5 causes to decide on Roku in case you’re looking for a brand new tv

For so long as streaming films and TV exhibits have been a factor, I’ve executed my streaming by way of merchandise made by Roku. At the same time as manufacturers like Apple, Google, and Amazon launched peripherals to compete with Roku, lots of which have been praised by us at Android Police, I discovered it tough to half methods with the UI and content material hub I had grown accustomed to with Roku.

On paper, there isn’t one or two standout options that stored me tethered to Roku all these years. I’ve been speaking for months about shopping for an Nvidia Defend TV Professional (which runs an Android OS) for Plex server-hosting, a characteristic that’s unavailable on most streaming {hardware}. However once I’m drained and wish to binge Hall Digital movies on YouTube, I select Roku TV OS. If I had been tasked with shopping for a brand new entry-level to midrange LED or QLED, I’d select one thing Roku-branded. Listed here are 5 explanation why.

5

Tried and true UI with intuitive customization

The now-iconic appear and feel of Roku TV OS is a software program staple that’s been fine-tuned to the umpteenth diploma. This isn’t to say that platforms like Apple’s tvOS or LG’s webOS system are unhealthy person interfaces. Nonetheless, relating to ease of use, efficiency reliability, and customization, it’s onerous to beat the template and instruments that Roku TV OS offers.

For practically twenty years, Roku TV OS has stayed true to its uniform-looking residence web page, which places probably the most important elements of your streaming expertise entrance and middle. A simplistic tile structure retains your favourite apps (Roku calls apps Streaming Channels), TV inputs, and different providers sectioned off to at least one aspect of the dashboard. Settings and different necessities hang around on the opposite aspect of the display screen.

Save for the occasional new menu merchandise that pops up, this streamlined aesthetic carries by way of to most screens, together with those you’ll discover on Roku’s cell app. Roku TV OS is generally ad-free. It has much less self-promotion and content material flagging than Hearth TV or Samsung’s Tizen OS.

Roku makes it simple so as to add, take away, and reposition the tiles and structure of your own home dashboard. Computerized software program updates guarantee your Roku TV has the newest options.

4

Streaming channels and exclusives

My favourite issues about Roku TVs and streaming gadgets are the vary of apps and dwell linear TV stations. As of 2025, Roku TV OS is residence to over 26,000 apps. Many of those providers are standard leisure meccas like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Max. I additionally love that Roku is open-armed about third-party crews making apps Roku-compatible. That is why we have now entry to providers like Flimzie Horror, NewsON, Journy, and streaming providers you seemingly by no means heard of.

The Roku Channel (which can be downloaded on non-Roku-branded TVs) is residence to round 80,000 films and exhibits. Many are Roku exclusives, similar to Bizarre: The Al Yankovic Story and What Drives You with John Cena. You may watch as much as 400 dwell linear TV stations by way of the Roku Channel.

3

General value

There’s a high quality cutoff relating to Roku-branded TVs. The corporate’s greatest set, the Roku Professional Collection QLED, is offered in 55, 65, and 75-inch sizes. The largest model has a $1,200 MSRP (and is usually on sale). This TV options Mini LED lighting, quantum dots, and gaming optimizations that make it a wonderful choose for film followers, diehard avid gamers, and informal TV watchers.

Nonetheless, it’s not an ideal TV. It wants handbook SDR calibration out of the field, and the image doesn’t look nice when considered off-center. If you may get previous these small nuisances, the Professional Collection is sweet.

Examine that to a midrange Samsung QLED just like the QN90D Collection, the place the 75-inch mannequin has a $1,800 MSRP. The QN90D delivers related image processing, upscaling, and distinction ranges because the Roku Professional Collection QLED, but it surely prices $600 extra, and the QN90D isn’t Samsung’s flagship QLED (that may be the QN95D).

Though the Roku Professional Collection (together with Roku’s in-house units) has one or two hurdles, there’s not a TV on the planet that doesn’t have a characteristic price bettering on.

2

Studying from different TV producers

Roku produces its personal TVs, and the corporate has partnered with different TV manufacturers. You might have seen one or two Hisense or TCL TVs that declare to have Roku built-in. This implies the LED, QLED, or OLED was developed and engineered by the TV producer however the sensible TV software program and sure UI parts are offered by Roku. It is a genius manner for Roku to achieve free advertising and marketing. Right here’s a greater cause for Roku to share its OS with different TV manufacturers: reconnaissance.

Let’s use Hisense for example. Roku licensed Roku TV OS to Hisense to make use of on quite a lot of its entry-level fashions and has been doing so for some time. Even the 2024 Hisense U6HR Collection is supplied with Roku TV OS, and it is a 4K QLED with full HDR and Dolby Atmos assist, plus quite a few gaming optimizations.

Whereas Roku’s techs is probably not hanging out in Hisense’s improvement lab to see how the U6HR Collection was made, I can see Roku taking notes about what its builders favored and disliked concerning the image processing, upscaling, colour gamut, and movement readability discovered on these Roku TV-equipped Hisense units. The identical goes for producers like TCL, Onn, and Westinghouse.

Inspiration comes from many sources. Take a look at the world of TVs. It wasn’t that way back that LG was the only real producer of OLED units. Now, Samsung is shopping for its OLED panels from LG. Partnerships go a good distance in all corners of the patron tech market, and Roku has had an opportunistic vantage level for a minute. So, was the image engine and Mini LED lighting used on the Roku Professional Collection QLED impressed by one thing Hisense or TCL did? I’d say the probabilities are 50/50.

1

A enjoyable and straightforward technique to kickstart your sensible residence

Roku has joined the ranks of AV corporations which have dipped their toes into sensible residence waters. Over the previous couple of years, Roku’s sensible gadget lineup has expanded to incorporate every little thing from lights and plugs to cameras, video doorbells, and full residence monitoring methods. Whereas you should buy these Roku devices, no matter whether or not you personal a Roku-branded TV or streaming gadget, conserving your TV and sensible gear throughout the similar ecosystem is a superb thought.

First, Roku tends to hold its core UI from one product class to the following. Even when Roku TV OS doesn’t look and carry out the identical because the Roku Sensible House app, there’s sufficient familiarity from one platform to the following to comfortably onboard a brand new Roku sensible gadget person. (Plus, who’s to say Roku wasn’t taking notes from Alexa and Google House on the do’s and don’ts of a sensible residence app?)

Secondly, you may interface a number of Roku sensible residence gadgets to your Roku TV. Take the Roku Wire-free Video Doorbell & Chime or any of Roku’s indoor and out of doors safety cameras. When linked to Wi-Fi, you may wirelessly share the dwell feed from these cams to your Roku TV (this additionally works with Roku streaming gadgets). When you add Roku sensible lights or plugs, you should utilize Roku Voice (activated by the mic button on all of Roku’s Voice Remotes) to toggle sensible gadgets on and off, change colours, modify brightness, and extra.

When you later resolve to go together with Alexa or Google Assistant for sensible residence controls, all of Roku’s sensible gadgets are suitable with these voice assistants.