Review: Roku Premiere Plus (and Premiere)

A few years ago, I gave my parents-in-law a Chromecast for Christmas. They needed an easy way to watch Netflix and Chromecast was the hip, hot new thing. This will be perfect, I thought. I was wrong.

The problems added up quickly. Their Wi-Fi was spotty, so the Casting icon didn't always show up on their phones, which was tough since casting video from their phones was a strange new concept to begin with. They also couldn’t stream Amazon Videos; Google doesn't support Amazon's app. And Chromecast decided to play its "going rogue" routine almost immediately, where it forgets that your phone is the boss and refuses to pause or respond for a few minutes. I knew how to handle these bleeding-edge inconveniences. They didn't.

Determined to give them the Netflix they deserve, I replaced their Chromecast with a Roku the following Christmas. It has worked flawlessly ever since. Rokus aren’t flashy; they don’t have beautiful, sleek menus. But they’re easy to use and let you stream every channel you want—and that's worth a lot.

Simplicity and affordability explain why Roku continues to outsell the best streaming boxes from huge tech companies like Amazon or Google, and itnow comes embedded in a growing number of televisions. It’s also why the new 2018 $40 Roku Premiere and $50 Premiere Plus are two of the best devices to buy if you’re cutting cable, or just need a good way to watch Hulu in your living room.

The new Premiere Plus and Premiere look identical. They’re technically old-school boxes that come with Micro USB power cords and an HDMI cord to plug into the back of your TV, but they’re a lot smaller than most any other box. In fact, they're so tiny and lightweight that Roku had to include two sided tape so you can glue them down to your table, if needed. I haven’t had to use the tape, but it’s a considerate gesture for a box that’s about 3 inches wide, 1.5 inches thick, and half an inch tall—as teensie as a pair of fun size Kit Kat bars you'd get trick or treating.

Set-up only takes a few minutes. If you’ve owned a Roku before, a lot of your services will transfer right over. If you’re a first timer, there’s a quick online registration before you can add the channels or streaming services you use. Logging into these services is tedious. It takes a while for apps that require you to enter your password with the Roku remote, which has a familiar direction pad, OK button, and back button. Navigating menus is easier, but the remote makes you go on a journey to enter every letter and number. Luckily, you only have to set these things up once.

If you’ve ever seen a Roku, you’ll recognize the incredibly plain list-style menus and purple hue. You press the direction buttons on the remote to navigate to the streaming channel you want, find a TV show or movie, and hit OK to play it. It’s all quite basic. I’ve had some fun exploring the Roku Channel which aggregates free TV shows and movies from random channels. I didn’t know I could watch some ABC or NBC shows without a cable subscription—a fun surprise. It also introduced me to shows I may like on some of the free streaming services like Pluto, Tubi TV, Crackle, and Freeform. There is a 4K Channel that helps find ultra high definition content, too.

It’s nice that Roku hasn’t succumbed to highlighting certain channels over others. It still feels like a relatively unbiased interface, which contrasts heavily with competitors like Fire TV where it’s hard to find anything that isn’t sold by Amazon.

You may be wondering: What’s the difference between the Premiere and the Premiere Plus? They look identical, but there are a few key differences.

The big one is voice control. The Premiere Plus comes with an extra button on the remote so you can ask it out loud to play Westworld or open HBO Now. It works, and is often a lot faster than typing out a show name like The Great British Baking Show: Master Class. Later this fall, you’ll be able to use voice search to hunt through genres, too. On the lower-end Premiere, you can technically still issue voice commands, but it’s more of a hassle because the remote control has no microphone on it. You'll have to install the Roku app on your phone and use its microphone.

The standard Premiere remote also requires line-of-sight between it and the box for infrared (IR), like a standard TV remote. The Plus remote doesn’t rely on IR and also has volume and power buttons to control your entire TV, which helps eliminate remote control clutter.

Both the Premiere Plus and standard Premiere support HD and 4K TV resolutions (with HDR and Dolby audio), but neither support 5GHz Wi-Fi or anything faster than 802.11n. If you’re rocking a fancy high-speed Wi-Fi AC router or have trouble with standard 2.4GHz Wi-Fi in your home—city dwellers, that could be you—consider buying a Roku Streaming Stick Plus, which supports both. The Roku Ultra has an ethernet port, if you need a wired connection.

The $60 Streaming Stick Plus and $100 Ultra are still the two best Rokus to buy, but if you want to save a few bucks (and your home 2.4GHz Wi-Fi is stable), the $50 Premiere Plus is a fantastic way to smarten up any TV. It has every major Roku feature you’d want and supports all TV resolutions up to 4K HDR. The only downside? It’s currently a Walmart exclusive, so it may not be available where you shop.

If you can do without voice control on your remote, the standard $40 Premiere works fine. But don't discount the fun of talking to your TV. Voice support will only get more useful over time. If nothing else, it's wonderful to put away your old TV remote and use the Roku's remote to adjust the volume instead.

Roku is our favorite streaming TV platform because it’s affordable and easier to use than all of its competitors. The Premiere Plus and Premiere aren’t perfect, but they also don’t change the math. Roku’s reign looks set to continue.