5 guides in Tech
Apple's $199 Apple TV 4K adds tvOS, a HomeKit hub and FaceTime, not picture quality a current 4K TV lacks; only the $249 model adds Ethernet and Thread, and neither includes an HDMI cable.
Amazon's lineup splits across two operating systems, and the 4K Plus is the cheapest stick keeping Fire OS, Dolby Vision and Atmos together. Its own price table prints a deal figure and a list figure in every column.
A 9.6-inch bar with two 1.9-inch drivers and a 4K HDR Roku player inside, listed at $149.99 and on sale for $99.99. It fixes muffled TV dialogue on a bedroom set; it does not replace a real soundbar.
Roku sells three sticks between $39.99 and $79.99, and the top one adds Dolby Vision, an 802.11ac MIMO radio, and a receiver-in-the-cable that needs its own power adapter. Whether the extra $20 over the Streaming Stick Plus is money well spent comes down to your TV's HDR support and how far it sits from the router.
Buffering, thin sound and laggy input get blamed on the television because it is the screen. A router, a small speaker and a controller we have reviewed each show where the fault actually lives.
