This Chromecast ( 8/10, WIRED recommends) is a great streaming device. Roku connects to all major streaming services. Roku products are frequently discounted too. ★ Another Streaming Stick: The Streaming Stick 4K ($50) is a little cheaper, and its remote doesn't have hands-free voice control. You'll have to charge the remote, which I don't particularly love having to remember, but you do save money on replacing batteries. Remote lost in the couch cushions? Just ask Roku where it is to activate a beep. Say “Hey Roku, play Succession on Max” without lifting a finger (yep, Roku now supports Max!). There's a slider on the side of the remote that, if pushed to the on position, allows you to talk to your remote from anywhere in the room. We think most people will like the stick-it's affordable, and the 4K Plus is faster and comes with a longer-range wireless receiver it also plugs right into your TV's HDMI port, so you won't see it dangling. There are several options, but the Streaming Sticks have held our top spot for years, and the most recent version is the 4K Plus. Roku's interface is the easiest to navigate, and all the major streaming services are there. If you have a house full of Apple stuff and enjoy AirPlay, you may as well complete your collection. It wasn't updating its models or its interface all that often, but recently we've seen improvements. Apple TV has a slick interface and Apple's usual gloss.If you buy or rent a lot of movies from Amazon and subscribe to Prime, the Fire TV is appealing. Unfortunately, it sometimes feels like an ad for Amazon stuff more than a diverse ecosystem of apps and content. Amazon Fire TV is geared toward those who really enjoy Amazon's ecosystem, and it will quickly point you to its content.The only problem is that these don't manage storage quite as well and can be a little laggy. With its newest Chromecast, we stopped seeing the bugs and problems that used to plague the platform, and it includes basically every streaming app out there, as well as YouTube and Spotify. It's been around for years, but it just recently (in 2020) nailed the experience. Google TV, formerly called Android TV, is Google's latest streaming OS.You can also do this with Apple TV's Airplay 2 functionality, but you need an iOS or macOS device. Though that's no longer its main draw, it has the added benefit of letting you send web pages or other content directly from your smartphone (it's easiest on an Android Phone), which is quite handy. Chromecast used to eschew an interface altogether (and older models still hold true to this), but the newest version has Google TV built-in. Even though it's moved to include home security in its lineup, the company survives on how well its streaming device platform performs. Roku also isn't made by one of the major tech companies. You don't have to be technologically savvy to figure it out.
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