Roku 3 (2015) review: remote with voice search makes it the best streaming box in its class
Roku 3 (2015) review: A fresh voice improves the best search in streaming — Competing against Apple, Amazon and Google isn't easy. Just ask Microsoft, Barnes & Noble and Yahoo.
Context & Ripple Effects
Days after Roku rolled out voice search and its My Feed feature, CNET's verdict lands: the updated remote makes the 2015 Roku 3 the best streaming box in its class, ahead of Apple, Amazon and Google offerings. The review frames the stakes bluntly by citing Microsoft, Barnes & Noble and Yahoo as companies that already failed at this business.
That matters because the competitive bar is shifting from channel catalogs to search itself — the same axis on which the fall 2015 head-to-head reviews split the field between Apple TV for iOS users and Fire TV on interface quality.
First-order effects
- Apple and Amazon now face a rival whose cross-platform voice search is judged class-leading, forcing their next device updates to compete on search quality rather than content exclusives.
- Roku's value-tier positioning gets validated: the later Roku 4 review confirms the pattern, calling the 4K step-up not worth the extra money for most buyers — the mid-range box is where reviewers say the smart purchase sits.
Second-order effects
- Google's competing box is squeezed between Roku's search breadth and Apple's ecosystem lock-in, pushing the category toward a three-player contest among survivors.
- Roku doubles down on catalog depth instead of price cuts — the Roku Ultra's 3,500-channel selection becomes the follow-on selling point once voice search removes the last usability excuse.
Third-order effects
- With Microsoft, Barnes & Noble and Yahoo already out, the set-top box market consolidates around Roku, Apple, Amazon and Google, and differentiation migrates from hardware specs to the software layer — a path Roku's later OS-focused updates (improved voice support, Roku-TV-centric releases) extend.
- If search remains the decisive feature, whoever indexes across the most services holds the gatekeeper position over which streams get discovered — the structural reason Roku's platform strategy outlasted hardware-first entrants.
The trend: Streaming device competition is shifting from channel counts and hardware specs to cross-service search and voice as the deciding layer, favoring platform players like Roku over ecosystem-locked or hardware-first rivals.