The best TV streaming boxes and sticks – reviewed
From Apple TV to Amazon's efforts, we pick the best boxes and sticks for streaming
STREAMING OF YOU
Gone are the dark days of low-res entertainment. Banished to the bin of bad telly be the buffering disappointment of 720p. Next-gen streaming sticks and bandwidth-busting TV boxes are here – and they signal the arrival of a hi-res revolution. Whilst a world of from-the-web telly awaits, choosing the right box for your TV takes a bit of thought. Fancy 4K? After an Apple? Want to stream some games? One device most certainly does not offer all these features. Thankfully, we here at Stuff know a thing or two about what makes a streaming box brill – and we’ve put the cream of the connected content crop up against each other. Read on to find out which is our favourite.
AMAZON FIRE TV BOX ($89.99)
No more nodding-off as the cursor catches up: menus and apps load quickly enough to give your eyeballs whiplash. A clever processing trick called ‘ASAP’ even pre-buffers based on your habits. When it comes to finding favourite flicks, the interface is a bit iffy. This is Amazon’s party, so own-brand content takes precedence – which means wading through Prime stuff before anything else. As for picture quality, most films and TV shows are available in 720p and 1080p and, at Full HD, clarity isn’t far off Blu-ray – but the real party-starter is 4K. It’ll deliver 4K from both Amazon and Netflix, so if your TV’s lacking one of those, this will fill the gap. The level of detail is stunning: from clothing textures to facial features, it’s captivatingly clean and crisp.
ROKU 2 ($69.99)
The core Roku service hasn’t changed much in years, which is a good thing. What it offers is by far the biggest collection of apps around – ‘channels’ in Roku parlance – all arranged in a simple, neat, fluid interface. You get most of the best sources, such as Netflix, Now TV, Google Play, YouTube, and all of the UK’s free catch-up services, and in 1080p where possible. Having an app collection this big is a double-edged sword. On one hand, most of your streaming needs are catered for. Then again, you’ll find a lot of useless and/or weird stuff, such as The Ringtone Channel. You can simply not install that stuff, though, and you can rearrange the interface to prioritise the stuff you use most.
GOOGLE CHROMECAST (2015) ($35)
The new Chromecast is faster. Loading isn’t instantaneous, but it still starts streaming a Netflix episode faster than most websites load on a phone. We’d say waiting time has halved – but it’s halved from about eight seconds, so you’d have to be incredibly impatient for this to matter. Adding to the new ‘Cast’s charms is the fact you can use your phone as a games controller – albeit a big-buttoned, semi-proper one, rather than a mirrored display. More importantly, Wi-Fi reception has been improved. If you’ve tried ‘Casting in an upstairs bedroom and found the router out of reach, this model could well be your saviour.
APPLE TV (2015) ($179)
When watching, Siri shines. Ask “What did she say?” and it’ll rewind and turn on subtitles. It doesn’t talk over everything, either, so you can watch in blissful, Siri-free silence. Set-up is simple, too. If you have an iPhone, simply turn on Bluetooth and plonk it next to the Apple TV, then wait for the two to get pally. On the apps front, Apple’s box fares badly next to the competition. Whilst the launch line-up is quite impressive, there are a few crucial holes: there’s no Amazon Instant Video, and the retail behemoth’s continuing ban on Apple TV sales suggests that’s unlikely to change. Even though such an app has been rumoured.
AMAZON FIRE TV STICK (2017) ($39.99)
A streamer is only as good as the stuff you can watch on it, and thankfully the Fire TV Stick is chockablock with high definition content for you to enjoy. No, it doesn’t support 4K resolutions but then if you’ve got one of those tellies you shouldn’t be bothering with this product anyway; the full-fat Fire TV Box will be a better bet. The speed boost in this new incarnation really shows, which is saying something as its predecessor was no slouch. Moving around the menus is smooth and stutter free, while the improved UI looks great. It might lack the finesse of Netflix’s recommendations, but it’s simpler than ever to find something you actually fancy watching, and there’s a lighter emphasis on Amazon’s content to boot.
ROKU STREAMING STICK ($47.99)
While the States has seen a faster, updated Roku Streaming Stick at the end of last year, we’re still rocking with the one from 2014. It’s good, but its spec sheet starting to show its age. It shows in its performance too. Moving around the interface is just a little slower than you’ll spot on the now much speedier Amazon Fire TV Stick. Load times are longer and scrolling through the interface just isn’t as slick. There’s certainly no knocking its offering though, and its handy dongle design and cheaper price could appeal to some more than the Roku 2. It’s nice to have the remote included at this price too, which comes with buttons allowing you to skip directly to Netflix, YouTube and the Google Play store.
NVIDIA SHIELD ($199.99)
As with the Apple TV, the Nvidia Shield is a mighty premium streamer compared to the likes of the Roku and Chromecast, and also like the Apple TV, the Shield aims to justify its higher price with apps. Here, those apps are of the Google variety: this is one of the first standalone boxes to run Android TV. Alongside the usual Android TV app offering there’s a Shield-specific area of the Google Play Store where you can download games that have been tailored for Nvidia’s hardware. There are even ports of all of the Half Life games available. And there’s another, Nvidia-specific ace up the Shield’s sleeve, too: cloud-based game streaming via the company’s own GeForce Now service. Through this you can play premium PC games such as The Witcher 3.
