New Roku Streaming Stick review: fast, cheap at $50, “private listening” via Bluetooth is a great value, but WiFi-only and has no Ethernet ports or 4K support
Small is beautiful (and fast) — If you think there must be some benefit to the larger size of a device like the Roku 2, let me disabuse you of that notion.
Context & Ripple Effects
The review lands three weeks after Roku debuted this Streaming Stick with a quad-core processor and private listening support (the April launch), and CNET's verdict validates the pitch: the small size costs nothing in speed, and Bluetooth private listening justifies the $50 price. The trade-offs are connectivity and resolution — WiFi-only, no Ethernet, no 4K.
That last gap defines the product's place in Roku's lineup arc: by late 2016 reviewers were panning the cheaper $30 Roku Express as sluggish, and it took until 2021 for Roku to put 4K into a stick at this same $50 price point (the Streaming Stick 4K launch), effectively retiring the compromise this review documents.
First-order effects
- Buyers at the $50 mark get a fast, compact streamer whose private-listening feature differentiates it from Chromecast-class rivals, but anyone with a 4K TV must look elsewhere in Roku's own lineup or to competitors.
Second-order effects
- The missing 4K support leaves an obvious opening at the top of the stick lineup — one Roku itself closed five years later by launching a $50 Streaming Stick 4K alongside a $70 4K+ tier, turning the old flagship's weakness into a two-tier ladder.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, streaming sticks stay priced as low-margin funnels into Roku's platform business, with resolution and connectivity (Ethernet, voice remotes) serving as the tiering levers rather than core performance.
The trend: Streaming-stick hardware is converging on a cheap-dongle floor where vendors compete on software features and upsell tiers rather than raw specs.