The new Roku 4 streaming set-top box ships to pre-order customers and lands on store shelves today. We just got our review sample and wasted no time cracking open the box. As soon as we did, we realized we needed to share the experience.
As you’ll see in our video, the Roku 4 is bigger than it appears in the pictures Roku released earlier this month. Despite the fact that the Roku’s promo images include the Roku remote for some scale, opening the box yields a bit of a surprise as the set-top box has a bigger footprint than we think many will expect.
In case you missed the announcement, the Roku 4 is the most advanced streaming set-top box the company has made to date, with support for 4K Ultra HD video up to 60 frames per second via its HDCP 2.2-compliant HDMI 2.0a output. The streamer supports both HEVC (H.265) and VP9 for decoding 4K Ultra HD streams from the likes of Amazon, Netflix, Vudu, UltraFlix, and YouTube.
Part an parcel with the launch of the Roku 4 is the company’s new Roku OS version 7, which offers Universal Voice search, a dedicated channel for 4K Ultra HD content, and 4K Ultra HD screensavers, among a bevy of other useful features. The new operating system will begin to roll out to older Roku devices
It’s also worth noting the streaming video service VUDU today announced 12 4K Ultra HD movie titles available for rental and purchase to coincide with the launch of the Roku 4.
We’ll be putting the Roku 4 through the wringer and will be publishing our full review in the coming days, so be sure to check back with Digital Trends frequently. In the coming weeks we’ll also pit the Roku 4 against Amazon’s new Fire TV and the forthcoming Apple TV, which will begin to ship late next week.
