were able to learn to how use this Roku very quickly with not too much instruction. They are both almost 70. Which isn’t really that old in my opinion and they are both sharp as heck. It’s just that they didn’t grow up using tech stuff like I did so it can be more confusing for them to learn these devices sometimes I’ve done. That’s one of the reasons I’ve always adored Rokus, though, because pretty much anybody can get up to speed in using the device efficiently in no time at all in my opinion.Also, when initially downloading all my streaming service apps and looking at the sign in functions. I was at the start concerned that I might have issues signing into services such as HBO Max, STARZ and Showtime Anytime with my DirectTV credentials. But, that worry was all for nothing I gladly found out :P. It didn’t look like that I would be able to access a “cable/satellite provider” option from within the respective apps on the Roku itself and sign in that way. But once I just clicked LOG IN I was able to use my phone from there, input the given codes and sign up on the internet at the service’s websites and from there they each offered the cable/satellite provider feature I needed. I’m super happy and thankful it all worked out well for me with that potential issue.I should also say that if you’ve never used a Roku before. That, the fact they use such an infinitesimal small amount of electricity to stay always on (the Roku doesn’t have a shut off function.) That I just forgot how awesome it is to have everything you might use already loaded up and ready to go because the device is always on and there is seriously very little wait time to load any applications on the Roku. That feature will never get old as far as I’m concerned.So, I, of course, cannot speak to how well this new Roku Ultra will work for everyone else who buys and uses one. But as far my use has gone and as I said in my review title, I’m ultra impressed with this latest model. So much so that I believe I will purchase a second one for myself pretty soon. I hope my review was helpful to other shoppers and thanks for reading :D.

I purchased this for my mom, who refused to buy a new television set that could support the streaming services she wanted to watch. The Roku worked flawlessly! Plus the software / remote is much more intuitive and easier for my mom to navigate than the TV's factory system. Highly recommended.